Country Houses

A Whiteparish local history page from younsmere-frustfield.org.uk

This page provides links to a number of the larger or more significant houses of Frustfield and Whiteparish, including some no longer standing. Other parkland estates have been listed, even where they had no associated house.

Blue links in the table below are available, links in purple have not yet been uploaded for public viewing

Abbotstone House	Late 16th century, rebuilt in 1627 by William Stockman
Alderstone House	Built by Dr Wilson Smith in 1938
Alderstone St Barbe Manor House	Built or rebuilt by Edward St Barbe shortly after 1562, demolished in 1812 to be replaced with Broxmore House. Stood next to the church on Common Road
Ash Hill House	Built on Ash Hill Common (Alderstone Manor) shortly after 1610. Still stands, although much altered
Brickworth House	Built in 1605 by Giles Eyre I, burned down in 1860, a the present replacement house then being erected on the same site
Broxmore House and Park	Built in 1812 to replace the Alderstone St Barbe Manor House next to the church, demolished in 1949 (Broxmore farmhouse had been built soon after 1610 - Taylor?)
Cowesfield House	Built as a simple farmhouse in the late 16th century, extended in 1767 to a modest country house and park, further improved in 1815, demolished in 1946. The new house reusing the name was built nearby as part of a new estate of houses in 2005
Deer Park Close
Earldoms	Part of Frustfield granted to Wilton Abbey in 968. Extra-parochial within Whiteparish until 1896, when it was transferred to Landford
Melchet Court	A detached part of Alderbury parish within Frustfield having a close relationship with Whiteparish and Plaitford. Boundary changes of 1885 and 1896 created the parish of Melchet Park and Plaitford
Morrisholt Park	Possibly a later extension of Broxmore Park?
New House (Tychebourne Park)	"Lately erected" in 1619
Northlands	A villa erected as Holly Hill in the 1830s. This land was part of North Common and transferred from Whiteparish to Landford parish in 1896
Popplehill Park	Part of Broxmore Park, earlier Poplar Hill Coppice
St Barbe Manor House (Alderstone)	Shortly after 1556 by Edward St Barbe

Frustfield contained nine manors, eight of them in Whiteparish: Alderstone, Whelpey, Blaxwell, Cowesfield Esturmy, Cowesfield Spilman, Cowesfield Louveras, Abbotstone (Titchborne) and Moor; with Landford Manor also being within Frustfield. The diagram below shows schematically how the manors were divided, and in some cases amalgamated, over the years. Brickworth wasn't a manor, but is of special significance as an estate that gathered a large proportion of the parish, so is included at the bottom of the diagram.

The diagram above and summary below show how the manors were progressively divided, and in some cases amalgamated to form the various estates listed above. This was initially based on Taylor's analysis in WAM (Whiteparish, A Study of the Development of a Forest-Edge Parish, WAM Vol 62 1967 pp 79-102), but there are many small errors in this paper, and the account here is gradually being corrected using more reliable source material.

Alderstone manor included the church and houses round the village green based on the triangle of land that includes The Triangle, Bunkers Hill and The Green, and a new manor house that was built near the church in 1562. It is most likely that this was an extension or rebuild of an earlier manor house on the same site. Alderstone Farm, suggested by Taylor as the original site of the manor, is a later farm built in some of the original open fields. While the first mention of the church is between 1288 and 1291, it contains reset 12th century stones and is believed to have been built in its present form in about 1200 using a certain amount of earlier material. The chancel may even have been there from as early as Saxon times. See All Saints Church for a full history of the building.
Abbotstone was renamed to Titchborne around 1550. It was bought by William Stockman earlier than 1619, at which date he sold Newhouse, keeping Titchborne Farm. A descendant later sold Dry Farm at the other end of the manor in 1646. Abbotstone House was built in Whelpley Manor in the 16th century, possibly as a replacement Manor House for one on the Whelpley mediaeval village site. It was rebuilt in 1627, by which time William Stockman owned both Titchborne Farm and Whelpley Farm. Whelpley Manor was bought at the same time by the Eyres (see Brickworth below).
Whelpley Manor boasted a significant mediaeval settlement close to Whelpley Farm, one of the four early settlements in Frustfield (Whelpley, Moor, Alderstone and two manors around Cowesfield Green). See [add link] for a full discussion of this.
Moore had been enclosed by 1675 and was run as a farm. In 1684 Sir Richard Compton's son died, having sold the manor to William Hitchcock of Cowesfield Spilman.
Blaxwell was divided between five sisters between 1622 and 1632 and the resulting farms continued simply as part of Whelpley manor. According to Matcham, Blaxwell was always under the paramountship of Whelpley, and it was certainly part of the Whelpley Tithing.
Cowesfield Esturmy - what was to become Cowesfield House was built as a farmhouse in the late 16th century. Bought by Sir John Elwell in 1777, whose daughter, Lady Fremantle, possessed the manor and principal part of the property in 1844 [Matcham].
Cowesfield Spilman - by 1670 in the possession of William Hitchcock, who subsequently bought Moore, bringing the two manors together.
Cowesfield Louveras was bought by Edward St Barbe of Alderstone in 1642, thus amalgamating the two manors until Sir John Elwell purchased Cowesfield Esturmy from the St Barbes in [later than 1760 - determine a closer date for this purchase]

Brickworth developed as a new estate close to the boundary of Abbotstone/Titchborne and Whelpley from 1605, buying up relatively small portions of land, notably in 1615, 1657 and 1667, until it was eventually the largest landholding in the parish by 1842.
Newhouse was formed across the parish boundary from part of Abbotstone/Titchborne together with a substantial area of land in Redlynch parish.

The remainder of this page is being reconstructed and has been removed temporarily to Country Houses Research while this work is completed.