WESTBURY
The ancient parish of Westbury (fn. 1) was co-extensive
with the hundred. (fn. 2) It was roughly crescent-shaped,
stretching some seven miles from east to west, and
approximately four miles from north to south, and
included within its bounds were the later civil
parishes of Bratton, Dilton Marsh, Heywood, and
part of Chapmanslade. It remained a single parish,
with the town of Westbury roughly in the centre,
until the late 19th century, but a number of other
centres of settlement are early discernible, some of
which were as large as many rural parishes. In 1334
there were besides the town of Westbury eleven
vills or tithings liable for taxation. These were
Bratton, Melbourne, and Stoke in the east, Hawkeridge and Heywood in the north, Brook, Penleigh,
Bremeridge, Dilton Marsh, and Westbury Leigh
in the west and south, and Chapmanslade in the
extreme southwest corner. (fn. 3) Of these Melbourne
and Stoke became merged in Bratton; (fn. 4) Bremeridge was coupled with Dilton Marsh in 1377 and
has not been found to occur again as a separate
tithing; Brook continued to constitute a separate
area for the purposes of taxation until the 17th
century. Westbury Leigh was probably a suburb of
Westbury town from early times, but it retained
its separate identity as a fiscal and administrative
unit until the 19th century; Penleigh remained a
distinct hamlet or tithing until the end of the 17th
century when it was divided into Upper and Lower
Penleigh. By the 19th century, however, it probably
comprised little more than Penleigh House and
Farm and a few farm cottages. Bratton, Heywood,
Hawkeridge, and Chapmanslade survived as distinct centres of population. In the 14th century
both Dilton, which had a church and was a chapelry
of Westbury, (fn. 5) and Dilton Marsh were centres of
population for taxation purposes, but for some
centuries afterwards Dilton seems to have been more
important than Dilton Marsh. By the beginning of
the 19th century, however, Dilton was a mere
hamlet and Dilton Marsh the more populous
district with a thriving weaving industry. (fn. 6)
In the 16th century the town of Westbury was
divided for purposes of taxation into the tithing of
the precentor, or 'chantry', which lay around and
to the south of the church, and the town and the
borough of Westbury, which were not co-extensive. (fn. 7)
The borough of Westbury, it seems from later
evidence, was the part of the urban area in which
the burgage tenements lay. (fn. 8) The first evidence
found for the location of the burgages occurs in
1777 when there were 61 distributed among
10 manors or lesser estates, all part of the capital
manor of Westbury. These estates were Westbury
Arundell, Seymour, and Stourton, Heywood,
Hawkeridge, Brook with Mauduits, Westbury
Leversage, Leigh Priors, Leigh Marsh (Westbury
Leigh), and Bremeridge. (fn. 9) As is shown below, (fn. 10)
these estates were made up of lands scattered
throughout the ancient parish, and the burgages
must have been in those parts which were situated
in, or converged upon, the town. In 1835 it was
reported that the burgages lay in three separate
areas of the urban area, namely around the Market
Place, in the vicinity of Eden Vale, and at a place
called the Knoll, which lay between the southern
end of Church Street and the Warminster road. (fn. 11)
Outside the urban area a tithing of Bayly is
mentioned in the 16th century. This does not, so
far as is known, occur in the 17th century, but in
1645 Hawkeridge is divided into two parts:
'Bailief Hawkeridge' and 'Priorie Hawkeridge', and
Westbury Leigh is divided into 'the Bailief of
Leigh' and 'the Tithing of Leigh' which suggests
that the former tithing of Bayly may have been
formed out of parts of Hawkeridge and Westbury
Leigh. (fn. 12) In 1542 the tithing of Short Street,lying
between Dilton Marsh and Chapmanslade, was
coupled with Chapmanslade, and later, on one or
two occasions, appeared as a tithing on its own. (fn. 13)
The freehold book of 1736 possibly affords a very
rough indication of the importance of the various
areas of settlement at that date. The names of the
more substantial free-, lease- and copyholders were
collected for 12 places within the ancient parish.
Brook, Dilton, and Hawkeridge returned no
names. Heywood and Short Street returned one
each; Westbury Leigh and Penleigh 3; Chapmanslade and the tithing of Chantry 5; the borough of
Westbury 8, the 'Bailief of Leigh' 10, and Bratton
17. (fn. 14)
Figure 8:
Westbury Parish 1808
This map is based on the inclosure award map
In 1882 the area of the ancient parish was very
slightly increased when Hisomley Farm, previously
a detached part of Upton Scudamore, was trans
ferred to Westbury. (fn. 15) In 1894, however, the ancient
parish was split up with the formation of the three
separate civil parishes of Westbury, Bratton, and
Dilton Marsh. (fn. 16) Two years later the civil parish
of Heywood was created out of the northern part
of the civil parish of Westbury. (fn. 17) The civil parish of
Chapmanslade was created in 1934 when parts of
Dilton Marsh, Corsley, and Upton Scudamore
were taken to form it. (fn. 18) In 1899 the civil parish of
Westbury was constituted an urban district retaining
the same boundaries. (fn. 19) These were slightly enlarged
in 1909 by the addition of a part of the parish of
Heywood. (fn. 20) In 1951 the area of the urban district,
which is roughly square in shape, was 3,686 a. (fn. 21)
The town of Westbury lies in the centre of the
urban district on the strip of upper greensand,
which runs beneath the north-western escarpment
of Salisbury Plain, and divides the chalk uplands
in the south-east of the urban district from the
gault and Kimmeridge clay in the north-west. (fn. 22)
On the chalk uplands in the south-east a height of
over 700 ft. is reached, but beneath the escarpment
in the rest of the urban district the land nowhere
rises much above 250 ft. From its position beneath
Salisbury Plain the town has sometimes been called
Westbury-under-the-Plain. (fn. 23)
Biss Brook, which later becomes the River Biss,
forms the western boundary of the urban district.
