Semley

Semley is a village in Sedgehill and Semley civil parish in Wiltshire, England. The village is about 3 miles (4.8 km) north-east of Shaftesbury in neighbouring Dorset. The hamlet of Sem Hill lies about a quarter of a mile west of the village.

Semley

Semley Church
Semley
Location within Wiltshire
OS grid referenceST8926
Civil parish
Unitary authority
Ceremonial county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Postcode districtSP7
Dialling code01747
PoliceWiltshire
FireDorset and Wiltshire
AmbulanceSouth Western
UK Parliament

The River Sem, from which the village takes its name,[1] forms part of the northern boundary of the parish.

History

Semley seems to have been part of an estate that King Eadwig granted to the Benedictine Wilton Abbey in AD 955. The Abbey retained the manor of Semley until the Dissolution of the Monasteries, when it surrendered all its lands to the Crown. In 1541 Henry VIII granted Semley to Sir Edward Bayntun and his wife Lady Isabel, but in 1572 their son Francis restored it to the Crown.[1]

In the same year Elizabeth I granted Semley to Matthew Arundell of Wardour Castle, who was knighted in 1574. Sir Matthew's son Thomas Arundell was created Baron Arundell of Wardour in 1605. The Wardour estate has held land at Semley ever since.[1]

Church Farmhouse is a 16th-century building, extended in the 17th and 19th centuries.[2]

Hook Manor, in the east of the parish near Wardour, is a Jacobean manor house built in 1637 by Thomas Arundell,[3] in local stone quarried about 3.5 miles (5.6 km) away at Tisbury. Arundell gave the house in 1639 to Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore, proprietor of colonies in Maryland and Newfoundland.[3] In 1935 the house was remodelled to designs by the architect T. Lawrence Dale, who reinstated the earlier hall and added a neighbouring room to enlarge it. Dale also removed the porch, and added a staircase and a service wing.[1]

Later estates

Between 1806 and 1820 the 9th and 10th Barons Wardour sold off 882 acres (357 ha) of the manor. By 1839 about 550 acres (220 ha) at Semley remained in the Arundell family. In 1962 Mr. R.J.R. Arundell sold Legatt's Farm and in 1985 he owned about 440 acres (180 ha) at Semley[1]

John Benett of Pythouse bought the 882 acres (357 ha) of Semley Manor that the Arundells sold between 1806 and 1820. By 1839 his total estate at Semley amounted to 1,064 acres (431 ha), but by 1847 about 350 acres (140 ha) of the land he had bought from the Arundells had been re-sold. The bulk of Benett's acquisitions at Semley remained with his heirs until his grandson Vere Fane Benett-Stanford died in 1894 and his widow became married to Charles Thomas-Stanford in 1897. The estate then passed to John Benett's great-grandson John Fane-Benett-Stanford, who died in 1947. In 1952 the estate sold Amberleaze Farm and Glebe Farm.[1]

Richard Grosvenor, 2nd Marquess of Westminster had bought Bowmarsh Farm and Hart Hill Farm and in 1847 bought Westwood Farm from John Benett. This gave him a total of about 350 acres (140 ha) at Semley. This estate descended by the Marquess's daughter Octavia to her husband Sir Michael Shaw-Stewart, 7th Baronet. After the death of the 7th Baronet in 1903 and Lady Octavia in 1921, their son Walter Richard Shaw-Stewart held about 850 acres (340 ha) at Semley. He then sold off about 250 acres (100 ha) including Westwood Farm between 1924 and 1927.[1]

Religious sites

Parish church

By 1191 Semley had a Rector and therefore presumably a parish church.[1] The Church of England parish church of Saint Leonard was rebuilt in the 19th century to designs by Thomas Wyatt: the rebuilding of the chancel was in 1866 and the remainder of the church was demolished and replaced in 1874–75.[1] The new church is a Gothic Revival building in Perpendicular Gothic style with a tall west tower that has a spire on its stair-turret.[1][4] The 12th-century font bowl was retained,[5] and a late-13th century effigy of a priest was salvaged from the north porch of the medieval church and re-set in the new church.[1][4]

In 1553 St. Leonard's had a ring of four bells.[1] One of these was cast by Robert Burford of London[6] in about 1410 and remains in use at St. Leonard's today.[7] William Cockey of Bristol[6] cast the treble bell in 1733.[7] Mears and Stainbank of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry[6] cast four more bells including the present tenor in 1878 to complete St. Leonards' present ring of six.[7] In 1987 the church was recorded as Grade II listed,[8] along with the dwarf brick walls and decorative cast-iron railings on two sides of the churchyard.[9]

