__NOTOC__ Huish is a small village and former

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

, England, northwest of

Pewsey Pewsey is a large village and civil parish at the centre of the Vale of Pewsey in Wiltshire, about south of Marlborough and west of London. It is within reach of the M4 motorway and the A303 and is served by Pewsey railway station on the Rea ...

and southwest of

Marlborough Marlborough may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Marlborough, Wiltshire, England ** Marlborough College, public school * Marlborough School, Woodstock in Oxfordshire, England * The Marlborough Science Academy in Hertfordshire, England Austral ...

. It is on the south-facing edge of the

Marlborough Downs The North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) is located in the English counties of Berkshire, Hampshire, Oxfordshire and Wiltshire. The name ''North Wessex Downs'' is not a traditional one, the area covered being better kno ...

, where the downs adjoin the

Vale of Pewsey The Vale of Pewsey or Pewsey Vale is an area of Wiltshire, England to the east of Devizes and south of Marlborough, centred on the village of Pewsey. Geography The vale is an extent of lower lying ground separating the chalk downs of Salisbury ...

History

A small settlement of 11 households was recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086, when the lord of the manor was Richard Sturmy or Esturmy. The population of the parish remained low, reaching around 130 at its height between 1831 and 1881, then declining to 30 at the 1971 census. The church and Manor Farm lie some 250 metres north of the present village, along a lane which continues (now as a track) some 1.5 km northwest to the site of the deserted village of Shaw, now in the parishes of

Alton Alton may refer to: People *Alton (given name) *Alton (surname) Places Australia *Alton National Park, Queensland * Alton, Queensland, a town in the Shire of Balonne Canada * Alton, Ontario *Alton, Nova Scotia New Zealand * Alton, New Zealand, ...

and

West Overton West Overton is a village and civil parish in the English county of Wiltshire, about west of Marlborough. The river Kennet runs immediately north of the village, separating it from the A4 road. The parish includes the village of Lockeridge, al ...

. By the 18th century there was a hamlet on Huish Hill, straddling the boundary with

Wilcot Wilcot is a village in Wiltshire, England, in the Vale of Pewsey about southwest of Marlborough and northwest of Pewsey. The village is part of the civil parish of Wilcot, Huish and Oare. The parish was created in 2020 by merging the small H ...

, some 900 metres north of Oare at ; this hamlet began to be abandoned in the 1920s. In 1803, land to the west of Oare village which belonged to the lords of Huish was deemed part of Huish parish. Thus the southeast boundary of Huish extends close to Oare, and Oare school (now Oare Church of England Primary School) is within Huish parish. Cold Blow, a thatched house on the outskirts of Oare, was built in 1921–22 to designs of

Clough Williams-Ellis Sir Bertram Clough Williams-Ellis, CBE, MC (28 May 1883 – 9 April 1978) was a Welsh architect known chiefly as the creator of the Italianate village of Portmeirion in North Wales. He became a major figure in the development of Welsh architec ...

. A heart-shaped tree plantation was created in 1999, below Huish Hill in the southeast of the parish, near Oare. This is a

geoglyph A geoglyph is a large design or motif (generally longer than 4 metres) produced on the ground by durable elements of the landscape, such as stones, stone fragments, gravel, or earth. A positive geoglyph is formed by the arrangement and alignmen ...

, but not a

hill figure A hill figure is a large visual representation created by cutting into a steep hillside and revealing the underlying geology. It is a type of geoglyph usually designed to be seen from afar rather than above. In some cases trenches are dug and r ...

like the many surrounding "white horses" such as the

Marlborough White Horse Marlborough White Horse, also called the Preshute White Horse, is a hill figure on Granham Hill, a fairly shallow slope of the downland above the hamlet of Preshute, southwest of Marlborough in the county of Wiltshire, England. Dating from 1804 ...

Local government

The first tier of local government is the parish of Wilcot, Huish and Oare, which elects a parish council. Huish was anciently a parish in its own right, until 2020 when it was merged with the larger neighbouring parish of

. At the time of the merger Huish had 37 electors, and for a number of years had elected a joint parish council with Wilcot. Huish falls within the area of the

Wiltshire Council Wiltshire Council is a council for the unitary authority of Wiltshire (excluding the separate unitary authority of Swindon) in South West England, created in 2009. It is the successor authority to Wiltshire County Council (1889–2009) and the ...

unitary authority A unitary authority is a local authority responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are usually performed by a higher level of sub-national government or the national governmen ...

, which is responsible for all significant local government functions.

Parish church

A church was recorded at Huish in 1291. The

Church of England parish church A parish church in the Church of England is the church which acts as the religious centre for the people within each Church of England parish (the smallest and most basic Church of England administrative unit; since the 19th century sometimes ca ...

Saint Nicholas Saint Nicholas of Myra, ; la, Sanctus Nicolaus (traditionally 15 March 270 – 6 December 343), also known as Nicholas of Bari, was an early Christian bishop of Greeks, Greek descent from the maritime city of Myra in Asia Minor (; modern-da ...

was rebuilt in 1785, near the foundations of the 13th-century church but in a smaller size; it was again rebuilt in 1878–9. In 1924 the benefices of Huish and Oare were united, with the parsonage house to be at Huish. Wilcot was added in 1962. In 1972 the parishes of Huish and Oare were united, and at the same time the benefice was extended by adding Woodborough with

Manningford Bohune Manningford is a civil parish in Wiltshire, England. The parish includes the villages of Manningford Abbots, Manningford Bohune and Manningford Bruce, and the hamlet of Manningford Bohune Common, together known as the Manningfords. The parish is ...

and

Beechingstoke Beechingstoke is a small village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England. It lies in the Vale of Pewsey about west of Pewsey and the same distance east of Devizes. The parish includes the hamlet of Broad Street and the northern part of the villa ...

. Today the parish of Huish and Oare is part of the Vale of Pewsey team of churches. The former rectory, a three-bay house in brick of c. 1812, is now a private house.

References

External links

* * {{authority control Villages in Wiltshire Former civil parishes in Wiltshire

History

Local government

Parish church

References

Further reading

External links