The Naming of Porcupine House

The following article by Lawrence Biddle appears in the parish magazine in March 1983

Mr and Mrs Barrows have renamed the Gate House as Porcupine House, thus reverting to the name Porcupine by which the house was known 266 years ago and probably much earlier.

Abraham Harrison of Hall Place who died in 1717 by his Will gave to his son James “a house called Porcupine and 5 acres of land” and the use of the name is confirmed in 1750 when the Church Registers show that the Churchwardens assessed the owner of the Porcupine as liable to maintain 13 feet of the churchyard boundary.

The name was still in use when the Parish Tithe Map was prepared in 1840 but at some time between 1840 and 1870 it was renamed the Goats Head.  Thomas Farmer Baily was the owner of Hall Place at that time and the Goats Head was part of the Baily coat of arms.

In 1870 the licence was transferred to the building which is now the Fleur de Lis and it became a private house, first called Leigh Lodge and later the Gate House.  Now it has reverted to its historical name.