Hedgerows

Housing - The Valley of Gatten, Part 8By James LawsonHousingThe earliest dateable house on the estate is the half-timbered part of Near Bank Farm which was certainly built by 1616, the date on some wainscot with the initials RMB, standing for Rees and Mary Bowen who...

Sporting rights - The Valley of Gatten, Part 7By James LawsonSporting rightsThe pursuit and hunting of deer in the high middle-ages and into the early modern period has already been mentioned. It was still exploited as a private forest in the early Elizabethan period...

Woodland Management and Moorland Ecology - The Valley of Gatten, Part 6By James LawsonWoodland Management and Moorland EcologyThe mention of Hays and a park in the early thirteenth century suggests that there was already extensive wood pasture either for stock or...

Minerals and Mining - The Valley of Gatten, Part 5By James LawsonMinerals and MiningFrom the Eighteenth century at least, stone was used for building purposes on the estate and for a limited number of field walls. There are mineral veins primarily of barytes but at...

Development of Settlement & Economy - The Valley of Gatten, Part 4By James LawsonDevelopment of SettlementThe mention of both Gatten and Westcott in the thirteenth century although fleeting may mean that there was some form of settlement on the periphery of the...

Marsley Farm - The Valley of Gatten, Part 3By James LawsonMarsley FarmThe Stiperstones Forest was a royal hunting forest in the late Saxon period. It is unmentioned by name in Domesday Book but at Marseteleie, now represented by Marsley Farm in Habberley there was a...

Pollardine - The Valley of Gatten, Part 2By James LawsonPollardinePollardine was until the early seventeenth century a detached part of the manor of Pontesbury and not part of the Gatten estate. In the later Middle ages it was owned by the Greys, Lords of Powis. The...

The Valley of GattenBy James LawsonThe Valley of GattenGatten is not mentioned in Domesday and it subsequently transpires that it was originally in the manor of Wentnor and later in the parish of Ratlinghope. In which case in Domesday it was owned by Roger Corbet of...