Vicarage Farm

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Plan of lands associated with Vicarage Farm held by current owners

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Photo Vicarage Farm 1970s

Vicarage Farm House, Woodgate

18th Century

There are descriptions of the property now known as Vicarage Farm, Woodgate, in the parish records of the 18th century. A glebe terrier of 1786 ¹ describes “the house and kitching containing 4 bays of building one little barn containing 3 bays the yard garding and homestead containing half an acre one close of pasture containing half an acre” and then series of strips of land in the open fields, amounting to 6 acres and 1 rood.
Vicarage Farm was owned by successive vicars of Helpston from at least the 18th century (and probably much earlier) until 1919. It may have been the residence of the vicar at one time, but there is no direct evidence for this.

Enclosure changes

In 1809 the property was described as “The Vicarage house, yard, garden and homestead (1/2 acre), close (1/2 acre) and 6 acres 1 rood of arable, meadow and grass land dispersed in the fields of Helpston and Etton.” John Woodward was the occupier (not necessarily living in the house itself). ²
The close was a thin strip of land running west to east from near the back of the homestead across the end of The Nook. ³
Following enclosure the property retained the homestead and close as they were, but acquired some new allotments of land to compensate for the loss of the land in the open fields. ^{4 and 5}

Two new small allotments were made adjacent to the homestead.
These were as follows:
18 perches – taken out of the village green this plot was bounded north and west by the village street and is now the garden on the north and west side of the house.
2 perches – this tiny allotment was on the east side of the homestead and joined the homestead up to the close mentioned above. Looking at the enclosure map it seems that this plot and the neighbouring one to the south had formed a route into the open field (Woodcroft Field) from The Nook, this property and the neighbouring properties to the south.

The other newly acquired land was as follows:
7acres 2 roods 29 perches – this was taken out of Etton Old Field on the south side of the new Glinton Road. This was field no. 84 as shown on the later plans (albeit with some changes around the edges)
38 perches – this was an old enclosure, previously owned by William Sweeby that was awarded to the vicar in an agreed exchange of land. This was a small piece of land at the east end of the close described above.

19th Century

As an individual farm this was small compared to other farms in the village and is unlikely to have provided profits that would have given a vicar a good living. Lord Milton ⁶ commented on this in a letter in 1824, saying that the separation of the tithes from the living reduced the “income of the incumbent to a very low ebb”, and that the vicars of Helpston had not been resident there in his or his father’s memories. The Bounty of Queen Anne was an organisation created to support vicars with poorer livings, and in 1820 The Governors of the Bounty granted some funds to support the living.

At the end of 1826 there was further support from the Governors and some agreements were made that led to a significant change in the property. The neighbouring house was being sold by Charles Knowlton, who had owned and farmed there for about 15 years. Earl Fitzwilliam was buying this house and its’ associated farm lands. During this purchase some of the farm lands were sold to The Governors of the Bounty to become part of Vicarage Farm and thus augment the living of the vicar. On a brief reading of the relevant documents it appears that the land was sold to the Governors at their proper value These lands were field nos. 79, 80, 88 and 93 as shown on the later plans. In this way Vicarage Farm gained its’ fullest extent as a post-enclosure farm.

It may well be around this time that the vicar moved into the house now known as The Old Rectory at 3, Woodgate (certainly he had moved by 1851, and the implication of comments in Jonathon Bate’s biography of John Clare is that the vicar had moved in by 1830 at the latest).

The Vicarage Farm became occupied by tenant farmers. From about 1838 ¹ the tenant was Thomas Wood, who came from Redmile in Nottinghamshire. His wife, Sarah, was born at Langtoft. As a young couple, they came to Helpston and farmed at The Vicarage Farm for many years. After Thomas, the tenancy was taken over by his son, also Thomas, who farmed there until the 1890s. The farm was then taken over by John Clarke from Market Deeping, who was still the tenant up to at least 1910.

20th Century

It is not known how or why agreement was made for Vicarage Farm to be sold, and when the land mentioned above was transferred . Nevertheless, in 1919, the then vicar, Reverend Isaac Hudson Bland sold the Vicarage Farm to Kate Pearce, a local land owner and farmer.
In 1936 Kate Pearce sold field no. 80 to the paper mill owners Towgood & Beckwith. Also, at some point before 1948 a portion of field no. 79 had been transferred away. This was the part of this field that fronted Glinton Rd.
In 1948 Kate Pearce died and the farm was sold to the Blyton family.

SOURCES
1 Helpston Parish Records – glebe terrier of 1786 and Church Rates 1838.
2 Enclosure Claims 1809
3 Plan included in the deeds
4 Enclosure Award 1820
5 Enclosure Map 1820
6 Penguin Classics edition (1986) of The Parish by John Clare – in Eric Robinson’s introduction he quotes the letter from Lord Milton quoted above.
The deeds of Vicarage Farm held by owners
Parish records (these include pre-enclosure descriptions of the property including locations of the strips of land within the open fields).