MSO9251 - Bincombe Cottage and Linhay, north of Langham Wood (Building)

At least two buildings are depicted on the Tithe Map for Cutcombe; the eastern is labelled "Bincombe Cottage". Later mapping depicts Bincombe Linhay to the north. It is not clear whether the buildings were ever associated with each other.

This is the area of some deserted cottages. [1] No further information. Possible that they have been confused with Bincombe Linhay which is shown on the Ordnance Survey Archaeological Division 6 inch map. [2,3] The Tithe Map for Cutcombe depicts some buildings here, although the digital copy held by the Exmoor HER shows that the original map is damaged in this location. There appears to at least be two buildings sited at c. SS 9085 4049 and SS 9091 4047. Only the field parcel number for the eastern building is visible, which is 680a; this is described in the Apportionment as "Scite of Bincomb Cott etc", owned by the Honourable Philip Pleydell Bouverie and occupied by Thomas Quarterly (on lease). It appears that Bincombe Linhay was not extant at the time the Tithe Map was surveyed. [4] By the time that the 25 inch 1st Edition Ordnance Survey map was surveyed, the cottages had been removed and Bincombe Linhay is shown as an L shaped structure and labelled at SS 9090 4054. It is not clear whether the cottages were cleared before or after the linhay was constructed, and if they were ever associated with each other. Part of the eastern building's remains may have been incorporated into the field boundary depicted at c. SS 9090 4048. [5,6] Bincombe Linhay is depicted as an unroofed, unlabelled structure on 2020 MasterMap data. Only the eastern part of the structure is shown. [7] This record was enhanced as part of the National Record of the Historic Environment to Exmoor National Park Historic Environment Record data transfer project. [8] The remains of Bincombe Cottage lie close to the path by the River Avill in Bincombe at SS 90902 40478. A large ash tree grows on the south wall of the structure. It comprises a two-roomed building with overall measurements of 12m E/W by 5.5m N/S, defined by walls of tumbled stone, 0.9m wide and up to 1m high. A yard or a further room, 2.7m E/W by 3.7m N/S, lies on the western end.The building is named as Bincombe on 18th and early 19th century maps and is mentioned in a lease dated 1612 as a tenement called Bincombes. The 1612 lease refers to a ‘tenement called Bincombes and common of pasture for 20 sheep and one yearling on Duncre and half the fuel or furze growing in Bincombe’. Documentary research suggests that by the 18th century, Ham Allotment was a holding of around 100 acres, known as Langham and Acham. There was no farmstead on Langham and Acham but the holding was worked from the small farmstead at Bincombe by 1772. [9][10][11]