To the east and south of the town, along the foot
of the steep chalk downs, there are numerous
springs and wells. A spring rising at Wellhead to
the south of the town runs westwards to join the
Biss Brook. Bitham Brook also rising from a spring
in the town runs northwards. (fn. 24) In the north-west
corner of the urban district, in the district called
the Ham, there is a chain of lakes and ponds
formed by the waterfilled iron-ore workings abandoned after the First World War. (fn. 25) The only woodland in the urban district lies at the foot of the
chalk downs to the south-east of the town.
The main road from Trowbridge to Warminster
runs from north to south through the centre of the
urban district. This forms the town's main street
passing through the Market Place, continuing as
Maristow Street, and Edward Street, and leaving
as the Warminster Road. A secondary road running
from West Lavington under the escarpment of
Salisbury Plain passes through Bratton and joins
the main Trowbridge-Warminster road in the town.
Another secondary road leaves the main road in a
westerly direction at the southern end of the town.
The roads to Westbury from Trowbridge and from
Market Lavington were turnpiked in 1758, as was
a road now (1960) a mere track, which led over
Westbury Hill via Bowls Barrow to Chitterne. (fn. 26)
The road leaving the town for Warminster was
turnpiked in 1769. (fn. 27) A toll-house at Chalford on
this road survived in 1960.
The railway station lies at the Ham in the northwest of the urban district, nearly a mile from the
centre of the town. It was opened in 1848 when the
line was brought to Westbury through Trowbridge
from Thingley on the main line from London to
Bristol. (fn. 28) The line running westwards from the
the station towards Frome was opened in 1850 as
the first stretch of the line from Westbury to
Weymouth. (fn. 29) The first part of the line running
south from the station through Warminster to
Salisbury was opened the following year. (fn. 30) In 1900
the line running eastwards to join the main line
from London to Bristol at Patney and Chirton was
opened and later became part of the main route from
London to Taunton and the west of England. (fn. 31)
There are also two loop-lines by-passing the
station: the first made in 1933 for trains on the
route from London to the west of England; (fn. 32) the
second made in 1942 for trains travelling between
Trowbridge and Reading. (fn. 33)
The town of Westbury is nearly a mile to the
south-east of the site of a Romano-British settlement at the Ham. (fn. 34) The oldest part of the present
town lies in and around the roughly triangularshaped
area formed by West End (formerly Cheap Street),
Edward Street, Bratton Road, and Alfred (formerly
Duck) Street. Within this area lies the Market Place,
the church, Angel and Bitham Mills, and, until the
late 19th century, a considerable part of the southern end of it was occupied by Church or Parsonage Farm. (fn. 35) Most of the houses in this area
appear to be of 18th- or early 19th-century date,
but in many cases re-fronting done in those centuries must obscure earlier buildings of stone or
timber-framing. Interspersed with these, and sometimes lining such streets as West End, Edward,
and Fore Streets, are many rows of workers'
cottages dating from the 18th and early 19th
centuries. Many of the 19th-century houses are
roofed with pantiles, probably made locally.
The Market Place, in which no markets have
been held since the middle of the 19th century, (fn. 36)
lies in the north-west corner of the area. Many of
the houses flanking it were converted into shops
in the 19th century. The 'Lopes Arms' on the east
side is an apparently 18th-century building.
Between c. 1754 and 1809 it was the 'Lord Abingdon Arms', and it may stand on the site of an inn
called 'St. George and the Dragon' in the 16th
century. (fn. 37) The 'Crown' and the 'White Hart' on
the west side of the Market Place are 18th-century
buildings, but probably have not such long histories as inns. The Market Hall on the east side
was presented to the town by Sir Manesseh Massey
Lopes in 1815. (fn. 38) It is built of Bath stone and has
a colonnaded ground floor of 3 bays. The upper
floor also has 3 bays and in the central one is an
arched panel with a clock face. Above this is a
pediment with the Lopes arms carved in stone in the
tympanum. It was used for a time as a Town Hall,
and as long as county courts were held in Westbury,
they sat here, (fn. 39) but in 1960 the upper part was used
only for a branch of the County Library. At the
southwest corner, where Maristow Street leaves the
Market Place, stands the Manor House, occupied
occasionally by Sir Manesseh Lopes after he
acquired the manor in 1810. (fn. 40) It is a late Georgian
house with two stories and attics. Over the frontdoor is a semi-circular stone porch supported by
two Tuscan columns. To the left of this a shopwindow has been inserted. Between the Manor
House and the church there is a terrace of doublefronted houses of about the same date set behind
front gardens.
There are two other medium-sized residential
houses in the neighbourhood of the Market Place
which are comparatively unaltered. Bank House,
called for a time in the 1940's Marlborough House,
in West End, facing into the Market Place, is an
early-18th-century brick building of 5 bays with
stone dressings, a moulded eaves-cornice, and a
steeply pitched hipped roof. Above the central
doorway is a shell hood on foliated brackets and
internally there is a contemporary staircase. In
1960 it was the bank house of a branch of Barclays
Bank. The other house of some size lies in Alfred
Street as it leads eastwards out of the Market
Place. At the end of the 19th century it was called
Ferndale, and is thought locally to have been once
the rectory house. (fn. 41) It is a stone house, perhaps of
17th-century date. Its two-storied brick front,
however, is of the mid-18th century with stone
Venetian windows and Gothic glazing-bars. It
stands in fairly extensive grounds for a town house.
