Titus Bower
Tom’s Field Campsite
Tom Bower 


So how did Tom’s Field develop as a campsite-?
Well the history of how this piece of land first came into the hands of the Bower family is contained in the following information from Reg Saville of Langton Matravers
‘For many hundreds of years the principal occupation of England was subsistence farming.
During the early Saxon period (c650 AD) the land was divided into strips of equal length and width, called 'hydes' or 'hides', and each family was given one strip, on which they had to live, cultivate crops and pasture their animals. Many of the straight stone wall boundaries stretching southwards from Langton village street to the cliffs date from this period.
During the late Saxon and early Norman periods those who had served the king loyally in war or peace were given several of these hydes, creating small manors. As time went on, these families, which had become rich and famous, purchased more lands, thus creating very large manors, such as the Manor of West Langton or Langton Wallis, to which Toms Field belonged. The eastern boundary of that manor was the stone wall behind the Scout Headquarters which runs south behind the belt of trees towards Spyway. This huge manor stretched far beyond the Langton Parish boundary, and was originally held by the Le Wallis family, later Fillioll, later Willoughby, later Sir Christopher Hatton,(Queen Elizabeth's favourite), and later Bankes, and finally the National Trust.
Within the great manors the local peasants subsisted by farming strips in three or four great Open Fields (called 'open' because they were not permanently hedged or fenced). These strip holdings were never contiguous, so that everyone had a fair share of the good and bad land, but after the Black Death and the Peasants' Revolt of the Fourteenth Century, when there were very few peasants left, those surviving obtained contiguous strips. The Open Field System was further damaged by enclosures during the Tudor period, particularly after 1558. At that time a Welsh family called Tommys arrived in Langton. Their cottage was on the site of the front garden of the present 'Sunny Cottage' and their lands stretched southwards in front of it and were thenceforth called 'Tommys Ground'. Other similar holdings dating from this period were 'King's Ground', 'Cox's Ground' and 'Cole's Ground'. Cole's ground was immediately east of Tommys Ground and King's Ground was south of Cole's Ground.
During the 18th Century Tommy's Ground was leased to the Brown family, who were stonemasons, and whose 17th Century cottage (of which we have a photograph) stood where the driveway to Sunny Cottage is now. Another small holding was Purbick's Acton Fields. This family came from Hampshire and farmed hereabouts throughout the 18th Century. The family also held lands in Worth Parish. So it has been Tom's Field for a very long time!

https://www.tomsfieldcamping.co.uk/www.tomsfieldcamping.co.uk

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