Walk 7: Holditch Perambulation
Distance: 4.12km/2.56 miles
All walk descriptions © Eve Higgs
TVT Walk 7 Map
TVT Walk 7 pdf
This walk begins at the ruined chapel of ease. A listed monument it was dedicated
to the Cornish St Mellor in 1417. Chapels of ease were built for the convenience
of manorial families and their servants, living a distance from their parish church.
After a short walk along the road to Yawlings you will follow footpaths to Holditch
Court. Some of the building dates back to the 16th century. Another listed monument,
it is thought to be the gatehouse of Holditch Manor. You return to your starting
point via Lower Holditch.
1. With Manor Farm, Holditch to your left and the ruined chapel of ease behind you
walk up the road past the old school on your left .Cross the T-junction, and continue
past Holditch Hall on your left until you reach the entrance to Yawlings on your
right. Turn down the drive and follow it until you reach Yawlings Farm.
2. Keeping the house on your right cross in front of it and pass through the wooden
five bar gate immediately in front of the house. Turn right and head for the first
gate nearest the outbuildings. Cross the next field, pass through the gate in the
top right corner. Head for the open gateway.
3. You have now reached Holditch Court. (Brief History of Thorncombe) Follow the
path in front of the house and turn right on to Holditch Court Lane. The ivy covered
tower behind the house is part of the remains of Holditch Manor. A listed monument,
described by Pevsner as ‘without parallel in Dorset’. If you want to take a closer
look at the tower, take the fork to the left of the lane, which is also a footpath
leading to New House Farm. The tower is a rare survival of domestic fortifications
dating back to the late 14th or 15th century. While it implies that the manor’s
inhabitants needed protect themselves and their property from marauders, it might
be an affectation. Fortification of domestic and ecclesiastical buildings during
this period were subject to an application for a Crenellation Licence from the King
and were a way of demonstrating social superiority. Brass memorials depicting the
manor’s former inhabitants Sir Thomas Brook (died 1419) and his wife Joan (died 1437)
are preserved in the parish church in Thorncombe village. In 1387 Sir Thomas, who
was very rich and had extensive landholdings, applied for a licence ‘to strengthen
with a wall of stone and lime his mansion house… of Holdich and [to] enclose and
mark a park of 200 acres of pasture and wood belonging to the manor and hold the
premises including a deer-leap in the park to him his heirs for ever’.
4. Retrace your steps and continue up Holditch Court Lane. Follow the lane until
you reach the footpath sign on your left. Pass through the open gateway and follow
the footpath across the field to the stile in the opposite hedge.
5. Having crossed the stile follow the footpath keeping the hedge to your right.
Where the hedge veers to the right, keep straight until you reach the stile. Cogan’s
Farm is ahead. Cross the stile and follow the path which takes your round the left
hand side of the house. As you walk along the front of the house, you will notice
wooden seat dedicated to the memory of John Gordon (1925-2006), former Chairman of
Thorncombe Village Trust. Rest here a while if you need to.
6. Pass through the five bar gate and follow the track to the T-junction. You are
now in Lower Holditch. Almost immediately to your right is a stile. Enter the field
and follow the footpath diagonally left to the gate. Continue diagonally across the
next field to the metal gate.
7. Turn right on to Holditch Lane, when you reach the sign to Holditch Court Lane
turn right. Continue along it until you reach a stile on your left. Bear right across
the field to the stile ahead. Cross the stile, turn left and follow the hedge, until
your reach the double stile.
8. Head for the silo. Turn left and you are back where you started.