The church of All Saints lies south of the Market
Place. The churchyard is inclosed by brick walls
and by some cottages of 18th- and early 19thcentury date, which face the church, and by contrast give it height. The tithing of Chantry lay to
the south and east of the church. Through it,
running south from the church, winds Church
Street, a narrow street, with three even narrower
ways or footpaths leading off its east side. At the
north end of the street there is a tall early-19thcentury brick house, with an older rear wing facing
the churchyard. This has a stone gable-end containing a two-light medieval window, and the firstfloor room has an arch-braced collar-beam roof,
probably also of late medieval date. This may
possibly represent part of a house once used by the
Precentors of Salisbury who held the rectory and
exercised peculiar jurisdiction in the parish. (fn. 42) In
the southern part of the tithing of Chantry, within
the area inclosed by Church and Edward Streets,
Bratton Road, and the footpath called Chantry
Lane, was Church or Parsonage Farm. The farmhouse and buildings are shown on a map of 1899. (fn. 43)
Fields, called Chantry Lease, belonging to the farm
lay some two miles away, north of the lower road
to Bratton, a mere track in 1960. (fn. 44) Shortly after 1870
the farm ceased to be worked as such, and much
of the site was used for allotments. (fn. 45) In 1960 some
of the land was being built over, but some of it was
still open and was used for a builder's yard and as
allotments. Two houses with modernized frontages
on the east side of Church Street, called Little
Chantry, were formerly part of the farm buildings.
On the same side of the street and at its southern
end are two medium-sized 18th-century houses,
both with some features of distinction.
Opposite the site of the former Chantry Farm,
and in the angle formed by the junction of Church
and Edward Streets, lies the Angel Cloth Mill.
Bitham Cloth Mill lies to the north-east and abuts
on to Bitham Lane and Alfred Street. (fn. 46)
There are a number of 18th-century houses along
Maristow and Edward Streets, and the beginning
of the Warminster road. Some are medium-sized
town residences, and have been little altered, but
many of the smaller houses have been converted
into shops. Westbury House, in Edward Street, is
a red-brick house built in the early 19th century
with later additions. In the 19th century it was the
home of the Laverton family until 1888 when
William Henry Laverton bought Leighton House. (fn. 47)
In 1960 an extension on the north side of the house
was used by C. Rickards, Ltd., Umbrella Manufacturers. (fn. 48) Fontainville House, once the home of the
Jefferies family, stood in a large garden nearly
opposite Westbury House and was of approximately the same date. It was built of Bath stone, and
had some distinguished architectural features,
including a Doric porch and a balcony above with
wrought-iron rails of lattice pattern. In 1959, however, the house was a ruin, and in 1961 it was pulled
down to make way for a new shopping precinct.
Number 24 Warminster Road is an early-19thcentury stone house now partly converted into a
shop. It has a three-storied ashlar front and its 5 bays
are divided by pilasters with incised line ornament.
The Greek revival influence is evident in the honeysuckle ornament and the acroteria of its top story.
In Bratton Road, near the junction with Warminster Road, there is a two-storied building with
timber-framed upper part of different dates. This
was formerly called Bere's Well, and a spring rising
beneath it is carried under Bratton Road and by
underground conduit down Church Street. (fn. 49)
Besides the small group of 18th-century houses
at the beginning of Warminster Road there are a
few further south, but a map of 1773 shows that at
that time the town extended no further south than
the junction with Leigh Road, formerly Lower
Road. (fn. 50) This point was, indeed, called 'Townend'. (fn. 51)
Between this point and the hamlet of Chalford
there is a medium-sized late-18th-century house
built of brick surrounded by a large garden. This
was formerly called Hill Tyning (fn. 52) and since the
Second World War has been the Cedars Country
Club Hotel. Beyond this, standing in its park, is
Leighton House built in 1800. (fn. 53) In the 18th century the park was divided into two parts by the
road which turns west off the main Westbury-Warminster Road, called in 1960 Laverton Road. In the
part lying south of Laverton Road was Leigh
House which was abandoned after Leighton House
was built in the northern part of the park. At the
junction of the two roads is the hamlet of Chalford.
Parallel with Warminster Road, and about ¼ mile
to the west, is the district known as Eden Vale.
There are a few 18th-century houses here, and the
Westbury Union Workhouse was established here
in the early 19th century. An earlier workhouse,
built at the end of the 18th century, is probably
represented by the front range of the present
building which has alterations and additions of c.
1835. (fn. 54) In 1960 the workhouse was used as the
offices and yard of T. Holdoway & Sons, Builders.
The Indigo Factory, or Dye House, was built in
this district in the early 19th century, and throughout that century there were considerable brick
works here, which are now abandoned. The map
of 1773 also shows some building at the beginning
of the road leading off the Bratton road and over
the downs towards Chitterne. (fn. 55) Even at that date
the district was called New Town, and may have
been designed as a new housing scheme to meet
the needs of the prosperous 18th-century town.
A few 18th-century cottages remain on the south
side of the road, but there is nothing to show that
the site was ever further developed.
