Merryfield, Ilton

Merryfield (alias Merrifield, Murefeld, Merefeld, Muryfield, Merifield, Wadham's Castle, etc.) is a historic estate in the parish of Ilton, near Ilminster in Somerset, England. It was the principal seat of the Wadham family, and was called by Prince (died 1723) their "noble moated seat of Meryfeild" (sic). The mansion house was demolished in 1618 by Sir John Wyndham (1558–1645), of Orchard Wyndham, a nephew and co-heir of Nicholas II Wadham (1531–1609), co-founder of Wadham College, Oxford, the last in the direct male line of the Wadham family. It bears no relation to the present large 19th-century grade II listed mansion known as Merryfield House, formerly the vicarage, immediately south of St Peter's Church, Ilton.

About 1 mile west-north-west of St Peter's Church, Ilton, the parish church of Ilton, situated on agricultural land south of RAF Merryfield aerodrome and between the disused railway line and the disused Chard Canal, is a moated site which is all that remains of the medieval fortified manor house of Merryfield (or Muryfield), which was the seat of the ancient Wadham family. The Wadham family originated at the manor of Wadham in the parish of Knowstone, in North Devon. Wadeham was a manor recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as held in-chief from King William the Conqueror by the Saxon thane Ulf, who had held it since before the Norman Conquest of 1066. Such continuing holdings by Saxons after the Conquest are very rare, and Ulf in 1086 is still described as one of "The King's Thanes", so clearly was serving the new Norman king satisfactorily. The Wadhams other Devon seat, in the South of the county, was Edge in the parish of Branscombe.

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