NAUNTON FARM (incl. BALL MILL FARM), Holt

Naunton farm today consists of a large farmhouse, a group of disused barns and 18 acres of pasture. In 1745 it all but surrounded Holt Castle Farm, being one of the largest farms in the parish. The proceeding two and a half centuries saw a steady decline in the status of the farm.

Areas to the south of the farmstead show evidence of bronze, and iron-age occupation. Whether or not the area was being farmed immediately prior to the Anglo-Saxon occupation of Mercia is open to doubt as the name Naunton is derived from Old English niwe/niwan + tun i.e. the new farmstead or estate. The native Britons and invaders alike between the fifth and twelfth centuries were speaking this language. It may be that the area was re-cleared in that time period.

Before the end of the eighteenth century the parcels of land that were to be amalgamated into the nineteenth century Naunton farm were let to various tenants under the name of Naunton Farms. In the mid-eighteenth century there were three tenants. John Patrick was one of them. He served as parish constable in 1730; witnessed, with a cross, the parish meeting proceedings in 1732; and is named on the indenture of 1741, when Lord Thomas Foley purchased Holt manor from Lord Henry Montford for £33,000. The Patrick family had lived in Holt for at least two centuries before John, possibly occupying the same parcel of land. John was probably born in 1691 to Job and Ann. He died at Naunton in January 1754 and was buried at Holt church. His part of the farm may have gone to Thomas Jones as the amalgamation commenced.

Thomas Jones was another early tenant. He served as parish constable in 1710, 1734 and possibly 1749. He was churchwarden from 1695 to 1717, and again in 1733 and 1743. Jones witnessed the parish meeting proceedings in 1732, 1735 and 1739. He was mentioned on the 1741 indenture. In about 1750 he had one acre of meadow, six acres of pasture and 31 acres of arable land. Thomas was mentioned in at least nine Frankpledges between 1729 and 1746. He is not listed in the 1775 frankpledge or list of copyholders.

Another tenant of one of the smaller parcels of land was James Price. He had four acres of meadow, one of pasture and ten of arable in about 1750. On 11th November 1765 James married Ann Kinnersley. Ann's parents were Whitney and Ann, who had married in Grimley in 1735. Whitney and Ann had named a daughter Ann in 1736 but she died and they 're-used' the name ten years later. The Kinnersleys had been resident in Holt for at least two generations before that. No family for James Price was listed in the frankpledge and list of copy holders, both of 1775.

The farm was finally amalgamated under the tenancy of Edmund Lowick. Edmund, known as Edman to his family, was son of John and Mary of Holt Castle Farm. The youngest of ten children, he was born in 1761. Edmund was apparently married twice. His first wife Rachel bore a daughter, Maria, in 1788. Edmund's other ten children were born to his second wife Mary, in the17 years between 1790 and 1807. Their children were Mary Ann, Elizabeth, Catharine, twins Edmund and Sarah, John, Harriott, Martha, William and Thomas.

Edmund Lowick was mentioned in his father's will written in 1782. Should his mother, Mary, have died within twelve months of his father, he was to share the bulk of his father’s estate with his brother, William. Mary survived John by just over twelve months. In 1784 she willed a considerable sum of money, in a long and detailed document. Edmund was to receive £700 worth of farming stock and utensils. Mary wrote two codicils to her will. In the second, written three weeks before her death in 1785, she left Edmund an additional £1000 if he took over her tenancy of Holt Castle. He was to forfeit £600 of the additional bequest if he didn't take on the tenancy. Edmund must have preferred farming at Naunton for there he remained apparently loosing the forfeit.

By the time of the 1787 land tax assessment Edmund Lowick held the majority of Naunton, in three lots. By the following year the three sums were noted as one total. The land tax payable being £14/17/11 per annum for 215 acres. He paid an annual rent of £159/10/-, which increased to £210/-/- in 1793. At that date there were 38 acres of pasture, 11 of meadow for hay, 145 of arable, 6 of hops, 11 of mixed hops and arable, and 1 acre of rough woodland. The small fields were being amalgamated and enclosed at that time.

Around 1790 a new farm house, cider mill, hop kilns and stable were constructed. The remainder of the buildings, including stables, cow-houses and pig sties were all in poor repair in 1793. At that time the old farm house was still standing. The farm included labourer’s accommodation in the form of two houses of two tenements each and a cottage, all in very bad repair, and a new cottage called Ball Mill House. The farm had it's own smithy associated with one of the tenements.

On two occasions, 1800 and 1809, Lowick served as overseer of the poor. He witnessed the parish meeting proceedings in 1814. He remained at Naunton until 1818 when he was 57 years old, moving to Little Witley where he probably continued to farm. His daughter Elizabeth married John Southall of Little Witley, at Grimley in 1814. Sarah possibly married John Smith in Worcester in 1817. Harriet married Charles Mills of Great Witley, in Little Witley in 1822. Catherine married John Curnock in Worcester in the same year.

Edmund (Sen.) died in Little Witley in December 1838 and was buried in Holt. It is probable that his widow, Mary, went to live with one her daughters' families outside of the immediate area, as her burial is not recorded in Holt or Little Witley.

