AN ACCOUNT OF THE VILLAGE FROM THE TIME OF DOMESDAY
There were various hamlets which include Park Corner near Freshf'ord; Friary Green; Midford; Pipehouse; and parts of If'ord and Farley Plain. These two Parishes were owned by Ulwen the Saxon and taken f'rom him by William the Conqueror and given to his Norman f'avourite Edward de Evereux (Devereux) younger son of the Earl of Rosmar. Until quite recently the surname Devereux, now spelt Deverell was still found in this Parish. This Edward Devereux was made Earl of' Salisbury, and in Domesday Book (1087) his estate is thus described~- "Edward de Sarisberi holds of the King Hantone. ULWEN held it in the time of' Edward the Confessor and paid geld for ten hides of Lane. The Arable is 10 carucates, in the Demesne and three Carucates. There are 9 serving men, twelve villagers, fifteen cottages with six ploughso 'rhere are two water mills paying rent of 34/- and there are twelve acres of meadov'/ as well as woodland one mile in length and half' a mile broado In Bath two houses pay sevenpence halfpennyo It was worth £10 per annum but is now valued at £12".
Edward Devereux's son succeeded to the estate of about 1,000 acres, and his great grand daughter was Ela, Countess of Salisbury, in her own right. She married William de Longespe and f'ounded Hinton Priory af'ter his death. Once the Priory was founded the life of' the village would have been bound up with the Priory. The Monks controlled the weekly Fair on Hinton Green till it was removed to Norton St.Philip where they still controlled it. Gradually extra land was handed over to the Priory and we read that Pipehouse, originally called Peipard, c after a family of' that name who were Lords of the Manor of Cold Ashton, was handed over to the Priory together with the Freshf'ord Manors in 1332.
" There was a Well and Tannery at Friary Green, and a mill at Midford, and the Monks owned the Grange Farm, now called Hinton House, where their grain was stored in the Old Barn which is now built into the House.
After the Dissolution of the Priory in 1539 the Monks must have been much missed by the villagers as they had been there for 312 years.
Their was much spinning and weaving done in those days, and after the introduction of the spinning wheel in 1530 it increased. Several old cottages in Hinton have windows opposite each other so that the weavers could have better light for their work. In the Green Lane there is a very old house -no.5. -which is in an old deed called the Manor House. With this old house go the Manorial Rights of Hinton. Yew Cottage was the Manor Farm House, and Mr. Colborne's Yard probably the farmyard. The Village Hall is also joined to a very old house (Tudor) with tremendously thick walls. This was at one time the largest Farm house in the village. Owing to Miss Foxcroft being able to buy a very interest ing old volume called Parsons's Survey which was compiled in 1638 for Lord Craven who then owned the Manors of Hinton and Norton, we have a very good picture of the village a hundred years after the Dissolution of the Priory.
The following extracts may be of interest: