Fifehead Neville
Encyclopedia
Fifehead Neville is a village in north Dorset
, England
, situated in the Blackmore Vale
two miles (3 km) south west of Sturminster Newton
. The village has a population
of 127. The village is situated next to the stream of the Divelish which runs down from the high hill of Bulbarrow Hill
. Thomas Hardy
, who variously lived in nearby Dorchester and Sturminster Newton, once remarked of Fifehead Neville "Never before have I seen such beauty and activity combine so harminously."
Crossing the Divelish is a Saxon or early medieval packhorse bridge.
In a field bordering the Divelish the remains of a Roman villa were found in 1880 and 1903. The archeological findings are on view in the Dorset County Museum in Dorchester.
The name Fifehead refers to the Saxon manorial holding of five hides. A hide was roughly 120 acre (0.4856232 km²) and was considered enough land to support one family and its dependents. Domesday Book
names Waleran the Hunter or Huntsman as owning the fief in 1086 AD. The overlordship descended to Walter Walerand (d. 1200–1) and to his daughter and co-heires Isabel de Waleran who married William de Nevill. The overlordship was inherited by Isabel de Nevill's daughter Joan de Nevill (d. 1263), wife of Jordan de St. Martin. To differentiate Fifehead from other manorial holdings called Fifehead in Dorset (Fifehead St. Quintin and Fifehead St. Magdelen) the Neville part was added to the name.
Dorset
Dorset , is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town is Dorchester which is situated in the south. The Hampshire towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch joined the county with the reorganisation of local government in 1974...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, situated in the Blackmore Vale
Blackmore Vale
The Blackmore Vale is a vale, or wide valley, in north Dorset, and to a lesser extent south Somerset and southwest Wiltshire in southern England. The vale is part of the Stour valley...
two miles (3 km) south west of Sturminster Newton
Sturminster Newton
Sturminster Newton, known to locals as Stur, is a town in the Blackmore Vale area of Dorset, England. It is situated on a low limestone ridge in a meander of the River Stour. The town is at the centre of a large dairy agriculture region, around which the town's economy is built...
. The village has a population
Population
A population is all the organisms that both belong to the same group or species and live in the same geographical area. The area that is used to define a sexual population is such that inter-breeding is possible between any pair within the area and more probable than cross-breeding with individuals...
of 127. The village is situated next to the stream of the Divelish which runs down from the high hill of Bulbarrow Hill
Bulbarrow Hill
Bulbarrow Hill is a 274 metre hill near Woolland, five miles west of Blandford Forum and ten miles north of Dorchester in Dorset, England. The chalk hill is part of the scarp of Dorset Downs, which form the western end of the Southern England Chalk Formation. Part of the hill is used for arable...
. Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy, OM was an English novelist and poet. While his works typically belong to the Naturalism movement, several poems display elements of the previous Romantic and Enlightenment periods of literature, such as his fascination with the supernatural.While he regarded himself primarily as a...
, who variously lived in nearby Dorchester and Sturminster Newton, once remarked of Fifehead Neville "Never before have I seen such beauty and activity combine so harminously."
Crossing the Divelish is a Saxon or early medieval packhorse bridge.
In a field bordering the Divelish the remains of a Roman villa were found in 1880 and 1903. The archeological findings are on view in the Dorset County Museum in Dorchester.
The name Fifehead refers to the Saxon manorial holding of five hides. A hide was roughly 120 acre (0.4856232 km²) and was considered enough land to support one family and its dependents. Domesday Book
Domesday Book
Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...
names Waleran the Hunter or Huntsman as owning the fief in 1086 AD. The overlordship descended to Walter Walerand (d. 1200–1) and to his daughter and co-heires Isabel de Waleran who married William de Nevill. The overlordship was inherited by Isabel de Nevill's daughter Joan de Nevill (d. 1263), wife of Jordan de St. Martin. To differentiate Fifehead from other manorial holdings called Fifehead in Dorset (Fifehead St. Quintin and Fifehead St. Magdelen) the Neville part was added to the name.