In 1818 Charles Haywood (or  Hayward) took over from Edmund Lowick. Haywood continued to pay the land tax of £14/17/11 until 1823, when it was reduced to £14/-/10. This rate continued in proceeding years. Haywood served as churchwarden from 1820 to 1825 inclusive. He served as overseer of the poor in 1819, 1827 and 1828. The latter occasion was on behalf of his neighbour Henry Chellingworth of Holt Castle Farm.

Shortly after coming to Holt in 1818, Charles' wife Mary bore a son, Charles. Four more children, Henry, Joseph, Mary and Sarah Ann were born in the next ten years. Haywood left Holt at the end of 1834.

Joseph Southall took over Naunton in 1835. He was born in Great Witley in 1795. His father, Thomas, married Elizabeth Barber, of Hallow, in Great Witley in 1781. They had children, Sarah, John, Thomas, Mary, Samuel and Joseph. Sarah died unmarried at 26 years old. John had Hay Oak Farm in Abberley. Thomas farmed in Great Shelsley. Mary married Thomas White of Abberley. Samuel lived with Joseph at Naunton Farm. All benefited greatly from their fathers' will of 1809, such that Samuel was later able to describe himself as a yeoman of independent means.

When the tithe was re-assessed and commuted to a money charge in 1839, the cropping had changed little since 1793. There were 54 acres of pasture, 145 of arable and 12 of hops. Amalgamation of fields continued. In the Poor Rate returns the farm size was unchanged, at 215 acres, through 1847 to 1851, when an annual Poor Rate of £7/4/- was payable for the farm and it's two cottages. Additional land may have been rented in, for in the1851 census Joseph stated that he was farming 230 acres.

Neither of the brothers, Joseph or Samuel Southall married. They had a housekeeper, Frances Smith, and up to three house servants or farm labourers living-in. Like Charles Haywood before him, in 1837 Joseph acted as Overseer of the Poor on behalf of Henry Chellingworth. He had served in that post in his own right the previous year and again in 1845 and 1853. He was one of the churchwardens in 1839, 1842 and the period 1851 to 1853. He witnessed the proceedings of the parish meeting in 1850. Joseph disappeared from Holt's electoral register in 1855 although it was 1859 before his successor, James Hammond, appears in the records.

The oldest surviving child of James and Hannah (nee'  White), James Hammond was born in Astley in 1817. He farmed in Clent, before moving to Naunton. James' wife, Elizabeth, was from Bewdley. In 1871 their three sons, William, James (jun.) and Henry, were still living at home. All were born in Clent. William and Henry were both farming, presumably with their father at Naunton, whilst James (jun.) was a farmer miller working Holt Mill from at least 1871 to 1875. In 1871 James and Elizabeth had a servant girl, Eliza Ann Winnall of Clifton, and a dairy maid, Jane Walker of Shelsley, living in. James employed six labourers and two boys on his 240 acre farm. He was a church warden for thirteen years from 1860, and overseer of the poor on two occasions, 1862 and 1873, during that period.

The latter half of 1875 or the first half of 1876 saw Edward Dorrell take on the farm. Dorrell was from Shropshire, but had farmed in Clifton on Teme before moving to Holt. Although he was of a similar age to Thomas Dorrell of Bentleys' sons, as far as is known he was not closely related to that family. His wife, Mary, was from Kemsey, but married Edward in Clifton on new years eve 1867. Edward was Mary's second husband, for her maiden name was Hyde, and her previous married name, Boddington.

Within twelve months of going to Naunton, Dorrell was serving as church-warden, a post that he held until 1883. In that capacity he witnessed the constables accounts in 1880. The 1881 census stated that the farm size was 237 acres. Dorrell employed six labourers and 2 boys, the same size work-force as James Hammond ten years previously.

By 1891 George Parker had come from Warwickshire to farm at Naunton. There are few references to Parker other than in the 1891 census and a trades directory of the following year. The farm may already have been in decline, for by 1893 James Johnson Chavasse (1870-1912), brother to Ada Elsie Chavasse, later Dorrell, of Bentley, was living in the house as a private resident. William James Dorrell, Ada’s husband to be, was then farming most of the land at Naunton as part of Bentley. James Johnson Chavasse was the founder of Chavasse & Kerr, a Birmingham firm of fire-grate manufacturers. After his marriage in 1903 James lived on the Hagley Road in Edgbaston. James and Ada’s father, Horace Chavasse, was resident at Naunton in 1900. Horace had been a successful manufacturer of swords, machetes and the like, with a factory at Hockley. When his business went in to decline he sold out to Ralph Martindale, and the firm still bears that name. His move to Naunton may correspond to this period. Soon after 1900 he became the tenant of Ward End Hall in Birmingham. Harold had two other sons, George Frederick and Edward Samuel. The former retired to his sister’s home at Bentley, having been a brewer and hotelier in Birmingham; his last hotel was on Harborne Road, also in Edgbaston. Edward Samuel died at Naunton in 1903, aged 40.

