Catalogue description MOWLEM OF SWANAGE ARCHIVE

Deeds, leases, estate and other documents relating to manors and estates in Swanage

De Moulham Estate, Swanage, Dorset

The original manor of Moleham is mentioned in the Domesday Book and was held by the De Moulham family. The name of the house and all the fields are listed in a charter of 1448 (T/WLC/T166). There is a seventeenth century reference to the manor being near Godlingstone and it was later merged with the manor of Godlingstone.

The manor should not be confused with the De Moulham Estate which was developed by John Mowlem in the nineteenth century and is a mile to the south east of the medieval manor.

There appear to have been several manors in the parish of Swanage which it is sometimes difficult to identify and distinguish. The principal manor seems to have been called Carrant's Court. This manor passed to the Trustees of Ilminster Free School in 1609. This estate, including a tenement called Northbrook Farm, was sold by the Trustees of Ilminster School in three parcels in the years 1857-1858 and 1861 to John Mowlem, Esq., Other documents relate to the Manor of Eight Holes, which according to Hutchins' "History of Dorset" (3rd edition, 1861) is a corruption of "Eight Holds", the latter designation indicating the number of holdings into which it was anciently divided. It lies near the east end of Swanage; consisting of a narrow strip of land extending to the sea. As part of the larger manor of Winterborne Wast, it was given by Queen Elizabeth in 1585 to the Dean and Chapter of Exeter Cathedral, who in 1861 had leased it to the Taunton family. (Later it seems to have been sold to John Mowlem.?)