Coloured Strip Map of Wistow Manor 1617

The original Wistow maps held at Huntingdon Records Office are very large and show the whole of the manor including the surrounding countryside with the names of the land owners right down to individual fields.

In the top left hand corner of the 1617 map there is an inscription describing the purpose of the map, or the PLOTT as it is called, and interestingly in 1617 our small village was referred to as the TOWNE.

In 1617 the fields seem to be divided into furlongs with some very descriptive names. Many of the names are geographical or refer to landmarks e.g. Bridge Furlonge, Brown Bridge Furlonge, Broc Furlonge, Church Furlonge, Town Side Furlonge, Copdich Furlong, Conduite Furlonge, White Cross Furlonge and Farr Little Hills Furlonge. Others describe the type of land or what grew there e.g. Upper and Middle Stoney Landes, North and South Clayhill, Water Lande, Hemplande Balke Furlong, Berrie Woods Furlonge and Berrie Side Furlonge. Other names of note are Twelve Shillinges meadowe, Upper and Long Larke Landes and Buttes Furlonge.

All of which give us clues to historic Wistow. Buttes Furlonge would have been where archery practice was undertaken, Twelve Shillinges meadowe was the worth of that meadow at some point in time, the land called Clayhill was the obvious choice when the Wistow brick works needed to be sited and probably there were once two bridges across the brook, one of which was brown.

By 1832 the fields have mostly lost their individual names and are generally labelled with the name of the land owner. (See the item on The Original Inclosure Map of Wistow 1832).

The following map photographs are published with the permission of David Walker

 

 

by Althea Walker

December 2011