TOOTHILL FARM

A few notes about Toothill Farm by Francess Bevan

·         The word toot or tut indicates a look out or observational post.

·         Thomas Sutton, a 17^th century civil servant, founder of Charterhouse School, bought Whitehill, Mannington and Toothill Farms in 1605 to fund his new charitable venture. 

·         In 1616 Robert Cole 188 acres at Toothill. 

·         In 1841 Gloucestershire born farmer Edward Plummer was the tenant at Toothill.  By 1871 William James Large, a member of a Purton farming family had taken over the running of the 176 acres and in 1901 his brother Charles was still there.

·         The three farms remained in the ownership of the Charterhouse Trustees into the 20^th century.  In 1919 they were sold to Wiltshire Council Council and broken up into small holdings for the use of returning ex-servicemen following the end of World War I.

·         ‘A 300 acre site at Toot Hill south of the A420 Swindon to Wootton Bassett road will provide the homes in a new urban village,’ the Advertiser reported on Wednesday November 17, 1971.

·         Construction work began in 1975 and by 1978 some 2,500 people were living in Toothill where 800 homes had already been built.  Toothill was due for completion in 1981 along with the first phase of Freshbrook.