Horsington / Hatherleigh, Cheriton, South Cheriton, North Cheriton, Lattiford Farm- Bruton, Horethorne and Norton Ferris Hundreds
In 1066 HORSINGTON was held as two estates in parage: Aldeva held all but a virgate and Saeward the virgate. They were said to have been free to choose their overlord. In 1086 William son of Guy held both estates of the king, and Ralph held 1˝ hide in demesne under him.
In 1086 the combined estates of Horsington and South Cheriton were taxed as 17 hides but had land for 16 ploughteams. Horsington was divided between a demesne holding of just over 4˝ hides, tenant farms of just over 5 hides, and a separate dependent estate of 1˝ hide. South Cheriton comprised a demesne holding of just under 4 hides and tenant farms amounting to just over 2 hides. The Horsington demesne was worked by 1 team with 4 servi, the smaller Cheriton demesne by 2 teams and 6servi, the separate demesne had 1˝ team. The Horsington tenants, with 7˝ teams, comprised 12 villani, 10 bordars, and 12 cottars; 5 villani, 4 bordars, and 2 cottars worked the South Cheriton land with 3 teams. The combined estates included 225a. of meadow almost evenly divided between the two main holdings, and pasture measuring 9 furlongs by 5 furlongs (of which there was twice as much in Horsington as in South Cheriton). The marked contrast between the holdings is reflected in the recorded stock: 1 beast, 10 pigs, and 5 sheep in Horsington, together with 2 riding horses, 6 beasts, 12 pigs, and 60 sheep on Ralph's small estate, and 1 riding horse, 22 beasts, 28 pigs, and 3 sheep at South Cheriton. Only South Cheriton had increased in value since 1066. In 1086 woodland measured 7 furlongs by 6 on Horsington manor and 7 furlongs square on South Cheriton manor. In 1086 a mill on Horsington manor paid 42d. and there was a miller in the parish in the 1240s. A watermill on the manor in 1315 lacked water in the summer and was not recorded in 1340. Veles or Veale, Stacey's, or Marsh mill, first recorded in 1317, from the late 16th century was part of Horsington Marsh manor, and in 1657 was sold to the Stacey family.
The Exeter Domesday refers to a further league of woodland in South Cheriton. In the early 14th century the combined estate had three areas of woodland, one at Hatherleigh in Maperton and others called Horwood and Cheriton wood, the latter also described as a park. The woods on Horsington manor were valued at 3s. 4d. a yeare each in 1340, probably for pasture. In 1562 scrub oaks on two thirds of the 35-a. Cheriton wood were felled and the rest, comprising hazel, ash, withy, maple, and thorn, was coppice or underwood. Horwood was cleared probably by the later 16th century. Marsh land was already being exploited in the late 12th century and a grant of between 1198 and 1204 included the right of the tenant to pasture oxen and cows with the lord's stock and to free grazing for 13 pigs on the demesne woodland at Horwood. A slightly later grant gave the right to pasture oxen, affers, cows, and calves in a wood pasture, 100 sheep and their lambs in common pasture, and 10 pigs in Horwood. Tenants of Bruton priory also had grazing rights at Horwood and owed reaping days and some winter boon days on the Horsington demesne alone. For much of the 18th century tenants on Horsington Marsh manor lands fed sheep and geese on common called Horsington marsh or Wring marsh all yeare and cattle in the spring, but after 2 May also entered the adjoining Gear common and Oxen Leaze, hitherto the preserve of Horsington manor.
The ancient parish of North Cheriton comprised a narrow strip of land, 5 km. from east to west and c. 1 km. from north to south, whose eastern end was marked by an old course of the river Cale. It contained North Cheriton village, 3 km. south-west from the centre of Wincanton, and the hamlet of Lower Cheriton. To the north lay a detached and irregular area around the scattered hamlet of Lattiford (Hatherley), its boundaries in part following Bow brook, formerly the river Ladder or Latter, and a tributary. 1885 Lattiford was transferred to Holton and land from Wincanton was added at the east end of the parish taking the boundary to the river Cale. North Cheriton village and Lattiford are on Cornbrash limestone. Land to the east of Lower Cheriton, watered by Bow brook, lies below the 70-m. contour on Oxford Clay. North Cheriton village is on a lane linking the two roads between North Cheriton and Lattiford, probably passing through Holton. There was an ale seller in 1604 and the New Inn stood in North Cheriton Street in 1718. The parish name is possibly derived from the church and the main settlement includes the church, manor house, and Old House at the west end of the village street and the rectory house at the east end. Lattiford, in the 11th century Lodreford, is more scattered since the disappearance of houses between Lattiford Farm and the mill and of roadside cottages on the Wincanton-Ilchester road since 1766.
There were 42 families in the North Cheriton parish in 1650. Two 11th-century estates may be identified with two manors, each of which was later called North Cheriton. Eiritone or Ciretona was held by Ernwy in 1066 and by Warmund of William de Mohun in 1086. Overlordship remained with the honor of Dunster until the 18th century. A dovecot was mentioned in 1349 and a capital messuage in 1441. In 1666 the capital messuage, called Upper Farm, was leased to Robert Ryves' younger son John (d. c. 1685), then a minor. It was not recorded after 1685. In the mid 19th century Frederick Gale lived in the parish and probably built Cheriton House, also known as Manor House or Cheriton Manor, on the site of a house by the church.
Ciretune, held by Alfwold before 1066 and by Robert under Turstin son of Rolf in 1086, may have become another manor of NORTH CHERITON. Turstin's lands passed to Wynebald of Ballon who by 1166 had been succeeded by his grandson Henry Newmarch. Overlordship probably descended with that of Horsington until 1216 when it became part of Hawise Newmarch's share and descended in the de Moeles family. The capital messuage was let in 1562 and was last recorded in 1623. Two hides in LATTIFORD in 1066 'could not be separated' from Glastonbury abbey. In 1086, however, they were held of the king but belonged to the abbey's manor of Butleigh. From 1271 the estate was held of the abbey and continued to be so held in 1361, but there is no further record of the abbey's overlordship. Aelfric was tenant of the abbey before 1066 and Humphrey the chamberlain in 1086. In 1271 Sir Roger de Moeles (d. 1295) did homage to the abbot when Lattiford was joined with Blackford and Holton as a single fee. From Sir Roger the mesne lordship descended with the Moeles's manor of North Cheriton to Hugh Courtenay. The Moeles fees including Lattiford were held by Sir Walter Hungerford and Walter Sandes in 1428 and Sir Francis Hastings in 1595.