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Of the original Benedictine Priory, the Tithe Barn, the Dovecote, the
former farmhouse, (now known as the Old Priory), and the Priory Gardens,
(now called the Garden of Memory), still remain. It is not certain when
the Tithe Barn was built but, in M J A Beacham's book "West Country
Tithe Barns",
we are told that the tithes of the De Mohun estates passed to the priory
between 1090 and 1100.The Tithe Barn is referred to as being in existence
in 1498 in Maxwell Lyte's " History of Dunster ", although
on a 14th century map of Dunster, the priory buildings, the Dovecote
and a large building on the site of the present Tithe Barn are shown.
Dunster Tithe Barn
The tithe, or payment in kind, of 10% of the annual
produce in crops, livestock, orchards and gardens was an ancient custom
in the Christian west following the Mosaic Law and is referred to in
Deuteronomy:- "Set
aside a tithe - a tenth of all that your fields produce each year being
the tithe of all your crops and store it in your town". Tithes first
came to England with St Augustine (d. 604) and by the end of the 10th
century, tithe payments had become compulsory everywhere, and so, during
the next four or five centuries, tithe barns were constructed to store
the produce.
In the "Valor Ecclesiasticus" of 1535 the net annual income
of the Dunster Tithe Barn is recorded as being £37.4.8d (£37
23p), with £6.13s7d ( £6.68p ) being passed on to the priory
in Bath. This record of income must have been one of the last recorded
as, in 1539 when the monasteries were dissolved, the Benedictine monks
of Dunster were ejected having signed a Deed of Surrender along with
the Prior, the Sub Prior and the other monks of the mother house at Bath.
A plan, circa 1735, of the priory buildings, above, clearly shows the
Church, Dovecote, the Priory Gardens and the Tithe Barn which, at that
time, incorporated three straw houses and a cart house.
By the end of the 18th century, tithes in some areas were paid by composition.
Farmers would give their rector an agreed amount of land, or a straight
cash payment in perpetual lieu of tithe. This led eventually to the Tithe
Commutation Act 1836 which brought in a tithe rent charge based upon
the price of grain. Anomalies and problems arose, particularly in times
of depression and great inflation, until in 1996, the whole system finished,
and over 1000 years of tithe payments came to an end.
Dunster Tithe Barn
Today, the Church, Dovecote and Priory Gardens are under the ownership
and control of either the Church of England or the parish of Dunster,
whilst the Tithe Barn is owned by the Crown Estate Commissioners. Each
is well maintained and open to the public with the exception of the Tithe
Barn.
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