Tisbury, Wiltshire

The area has some paleoanthropological significance. Evidence of early human activity comes from the Middle Gravel at Swanscombe, Kent, a 400,000-year-old stratum,[2] in which skull fragments of a young woman were found. Along with the remains were several fragments of Pseudodiplocoenia oblonga (also known as Isastraea oblonga), one of four Upper Jurassic species of coral unique to the Upper Portlandian of Tisbury.[3] This indicates that the group to which the woman belonged travelled to the Tisbury area, or were part of a trade network linked to the locality. The coral-bearing chert found at Swanscombe has been interpreted as being intentionally carved to represent the profile of a hominid head, making Tisbury the source of materiel used in what is possibly one of the world's oldest pieces of art.[4]

A selection of bronze axeheads from a Bronze Age hoard discovered at Tisbury

As in much of the Wiltshire Downs, there is also evidence of Bronze Age settlement. The Tisbury Hoard comprising 114 bronze items, discovered in 2011, is from the 9th to 8th century BC.[5] To the southeast of the village lies a large hillfort, now known as Castle Ditches,[6] which was referred to as Willburge in a charter of 984 A.D. Enclosed within ramparts of the fort is a long barrow measuring 60m long, 25m wide and 0.7m high.[7]

A stone circle once stood in one of three adjacent fields, one which was known as Lost Stone Field, near the junction of the Chicksgrove and Chilmark roads. These fields have been joined to form the present Cemetery Field. The last three remaining standing stones, removed in the latter part of the 18th century, now form part of the grotto at Old Wardour.[8]

There are known early references between 710 and 716 to Wintra, Abbot of Tisbury, and in 759 monks of Tisbury are mentioned in a grant of land to Abbot Ecgnold and his familia (community) at Tisbury Grange.[9] The monastery may have been founded as early as 705 and may have been sited near an old cemetery discovered north of Church Street.[10]

The thatched 15th-century tithe barn at Place Farm

The Saxon settlement came into the possession of Shaftesbury Abbey, as recorded in Domesday Book of 1086, when there was a relatively large settlement of 90 households at Tisseberie.[11] The abbey's administration centre was the monastic grange, where the 14th-century building, now a house at Place Farm, is Grade I listed,[12] as are the outer and inner gatehouses, built in limestone in the 15th century.[13][14] The thatched tithe barn – one of its timbers dated by dendrochronology to 1279 – bears the largest thatched roof in England and is also Grade I listed;[15] it is now used as a multi-purpose gallery and arts centre, managed by Messums Wiltshire.[16]

The village's 13th-century prosperity came from the quarries that produced stone for the building of Salisbury Cathedral, and from the wool that supported a local cloth industry. The village suffered a serious setback with the Black Death in the mid-14th century but slowly recovered. Gaston Manor, close to the High Street, is a former 14th-century hall house which was rebuilt and then extended in the 16th and 17th centuries.[17] To the southwest of the village centre are the remains of the village of Wyck, a deserted medieval village abandoned in the 14th century.[18][19]

Some idea of the population of the area in the 14th century is given by the number assessed as being liable to the poll tax of 1377: every lay person over the age of 14 years who was not a beggar had to pay a groat (4d) to the Crown. The number of taxpayers in Hatch, East and West (in Tisbury) was 152, and in Tisbury there were 281.[20] On John Speed's map of Wiltshire of 1611, the village's name is recorded as Tilburye: the cartographer or the engraver clearly having mistaken a long s for an l.

At Wardour, some 2 miles (3 km) southwest of Tisbury, the 14th-century Wardour Castle was badly damaged in the 1640s during the Civil War. It was superseded in the 1770s by New Wardour Castle, a country house in Palladian style, which was the seat of the Lords Arundell of Wardour until the 20th century. Both the ruins and the house are Grade I listed.[21][22]

The Fonthill estate, formerly the site of country houses including Fonthill Splendens (18th century) and Fonthill Abbey (from 1796), lies beyond the northwestern boundary of Tisbury parish; most of the ornamental Fonthill Lake is within the parish. The estate, currently the seat of Alastair Morrison, 3rd Baron Margadale, owns land and property in Tisbury including the former abbey site at Place Farm.[23]

The former Wiltshire Brewery, Tisbury, built in 1885

The Salisbury and Yeovil Railway opened Tisbury railway station with the first section of its line, from Salisbury to Gillingham, on 2 May 1859. At first only passengers were catered for, but goods traffic started on 1 September 1860. Services were operated by the London and South Western Railway.[24]

From 1861 the room above a building near to St John the Baptist parish church, known as The Rank, was used as a glove factory. It employed 36 women and production continued until the early 1970s.[25] In 1873 St. John's Infants' School was built midway up the High Street at the suggestion of Rev. F.E. Hutchinson. It was paid for by Lord Arundell, Sir Michael Shaw-Stewart and Alfred Morrison.[26]

In 1885 Archibald Beckett built a brewery in the village and carried out other improvements, including the construction of a new road through the village, the present day High Street.[27][28]

The civil parish elects a parish council. It is in the area of Wiltshire Council unitary authority, which is responsible for all significant local government functions.