Several of the town's public buildings bear witness to the revival of the cloth industry and the
position of the Laverton family in Westbury in
the later 19th century. The Laverton Institute,
built by Abraham Laverton, is a red-brick building
in Gothic revival style in Bratton Road opened in
1873. It was originally used for recreational and
cultural activities, and for a time housed a British
School for boys, but since 1899 it has been the
offices of the Urban District Council. (fn. 56) Abraham
Laverton also laid out Prospect Square on the
south side of Bratton Road. This comprises 39
houses, of which seven are almshouses, built of
brick and stone round three sides of an open space
used as allotment gardens. (fn. 57) William Henry Laverton built the public baths in Church Street in 1887,
and the Technical School of Science and Art in
the same street in 1897. (fn. 58)
In the 20th century there has been a certain
amount of building on the east side of the town
where the upper greensand gives way to the chalk.
Small detached houses and bungalows have been
built along the Butts and Bratton Road, and around
New Town. Much of the town's expansion, however, has been westwards towards the station and
along Eden Vale and Leigh Road to the west of the
Warminster road. In addition to the railway workshops, several of Westbury's industries are situated
in the region of the station. (fn. 59) The Avenue, and the
Crescent, the council's housing estates built
between the two World Wars, and the Old Field
Park council housing estate, built after the Second
World War, all lie on the west of the town. (fn. 60)
Westbury Leigh lies within the urban district of
Westbury about a mile from the centre of the town.
Like Westbury, it is situated on the upper greensand strip at the foot of Salisbury Plain. (fn. 61) The
houses are built close to the road and extend along
it for about ½ mile. They include several dating
from the 18th century. At the north-east end of the
street no. 18 has a red-brick front with stone
dressings which apparently dates from the earlier
18th century, but has Victorian alterations. It is
of 2 stories and 5 bays and has round-headed
windows to the first floor. Above the central
doorway is a scrolled pediment. The gloving
factory of Messrs. Boulton Bros. is at the same end
of the village, standing back from the road, and
occupying as part of its premises the mill called
Balls Mill in the later 19th century. (fn. 62) Westwards
along the street, on its south side, the malthouse
of Messrs. Samuel Thompson & Sons is an early19th-century building, probably on the site of a
considerably older malthouse. (fn. 63) The church was
built on the north side of the street in the late 19th
century. Three blocks of council houses have been
built on the same side of the street since the Second
World War. The nearby 'Phipps Arms' dates from
the early 19th century. Just north of the road, and
not far from the track leading across the fields from
Westbury to Penleigh House, (fn. 64) is a moated site,
traditionally called Palace Garden.
Dilton, locally called Old Dilton, lies about
¾ mile south-west of Westbury Leigh on the
boundary between Westbury Urban District and
the parish of Dilton Marsh. It is a mere hamlet
consisting of the church of St. Mary, Dilton Farm,
and a few cottages situated in, and on the sides of,
the valley of the Biss Brook, which is here quite
steep. A minor road running between the secondary
road from Westbury to Chapmanslade and the
main road from Westbury to Warminster winds
through the hamlet.
The civil parish of BRATTON was created in 1894
out of the eastern part of the ancient parish of
Westbury. (fn. 65) It comprises 3,695 a. (fn. 66) and is the long,
narrow shape, typical of the 'springline parish'. (fn. 67)
About "2/3 of the parish lies on the chalk downs of
Salisbury Plain, which rise steeply south of the
village to over 750 ft. near the Iron Age camp at
Bratton Castle. Until the end of the 19th century
there were three or four substantial farms on the
slopes of the Plain, but in 1960 much of this area
belonged to the War Department. The northern
end of the parish is clay-land and low-lying. The
village of Bratton is situated in the extreme east
of the parish at a height of about 300 ft. on the strip
of upper greensand dividing chalk and clay. (fn. 68) A
small stream, called the Milbourne in the Middle
Ages, and locally sometimes called the Bratt, (fn. 69)
forms part of the eastern boundary of the parish
and on this were a number of mills. (fn. 70) Church
Spring, rising just south of the church, flows round
it on the west side and down to join the larger
stream. The only woodlands in the parish are the
clumps of beech trees scattered here and there on
the downs, but the thick hedges on high banks, and
the numerous small ochards in and around the
village create a well-wooded effect. (fn. 71)
The secondary road from West Lavington to
Westbury runs through the parish at the foot of the
downs. For its course through the village it is called
Melbourne Street. This is joined at the western end
of the village by a secondary road from Steeple
Ashton in the north, and a former toll-house stands
at the junction of the two roads. A minor road
turns west off this road from Steeple Ashton and
runs across the parish to Heywood. A road from
the village of Bratton running south-westwards
over the top of the downs to join a road from Westbury to Chitterne was turnpiked between 1751 and
1775. (fn. 72) In 1960 this was a mere track, as was the
road running from Bratton to Westbury just north
of the present secondary road, and known as Westbury Lower Road. The railway line from Westbury
to Patney and Chirton passes through the northern
part of the parish. The station of Edington and
Bratton lies in the parish of Edington, but was
closed to passengers in 1952. (fn. 73)
The village lies roughly round an incomplete
circle of roads and along Melbourne Street, which
runs through the middle. On either side of this
street there was originally space for orchards and
allotments, but in the 20th century this has been
encroached upon by private building and a council
estate built c. 1922. More recent building has
extended the village westwards, and here there is
another council estate built in 1948–9. The church
lies ¼ mile to the south of the centre of the village
on the steep slopes of the downs. (fn. 74)
In the early 19th century Bratton was still said
to be made up of the three tithings of Stoke, Melbourne, and Bratton, (fn. 75) which existed in the 14th
century and probably much earlier. (fn. 76) There was
also another tithing, or estate, called Headinghill. (fn. 77)
The first mention found of this is in 1166 and in the
13th and 14th centuries it emerges as an important
member of the manor of Westbury. (fn. 78) It is mentioned
with other lands in Bratton in a 16th-century suit, (fn. 79)
and was assessed under Bratton for land tax in the
18th century, (fn. 80) and for church rates in the 17th
and 18th centuries. (fn. 81) It has not, however, been
precisely located. In 1960 the three separate settlements of Stoke, Melbourne, and Bratton were
still distinguishable. Stoke, or Little Stoke, lay
around the church, (fn. 82) so that the church probably
once lay in the centre of a village, or hamlet, not,
as now, on the fringe. Melbourne lay along the
stream as it flows from the point called Stradbrook,
and along Melbourne Street. Bratton is thought to
have been the district around the Court House (fn. 83)
which stands at the junction of Lower Road and
Court Lane. This ho e was probably once the
court house of the manor of Bratton which descended to the Marquesses of Bath. It formed part
of Lord Bath's estate in 1840. (fn. 84) Just north of the
Court House there are traces in a field of a moated
site, probably of medieval date, thought locally to
have been the site of the manor house of the same
manor. (fn. 85) Traces of a moat are also to be seen at
Dunge Farm, an 18th-century farm house about a
mile to the north-west of the Court House.
