Before the land had a farmstead with fixed boundaries, it formed part of the wide tracts of open common and waste ground that stretched across Shipham and Winscombe. From the medieval period onwards, these rough pastures were likely shared by local tenants under manorial custom. Villagers held rights to graze their animals, gather fuel, and cut turf or bracken – resources essential for everyday survival. Farming at this time was a communal affair: strips of arable lay in open fields closer to the village, while Cuck Hill may have been used seasonally, much as upland commons were elsewhere.

This system endured for centuries, but by the late 18th century it was under increasing pressure. The demand for more productive farmland, combined with new agricultural practices, drove landowners and professional men alike to support enclosure – the legal process of dividing and selling off the commons. In 1797 the commons of Shipham and Winscombe were surveyed, and by 1798 the land at Longbottom had been marked out as Plot 126 - which demarcates the farm to this day. The following year, the Winscombe and Shipham Enclosure Award was confirmed, and the land – around 20 acres bounded by what became known as Long Bottom Road and Jacob’s Road – was sold to Edward Spencer, a local surgeon and apothecary, for £110.

This moment of enclosure represents the point at which Longbottom left behind its long communal past and began its life as a private holding. The stone walls that define its fields today follow the lines first fixed by the commissioners of the Award, offering a direct link back to the transformation of the Mendip landscape at the close of the 18th century.