Place names of Calne: Quarr Barton

Quarr Barton is a street that formed as a group of cottages, built around the 17th century, that became known as Quarr Barton as time went on. 5 and 6, Quarr Barton are Grade II listed and known to be from the 17th century, originally a house and then remodelled as 2 cottages late 18th century / early 19th century[1].


The six house development built c. 1993 by Orbit Housing Association and  known as "The Old Dairy" refers to the Atwell Dairy that operated in this location[a].

1840s Wiltshire Tithes map. Quarr Barton labelled by author.

It was known as Lambourns Lane in 1828, possibly for William Lambourn who owned two gardens and a house on the lane, prior to the current name of Quarr Barton[2], however the name may have been in use much earlier. A path exists at this location in a 1728 map, showing a strip of land that may read Lambourn's, but it is not clear. The path in this general area is seen on the 1773 map of Wiltshire by Andrews' and Dury. The street is clearly visible on the 1840s tithe map[3]:





Quarr and Barton are two seperate words that have been combined to create this street name, with Quarr relating to quarries and Barton relating to farming. Let's look at the words, and how they relate to Calne, in further detail:


Quarr
There have been plenty of quarries in and around Calne over time. Indeed, what is now Quarrydale Road (off the A3102), which leads to The Quarry, was detailed as a quarry on the 1886 OS map of Calne. There were also quarries beside London Road that were said to be the main sources of stone for building. Thomas Court sits upon land that was owned by Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, 5th Marquess of Lansdowne, and described as 'The Quarry' in the 1886 map, but by the time the revised map is published in 1899, this land is a mix of allotment gardens and the road known as Shelburne Road. Of course, we still have quarrying in Calne to this day, with Hills extracting sand at the site off Sandpit Road. A map showing Calne in 1828 shows that, part of London Road was known as The Quarr, prior to this, this part of London Road was called Quarry Street in the mid 18th century[4]. Additionally, just a few hundred metres to the north, in what is now St. Mary's school, a lime kiln (still visible) and a quarry existed in the 1800s, owned at a time by Dr Ogilvie before being aquired by Lord Lansdowne[5].

In addition to this, Quarr is a name that could refer to the Cistercian monks that founded St. Mary's Abbey at Quarr, Isle of Wight, in 1132. The original name for this abbey was "Abbey of our Lady of the Quarry" as it was built in the neighbourhood of an old stone quarry[6]. This order went on to found Stanley Abbey, which operated between 1151 and 1536 and ceased to exist due to the dissolution of the monasteries.

Barton
The word barton has its origins in two old English words: bere, for barley and tūn for an enclosed piece of land, homestead, or village. So, this could literally mean barley enclosure, or could relate to there being a homestead in the area.

Due to its origin, Barton evolved as a popular name for fields and then a name for some settlements. After this happened we begin to see Barton used as a surname, in what it known as a toponymic or location surname. So could this Barton relate to a person?

I have only been able to find records going back to the 1840s Tithe map, which records nobody of that name owning or occupying any land registered for tithes in Calne. I have found a Barton in 1873[7] called Herbert Barton, but I then found his father was from Bradford on Avon (perhaps a descendent from someone who worked on the medieval Barton Farm in that area?). I find it very unlikely that the Barton of Quarr Barton is named after a person, and at this point find it more likely to be named after a plot of land. ETA, I have looked at the 1332 tax records and found nobody with a Barton surname nor in the 1500s Calne Church Registers as reproduced in Marsh (see reference 8).

In the 1840s there were 6 plots of land that had 'barton' in their name. These included Pound Close Barton (number 255 on the tithe map), Elms Mead Barton (number 259), both of these were
owned by Thomas Poynder, and Cow Barton (1169) owned by Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice. There were also 47 instances of land being called homestead too.

Extracts from Calne Church Registers[8] also reveal that Barley itself was an important crop in the area (with a flat cake known at barley bats sometimes eaten instead of bread). Here are just two examples from the 1500s:
1542
782 litres of barley this year grown upon 2 acres of the church land which was sown for the church’s
use.
1551
Received profits of Church Ale with 328 litres of barley spent there the said feast.

5 and 6 Quarr Barton are C17 Grade II Listed.

While we may never know why this street is called Quarr Barton, it does seem to call back to two important forms of employment and economy in Calne's past - that of farming and that of quarrying for resources. The 'Quarr' part of the name clearly relates to quarrying, whether it originates from Quarr Abbey on the Isle of Wight thanks to the monks that settled nearby, or whether it relates to quarries at Calne itself, I will leave it up to the reader to decide.


I will close this post about this very interesting place name by saying, perhaps a tad romantically: It could simply be that those who originally built the cluster of cottages may have been workers at one of the nearby quarries and they were trying to make this place their home by naming the place: "Quarry homestead", or perhaps collectively and in unity: "Quarry village".

 

To discover more about the place names of Calne, buy the book:

References:
[1] 5 AND 6, QUARR BARTON, Calne - 1247350 | Historic England. 2018. 5 AND 6, QUARR BARTON, Calne - 1247350 | Historic England. [ONLINE] Available at: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1247350. [Accessed 19 December 2018].
[a] Planning application N.92.2273.F
[2] Calne: The town to c.1800 | British History Online. 2018. Calne: The town to c.1800 | British History Online. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/wilts/vol17/pp34-41. [Accessed 19 December 2018].
[3] Know Your Place. 2018. Know Your Place. [ONLINE] Available at: http://maps.bristol.gov.uk/kyp/?edition=wilts. [Accessed 19 December 2018].
[4] Calne: The town to c.1800 | British History Online. 2018. Calne: The town to c.1800 | British History Online. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/wilts/vol17/pp34-41?fbclid=IwAR0KrbLTMxZVYMnqZ6WJ8N-_KOoR2m_w2GQ3vTvYUVnUUWFm5pcvKwjdVLA#anchorn24. [Accessed 21 December 2018].
[5] Elizabeth Christie. 2018. 08. Lime Kiln. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.stmaryscalne.org/index.php/news/2014-15-archives/archives/from-the-archives/3614-08-lime-kiln. [Accessed 26 December 2018].
[6]Quarr Abbey - Wikipedia. 2018. Quarr Abbey - Wikipedia. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quarr_Abbey. [Accessed 19 December 2018].
[7]Calne, Wiltshire, England: BARTON One Name Study. 2018. Calne, Wiltshire, England: BARTON One Name Study. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.bartondatabase.com/placesearch.php?psearch=Calne%2C+Wiltshire%2C+England. [Accessed 20 December 2018]. 

[8]Marsh, A., 1903. A HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH AND TOWN OF CALNE. 1st ed. London: HAZELL, WATSON AND VINEY, LTD.