
It is hard to understand why this little plot of land has caused so much discussion over the years but it continues to this day. So much so that there is a sort of joke instruction that the Whitehead Plot should not be discussed at Parish Council Meetings.
The Whitehead family lived in Blenheim House and owned the small plot of land opposite.
Michael Herbert, Chair of Warborough Parish Council for many years said in 2017 that the Whitehead’s wanted at all costs to keep the ownership away from the ‘Nellie’s’ management.
When Mrs Whitehead left the village in around 1986, she offered the plot to the Warborough & Shillingford Society in memory of her late husband, on the understanding that it would be kept as an area where trees grew. The Society, mindful that they may not have any long-term existence, passed the offer to the Parish Council for continued safekeeping, along with an offer to pay all legal expenses and the cost of a memorial plaque. The Parish Council accepted these offers and the plot was transferred to the Council by Hedges of Wallingford.
It appears that no written instructions were ever received from the family at the time of the donation but over the years there have been lengthy interchanges, most verbal. With the land being legally handed over to the Parish Council, the question of why the Whitehead family were constantly consulted remains a mystery.
Papers from Basil Deed show that around 1987, Mr Allnutt, tenant landlord¹ of the Nag’s Head Pub (Nellie’s) made some changes to the boundary of the land in order to gain access and use the area as a place for outside table & chairs. These included reducing the height of a boundary wall and installing steps for access. He had also cut down a small yew tree, a chestnut sapling, fixing a table top to the stump of one and a birdbath to the other. He also fitted an electric light fitting to a tree and a string of lights along the front of the plot.
Mr Allnutt was requested to remove and make good all his changes in exchange for, with Mrs Whitehead’s agreement, a very small triangle of land (3x3x5 ft) which would enable him to let in more cars to the park behind.
In 1989 the Parish Council repaired the fences and the trees were professionally inspected and pruned. They also made plans to put fencing along the south and west sides of the plot, the low wall on the south side is the responsibility of the Nag’s Head.
The Memorial Plaque was placed when all work was finished.
The sketch of the plot below shows there was a hedge at the front of the plot but it was not considered to be surviving.

There are no records, unless in the minutes of the Parish Council to indicate when the hedge was replaced with the iron railings and gate.
An entry in the Society’s Newsletter 5 dated June 1993 says
Whitehead Plot & Telephone Plot
Members already know that the Society has undertaken to maintain these two pieces of ground. We have been able this year to tidy them up a little, and in due course the railings will be painted and the boundary fences repaired.
This commitment must have lapsed during the period the Society was not active.
In 2001 the Nag’s Head having ceased to be a pub was changed to sole residential use and the new owner, Mr Collins on several occasions approached the Parish Council with a view to buying the Whitehead Plot but residents and the living family of the Whiteheads opposed this and it remains in the ownership of the Parish Council.
In August 2015, The Parish Council agreed to contribute to the maintenance and pay an annual contribution of £25 to the maintenance fund with the organisation of volunteers and the finances being controlled by Sarah Martin. This arrangement was still in place in 2018 when the Parish Council reviewed all its land and property but has now ceased.
For some time, a rather charming cast iron seat stood in the plot but it rather suddenly ‘disappeared’. When asked the Parish Council had no recollection of it.
In 2024, when the Warborough & Shillingford Society were looking for a site to bring some Quaker Gravestones back to the village, the Parish Council agreed to them being placed at the plot.
Plans were raised by the W&S Society to refurbish the area and a grant request to the Parish Council was made, this is an on-going project.
¹Other letters indicate that the owner of the Nag’s Head was a Mr Collins who lived in Dorchester.
Collated by Lynda Raynor – 2025