Battershall Close

Just over 400 years ago, George and Joan Battershall were living in what has long since been known as Battershall Farm, Elburton.
Married in 1591 at St Mary and All Saints, Plymstock, they set up home in the farmhouse, off what is now Arcadia Road.
There, between 1592 and 1617, they had 11 children, one of the youngest of which, Robert, appears to have carried on the farm after the death of his father in 1639.
In turn, his son, George, caried on farming there until his death in the 1740s. The farm passed through a number of families, the Hakes, the Rabbidges, the Harvey's and the Edwards.
Last worked as a farm in 1914, its size fluctuated greatly over the years
This century, many of the fields with it in the past have been developed for housing.
Battershall Close is some distance away, in Goosewell, although there is a connection with the farm in Elburton.
Richard Harvey, whose bachelor brother William farmed at Battershall's with a sister, worked Goosewell farm for a number of years.

EH 7 September 1999