The Court House is a timber-framed building
with a thatched roof, standing on a stone base.
Infilling between the timbers is of wattle and daub,
partly replaced by brick. The structure is of several
periods and its evolution is difficult to trace. It
consists of a principal range parallel to the road with
a cross wing at its north end; there are comparatively modern additions at the rear and at one time the
building was divided into several cottages. A single
cruck blade in a cross wall, near the centre of the
principal range indicates that this part of the house
was originally a single-storied structure of medieval
date. The cross wing, which has close studding
and a jettied first floor at the gable end, may be an
early 16th-century addition. The principal or 'hall'
block was later remodelled and raised to two stories,
probably in 1626, a date which is carved on a bracket
supporting the ceiling in the present central room.
Moulded and carved fireplaces here and in the
room above appear to be of the same period. The
present front door, immediately south of the central room, has a lintel dated 1656. It is approached
by a contemporary timber porch with turned
balusters and the whole south end of the range
may have been built, or rebuilt, at this time.
Bratton contains a high proportion of old houses
of many periods, showing the use of a wide variety
of building materials. In addition to the Court
House, timber-framed examples include Ivy Cottage, Yew Tree Farm, and a derelict cottage (all
in Lower Road), Court Lane Farm, and several
houses at the south-east corner of the village. Most
of these appear to date from the 16th and early
17th centuries; in some cases their thatched roofs
have been replaced by slate. On the south side of
Melbourne Street one of the few stone houses
in the village has a thatched roof and a door lintel
dated 1621; the adjoining cottage was formerly
timber-framed. The village also contains a notable
number of small farm houses and medium-sized
dwelling houses of the later 17th and 18th centuries.
These are built of brick with stone dressings and
several have considerable architectural character.
The Manor House, partly of the 17th century, is
an example. (fn. 86) Rosenhime Farm has a symmetrical
front, a central gabled porch, and stone mullioned
windows with drip moulds; its thatched roof
was raised and tiled in 1962. The Poplars in
Court Lane and Fir Tree Cottage in Lower Road
date from the early 18th century and have twolight stone mullioned windows without drip
moulds. (fn. 87) Ivydene in Lower Road is a much altered
house of the same period. The older part of Grange
Farm is dated 1739 and Scotts Farm is a somewhat similar house with a stone-slated roof. (fn. 88) A tall
thatched house to the north of the Court House
with a symmetrical brick front was formerly
timber-framed; the brick alterations and additions
date from the 18th century. Ballards, next to
Scotts Farm, is a later 18th-century example with
19th-century additions.
There are also some larger 18th-century houses
of which the most important is Bratton House in
Melbourne Street, home of the Ballard family
until the 19th century. (fn. 89) Melbourne House in
Melbourne Street, built of red brick with stone
dressings, has a two-storied front and a hipped roof
of stone slates with dormer windows. The central
doorway is surmounted by a stone hood on moulded
brackets and above it is a pedimented window.
Flanking these are three-light windows with raised
central lights. The initials 'WW' and date '1768' are
inscribed on a chimney stack and the same date
appears on the wall enclosing the forecourt. Yew
Trees in Lower Road consists of two distinct parts,
each with a symmetrical 18th-century brick front.
Between 1718 and c. 1789 members of the Whitaker
family conducted a boarding school for boys in
the house, and it was here, under the leadership of
the Whitakers, that the early meetings of the Baptists
were held before their chapel was built. (fn. 90) The
school continued for many years after the retirement of the Whitakers. It is probable that the
western part of the house, which contains a single
large room on the ground floor, was built as an
extension to the school in the middle of the 18th
century. Unusual angle buttresses at the west end
may have been added for structural reasons. The
eastern part of the house, with an extension to the
rear, is probably the original building and may date
from the 17th century. A fire is said to have destroyed much of it in 1790 (fn. 91) and the present brick
front, which has a fluted stone frieze to the parapet
and a decorative fanlight above the doorway,
appears to have been rebuilt at this period. The
sash windows are set within the frames of wider
windows, and these may have belonged to the
original house. Behind the building is an avenue
of ancient yews.
