Draycot Cerne

The parish of Draycot Cerne used to be separate from the parish of Sutton Benger, until it was added to Sutton Benger in 1934. The boundary line can still be seen as the hedgerow to the south of the main road, between Gate Farm and Lake Farm. There used to be two hamlets: Upper Draycot and Lower Draycot. The latter was north of the main road, and south of Draycot House, but was removed in the 1870s. As can be seen from the 1885 map, the village was still called Upper Draycot until the early 1900s, but it eventually adopted the parish name of Draycot Cerne.

There was originally a similar boundary line to the north of the road, as can be seen on the 1840 map; the old fields Number 48 (in Sutton Benger) and Number 107 (in Draycot Cerne) have now been merged to create one larger field, and the boundary hedgerow has disappeared.

Sutton Benger, as well as both Lower Draycot and Upper Draycot, was part of the Manor of Draycot from shortly after the Dissolution of the Monasteries at the time of Henry VIII. For 400 years, until the estate was sold at auction in 1920, nearly every house in both parishes was owned by the Lord of the Manor of Draycot, and nearly every resident worked for him in one way or another.