The historic parish covered a large area. In 1835 it was divided into three parishes: East Tisbury, West Tisbury and Wardour. In 1927 East Tisbury and Wardour were united as Tisbury civil parish.[24]

An electoral ward with the same name exists, covering Tisbury and Donhead St. Mary. The ward population at the 2011 census was 4,374.[48]

Thomas Mayhew (1593–1682), who in 1642 established the first English settlement at Martha's Vineyard in North America, was born in Tisbury. Other people born in Tisbury include the Rev. William Jay (1769–1853, preacher); Christopher Hinton (1901–1983, nuclear engineer); and Gillian Lewis (stage and television actress). Etheldred Benett (1776–1845), the early geologist, was born at Tisbury and studied fossils in the area.

Sir Matthew Arundell of Wardour Castle, a great landowner and a cousin of Queen Elizabeth, was entombed in the parish church in 1598.

The parents of poet Rudyard Kipling lived at Tisbury in later life. According to one source, "After a long and distinguished artistic career in India, the Kiplings moved to a residence along Hindon Lane which they renamed 'The Gables'. Their famous son visited them here and, whilst working on his novel Kim, his father (his illustrator) used the drawings of one of the pupils from Tisbury Boys' School as the model for the main character."[49] As of early 2013, The Gables, with five bedrooms and an adjoining cricket pitch, was for sale at a price of £950,000.[50]

Ecclesiastical architect Edward Doran Webb (1864–1931) lived at Gaston Manor in Tisbury.[51] Other Tisbury residents included Northern Irish colonial administrator and politician Henry Clark (1929–2012),[52] army officer and campaigner for refugees Major Derek Cooper (1912–2007) and businessman John Meade, 7th Earl of Clanwilliam (1919–2009).

Charles "Snaffles" Payne (1884–1967), humorous painter, lived and worked at Tisbury from the late 1940s. The artist and children's book author John Strickland Goodall lived in Tisbury in 1946.[53]

Martin Fleischmann FRS (1927–2012), a chemist noted for his work in electrochemistry and (controversially) cold fusion, moved to Tisbury following his retirement as Professor of Electrochemistry at Southampton University.[54]

In August 2016 Wiltshire Council opened the Nadder Centre, which provides leisure activities and is home to the local library.[55][56] Since April 2017, after the closure of the local police station, the Nadder Centre provides basic facilities for police officers patrolling the area.[57]

Tisbury has an open-air heated swimming pool, the only one of its type in Wiltshire.[58] The village has an amateur dramatic society, the Tisbury Arts Group, which also hosts regular musical events.[59] Tisbury holds an annual carnival, usually in September, which celebrated its centenary in 2019.[60] In 2018 the village hosted the third Tisbury Brocante, "A Festival of Antiques and Vintage Finds".[61] Tisbury Business Association promotes the locality as a trading and commercial centre.[62]

The village has a primary school, St John's C of E Primary School.[63] There is a small fire station, run by Dorset & Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service, with one pumping appliance and a Land Rover which are manned by retained firefighters.[64][65] In 2017, Tisbury was listed in the Sunday Times 'Best Places to Live' rundown.[66]

Lady Down Quarry, in the northeast of the parish, is a geological Site of Special Scientific Interest.

Tisbury railway station is on the West of England Main Line, placing its residents within commuting distance of London. The village is 2.5 miles (4.0 km) from the A303 trunk road linking Andover with the West Country. Salisbury Reds operate three buses a day from Tisbury to Salisbury and two in the other direction, as of 2019.[67] Buses on the Shaftesbury to Salisbury service, also operated by Salisbury Reds, call at Tisbury.[68] The village is also served by TISBUS, a community transport organisation which provides weekly shopping trips to Salisbury, Gillingham and Shaftesbury.[69][70]

Some scenes in the 2009 film Morris: A Life with Bells On were filmed in Tisbury, including at the Tisbury Sports Centre.[71] Other scenes were filmed at the Compasses Inn nearby at Lower Chicksgrove.

Scenes of the fictional Locksley Castle for the film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves were shot at Old Wardour Castle.[72]

• Blackmoor Vale and Vale of Wardour, a national character area
• Chicksgrove Quarry, a geological Site of Special Scientific Interest near Upper Chicksgrove
• Tisbury, Massachusetts, named after this Tisbury

• Jackson, Ralph (Autumn 1983). "The Lockwood Kiplings at Tisbury, Wiltshire". The Hatcher Review. 2 (16): 278–284.

• Tisbury Parish Council
• St John's Church, Tisbury

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