Coombe Keynes

Above :

Early maps

Ogilby 1675

Taylor 1765

Tithe Map (c1840)

1st Edition OS map "vary clump" shown S of present village

Present OS map

Google Map

The Windmill Almost certainly a post mill due to early dating

The Millers None known

Present site condition ?

Notes and comments : In this small village, south of Wool, an early windmill was recorded in 1306 in an enrolled deed :

[1d (5) Dor] Robert de Cahaynes quitclaims to his brother 1 messuage, 2 carcucates land, 60 acres meadow, 100 acres wood and 1 windmill in Cumbe Kaynes which Hawisia Kaynes my mother holds in dower of my inheritance for her life and which after her death to me or my heirs ought to revert shall remain to William & his heirs. Witnesses given.

Dated at Doddleford in Co Nort'ton 14th July 34 Edward son of Henry 1306^[1]

Unfortunately, no Tithe Apportionment or any modern references exist to this early mill which was almost certainly a post mill owing to its early date. The De Keynes family were tenants in chief from C12 to C14th although they do not appear to have resided in the area with their principal seat in Tarrant Keyneston. The Harang family were tenants and it is interesting to note that this family were also connected with windmills at nearby Chaldon Herring.

John de Keynes was the last of male line dying in 1375. Ownership passed via the Newburgh family to Earl of Suffolk who sold it to Humphrey Weld in 1641. Up to end of C18th the village retained its medieval layout surrounded by open fields. The villagers held their fields in the North Field (either side of modern road to New Buildings) and the South Field (better soil) to the south of the church. Evidence of extensive settlement remains to the south and east of the church.

It is probable that a depopulation occured after the Black Death in 1348 as later C17th Hearth Tax records only give a population of only 170. Village tradition sites a mass grave from the Black Death in the corner of the churchyard with nearby Wool being the minor member of the joint vicarage in early times.

Where was the windmill ?

^[1] Dorset Records (DCM H1-2) De Banco Rolls 1307-1316, Roll 180 p88 - Hilary ; Memb 1d.

NB Hawsia's husband also called Robert. By 1329 William de Keynes was forced to subinfeudate te whole

manor (except for his mother's dower lands) to Geoffrey de Donechurch

(C Pat R Edw III i 1327-40, 412 - see Fry 1910 36 D10/T45)