The presence of the foundry of Messrs. J. and R.
Reeves (fn. 92) on the west side of the village caused
Bratton to receive certain services earlier than
many other rural villages. A telegraph service was
introduced in 1892, gas in 1904, and the telephone
in 1907. A street lighting scheme by oil
lamps was first put into operation in 1902.
This was adapted to gas in 1904 and to electricity
in 1945. (fn. 93)
On the steep western slope of Bratton Down,
just within the parish and at a height of about
600 ft., the so-called Westbury White Horse is cut
out of the chalk (length 166 ft. height 163 ft.). A
tradition, which apparently goes no farther back
than the 18th century, has it that a horse was
carved here to commemorate Alfred's victory over
the Danes at Ethandun in 878. There is, however, no
evidence for the existence of a horse here before
the early 18th century. An engraving of the horse
as it was in 1772 exists in Gough's edition of
Camden's Britannia showing it to be quite different
from the present horse, and certainly suggestive of
a Saxon, or more primitive, origin. (fn. 94) In 1778 the
horse depicted by Gough was destroyed and remodelled by a Mr. Gee, steward to Lord Abingdon,
this time facing left instead of right. (fn. 95) In 1873 a
local committee appointed to supervise its restoration directed that an edging of upright stones
should be made to prevent the horse from losing
its shape. This work cost between £60 and £70.
The outline of the present horse thus dates from
1873. Minor improvements were made in 1903 and
1936, and a number of scourings have taken place
during the past 50 years. In 1936 the scouring was
done under the auspices of the Office of Works.
In 1953 the chalk was excavated from the tail and
that area was covered with a mixture of cement. (fn. 96)
In 1957 the whole surface of the horse was excavated to a depth of about 1 ft. and then recovered
with a special mixture of cement with a chalk base.
This work took about three months to complete and
cost some £4,000. (fn. 97)
The civil parish of DILTON MARSH was created
in 1894 out of the western part of the ancient parish
of Westbury. (fn. 98) It lies, therefore, in the extreme
west of the county, and its western boundary is
the county boundary between Wiltshire and
Somerset. (fn. 99) Until 1934 the parish extended southwestwards to include the houses on the north side
of the village street at Chapmanslade, but in that
year Chapmanslade became a civil parish and the
south-west corner of Dilton Marsh was transferred
to it (fn. 1) .
The parish of Dilton Marsh comprises 2,507 a. (fn. 2)
and is roughly square in shape with a projecting
tongue of land in the north-east corner. It is low
lying and nowhere reaches a height of over 250 ft.
The soil of the north and west is clay, but the southeastern part of the parish lies mostly on the upper
greensand, and the extreme south-east corner
touches upon the chalk of Salisbury Plain. (fn. 3) The
southern part of the parish is well wooded. Much
of it is occupied by the park of Chalcot House. (fn. 4)
Black Dog Woods, once part of the forest of Selwood, which begin in Berkeley (Som.) and run
through Chapmanslade, extend for over ½ mile into
the south-western corner of the parish. There is
also some woodland on the western boundary
near Standerwick (Som.). The Biss Brook forms the
eastern boundary of the parish, and a stream named
the 'Alleburne' enters the parish in the north and
runs through the Fairwood estate.
The main railway line from London to the west
of England runs across the parish from east to
west, and the line between Westbury and Warminster, opened in 1851, (fn. 5) runs southwards for
about two miles just within the eastern boundary
of the parish. There is a halt for Dilton Marsh on
this line at the extreme east end of the village.
No main roads run through the parish, but the
main road between Bath and Warminster forms
its south-western boundary for about a mile. The
secondary road from Westbury enters the parish
at a point called Penknap. Here it forks and the
northern branch crosses the parish and leads to the
main Bath-Warminster road, while the southern
branch leads to Chapmanslade and Frome (Som.).
Just beyond Penknap a road leads north towards
Penleigh and leaves the parish near Fairwood
House.
The village of Dilton Marsh lies along the
northern branch of the secondary road from Westbury, which forms the village street, and along two
smaller roads leading off either side of it. The
church, built in the 19th century, stands on the
south side of the street, approximately in the middle
of the village. There is little evidence of any building before the late 18th century. The houses on
both sides of the street are spread out, and many
stand in fair-sized gardens well back from the
road. These houses are mostly cottages, often in
blocks of two or more, and many of them were
clearly built for the hand-loom weavers who, in the
early 19th century, worked in their homes for the
clothiers of Westbury and Warminster. (fn. 6) At the
time of the Inclosure Award some of these craftsmen were allotted small parcels of land in front of
their houses forming the verge of the road. Many
of the houses are of brick, but others are of stone
rubble with red-brick dressings, and in some instances the front walls only are of brick. One unit
on the north side of the road, opposite the church,
consists of a terrace of 4 two-storied weavers'
cottages with a three-storied, double-fronted
master's house at one end. (fn. 7) Behind the master's
house is a two-storied workshop with wide windows
to each floor. These buildings, which probably date
from c. 1830, have front walls of red brick and are
of rubble behind. Along the narrow road branching
south from the village street the cottages are closepacked and at all angles to the road.