In 1976 the Diocese of Salisbury united St. Leonard's benefice with Sedgehill,[10] and in 1985 East Knoyle was added.[1] The parishes of Charlton, Donhead St Andrew and Donhead St Mary have since been added to form the present Benefice of Saint Bartholomew.[11]

Chapels

Semley and East Knoyle had a Baptist congregation by about 1820 and opened a Particular Baptist chapel at Semley in 1823.[1] The chapel closed sometime after 1985.[1][12] It is built of stone and slate and was Grade II listed in 1987.[13]

Semley had a Methodist congregation by 1810, which worshipped in members' homes until 1877 when a small, red-brick Wesleyan Methodist chapel opened at St. Bartholomew's Hill. It closed in 1964.[1]

Economic and social history

Semley's farmland has long been mostly pasture. Its small amount of arable land was partly enclosed by the 14th century and mostly enclosed by the 16th century. Semley's pasture was mostly common land in the Middle Ages but about 500 acres (200 ha) were enclosed between 1599 and 1769. Proposals to enclose the remaining 300 acres (120 ha) of Semley's common pasture were defeated in 1813 and 1836 and they remained in common in 1985.[1]

A National School for the parish was built in 1841, next to the church; a teacher's house was built in 1866 and a second classroom, for infants, was added in 1882.[1] It is now Semley Church of England Voluntary Aided Primary School.[14]

In 1859 the Salisbury and Yeovil Railway was completed through the parish and opened Semley railway station close to the A350 about 1.25 miles (2.01 km) west of the village. Nearby sprang up a dairy organising milk collection from the local farms, and a pipeline carried milk on a gantry over the road and into tank wagons in a siding. British Railways closed the station in 1966 but the railway remains open as part of the West of England Main Line.[15]

Semley's public house, the Benett Arms, has traded as such since at least 1867, and may be the same as the New Inn at Semley recorded in 1855 and 1865.[1]

Much of Semley's pasture had long been devoted to dairy farming, and in about 1871 one Thomas Kirby started a business close to Semley station buying milk and sending it by rail to London. Kirby expanded his business with other depots in south Wiltshire and Dorset in the 1880s. By 1889 it was trading as Semley and Gillingham Dairies, and in 1890 it became Salisbury, Semley and Gillingham Dairies. United Dairies (Wholesale) Ltd. bought the business in 1920 and added a factory at Semley by 1924. In 1928 United Dairies added milk pasteurisation and storage facilities and a cheese-making facility. In 1944 the cheese room was converted to an egg store. In 1959 United Dairies merged with Cow & Gate to form Unigate. By 1985 Unigate had closed the Semley factory and it was being divided into smaller units for industrial use.[1]

Notable people
  • Robert Morley (1908–1992), actor – born in Semley
  • Yvonne Fletcher, WPC in the Metropolitan Police, murdered from inside the Libyan Embassy, London, 1984 – born in Semley
  • Julian Bream, classical guitarist – lived in Semley from the 1960s until 2008.[16]

References
  1. Freeman, Jane; Stevenson, Janet H (1987). Crowley, D.A. (ed.). "Victoria County History: Wiltshire: Vol 13 pp66-79 – Parishes: Semley". British History Online. University of London. Retrieved 6 January 2020.
  2. Historic England. "Church Farmhouse (1146049)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 7 January 2020.
  3. Historic England. "Hook Manor (1146052)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 7 January 2020.
  4. Pevsner & Cherry, 1975, page 466
  5. "St Leonard, Semley Wiltshire". Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture. King's College London. Retrieved 30 December 2019.
  6. "Bell Founders". Dove's Guide for Church Bell Ringers. Retrieved 27 February 2011.
  7. "Semley S Leonard". Dove's Guide for Church Bell Ringers. Retrieved 27 February 2011.
  8. Historic England. "Church of St Leonard (1318799)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 30 December 2019.
  9. Historic England. "Walls and railings with gates (1300283)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 30 December 2019.
  10. "No. 46834". The London Gazette. 24 February 1976. p. 2806.
  11. The Benefice of St. Bartholomew
  12. "Baptist Chapel, Semley". Wiltshire Community History. Wiltshire Council. Retrieved 30 December 2019.
  13. Historic England. "Semley Baptist Church (1318801)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 30 December 2019.
  14. "Semley Church of England VA Primary School". Wiltshire Community History. Wiltshire Council. Retrieved 7 January 2020.
  15. Oakley, Mike (2004). Wiltshire Railway Stations. Wimborne: The Dovecote Press. pp. 120–121. ISBN 1-904349-33-1.
  16. Tyzack, Anna (21 September 2007). "Julian Bream's farmhouse for sale". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 18 May 2020.

Sources
  • Pevsner, Nikolaus; Cherry, Bridget (revision) (1975) [1963]. Wiltshire. The Buildings of England. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. p. 466. ISBN 0 14 071026 4.

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