More on Tisbury, Wiltshire, England

Here's a bit more history on the village of Tisbury, Wiltshire, that I gleaned from a Wiltshire government site:

"Tisbury is slightly unusual for a large Wiltshire parish, with early settlement, in that no main road crosses the parish, and no road in it was turnpiked. The only road through the village is that from Chilmark to Fovant, which is joined by a minor road from the west at Tisbury. Historically the modern civil parishes of West Tisbury and East Tisbury were one and much of the early history below relates to this whole area, which includes Wardour and Hatch. The later history, and histories of churches and schools, is concerned only with the modern parish of Tisbury, formerly East Tisbury, which contains the nucleated village and Wardour.

The first known settlement of the village site of Tisbury came in Saxon times. This was probably a defensive site, the name indicates this, and it is possible that it was part of King Alfred’s Burghal Hidage, providing one of the fortresses prepared for defence against the Danes. Tisbury was certainly occupied by the West Saxons who, by 759, named it Tissebiri – Tysse’s Burh. A monastery was here by 700 and may have been established by 674. An early, if not the first, abbot was Wintra who is mentioned in land documents. In 705 the Synod of the Nadder was held here, which was attended by a young monk named Winfrith, who is better known, particularly in continental Europe, as St. Boniface. The fact that Tisbury hosted this synod is a good indication as to the importance of the monastery here. The monastery was probably one large building, with a separate church and outbuildings. It was razed to the ground in the 19th century during the early Norse raids and the monks were slain.

When King Alfred founded Shaftesbury Abbey, c.880, the lands of Tisbury were given to the Abbey. It is at this time that the village is first mentioned although it is likely to have already existed for 150-200 years. It is most likely that the village had a stone church, probably on the site of the present one. In 984 King Ethelred confirmed the grant of the Tisbury estate to the Abbess of Shaftesbury. The grange, or administrative headquarters, of the estate was at Place Farm, where the medieval buildings of Shaftesbury’s farming operations can still be seen.

By the time of the Norman Conquest Tisbury was a reasonable sized village and the Domesday Book (1086) gives us some idea of this although the population is for the whole estate, not just the village. Using modern interpretation of Domesday figures it would seem that over 300 people lived on the estate and interestingly there were no serfs listed. The village itself is likely to have been in the lower part of the present High Street and around the church. There was a Saxon routeway between Ebbesbourne Wake and Warminster and this was on solid bedrock in Tisbury and so did not deviate when bad weather caused deep mud elsewhere. The upper part of the High Street follows this line and so you may still walk where Saxon traders travelled. By the late 11th century there were four mills, meadowland, pastureland and woodland on the estate, which had land for 40 plough teams.

Cloth production is evidenced by mention of a fulling mill in the early 14th century and weavers are mentioned from 1372 to 1762. By 1334 this was a wealthy and populous parish, which including Hatch, was given the fifth highest assessment for wealth in the county. It seems that Tisbury suffered badly in the Black Death of 1348-9, which cut the population drastically and caused much land to remain uncultivated. It was especially bad in Hatch, in West Tisbury. In 1349 about 75 deaths of customary tenants, and doubtless their families, were recorded by Shaftesbury Abbey. However the village and estate seems to have recovered well as by 1377 there were 433 poll tax payers, making this one of the most populous parishes in the county.

During the 15th century the village had expanded. The main village street was the upper part of the High Street while North Street (Hindon Lane today) had houses and homesteads along it by 1444. Quarrying was still taking place throughout the parish and weaving was a local industry. By c.1500 all the arable land had been enclosed enabling more efficient farming to be carried out. This was part of a modernization program by Shaftesbury Abbey, whose grange at Place Farm had two larder houses, stables, houses for oxen, hay sheds, charcoal sheds and a fishpond within its walls, and the present great barn and three fish ponds without.

In 1825 a short lived industrial venture began with the building of a cloth factory at the southern end of Fonthill Lake. There was a 6-storey block, a 5-storey factory with 3 water wheels, a drying house and a dyehouse. The buildings were erected by the eccentric Mr Farquhar, a retired gunpowder maker, and completed by 1827 with a house and 24 cottages. The idea was to weave a superfine woollen cloth and 200 people, mainly from Gloucestershire, were employed. Despite an abundant supply of water the venture failed, probably as this was a remote area, with poor communications and a factory could not compete with the steam powered ones of western Wiltshire that were sited near canals. The machinery was sold in 1830 and the buildings demolished between 1838 and 1886.

Tisbury was divided into three parishes in 1835 – East Tisbury (Tisbury village), West Tisbury and Wardour. By 1846 there were 40 stone quarries, although not all were in use. They were mainly used for local buildings as, in the first part of the 19th century, Tisbury stone was expensive in London as there was no local canal or railway for transport. After the opening of the railway line the situation changed and there was a stone yard at the railway station in the latter part of the 19th century. The Salisbury and Yeovil Railway opened this line in 1859 and Tisbury Station was built to the south of the village. At first this was a single line, it was doubled by 1870 but in 1967 it was reduced to a single line across the parish again. After the coming of the railway Tisbury began to take on the appearance of a small town."

Thanks to Stefan Slatter and picturesofengland.com for the nice sunset photo of Tisbury.