(Low Ham; Nether Ham (second manor); Aller)
Glastonbury abbey reverted to the Crown on FitzBernard's death and was farmed until 1196 or later. William Wrotham held it in 1212. William's nephew Richard died c. 1250 and his heir at Nether Ham was Custance, wife of John le Blound. John's son, also John, succeeded in 1263. William le Blound is said to have held some of the land under John of Taunton (abbot of Glastonbury 1274-91) and was succeeded by John le Blound. Robert le Blound died c. 1290 and the unnamed heirs of John le Blound were recorded as owners of the estate in 1303. Probably the sole heir by 1301 was Robert's daughter Sybil, a minor, who by 1311 had married William le Venour and who settled it on their son John with remainder, failing children of John, to Sybil's right heirs. By 1339 it had passed to Ralph of Middleney and in 1346 was held jointly by Ralph and Geoffrey Cras. Under a settlement of 1355 the manor passed on Ralph's death in 1363 to Maurice, younger son of his granddaughter Catherine, wife of Sir Thomas de Berkeley, or to Thomas and Catherine should Maurice not survive. Catherine outlived both her husband and her younger son and died in 1386 holding Nether Ham manor of the Crown. The manor then descended with Ham Burcy.
 | The character of the demesne farm was evidently little different in the 13th and the earlier 14th century from the later 12th century. Wheat was the principal crop, usually covering four times the area of oats; small acreages of beans, peas, barley, and rye were planted from time to time. Plough oxen alone were the standard stock, with a flock of geese in the early 14th century and all other stock in single figures or absent except for chickens paid as church scot and usually sold. Other commodities occurring occasionally in the stock accounts included apples, cider, and wax. Lord and tenants shared a shepherd by 1352 and a demesne flock was kept until 1369 or later. A horse mill was working in 1356 on High Ham manor. It was removed without licence in 1388. |
High Ham Courts were held twice a year, nominally at Michaelmas and Hockday. A hundred bailiff was mentioned in 1364 and two constables from 1529. The court dealt with illegal brewers and overcharging millers, from 1528 gave orders for repair of targets in the butts, and in 1536 expelled two families for quarrelling. Repairs were ordered in 1536 to stocks and tumbrel. There was an ordeal pit in 1311. Halimote courts for the Glastonbury manor of Ham were held twice a year, at Michaelmas and Hockday, and in the earlier 16th century were held on the same day as the hundred court. Rolls survive for 65 sessions between 1262 and 1536. Courts were concerned with tenancies, repairs, drainage, roads, the collection of chevage, and the control of neifs. Officers included a hayward for the manor alone as distinct from a hayward for the whole vill, until the later 1350s a granger, and in 1369 a shepherd. By 1544-5 courts were still meeting twice a yeare but were called leet courts. Draft court rolls survive for the period 1715-57 and rolls for 1746-60 and 1777.
By 1515 Glastonbury manor, the tenanted land, increased by the dispersal of much of the demesne, was shared between 9 virgaters, 8 halfvirgaters, 16 ferdellers, 1 half-ferdeller, and 12 cottars. The freeholds had been reduced to four. Piecemeal inclosure of arable strips had begun by 1515 and continued slowly during the 16th century. In the 1530s the balance of agriculture was still heavily in favour of corn-growing, the income from tithe of wool and lambs amounting to only £4 as compared with grain tithe of nearly £29. William Balche, farmer of the demesne in 1515, held 252 a. of which 188 a. was scattered in the two arable fields and most of the rest was inclosed grassland. He or a son of the same name was described as a gentleman in 1555; another William was one of the two most prominent residents in 1569. Of similar status were members of the Walton family: John Walton (d. 1540-1) was occupier of a ˝-virgate freehold in High Ham manor in 1515, auditor of Glastonbury abbey, debtor to the abbot of Glastonbury in 1539; John's brother William was auditor of Glastonbury abbey in 1535, bailiff of Whitley hundred in 1538-9, and coroner in 1555; and John's son Thomas (d. 1576) was purchaser of Shapwick manor in 1557 and with William Balche the two most prominent residents in the parish in 1569. The Waltons, who were related by marriage to the Hexts and were said to have lived in a house called Low Ham Court, were still in the parish in 1666.