Dorrell continued to tenant Naunton, including the farmstead, up to the sale of 1920. S. C. Gregg held the quarry at the north end of the farm and the executors of George Steadman Munslow held a field just south of the Rectory. Dorrell was farming the northern part of Naunton, which included the farmstead, from Bentley and the southern portion, which was at various times referred to as Ball Mill Farm. Except for the exclusion of two fields to the east of the Worcester-Tenbury road, the farm offered for sale was the same shape as that farmed by Dorrell. Only one bid, of £3000, was offered in 1920 and the lot was withdrawn from the sale.

Dorrell presumably continued to farm Naunton but in 1925 the farm was split in to four sale lots. These lots formed part of Holt Castle Farm and were all sold to Messrs. Dewhurst and Arliss. Captain G.P. Dewhurst J.P. was apparently the principle partner. Naunton was let to William Hodgetts who resided and farmed there until his death in January 1932. William John Griffiths then took over but appears to have been in partnership with Dewhurst and Arliss.

A major sale of local land took place on 29 October 1941. Several vendors sold a number of lots. In Holt the sale by auction included Naunton, Ball Mill and Holt (Castle) Farms. Other lots included Hillhampton Farm in Great Witley and Monk Wood, Grimley. Messrs. W. & C. Griffiths and Messrs. Dewhurst and Arliss offered Naunton and Holt Farms as a single 197 acres lot. Naunton Farm House was the farm residence for the lot. At the time of the sale Messrs. Griffiths were farming the 21 acres (farmstead and immediately adjacent fields) of mainly pasture at Naunton Farm and Dewhurst and Arliss the 173 acres (farm buildings and land immediately to the west and north) of mainly arable land at Holt Farm. The lot was split before or during the sale, for Richard (aka Dick) Thomas Tombs purchased only the Naunton Farm portion.

All the members of the Tombs bought and sold framing properties frequently. Richard Thomas Tombs was born in Upper Sapey where his father John farmed. As a young man he spent time in Eldersfield on the Gloucestershire-Worcestershire border, where his first child, Richard Harry Tombs, who was born in May 1929. Richard Thomas then formed a farming partnership with his brother, Albert Henry, at Dingle Farm in Wichenford, then their father’s nearby Bury-End Town Farm. Until 1936 the brothers appear also to have farmed Rose Cottage Farm in Little Witley. On leaving that farm they sold off 37 cattle and 69 sheep. When the partnership dissolved Albert Henry moved away to farm near Redditch and Richard Thomas moved to a fruit farm and poultry holding in Grimley. Having bought Naunton Farm in 1941, three years later he sold up in Grimley. Richard’s wife, Katie, was headmistress at Wichenford School. David John (aka John) Tombs was born at Naunton in July 1947.

In 1950 Richard Thomas Tombs purchased three fields, amounting to 53 acres, at Ball Mill Farm. Three years later, in return for an annual rent and royalties, Tombs made over the mineral rights on these same fields to the Ball Mill Sand and Gravel Company Limited. Following sand and gravel extraction over the proceeding twenty years, part of this land, which is now entirely restored to agriculture, was subject to landfill.

Richard Tombs stayed at Naunton Farm, living in the house, until 1955. By when he had acquired an additional 15 acres with two cottages to the north of, and contiguous with, Naunton Farm. In the spring of 1955 Richard and Katie sold Naunton, in two lots, before retiring to Llandrindod Wells, where their son John set up a garage business. Following her husband’s death in 1970 and John’s in 1984 Katie moved back to Worcestershire to live with her older son, Richard Harry, at his home, Ravenhall Farm, in Lulsley. Katie died in 1987. Some of her descendants have retained a small part of the farm.

Mrs Sykes sold Naunton farmstead with its 20 acres of adjacent pasture in 1967, when a local family bought it. In 1990 the traditional red brick barns associated with the farm were sold with planning permission for conversion to domestic dwellings. The conversions subsequently took place and several pleasant homes resulted. The grazing was let to Northingtown Farm.

The house is a grade II listed building. The listing reads ' Naunton Farmhouse II Farmhouse. Late C18, mid-C19 alterations and additions. Brick on sand- stone ashlar base, tiled roof, gable end parapets and end brick stacks with tiled offsets, stack to left having paired diagonal shafts and to right having 6 diagonal shafts, all with oversailing blue brick cap courses. Two storeys, attic and cellar with modillion eaves cornice. Three bays; central bay breaks forward and has pediment, modillion detail also carried up pediment; all windows have cambered heads; outer bays have 4-pane sashes with narrow, plain side sashes; central bay has first floor 4-pane sash and beneath a mid-C19 panelled door and rectangular fanlight with central glazing bar with a gabled, timber-framed porch. Porch has pierced, scalloped barge- boards and finial, scalloped eaves detail, chamfered uprights and arch-braces, and side rails with 3 elongated oval openings beneath. Attic lights in gable ends Interior not inspected. Two storey rear wing with dentilled eaves cornice and external chimney to left side elevation with 6 tall diagonal shafts and oversailing blue brick cap courses. Also 2 single storey extensions to left side elevation of house. Formerly part of Dudley estate.'