Potkins Mead is an historic meadow situated on the River Wriggle which is the parish boundary between Thornford and Bradford Abbas at the North-Western end of the Parish of Thornford. Two fields to the North East contain the remains of a roman villa and it's access road.
Potkins does not derive from the Anglo-Saxon, Early or Middle English. The Tudor Subsidy Roll for Thornford shows a John Potkins liable for tax. The Potkins family are recorded in the area from c.1560 through the 1600s.
At the end of the sixteenth century his descendant Ralph Potkins (sometimes recorded as Polkins) is listed in the Tudor Lay Subsidies.
Records survive of the will and inventory of Ralph Potkins 1581, and the will and inventory of another Ralph Potkins 1613. The last record is a bond and inventory of Senior Potkins 1637 and Edward Potkins Snr. After this period the name Potkins disappears from the records.
Potkins Mead was part of the Manor of Thornford, the "West Lease Lands", after the Dissolution they passed to the Horsey family of Clifton Maybank.
In 1834 Potkins Mead was owned by John Gooden of the Compton Estate.
The Thornford valuation list of 1854 records John Partridge as tenant of Potkins Mead, owned by John Gooden, 7 acres 1 rod 30 perches. Gross rent £11 16s 6d, rateable value £11 5s 0d.
In 1856 when Longford Bridge was constructed to replace the Long Ford and the railway line was constructed, opening in 1857, there was a slight alteration to the roadside boundary and the iron railings were installed. This is the only time the boundaries of Potkins Mead have been changed in it's history.
In 1928 Potkins Mead was offered for sale on the open market for the first time. Three parcels of Clifton Maybank estate land were sold, two others were absorbed into large farms, Potkins Mead was purchased by George Good of Bradford Abbas.
At auction in 1935, Potkins Mead was purchased by Master Thatcher Archibald Garrett, at the then expensive sum of £50 per acre. He cut hay there and bought steers to graze the land, moving them to the adjoining rental land of Coulter and Little Coulter when the River Wriggle started to rise. The steers were sold annually at Yetminster Fair.
Archie died in 1947, his son Simon Garrett inherited the field. With no member of the family to assist him he concentrated on thatching; the land was let to a variety of local landowners for hay crop and summer grazing.
After the death of Simon Garrett in June 1990 Potkins Mead passed to the current owner, Judy Nash.
We felt pressure on the fragile riverside land was showing and gave notice to the tenants with the land returning to our care in September 1990.
During 1991 we grazed a small herd of calves there.
In the autumn of 1992, we purchased 16 Jacob ewes that we bred into a larger flock. The sheep have improved the pasture and were closed managed.
At a 1997 meeting of the Thornhackett parish council, Chairman Alex Simpson said "I know of only two patches of land that are managed with wildlife in mind in the parish today". The largest of these was Potkins Mead and our adjoining Coulter [Kilter] Land and copse.