There is a brick and tile works on the east side
of the parish just north of the Dilton Marsh halt,
and north of this a line of disused iron quarries
stretches for about a mile. (fn. 8) On this side of the parish
there are several rows of red-brick houses of late19th-, and early-20th-century date, very probably
built for workers at the nearby Leigh Works, the
leather works of Charles Case & Son. These works
occupy the former cloth mill called Boyer's Mill (fn. 9)
standing beside the Biss Brook, which forms the
boundary between Dilton Marsh and Westbury
Leigh. Boyer's House, a large, early-19th-century
building, stands in fairly extensive grounds on the
Westbury Leigh side of the stream. On the west
side of the same stream, and thus in Dilton Marsh,
although in fact situated at the west end of the
village street of Westbury Leigh, is Bridge Farm,
formerly the Apple Tree Inn. This is an L-shaped
building, originally timber-framed, and of 16th- or
early-17th-century date. The front facing the street
dates from the late 18th century. It is of stone ashlar
with pediments to the first-floor windows, a central
carved panel below the parapet, and a doorway
with an enriched frieze.
At the west end of Dilton Marsh village there is
a small council housing estate built since the Second
World War. In the 19th century this end of the
village was called Dilton's Lower Marsh. (fn. 10) From
a point in this neighbourhood called Redpit a
smaller road branches off the secondary road and
forms a loop joining the larger road again about
½ mile west of Dilton Marsh village. The houses
along this loop-road form the hamlet of Stormore,
called Stormore Common, or St. Maur Common
or Green in the 19th century, (fn. 11) and thus presumably part of the former manor of Westbury Seymour, or St. Maur. (fn. 12) Many weavers lived at
Stormore in the early 19th century (fn. 13) and here, as
at Dilton Marsh, some of the cottages still bear
traces, often on the back elevations, of the wide
windows beneath which the hand-looms stood.
Chalcot Park is the largest estate in the parish.
In its finely landscaped park there is the site of a
Romano-British settlement from which much
pottery has been excavated. There are also several
other large farms and houses in the parish. On the
Biss Brook, about two miles north of Penknap, are
Penleigh House and Farm, standing on either side
of a private road leading through fields to Westbury. (fn. 14) North of Penleigh House, also on the Biss,
are Brook Farm and Mill. (fn. 15) The farm can be
approached either from the east by a road from
the Ham in Westbury, or from the west by a
private road called Brook Drove. On the western
boundary of the parish is Fairwood House, a
mainly 19th-century house, standing in a large
park. Two farms, both called Fairwood, lie to the
south-east and south-west of the park. At the
western end of the Fairwood estate is an area
known as Stourton Bushes, presumably named
after the Lords Stourton who had a manor in Westbury in the 15th and 16th centuries. (fn. 16) South from
Stourton Bushes is Five Lords' Farm. According
to Hoare, the boundaries of the five manors of
Westbury Stourton, Arundell, and Seymour, Leigh
Priors, and Bremeridge met at this point. (fn. 17) Several
of their boundary stones are said to have stood until
the time of inclosure in 1808. (fn. 18) Bremeridge Farm,
which gave its name to one of the Westbury manors,
lies in an isolated position about two miles north of
the village of Dilton Marsh. (fn. 19)
HEYWOOD lay in the north of the ancient parish
of Westbury and when in 1894 the ancient parish
was split up into the three civil parishes of Westbury, Bratton, and Dilton Marsh, Heywood was
included in the new parish of Westbury. In 1896,
however, Heywood, with an area of 1,701 a., was
created a separate civil parish. In 1909 87 a. in the
south-west corner of the parish were returned to
Westbury, (fn. 20) so that in 1951 the area of Heywood
was 1, 614 a. (fn. 21)
The parish is roughly oblong in shape. (fn. 22) It is
situated in the clay region of mid-west Wiltshire (fn. 23)
and is consequently low-lying. Only in the extreme
north-east corner does the land rise to 300 ft., and
for the most part it does not lie above 175 ft. The
Biss Brook forms the western boundary of the
parish. A stream rising at Brittle Springs at the
foot of Salisbury Plain enters the parish on the
east, near Fulling Bridge Farm, a late-18th- or
early-19th-century farmhouse, and runs past
Heywood House where it is dammed to form a
lake. The bridge carrying the main road over this
stream was repairable by the county between 1852
and 1855. (fn. 24) The stream is joined just beyond the
lake by the Bitham Brook, which rises in Westbury
and enters the parish in the south. The combined
stream, called the 'Bere Burne', runs northwards
out of the parish to join the Biss Brook. The only
woodland in the parish in 1960, besides the landscaped park of Heywood House, was the large wood
in the north-east corner called Clanger Wood.
The railway line between Trowbridge and Westbury runs through the middle of the parish, and
the main line from London to the west of England
just enters the parish for about ¼ mile in the south.
The main road from Trowbridge to Westbury also
runs through the middle of the parish. A minor
road, called Yoad Lane, branches east off this and
leads to the road between Steeple Ashton and
Bratton. About ½ mile further north along the main
road, another minor road forks north-west and
runs out of the parish near Dursley to join a minor
road coming in from Yarnbrook (North Bradley)
and running through Heywood to Westbury.
There is no one compact area of settlement in
the parish. The mid-19th-century church stands in
the angle formed by the junction of the minor
road from Dursley with the main WestburyTrowbridge road. Some houses, mostly of late19th- or early-20th-century date, are strung out
along this minor road, for the most part on its
southern side. The school lies along this road, and
on its northern side there is a small council housing
estate built since the Second World War. A lane
turning south of the minor road leads to a small
group of houses called Norleaze. A more obvious
and older area of settlement is the hamlet of Hawkeridge which is approached by a lane turning
east off the road between Yarnbrook and Westbury.
The congregational chapel was built here in 1844
and an inn and a number of cottages are of early19th-century and later dates.
