Hodgecombe Farm was the home of Benjamin Pitcher
(born abt. 1775) and Sarah Rice
Hodgecombe Farm is set in the beautiful
Gloucestershire countryside with the River Severn visible in the
distance. The farm remained in the Pitcher family for most of the 19th
century, passing to eldest son, James, after Benjamin died and then to
James' wife, Ann.
Around the 1870's the old farmhouse
was totally dismantled and then rebuilt about 30 metres away on the
north side of the farm track, what is now the Cotswold Way (if you look
carefully in the clip just before you see the well, you'll see a walker
coming down the track and a dog running over the ground where the house
once stood).
At that time Hodgecombe stood on
meadowland known today as 'Springfield' - well named because the ground
springs which flow so profusely in the winters would have made the
floors of the old farmhouse continually wet and it is thought that
this was the reason for the relocation.
The extension was added in 1972 and the farm ceased
to be a working farm in the same year.
