What's in a Name
Taken originally from the Seavington News of May 1988
WHAT’S IN A NAME?
History. that’s what. And Seavington house-names are full of examples.
To start with the obvious. we have the Old Post Office. The Old Parsonage, School House and The Old Rectory. When the Reverend Joseph Billing was Rector of Seavington, his official residence (and that of succeeding Rectors) was the house now owned by Mr and Mrs Myers, and which incidentally was by the same builder as Seavington House. Before this. Mr Billing lived at The Beeches; and, earlier still, the Rector presumably lived at the house now known as The Old Parsonage, conveniently close to St Michael’s Church.
Then there are the converted barns - Middlefield Barn speaks for itself, and the cottage called The Old Barn; this is said to have belonged originally to The Volunteer Inn.
Some of our village house-names may need a closer consideration; for instance, Farriers, so aptly named is on the site of Mr Jack Rowsell’s blacksmiths shop; Hunts is so called because the Seavington Harriers Huntsman lived there; Winchester Cottages are built on land that was once owned by Winchester College; and Beech Cottage used to belong to Mr Tom Hole, of The Beeches.
It is interesting to note that the name of Pound Cottage has been restored after many years of its being called simply “Mrs Powers”, and I wonder how long ago it is since there was a lock-up there for stray animals.
Jubilee Cottage (which might well have been called the Old Carpenter’s and Wheelright’s Shop) presumably commemorates one of Queen Victoria’s jubilees - perhaps the Diamond Jubilee of 1897. As for Glencoe one can only hope that there is no connection with the notorious massacre. And The Wishing Well! A modern whimsy, I suspect; at least, I have never heard of a well in that garden.
On the other hand, there is nothing modern about the names given to Prospect Place and White City; what can possibly explain either of those? Which brings us to old chapels: perhaps eventually we shall have dwelling houses with the official names of The Old Chapel and The Other Old Chapel. Incidentally, we might have had one called The Old Bakehouse instead of Swan Thatch.
The Pheasant is so called because there was a pheasantry there, kept by Mr Dyer, who also owned Dyer’s Drapery in Ilminster. Whether the pheasants were kept for the table or as pets, one wonders; there is certainly a building at Dillington House which is known as the pheasantry.
Abbot’s Barton, I imagine, refers back to the time when that part of Seavington belonged to Muchelney Abbey. There are of course many properties called Abbot’s Barton, more or less all over England, reflecting the enormous amount of land once owned by the Church; and a “Barton” was simply an enclosure, not necessarily part of a farmyard.
Finally, a note on Seavington district names. Marle Ground was just a big field, so-called because of its heavy clay soil; and as for Rowdell’s Orchard, most of us know nothing about Mr Rowdell except that he owned an orchard, but at any rate “their name liveth for evermore”.
Written by Mrs R M Amos