MSO7459 - Everards Ball Farmstead, Luxborough (Monument)

The medieval origin of Everards Ball farmstead is implied by the Lay Subsidy of 1327. It is shown on a map of c.1600, but the site is now covered by a commercial forestry plantation. Two field boundaries still survive.

SS 98113989. Deserted farmstead of Everards Ball or Woodhead, indicated in the 1327 Lay Subsidy by the entry of Robert Everard. [1,2] It is shown on a map of circa 1600 and the six inch 1962 map [3] still shows two walls shown on the 1600 map, but the area is now overgrown with trees. [4] Small holding of 12 acres, now forested. House long gone. Called Everate's Ball in Land Tax Return, and Woodhead on tithe map. [5] The site of Everards Ball lies on a narrow north-north-east facing spur now covered in commercial forestry plantations. The two boundaries refered to above are well preserved. The southernmost may mark the southern edge of the holding (the other boundaries being formed by the steep combes themselves, and survives as a stone faced boundary 1.2 metres high with a ditch on the southern side. The northern boundary is less well preserved being 0.7 metres high, and appears to mark a sub division within the holding. No traces of a farmstead could be identified. [6] This record was enhanced as part of the National Record of the Historic Environment to Exmoor National Park Historic Environment Record data transfer project. [7]