On this day in Wembury — 25 April 1885
An advertisement in the Western Morning News announced that Spriddlestone Barton, a major farm straddling the parishes of Brixton and Wembury, was to be let by tender. The notice described it in admiring terms as “a most desirable estate” of nearly 200 acres, with a fine balance of meadow, pasture and orchard land. Its position was “beautifully situated within easy reach of Plymouth,” offering “exceptional means for the disposal of produce.” For Victorian farmers, this was prime ground — fertile, well-watered and conveniently close to market by horse and cart.
The property came with a “commodious modern-built farmhouse and buildings” described as dry and healthy for cattle and sheep. The advertisement was placed by Messrs. Andrew and Son, auctioneers of Courtenay Street, Plymouth, with tenders due by the 27th of May. A man was to be “on the premises to show the farm,” a customary phrase in estate notices of the time.
Spriddlestone Barton remains a familiar name in the area, its land stretching across some of the richest farmland between Wembury and Brixton. The 1885 notice evokes a period when agriculture was still the backbone of the parish economy, when a tenancy at Spriddlestone meant status, hard work and the promise of prosperity within sight of the sea.
(Western Morning News, 25 April 1885)