The History of This Land
Jerome Tait
Jerome began his career in television post-production before moving into the heritage sector 20 years ago. He has extensive experience advising government in various roles for Historic England, supporting a wide range of public-works projects, from major infrastructure schemes to small community initiatives. He brings to the team an energy for community engagement, placemaking, and project delivery.
What is in a name?
The site of our new village community was not called Bowden Pillars Farm until the 1920s or 30s when it evolved into a dairy farm from a stables to Bowden House. The name ‘Bowden Pillars’ relates to the two tall granite pillars that stand either side of the road at the crossroads with Green Lane. The Grade II listed pillars date to the 16th or 17th century and mark the entrance to the historic Bowden Estate.
‘Bowden’ is a commonly used place-name (and surname) across the country, but especially favoured in Devon including Bowden Hill near Ashburton. Our Bowden was established by the year 1313 as an important seat of power: the manor of Bowedon juxta Magna Tottenesse (Bowden by Totnes).
There are a number of theories regarding the derivation of the name ‘Bowden’ although it is generally agreed to be of Anglo-Saxon or Old English origin. The most common translation is that ‘Bowden’ or ‘Boden’ means curved valley or hill, derived from ‘boga’ (bow or bend) and ‘denu’ (valley) or ‘dūn’ (hill). However, there is also a view that it could mean ‘dweller at the top of a hill’. Another possibility might relate to the Old English word ‘beódan’, which means to offer, give thanks for kindnesses or proclaim. ‘Boden’ can also refer to the herbs rosemary and thyme. As a personal name, ‘Bowden’ is said to mean ‘brave friend’ or ‘messenger’, the latter aligning with “proclaim.”
There is a possibility that the “Bowden” name has different origins, from Brittany and the Brittonic language of the Celts. Juhel de Totnes (or Iudhael) led Breton forces in the Norman invasion and subsequently held many manors in the southwest, including Totnes, at the time of the Domesday Survey of 1087., around which time he founded Totnes Priory. It is possible that he established new places with Brittonic names. The Common Brittonic word ‘baðio’ translates as pig or wild boar, which gives the intriguing thought that Juhel may have hunted in the area, which would have still been forested at the time. It is not a large leap from ‘badio’ to ‘bowden’.
The Pillars
The granite roadside entrance markers, or pillars, that form the gateway from town were most likely erected by the Giles family during their ownership of the Bowden Estate from 1464 to 1704. The Giles’s, along with a number of the later owners, were Mayors of Totnes, Members of Parliament for Totnes and, in some cases, members of the government of the day. The family fortune was largely acquired by John Giles (1487-1553) who the wealthiest merchant in Devon in 1523 and who bought prolific amounts of property in and around Totnes, thereby establishing his descendants among the gentry of the shire. His grandson, John Giles (c.1533-1606) “He left his manor of Bowden and property in Totnes and elsewhere, together with beasts, plate and household goods, to his wife for life, and then to his heir Edward, the executor and residuary legatee. Several other manors went to his remaining sons, and small bequests to his daughter’s children, and to his servants and godchildren. He remembered the poor of Totnes, including the inmates of the almshouse”. The Trist family, after whom Trist Cottage is named, bought Bowden in 1704 during the reign of Queen Anne (she of ‘The Favourite’ fame), and it passed to the Adams family in 1800. None of the Giles, Trist or Adams families are thought to have been associated with in the large transatlantic slave trading companies (EIC & RAC, etc).
The Village Land
The likelihood is that the area of land on which the village will be built was wooded and wild for most of its history since the last Ice Age. Some removal of trees may have taken place for farming or to formalise ancient trackways under Juhel de Totnes and his successors from the 11th century or before, and further land management and cultivation was likely as the late medieval estate grounds evolved under the Giles family. It was probably under the Trist family in the early 19th century that the grounds were formalised with a long, winding carriageway that could show off the estate to visitors arriving from a new entrance at Bowden Lodge. This carriageway is still legible in the landscape around the top field above the farmhouse and continues to provide the path between the farmyard and the bungalow, and the laurel walk to Bowden House.
By the early 19th century, when the estate was bought by William Adams (1752-1811), the land had been enclosed into the arrangement of fields we see today. The tithe map and apportionment of 1842 shows the village site as an undeveloped field of a little over 4 acres called ‘Lower Town Park’. It was rented from William Dacres Adams (1775-1862) by Robert Taylor and was not in cultivation although a small portion was given over to plantation. Fir trees were grown on a good quantity of the Bowden Estate at this time. The main field now allocated as farmland to feed the village was called ‘Higher Town Park’.
William Dacres Adams had been Private Secretary to two Prime Ministers and from 1811 to 1834 was one of three members of the Commission of Woods, Forests and Land Revenues, which was established in1810. The Commissioners had a similar function to those managing the Crown Estate today. His remit over woods and forests is perhaps of additional interest given the rewilding project on the land today. However, Adams was an absentee owner and his brother George lived in the house with his family, until c.1850. The 1851 census shows Bowden House occupied by Thomas Tucker, a labour with his wife Theresea and two infant daughters. At the time, gardener William Osborne, his wife and 7 children were squeezed into Bowden Lodge.
The last Adams to own Bowden, Rev. William Fulford Adams (1833-1901), was a vicar in Oxfordshire and a friend and contemporary of William Morris. Revd. Adams’ children were notable artists: Katharine Adams FRSA (1862-1952) was a renowned bookbinder and childhood friend of Jenny and May Morris; and William Dacres Adams (1864-1951), a painter. The children would no doubt have spent some time at Bowden, possibly even venturing along the driveway and exploring the trees and fields to each side, where the farm would later become established, prior to Revd. Adams selling the estate to the Singer family in 1887.
It was under the Singer ownership that the first buildings were erected in Lower Town Park field. The Ordnance Survey Map of 1906 shows ‘Stables’ and an ‘Old Quarry’ on the current site of the farmyard, with further ‘Stables’ on the other side of the carriageway where the bungalow now stands. The farmhouse is shown as small house which was extended some time later. In the later twentieth century, the farmhouse was extended and the farm buildings replaced and adapted to their current arrangement. In 2024, a new family of friends moved into the farmhouse.
SOURCES
https://www.oldenglishtranslator.co.uk/
https://www.last-names.net/lastname/bowden/
https://epns.nottingham.ac.uk/browse/id/53284f0eb47fc4097e001478-Bowden+Ho
https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1558-1603/member/giles-john-1533-1606
https://pigott-gorrie.blogspot.com/2012/06/giles-family-of-totnes-in-devon.html
https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C12004
https://landedfamilies.blogspot.com/2013/04/30-adams-of-bowden-house-totnes-and-old.html
https://www.geni.com/people/William-Adams/6000000027794197837
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/35184966/william_dacres-adams
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commissioners_of_Woods_and_Forests