Winterborne Farringdon
Parish Winterborne Came (formerly Farringdon - deserted village) (note this Winterborne is spelt without the “u”)
O.S Grid Reference SY 36967 87519 [Lat 50.6865 - Long -2.4307]
Nearest contour height 100m
Topography Good elevated site (NB on private land)
Archaeology Very likely but not excavated - Traced by Peter Emery
(archaeological dowser) September 2019.
Earliest Dating Turnpike record 1768 - notes a "windmill gate”.
This windmill has the potential of being early in date as the village was largely deserted by mid C17th.
Records
Documents None - this village is not well recorded and became deserted by the C17th.
Maps
Early maps
Ogilby 1675 Plate 53 notes Farindon near Dorchester but no mill shown.
Taylor 1765 Only shows the newly constructed Came House (1750) and nearby Came church
Tithe Map (c1840) 1843 Tithe Map of Winterbourne Came (DCRO T/WCM) - revisit of map required !
1st Edition OS map c1895 notes a chalk pit on the probable site.
Present OS map : none
Above : Contour map of area (north at top) showing probable windmill site just above the 100m contour level and thus at the highest point in the area.
Note that the old footpath routes meet at the mill site. A holloway from the deserted village to the west of the church, which follows a field boundary, appears to have been the route from the village up to the mill.
Above : Sketch map from RCHM showing deserted village remains (note south at top of map)
The Windmill
The Millers No records found
Present site condition At the west end of dense tree line. Mound exists which appears to have been dug into to retrieve chalk or flints. The dowsing results appear to indicate a post mill with four masonry crosstrees bases, a square store under the mill and a circular tailpole trail. (see sketch)
Google Earth :
Below : Site investigation by Peter Emery (archaeological dowser) Sept 2019 : (My thanks for his permission to reproduce his findings :)
Left : Peter’s sketch plan of his dowsed findings shows four masonry piers that would have supported the crosstrees of a timber post mill. These are surrounded by a masonry foundation of a possible storeroom under the mill body. The dotted lines indicate where the mound has been dug out probably to retrieve flints etc. The circular track traced around the area is perhaps the trace of the tailpole of the windmill.
Some later mills had a wheel on this tailpole. Peter also traced the tracks running up from the village site to the mill.
Above : Left - mound from west side (photos : RC) Above : Right - mound from east side with dug out pit
Above : Extract of an aerial photograph (DCC Planning Dept & F Radcliffe) looking south of the Farringdon deserted village in 1991. Unfortunately this photograph does not show the windmill site - this is beyond the top RHS of the shot
Above : 3D Lidar view (from Environment Agency website) which clearly shows the remains of the deserted village with track up to probable windmill site.
Above : Tithe map - Pitfield No 5 appears possible
Above : A view from the modern small road passing to the north of the site (Photos RC). The remaining east gable of the ruined St Germans (Germayne) Church is visible. (close up shot on right). The curved field boundary in the centre was the route of the track from the village up to the windmill. The mill site is to the right of the central trees on the top of the hill.
Above : The remaining east gable of the ruined St Germans (Germayne) Church is visible. The foundations of this small rectangular building do remain with the gable possibly having been rebuilt during C19th.
Above : Sketch by Francis Williams c 1824
Left : Close up photograph c 1974
Notes and comments :
There are several deserted villages along the south Winterbourne valley and there is evidence that the now deserted medieval village of Winterborne Farringdon (approximately 2 miles south east of Dorchester) once had a windmill. The Dorchester & Wool Turnpike Trust took over the formation of a turnpike road between Dorchester & Wareham in 1768-9. The fourth item in the Act schedule dealt with the Dorchester area and powers were granted to stop two existing public highways. One of these old roads is recorded as running ......
........from Fordington near Hyde Gate to Farringdon and to Windmill gate in Farringdon.[1]
Hyde Gate was at the end of the present Culliford Road and the above route is now an old chalk track running to Herringston Dairy House. Winterborne Farringdon is now a deserted medieval village half a mile east of Winterborne Herringston.
On the RCHM map of the deserted village, there is a sunken track which runs up the hill. This starts near the stream and has the old pond site on its west, the church and quarry on its east. No doubt a gate existed somewhere here on the bounds of the village.
The Village : The village is medieval in origin and depopulation appears to have been gradual with documents suggesting that the settlement suffered from poverty during the C14th and C15th. In 1291, St German’s Church with its neighbouring St Peters in Came was omitted from the Taxatio Ecclesiastica and later in 1397 a commission was set up to enquire into its defects. In 1428, the village was not taxed due to there being less than ten domiciled inhabitants. By 1580, the incumbent served both Farringdon and Came. Coker records the church as being “alone” in 1625.
The Hearth Tax Returns of 1662 record only three houses remaining in nearby Winterborne Herringston and two in Winterborne Came whilst Winterborne Farringdon (or Germayne) itself had been deserted. To the east of the village, Came House was built just before 1750 when Hutchins described the village of Came as “now almost depopulated consisting of only three or four houses”. It is thought that the village may have included a nunnery. [2]
Like many small villages, the move to larger scale sheep farming in the C16th & C17th with larger landowners overstocking the commons with their sheep and turning arable lands to pasture caused great economic pressures. The numerous sheep flocks were moved around constantly to avoid the clergy being able to levy tithes on them. This was often called "churching !"
[1] R Good The Old Roads of Dorset 1966 p141
[2] R Good The Lost Villages of Dorset 1979 p37