It is curious that Payne’s Corner appears as a residential address in the census returns for 1861, 1881 and 1901, and yet there is no such address, either in modern-day Langport or Huish Episcopi. When it appears, it is listed after The Hill, which at least is a clue to its whereabouts.
The Langport tithe map of 1840 shows “Paine’s Corner” as a field owned by Vincent Stuckey, the banker, of Hill House. The following images are reproduced from their website, with the kind permission of the Somerset Historic Environment Record.
Paine’s Corner field looks to have a structure in it, but nothing that looks like a dwelling. Less than a year later the 1841 census records nothing in Paine’s Corner, but seven households in Bond’s Pool Lane.
An entry entitled Miscellaneous unrelated draft deeds, 1860-1870 (DD/DP/75/7) in the archive catalogue of Somerset Heritage Centre gives further evidence. The description of the items includes a reference to “7 cottages on the north west side of the lane from Hanging Chapel to Paynes Corner, Langport (1868)”. Over the years Paine’s Corner seems to have become Payne’s Corner.
This record suggests that the cottages referred to are in fact in Bond’s Pool. This is confirmed by a close comparison of the households recorded in successive censuses from 1841 to 1911, which makes it clear that Payne’s Corner has sometimes been used to refer to what is now known as Bond’s Pool.