NOTES ON THE MANOR OP FORDINGTON. 153 



applications for " renewing lives." By this means the whole 

 Manor gradually fell into hand ; the process being complete in 

 1873 or 1874. The " whole places," " half places," and " farthing 

 holds " were done away with, the whole 65 of them. The " For- 

 dington Field," to he presently described, was divided into four 

 farms, besides the Church Farm, which was partly glebe held under 

 the Lay Impropriator, and partly " Duchy land." Three large 

 farmsteads, each with an extensive house and cottages, were built. 

 Wire fences were erected bounding all roads and dividing farms 

 from each other. Another great and more recent change may be 

 passingly noticed. Formerly the " Duchy " always refused, but 

 are now willing, to alienate land lying within the borough bounds, 

 either as freehold or on building leases. The first freehold 

 thus acquired was Heathcote^ Lodge, bought by Mr. W. Galpin 

 in 1875. 



But it is the old system with which we have to do. We may 

 take Hutchins' notice, quoted above as a framework, on the lines 

 of which to arrange what seems suitable for record in the transac- 

 tions of the Dorset Field Club. And at the end we may notice 

 what is known about the early history of the Manor, little enough 

 unfortunately. 



In the first place, then, Hutchins calls the Manor " luxuriant," a 

 somewhat odd adjective to apply to a tract consisting greatly of 

 light chalk soil. He is right enough, however, in calling the 

 Manor " extensive," but it is strange that he does not give the least 

 hint of the curious nature of its extension. Old Dorchester, con- 

 stituting the borough before the enlargement of its bounds in 1836, 

 consists of three parishes, Holy Trinity cum Frome Whitfield, St. 

 Peter's, and All Saints. Then the curious point is that the Manor 

 of Fordington encircles the whole of these three parishes except an 

 isthmus of about 100yds. wide, uniting the two parts of Holy 

 Trinity parish. As far as I know it is a unique instance of three 

 parishes being all but embedded within the bounds of a fourth 

 parish. Parish, I say, for the Manor of Fordington, together with 

 a few curious isolated little freeholds, and the portions alienated 



