Binley Farm

Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland

Binley Farm lies in a side valley, at the Western end of the parish.

The first mention of it is in John Smiths’s History of the Hundred of Berkeley, written in 1639.

‘Ralph Willet of Wotton under Edge an Attorney at lawe, holdeth certaine inclosed grounds wheron a house is of late built called Binley, cont. 7 acres, which he purchased of John Trotman eldest sonne of the said Thomas Trotman, to whom, upon his marriage with the sister of the said Ralph Willet, he conveyed the same, and were parcel of his messuage at Forthay aforesaid’

It is clearly delineated on the map of the Berkeley Estate, dated 1762 and, in the accompanying terrier, George Pierce is listed as being the tenant and occupier.

It then appears in the will of George Pierce, dated 1775.

‘To Thomas Close, son of niece Sarah Close all that messuage or tenement in North Nibley called Bently otherwise Bindly and the garden, orchard and several closes of pasture ground and arable to the same belonging and which I purchased of William Purnell, gentleman.’

George was first married to Rose Cornock, the granddaughter of Christopher Purnell. She and her sister Rebecca inherited land from their grandfather, but unfortunately his will is all but indecipherable.

Thomas Close died in 1789, leaving Binley to his mother. After her death it was to pass to his brother John.

The Farm then appears in the will of Thomas Robinson, dated 1837. He left the fields Bell Ground, Pennings, Little Pennings, Rickmans, Half a Pound of Butter and Jotchams Knowle to his daughter Hannah.

The are shaded yellow on the Tithe Map of 1847, used with the kind permission of Geoff Gwatkin.

Hannah’s son, William Robertson, was living here at the time of the ’41, ’51, ’61 and ’71 Census. In 1881, and until his death in 1892, he lived at Myrtle Villa, Fishponds, Bristol.

The farm was sold in 1876, as reported in the Gloucester Journal.