The Parsonage Plot and 'Wishing Well'
The Seavington News - November, 96
PARSONAGE PLOT
Villagers who read the `History of Somerset’ extracts in the October issue of the Seavingtons News may recall the reference to the ‘Parsonage Plot’, the original Priest’s House in Seavington. Some seven years ago I researched the property in the Somerset Records Office having been told by a neighbour that the late Miss Kiddle of Buckrells, a Teacher and Historian of some note in the area, had believed that my house was, in fact, the Parsonage Plot. I was assisted in my research by a kindly member of the staff at the S.R.O. who translated original documents, hand written in Latin, for me.
A letter from the Bishop of Bristol in 1669 directed Lord Poullet to find “one sufficient priest or minister in Lopen, Chillington, Barrington and Seavington”. Later correspondence gave more detail for the Seavington Parsonage. It was to he the building, made on the remains of the cottage, the roof of which burned in 1557, was extended to the road and made into a barn and some years later made into a house. It’s position, also detailed, was on the north side of the village road, backing onto the Wastelands, at the end of the road leading to the church near to the 10 Alms Houses in the village.
The description fits very neatly to my house which is on the north side of the village street, at the end of the lane which leads to the church, backing on to the area described in old records as the Wastelands’ on ‘Stoney Piece’.
There are traces of a path from the back garden to a field which fronts onto David’s Lane. In 1912 this was known as `Plot Orchard’ and was part of my property, and surely the cottages opposite what was the village pond were once some of the Alms Houses.
The back of my house on the ground floor is very much older than the front. The rear Inglenook, I have been told, is some 200 years older than the one in the front which is 17th century. One can see, in the older part, where doors once faced east and west.` The roof was originally thatched and is about 400 years old. From the road it is obvious that the house was once a barn and on the apex of the roof there is the stone `Lozenge’ matching the one on St Michael’s Church - indicating church property.
Early in the 18th century records show that the Seavington Alms Houses were rented out and the income used for the upkeep of the incumbent of the Parsonage Plot who, at that time, was the Parish Clerk or Warden. The houses were then known as ‘Clerks’ or `Wardens Acre’.
I am convinced that the Parsonage Plot was always, and still is, in Seavington St Michael but is known now as the Wishing Well.
Margaret Drew