Farming - 1745
Lord Thomas Foley (IV), who commissioned the painting of the famous baroque church next to his home at Witley Court, employed John Doherty the younger to draw up detailed maps of his estate. Doherty completed his map of Holt manor in 1745. The fields were each identified by a number and letter code, which appertained to the land holding of each tenant. The field names were not written on the map, but can be deduced by reference to the 1793 'rent book' of which more later. The map in two parts was drawn on vellum (calfskin) and measured some 5' by 4'. It was obviously used in the estate office for it is much faded as a result of various additions, deletions and alterations of crop details and field boundaries throughout the years that it was in use. Unfortunately the corresponding map of Little Witley does not appear to have survived.
In 1745 the last remnants of the open field system of farming could still be seen around Bentley Farm and the north end of Naunton farm. Presuming that the Bentley and Naunton fields represent two of the three fields, it is interesting to speculate where the third may have been located. It is unlikely to have been situated to the south of Holt Castle as the area was enclosed as a Deer Park from ancient times until at least the fifteenth century. The ridge and furrow pattern still evident at Rowley Farm, and at Row Farm until modern cultivations, maybe evidence of this field. It is known that Bentley farmstead dates back to the ninth century, it maybe that Naunton (from Old English 'niwe' and 'tun' = New Farm), Rowe (from Old English 'ruh' = Rough) and Rowley (from Old English 'ruh' and 'leah' = Rough Clearing) are equally as old. The open-field system was inefficient for the increasingly modern farming methods being introduced during the latter half of the eighteenth century. The map illustrates its final stages in Holt, as strips are combined into enclosed fields.
The tenements to the east of Ockeridge Wood west of Hurst Farm and associated with Bentley Farm are to be noted These were small farmsteads usually with a small house, a pigsty and a small barn or byre.
Sixteenth Century Barn
Crop details may have been written on the original map but frequent alteration has obliterated most of these. The only original details are two hop yards, one at Holt Castle Farm and one at Row Farm. Coppices and woods can be identified.
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