304 Notes on the History of Gh-eat Somerford. 



of 6s. 8d. In 1721 a lease was granted to Elizabeth Cutts on her 

 life for £18, and reserved rent of 66-. 8//. In 1732, Elizabeth Cutts 

 being still alive, a lease was granted to her son Thomas Aland on 

 his own life, and that of Thomas Alsop, then six years old, for 

 which he paid £30. He was not to enter on the tenancy until the 

 death of Elizabeth Cutts, and then to pay annual rent — Qs.Sd. In 

 1774, Thomas Alsop being dead, Thomas Aland applied for a new 

 lease on lives of himself, his son Thomas, and daughter Ann, which 

 was granted on payment of eight guineas. In 1808, Thomas Aland 

 and his sister, Ann Turtle, being still alive, the former was allowed, 

 on payment of £35, to insert in the lease the life of his daughter, 

 then eleven years of age. However, in 1827, Ann Turtle was the 

 only survivor of the lessees, and she being 87 years of age, was 

 living in the cottage, then in a ruinous and dangerous state. A 

 vestry meeting was accordingly held, and an arrangement come to 

 with Ann Turtle to give up possession of the cottage on certain 

 conditions. At the same vestry it was resolved to take down the 

 greater part of the old dwelling-house and erect on the premises a 

 good and substantial house, large enough for receiving the Sunday 

 and weekly parish school — each person present at the said vestry 

 agreeing to forward the building by subscription in money or by 

 the use of their teams for drawing materials for the same. The 

 house was fully completed and finished according to a contract 

 made with William Tilton, and every expense for the same had 

 been duly paid before the end of 1828. Since that time, or rather 

 since the death of Ann Turtle, in 1832, the whole of the proceeds 

 of "St. Mary Lands," have been used for the benefit of the village 

 school. The building was considerably enlarged in 1850, and again 

 in 1870, when the Education Acts came into force. Some five 

 years ago the school buildings were once more enlarged, and 

 various improvements made to meet the demands of the Education 

 Department. 



Ecclesiastical History. 



The first notice I have found of the Church is in the " Taxatio 

 Ecclesiasticus" of Pope Nicholas IV., about 1290. There the "Ecclesia 



