Bourne Archive:
BAEM: Dyke Haws
http://boar.org.uk/ghiwxs7BAEM(pic5Haws.htm Latest edit 1 Jun 2010.
Text, page
and picture ©R.J.PENHEY 2010.
The Bourne Archive Gallery
Dyke Haws, from the Bourne Abbots
Estate Map.
This is a detail, covering the area of early enclosures
called Dyke Haws in Bourne Parish, taken from the Bourne Abbots Estate Map of 1825.
The contrast in the picture here is enhanced to reveal what in the map
itself, is often very faint.
The parish of Bourne had three sets of open
fields; one set each for Bourne, Cawthorpe and Dyke. Those of Dyke were named Moor, Wath and Nutto
fields. Dyke also had its Fen, Meadow and a group
of small enclosed fields called Dyke Haws. A haw is a hedge or the land it
encloses. In modern use, we know haw bestfrom its use
in the name hawthorn, that is, the thorn plant used for hedging. The variants
on the name ‘hedge’ and their significance are discussed on the page dealing
with the field called The Heg. In the map, unlike the former open fields, the
area has no consistent brown outline so it is not possible to be completely
sure what was included under the name Dyke Haws.
Boundaries: In the south it was bounded by Bourne East Field and
Bourne Meadows. In the north it abutted on Dyke Outgang, the road giving access
from the village to Dyke Fen. In the west it extended to The Heg
which may have been regarded as one of its enclosures. This and one other
enclosure abutted on the Car Dyke.
Management: Of its twelve enclosures, nine were held by the
successors of George Pochin, the lord of the manor of Bourne Abbots who had died in 1798. Of the others,
two were held by Emlyn Hardy and The Heg by Henry Bott. The Exeter
Estate Book (EEB) makes it clear that these last three were held
copyhold of the Manor of Bourne.
Soil: The Soil Survey
indicates that most of the enclosures lie on soil type 511i, lacustrine
gravel, fine loamy soil over calcareous gravel. This
was laid down in the Devensian, at the foot of the slope leading down from
the site of Bourne Wood,
to the bottom of
Features: Plot 52 is the site of the Eau Well, formerly, the source
of the Dyke Eau, a river which is shown but not usually named in maps made
until the 17th century. For example those of
Saxton (1576) and Hondius (1610).
Index of samples from the map Archive Contents