Histories

Great Lypiatt farmhouse is situated on the boundary between Corsham and Neston, near the Cotswold
Families Centre. It has stood there, according to the earliest records found, since 1410, when it was known as
Hancock’s Lypiatt. The Hancock family held the farm for 350 years.
(The name Lypiatt comes from the Saxon word Lepegate, which is a low gate that can be jumped by deer,
but not other animals. This probably dates back to when Melksham Forest spread close to the settlement of
Corsham).
In 1450 we see the first mention of John Hancock as bailiff of the Manor of Corsham, under Henry 6th. The
bailiff of the Manor was the most important officer after the steward. He was responsible for the supervision of
the day to day running and farming of the Manor, and was chosen from amongst the chief tenants of the
estate. As he was a man of status he generally had a good house, and this is certainly the case at Great
Lypiatt. John was a very popular Christian name in the Hancock family, which sometimes makes it difficult to
follow the history, but a Will survives of a John Hancock, who died in 1479, leaving gifts to the church, and
asking to be buried in Corsham Church. He also left to the church a chalice worth 4 marks (£2.70); four
candles (2p); 5p to the holy water clerk; and to the Vicar – 25p. The chapel of St John the Baptist, Gastard,
received vestments worth £1. The remainder was divided between his sons and daughter.
The next recorded Hancock is Joan Hancock, widow, who died in 1546, leaving in her Will, gifts of 5p to the
church for repairs. Her grandaughters received a flock bed each, with a bolster, a pair of sheets and a cover;
and another to receive a hutch (cupboard or chest). The grandsons were in receipt of ‘bullocks’. Joan made
her son John her Executor, and instructed him to “keep, find and norish the poor innocent William Hancock,
my sonne, and his brother, with meate, drink, and clothing suficient”. Her son Thomas succeeded Joan.
(Younger brother John lived at Pickwick) A record of Joan’s’ death appears in the 1st surviving Court Roll of
the Manor of Corsham.
In 1574 a John Hancock married one Jane Hall, whose dowry brought the finance to enable the rebuilding of
the upper end of Lypiatt. It seems that numerous marriages to wealthy brides contributed to the building and
extension of the farmhouse we see today.
The kitchen was rebuilt in 1627, and a brew house and a new porch were also erected. In 1649 a stable was
built (with a date stone). This is one of the earliest dated agricultural buildings in Wiltshire.
In 1659 a deed listing all the fields of Great Lypiatt Farm was produced, some of these names still survive as
road names.
From a will of John Hancock who died in 1666, an inventory taken shows a comfortable, but not luxurious
standard of living. In the farmhouse the normal brewing and cheese making was going on, and there were 10
flitches of home cured bacon in the pantry. The rooms over the porch and buttery were used purely as lofts.
There were 7 plough oxen (well above the standard of the day) and the farm was well stocked with cattle and
sheep. In 1693, another will records that the kitchen had a settle, and a spice mortar for tasty cooking. Chairs
were beginning to replace stools; there were 3 in the hall, and the parlour boasted 6 leather covered chairs.
Both the hall and the middle chamber had desks. There is now a dairy with loft over, which appears to have
been made by dividing the buttery.
By 1715 the house had been split and the kitchen and room above had been leased to a tenant who
obviously did the farming. To accommodate the division of the house the staircase had to be removed to a
turret at the back of the building. The parlour was now elegant with cane chairs and cushions, a fire grate with
brass fire irons, whilst tea tables and china suggest much genteel entertaining. The pantry had 66 pewter
plates, a cheese plate, and patty and pudding pans. A cellar is mentioned for the first time, containing 16
barrels of beer and a gross and a half of bottles in a ‘great binn’. The most expensively furnished room was the
room over the hall, still used for receiving visitors. So besides the curtained bed, there were 8 chairs, a
veneered table and a chest of drawers. In the closet adjoining this room was the family silver, including a silver
tobacco box and 58 silver buttons. This inventory also records – four guns and a brace of pistols, a spade and
rake to cultivate the garden, and a cucumber frame.
One of the dormer windows has EH 1723 and JH 1729 carved on it, these were Edward and John Hancock.
This John married, but there were no children, so the farm passed to George Freeman.
In 1764 George surrendered Lypiatt to the Lord of the Manor of Corsham, Paul Methuen.
The Tax Records of 1780 give John Milsom as the tenant of Great Lypiatt, and the Tythe map of 1839 shows
William Hulbert as owner of the farm, and John Hulbert as tenant. The Hulberts were already established as
farmers at Little Lypiatt farm, (situated almost opposite Great Lypiatt, in Rough Street), and had been there
since 1696; so for the first time, both farms were under the same family ownership.
In 1844 the Lypiatt estate was bought at auction for £6,000 by John Bird Fuller, and remains in the
ownership of the Fuller family today.
In the late 1890’s Morris Knapp came to Westwells Farm as a tenant farmer, and in 1902 the family moved
to Great Lypiatt farm at a rent of £170 per year, the Knapp’s also rented Moor Farm (now known as Overmoor
farm, and Longlands in 1935. Richard Roland Knapp took over the running of the farm in 1928, and his son
Geoffrey Richard Knapp (our plan’s chairman) took over in 1969, remaining there until his retirement in 1995.
The house is now let privately and the land split between two tenant farmers.

Our thanks to Geoff Knapp, R&B Harvey 1989, Wiltshire Farmhouses & Cottages 1500-1850 – P Slocombe.
[Source: http://www.corsham-civic-society.co.uk/Mar2005.pdf]