Winterborne Zelston

Winterborne Zelston
Winterborne Zelston 1840 Map
with Field Names
Higher
Bushes
The History of the Village
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Winterborne Zelston, including Huish, is a parish, of about
850 acres. The village was within the bounds of an AngloSaxon charter for Almer in AD 943. Identification of the
village in the Domesday survey is difficult as there are 34
entries for Winterbyne in Dorset. Zelston may have been
Royal demesne at the time, which may explain why it is to
be found in the small, and later, Hundred of Rushmore.
The early name was Winterborne Maureward, derived from
associations with the Maureward family. From about 1350
the name Winterborne Seleston appears, and variants
occur until Zelston became the accepted spelling. The
origin of Zelston has been associated with the “de Seles”
family. Both names were used until about 1600.
Rom
Lower
Bushes
2 View of the village
from the cross c1900
Middle
Field
The “Beer House”, now the site of Appletree
Cottage, was purchased by “Hall & Woodhouse”
at the estate sale in 1929. They purchased land
in 1932 to build the General Allenby. The name
was changed to the “The Botany Bay” in 1988,
the year of the Australian bicentenary. Botany
Bay farm at Bloxworth was a stopping place for
convicts from the Assizes in Dorchester.
Kingsway
Woodhorn
Further
Six Acres
Nicholas’s
Middle
Six Acres Higher
Six Acres
Inside
Field
Home Field
& Barn Yard
Closed in 1957. The last post mistress was
Miss Squire.
In 1794 Rev. James Hanham Bart. of Deans Court sold
the manor of Winterborne Zelston to James Farquharson
of Littleton for £1400. Family names in the village at this
time included Adams, Angell, Browning, Chaffey, Coward,
Furmage, Jeffreys, Kiddle, King, Plomer, Rickets, Shitler,
Sherwood, Soper, Strong, Squire and Vater.
In 1909 the greater part of the village was leased by the
County Council on a 35 year lease from the Farquharson
Estate. Land was divided into approximately 50 acre
tenancies to be leased as County Council smallholdings.
Following a sale by the Farquharson Estate in 1929 the
County Council “failed” to purchase the smallholdings, and
most of the village passed into the ownership of Owen
Stevens. Subsequent sales of land and amalgamation
of the small holdings have produced the pattern of
ownership we see today.
Now The Botany Bay Inne
Breach
Until more recent times, Zelston House was
occupied by the tenants of the Manor Farm. 3 The Old Post Office
8 The General Allenby
Modern footpath
Modern bridleway
1 Zelston House
The Manor was held by the Filiol family during the 15th
&16th centuries. Katherine, the youngest daughter of
Sir William Filiol, of Horton in Dorset, married Sir Edward
Seymour, brother of Jane Seymour. Her father died in 1527.
His will was disputed and an Act of Parliament in 1530
transferred Winterborne Zelston to Katherine’s sister Anne,
and her husband Sir Edward Willoughby. In 1582 Sir Francis
Willoughby sold the estate to Thomas Hanham.
Parish registers which run from 1548 show that many
names occur in small numbers suggesting that some
families lived in the village for only short periods. Names
that suggest continuity in the village include Bellows,
Chaffey, Frampton, Fry, Hobby, Honeybourne and Squire.
Leg
Barn
Field
4 The Village Hall
Originally a Primitive Methodist
Chapel, built in 1836 was purchased
by the village in 1954. Considerable
repairs were needed following gales
in 1990.
Stickland
Field
Rufford
Field
Eweleaze
1
Drymead
4
r Winterborne
Woolfry’s
& Jeans’s
Main Roa
d (A31)
6 St Mary’s Church
The church, was largely rebuilt in 1865,
and a brass from within the chancel of St.
Mary’s commemorating William Bryyge,
a former rector of the parish, who died
in 1517 is now to be found in the church
at Almer. A report in 1911, states that the
Rector of Almer “found the brass in a house
at Stickland and gave the man half-a-crown
for it”.
Bloxworth
Gate
Gascon
The name Huish comes from the Old
English hiwisc, meaning a household. It
comes from the Domesday hide, which
was the land sufficient to support a family.
Verm
8
Pit
Grounds
Ant
Hills
Jeffreys
ne
North
of Last
Nine
Acres
By Copyhold
Cowleaze
Little
Bushes
Thorny
Moor
Great
Moor
Ten
Acres
7 The Village School
The school moved to Almer in 1882. The
old building was later used as a Village
Hall until the purchase of the present Hall.
For several years the building was used as
kennels for Scottish Terriers.
Designed & Illustrated by Maria Burns Illustration & Design Tel: 01929 555056 Email: maria@mb-id.co.uk Web: www.mb-id.co.uk
Produced by The Zelston History Project in 2009
Estimates of population suggest
about 50 persons in 1550, rising to
245 by 1821. The village then suffered
from rural depopulation with the
population dropping to 96 persons
by 1951.
Bushes
Hobby’s
Bars
Meadens
Population Changes
1801- 2001
in La
Main Road (A31)
7
Fourteen
Acres
Jean’s
Ground
Browning’s
Eighteen
Acres
9
Eastmead River Winterborne
Mead
5
Redpit
Stickland
Cowleaze
3
Ham
Red Post is said to have been a sign
for Botany Bay Farm or possibly an old
gallows sited on the parish boundary.
Chalk
Pit
Five
Acres
9 Huish Manor
2
Rive
Long
Field
Above
Chalk Pit
6
West Mead
5 Red Post
Outside
Field
Year
No. People
No. Houses
1801
1821
1841
1861
1881
1901
1921
1951
1981
2001
233
245
222
199
145
122
110
96
122
141
46
43
35
31
30
42
69