From medieval times, counties were divided into administrative units known as Hundreds. Each hundred was divided into tithings, and a tithing was a group of about ten householders, who appointed a tithing man to represent them at manorial courts, and at meetings of the Hundred.

 

In the 13th century, Up Sydling Manor was a tithing in the Stone Hundred. This Hundred included Cerne and the meeting point for the hundred was the Bellingstone, on the ridge between Up Sydling and Cerne.

 

Sydling Manor was in the Modbury Hundred. The meeting point of the hundred was Modbury Barrow (no longer there, but it was close to Stagg’s Folly, between Up Sydling and Cattistock). The Manor consisted of two tithings, Broad Sydling and Fifehead.

 

Milton Abbey owned a few other hamlets nearby, though not actually within the Sydling Valley. So while the BroadSydling Tithing man represented the village of BroadSydling, the Fifehead Tithing included Chalmington and Blakemoor. A much larger area, but a smaller population. The map below gives a very rough idea of the areas of each tithing, though the tithing was a group of people, so the land area over which they were scattered is not really important.

 

Milton Abbey, as Lords of the manor of Sydling, held Baronial Courts, and Courts Leet, at the Court House in Sydling. They appointed two tithing men, one for BroadSydling, and one for Fifehead. The Fifehead tithing man represented Up Sydling, Elyston, Chalmington and Blakemoor.

The lost villages

 

Within Fifehead tithing are two lost medieval villages; Blakemoor and Elyston.

It’s intriguing to know what became of them.

 

Elyston is a fascinating spot, and deserves its own story telling more fully.

 

The site of the deserted medieval village of Blakemoor is north of Chalmington, close to Chantmarle, only 2 miles from Up Sydling as the crow flies. It seems to have become uninhabited in the 14th century, perhaps as a result of plague? This is pure speculation, but after this Milton Abbey records show rental of land here, but no dwellings.

 

The gradual demise of Fifehead

 

Fifehead Tithing man attends every manorial court at Sydling right up to the dissolution of the monasteries in 1540, when Milton Abbey records stop.

 In the 16th and 17th century, there was a Fifehead Farm, and areas known as Fifehead Fields, but these were gradually absorbed into other farms, as time went by. Fifehead farmhouse became “The Old Farmhouse” in 1797, when a new farmhouse was built behind it.

 

The last record of Sydling Fifehead is the 1841 census, which records “Township, Fifehead Sydling, Up Sydling. After this, the system of local government and parliamentary constituencies changed significantly, and hundreds were no longer used as county divisions.

 

And so the name was lost.