Hammond's Farm stands about half a mile from Pirton, hidden behind a barrier of rose-trees and large yew shrubs and overshadowed by lofty elms. Although the house acknowledges to an existence of some three hundred years or more, it will be well to examine, first of all, the combined sites of this and the neighbouring Burge End Farm before treating of the building; for the whole shows clear traces of a surrounding moat, while on its northern edge is an inner moat with three fish-ponds enclosing a homestead site.

The most that can be said for this site is that it may be British. In the line of Washbrook Lane on the west side of the farms, Mr. Aylott sees the position of a line of early defences which were coeval with the burgh at Toot Hill. The name too, Burge End or Burgh End, clearly indicates that hereabouts were some outlying fortifications of the burgh. The reason for their existence so far from the main stronghold is not far to seek. The small stream which runs between the two farms rises at the Rectory Farm, whose moat it feeds, and was of such importance to the defenders of the burgh, being perhaps their only freshwater supply, that defences were raised in order to embrace and protect the headwaters of the stream. In those days it ran direct through these fields, and was not in any way diverted at both ends as it is now.

To Archbishop Stigand, who held the manor before the Conquest, may be attributed the great alteration which Burgh End underwent by the transformation of this site into one suitable for an ecclesiastical manor house, for there is every indication that such a building did exist here in those days. In order to attain the desired end, an outer moat was dug which enclosed as much as 18 acres of ground. Through the centre of this enclosure ran the brook which supplied the moat with water. At its south end it was, for some reason not at present apparent, diverted slightly. At its north end, about 20 yards before its outfall into the outer moat, it was divided into two branches to enclose a piece of ground roughly oblong in form, 130 feet by 78 feet, on which the manor house stood. One branch flowed round the east side of the house into the outer moat; while the other was diverted to feed the three fish-ponds on the south and west side of the house, and thence passed into the same moat. Thus as inner moat was formed around three sides of the house, the forth or northern side being protected from the open country by the outer moat alone. The outer moat ran from the north-east angle of the house, along the open ditch to a point some 210 feet distant eastwards, where it turned northwards along a line now marked by the hedgerow, for some 548 feet. It can be traced along the nearer side of the present hedge, its inner margin being marked by trees which stand at intervals of some 12 feet or so within the field. At its southern end it turned westwards, still along a hedgerow and ditch, for about 500 feet. One portion, just before it crossed the present yard of Hammond's Farm, is represented now by a long narrow pond. On the opposite side of the yard it continued roughly on the line of the southern edge of the large pond there, and at the rear of the farm-house and of the buildings standing nearest to the same, until it emerged into and crossed over to the opposite side of Washbrook Lane, to the point where the brook originally crossed under the road. Thence it trended north-westwards, its bed being now indicated by a pond and the lane itself. At the angle in the lane it turned north-east. The portion by the side of Burgh End Farm is now lost, and lay in the hedgerow between that farm and the lane. Beyond the farm it can be traced by a depression within the field close to the hedge, until it reached the intake of a pond at the north-west corner of the demesne, whence the pond itself and its continuation in a ditch clearly defines its course as far as the end of the most northerly of the three fish ponds. With this pond and a short length of the inner moat it enclosed a small piece of ground, triangular in shape, on which may have stood a gatehouse, although at the present day the island appears to have been of quite inadequate extent for a building of any size.

In the parish registers of Pirton are recorded the sixteenth and seventeenth century alliances of the Hammonds and many other local families of equal standing. The same names appear frequently in the Hammond family documents, which the great kindness of the late Mr. William Hanscombe of Shillington Bury has enabled me to examine. Of these families, the Hanscombes must be mentioned particularly in connexion with Hammond's Farm. They were of as ancient lineage as the Hammonds themselves. The same Chartulary of Ramsey Abbey quoted above records that Alan de Hanescombe held a virgate of land in Hanscombe End in Shillington, and was one of the jurymen for this survey of the abbey estates. Again, in 1312, a Richard de Hannescompe was wanted for a misdemeanor by the High Sheriff, and John de Taylour, the constable, with his fellow officials, were fined 6d. because they could not produce him.

The Hammond family became extinct late in the seventeenth century, when its last heiress, Ann, the daughter of John and Helena Hammond, in 1695 married James Hanscombe, who thus became the tenant of Hammond's Farm. His great-great-grandson, Mr. William Hanscombe still retains the tenancy, and also the right of nomination to Hammond's Almshouses.

At the house of Hammond's Farm there are many points of interest, both internally and externally. It is a structure of late Elizabethan date, half timber, with brick nogging, most probably erected by the benefactor, John Hammond. Apparently at the same time the adjacent Burge End, or Birdseye End Farm as an old plan of 1801 calls it, was carved out of the property, and its farm-house erected.

Before entering the house the fine chimney-stack, the upper part of which has recently been rebuilt and of which the original character has fortunately been preserved, is worth noticing. The hutch by the front door, with its grille of turned pillars, is another interesting feature. Within, on the ground-floor, the old open fire-place still remains in the present kitchen, fitted with the original pot-crane. Another pot-crane of the same character is to be seen at the Crown Inn at Shillington. The predominant interest of the house is centred in a room - or rather rooms, for it has since been divided by a partition - on the first floor above the kitchen, where there is a fine carved fire-place of early Jacobean design, carved with strapwork and figures in relief. The jambs on either side have a base carving of geometrical design, the upper part being filled with a scroll and leaf pattern four times repeated, and crowned with an egg and tongue moulding. Along the base of the overmantel run a series of five panels filled with a repeat strapwork pattern. Above are two large gadroon framed panels broken up by simple mouldings, and, alternating with these, three pilasters, with strapwork ornamental bases. On the bases of the pilasters rest pedestals with lions' heads holding in their mouths rings from which hang conventional bunches of leaves. Topping the pedestals rise half-length hermaphrodite figures, which carry on their heads baskets of fruit, and support therewith a plain cornice. Which extends the whole width of the overmantel. Over the cornice are two oblong panels, with three pilasters bearing representations of a creature with human head, dwarfed armless body, and goat's legs, perhaps intended for a satyr. The pattern the panels consists of a repeat of servants, with heads at both ends. Holding in their mouths a bearded human head, while under the arch of their bodies are birds likewise laden. The whole is crested with a billet moulding. Around the room extends oak panelling coeval with the fire-place, and surmounted by a cornice carved with the same repeat pattern of foliated scrolls, as appears on the jambs of the fire-place. On the door of another room may be noticed a pair of hammered-iron strapwork hinges and a catch of characteristic early Jacobean design.

Written by Mr. Herbert C. Andrews c. 1908