There was a mill on Glastonbury abbey's estate in 1189. A watermill described as at Wearne in the earlier 13th century may be the precursor of the mill belonging to Low Ham manor which was mentioned in 1651 and in 1725 was known as Paradise mill. It was ordered to be repaired 1745-8 and its site was let for rebuilding as a mill in 1804. A windmill attached to Low Ham manor was mentioned in 1322, 1428, and 1651. It stood on Turn Hill at Beer and was let with Beer farm. It may be identified with Lord Stawell's windmill mentioned in 1684. An oak was cut in 1352 for the upright of a post mill on the Glastonbury abbey estate. The mill, in Barnard tithing, was apparently not in use in 1364- 5. A windmill built by Abbot Bere occurs in the same tithing by 1515 until 1531. It may have stood at South Cliffe, the possible site of a windmill in the west field of High Ham which was let to Mary Higgs in 1616, the tenant finding sheets and sails. It was still in use in 1670.
High Ham had become part of Whitley hundred for tax purposes by the later 16th century, and in the mid 17th century was described as an out hundred. By 1667 Abraham and Barnard tithings were also known as north and south tithings, by 1715 the three were called north, south, and out, and by the late 1720s north, middle, and out tithings.
A house known in the later 16th century as Burcy's Court and then or formerly occupied by a gentleman named Bartlett, may have been the manor house of the Burcy manor. A second house, then known as Low Ham Court and formerly occupied by the Walton family, may have been the capital messuage of the other manor. Old Manor Farmhouse, Low Ham, may be identified with either manor. Its earliest phase is a high-status building of c. 1480, altered or added to c. 1625, c. 1750, and c. 1800. The late 15th-century bays indicate that this house retained its high status from then into the early 17th century when it was reconstructed. Sir Edward Hext, resident lord of the manor 1596- 1624, is said to have built a house 'thought one of the best ... in the West of England'. Suggestions for its site on the hill to the south of Low Ham chapel must be discounted since its successor immediately to the north of the chapel, included the kitchen and perhaps other service rooms of its predecessor. Fragments of the Hext house, including a column, are incorporated in the present farm buildings on the site. That new building was begun by John, Lord Stawell, in 1688, and was still under construction in 1691, but work probably stopped at Stawell's death in the following year.
High Ham manor in the yeare 1640-1 produced a total income of over £205, more than half from what were described simply as 'payments' made by twelve people, possibly as debts since some were made in at least five instalments. Rents and fines totalled nearly £57. Low Ham Manor, restored to the Stawells after confiscation and leasing of the demesne for six years when the annual value was believed 'in good times' to be £135, was surveyed twice in the 1660s. In 1662 the demesne farm was said to comprise 160 a. of arable and 262 a. of grass and tenants held a total of 918 a. divided between 5 holdings in Beer, 27 in Low Ham, 5 in Paradise, 7 in High Ham, 12 cottagers, and 7 'foreigners'. The largest tenant holding was Beer farm (125 a.); 8 farms in Low Ham measured between 68 a. and over 30 a. About 1665 the demesne was said to be 598 a. and the tenants were divided between 37 copyholders and 45 leaseholders. There were still 11 small freeholds. At least 12 copyhold tenants owed a day's work (one two days) at harvest, slightly fewer owed mill suit and heriots. Some twenty years later the demesne was assessed at 573 a. On High Ham manor in 1667 there were 20 farms measuring 35 a. and more, the two largest of 134 a. and 100 a. Nine were leasehold, eleven copyhold; eleven were held by women and seven of them included inclosed arable totalling 131 a. The total acreage was 1,966 a. Several cottages were described as lately built.
Lime was extracted on Ham Down by 1662 and there were four limekilns in the parish in 1838. A brickyard had been opened north of High Ham village by 1798. Stone quarrying was of significance by the 1860s. In 1861 a mining contractor was living in High Ham village and two alabaster miners from Cornwall were lodging there, possibly working at Beer, locally in Aller, where spoil tips and a bore hole have been found. A stone cutter and quarrymen, also resident in 1861, were presumably working the outcrop of limestone on the slopes above Low Ham.