History pages
- History map and tour
- Lower Street Farm
- Methodist Chapel
- Reading Room
- The Church
- The Gables
- The Hall
- The Water Mill
- The Well
- The Yew Tree
- Village School
Quicklinks
Lower Street Farm
The Elizabethan farmhouse is the oldest property in the village. The deeds of the house date back to 1600. It has long been thought that the farm may have been a manor house with links to the Domesday Book, though this cannot be confirmed. The Domesday entry for Doveridge records:
In Doveridge Earl Edwin had 4c of land taxable, land for 6 ploughs. Now in Lordship 3 ploughs 30 villagers and 10 small holders who have 7 ploughs. A church, a priest, 1 mill, 48 acres, woodland pastures, 1 league long and 1/2 league wide.
Until very recently the mill was still standing so why not a farm or manor house. An interesting feature of the house is the entrance to an underground passage linking the farm to its neighbour, Old Hall Farm. Monks may have used such tunnels during the time of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I when the Catholic Church was under threat and, with other tunnels, formed a secret link between farm, church and Eaton Hall. Such a possibility has yet to be substantiated.
It is also said that the ghost of a monk was in the habit of visiting the cow shed on winter’s nights at precisely 9.00pm. It appeared in the doorway, carrying a scythe, floated through the cow shed and disappeared through the far wall. This too has not been substantiated.