Until the end of the 19th century there was
another area of settlement in the south-east corner
of the parish. In the 18th century this was called
Yoed and lay to the south of Heywood House along
the narrow road called, in 1960, Yoad Lane, and
along the lane leading to Apsley Farm. A small
group of houses here is shown on maps of 1773
and 1817, but by the end of the 19th century the
hamlet had apparently disappeared. (fn. 25) In 1960
there were only a few 20th-century houses along the
lane.
In the mid-20th century a fairly extensive housing estate has been built in the south-west of the
parish where Heywood adjoins Westbury at the Ham.
The largest house in the parish is Heywood
House built in the mid-19th century. (fn. 26) Brook
House, on the site of the manor house of the manor
of Brook, lies to the east of the Biss Brook just
within the parish. (fn. 27) To the north-east and southeast respectively of Brook House are Hawkeridge
and Lodge Wood farms. (fn. 28) Hawkeridge Farm is a
brick house of early-18th-century date with later
alterations. Lodge Wood Farm was acquired by
the War Department during the Second World
War and was used for a time as part of an Ordnance Supply Depot. Just to the south-west of
Lodge Wood Farm there is a moated site.
The civil parish of CHAPMANSLADE was
created in 1934 out of parts of Dilton Marsh,
Corsley, and Upton Scudamore. (fn. 29) Until 1894
Chapmanslade was a tithing within the ancient
parish of Westbury, but after the civil parish of
Dilton Marsh was made out of Westbury that
year, (fn. 30) most of Chapmanslade came within the
southern boundary of the new parish. This boundary ran down the middle of the road from Westbury
to Frome (Som.), which for about ¾ of a mile forms
the village street of Chapmanslade, so that the
houses on the south side of the village street were
in Corsley, while those on the north side were in
Dilton Marsh. (fn. 31) All the land lying south of this
road was, therefore, until 1934 either in the parish
of Corsley or in that of Upton Scudamore. (fn. 32) Thus
the tithing of Huntenhull Green lay in Corsley
and is treated with the history of that place, (fn. 33) and
the tithing of Thoulstone lay in Upton Scudamore
and is dealt with under the history of that place. (fn. 34)
The civil parish of Chapmanslade is small, comprising some 1,136 a., and extending about 1½ mile
from north to south and the same distance from
east to west. (fn. 35) The Rodden Brook, about ½ a mile
south of the village street, makes the southern
boundary of the parish for most of its course, and
the main road between Warminster and Bath forms
part of the northern boundary. The western boundary of the parish is the county boundary between
Wiltshire and Somerset. The soil of the parish is
divided approximately equally between the light,
highly fertile, greensand on the east side and the
heavier gaults and clays on the west side. (fn. 36) In the
north-west corner the land is fairly low-lying, but
it rises to about 500 ft. near the centre of the parish,
and from there falls rather steeply to the south and
west. Black Dog Woods, once a part of Selwood
Forest, occupy the entire north-west corner of
the parish, and in 1959 were being extensively replanted. The secondary road from Westbury to
Frome crosses the main Warminster-Bath road at
Dead Maids Corner and runs from east to west
through the middle of the parish. The only other
metalled road is a minor road branching off the
secondary road near the village and leading south
through Huntenhall Green to Corsley.
The village of Chapmanslade lies approximately
in the centre of the parish along the road from
Westbury to Frome. The houses are spread out
along this for about ¾ of a mile. They include a
number of small houses and cottages, arranged
singly or in pairs, of 18th- and early-19th-century
date. These are either of stone, or brick with stone
dressings, and many have stone door hoods on
moulded brackets. The church and the Congregational and Baptist chapels all lie on the north side of
the street, the church standing roughly in the
middle of the village. (fn. 37) The narrow lane leading to
the Baptist chapel continues northwards for about
¼ of a mile to Godswell Grove Farm which in the
Middle Ages gave its name to the manor later known
as Chapmanslade. (fn. 38) A number of buildings along
the village street bear witness to Chapmanslade's
former weaving industry. (fn. 39) Almost opposite the
church is a much altered early-19th-century
weavers' workshop. It is a two-storied building of
rubble with brick dressings. On the west side of
the upper floor there is an eight- or nine-light
window, which has been blocked up. On the east
side both ground and upper floors had sevenlight windows, now reduced to six-lights. In 1960
this building was almost derelict, and was used as
a workman's shed. Further east, nearly opposite
the 'Wheelwrights' Arms', is another building
which in the early 19th century may have been a
weavers' workshop. It is built of similar materials,
but the wide window openings have been altered
and the building converted into two cottages.
Huntley House, at the east end of the village,
may originally have been timber-framed. But it
was given brick walls, a third story, and a symmetrical front in the 18th century. Adjoining it to
the south is a 3-storied structure of the early 19th
century which was originally a weavers' workshop
and more recently a small retail shop. At the back
of the house a long range of brick and stone,
possibly of 17th-century date, was at one time a
bakehouse. The 'Wheelwrights' Arms', on the
north side of the village street, was built as a
residential house of some size and importance in the
later 18th century. Close by is an early-19thcentury ashlar pair of houses with some notable
features. One of these has been converted into the
village shop and Post Office. At the extreme east
end of the village is a group of council houses
built c. 1948, and there has been some more recent
building at the west end of the village.
In the north-east corner of the parish, just inside
the boundary with Dilton Marsh, are the few
houses which form the hamlet of Short Street. This
is approached by a minor road turning north off the
secondary road between Westbury and Chapmanslade.