Kingston Deverill is a village and

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 authorit ...

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. Its nearest towns are Mere, about to the southwest, and

Warminster Warminster () is an ancient market town with a nearby garrison, and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in south west Wiltshire, England, on the western edge of Salisbury Plain. The parish had a population of about 17,000 in 2011. The 11th-c ...

, about to the northeast. The parish and its demographic figures include the village of Monkton Deverill. To the north of the village, under the slope of Cold Kitchen Hill, is the hamlet of Whitepits. The parish is in the Deverill Valley which carries the upper waters of the

River Wylye The River Wylye ( ) is a chalk stream in the south of England, with clear water flowing over gravel. It is popular with anglers for fly fishing. A half-mile stretch of the river and three lakes in Warminster are a local nature reserve. Cour ...

. The six villages of the valley – Kingston, Monkton, Brixton Deverill, Hill Deverill,

Longbridge Deverill Longbridge Deverill is a village and civil parish about south of Warminster in Wiltshire, England. It is on the A350 primary route which connects the M4 motorway and west Wiltshire with Poole, Dorset. The parish is in the Deverill valley which ...

and Crockerton – are known as the Deverills.

History

The area has many

bowl barrow A bowl barrow is a type of burial mound or tumulus. A barrow is a mound of earth used to cover a tomb. The bowl barrow gets its name from its resemblance to an upturned bowl. Related terms include ''cairn circle'', ''cairn ring'', ''howe'', ''ker ...

s, from the

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...

or earlier, including one close to the present church. On Whitepits Down is a long linear earthwork from a similar era. The site of a

Romano-Celtic temple A Romano-Celtic temple (more specifically a Romano-British temple in Great Britain, or Gallo-Roman temple in the Continental region formerly comprising Gaul) is a sub-class of Roman temple found in the north-western provinces of the Roman Empire. ...

on Whitecliff Down in the north of the parish is surrounded by evidence of occupation in the

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostl ...

and earlier. Two

Roman roads Roman roads ( la, viae Romanae ; singular: ; meaning "Roman way") were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, and were built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Re ...

crossed at the ford at Kingston Deverill. A small settlement of nine households was recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086, when the land was held by the canons of

Lisieux Lisieux () is a commune in the Calvados department in the Normandy region in northwestern France. It is the capital of the Pays d'Auge area, which is characterised by valleys and hedged farmland. Name The name of the town derives from the ...

. Ownership was then taken by the Crown, hence the Kingston prefix. The population of the parish reached 420 at the census of 1841, then declined to 176 in 1901 as mechanisation of agriculture reduced employment.

Local government

River Wylye at Kingston Deverill - geograph

Until 1934, Monkton Deverill was a separate parish. The parish elects the Upper Deverills Parish Council jointly with neighbouring Brixton Deverill. It 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

The Church of England parish church of St Mary is from the 15th century. Restoration in 1846 included the rebuilding of the nave, south aisle and chancel. The font is 12th-century. The church was designated as Grade II* listed in 1968. The tower has six bells, cast in 1731 by William Cockey, but they are at present unringable. The chapelry of Monkton Deverill was transferred to Kingston from

in 1892. The small church of King Alfred at Monkton Deverill was made redundant in 1971. From December 1954 the benefice was held in plurality with that of Brixton Deverill. In 1972 the parish of The Deverills and Horningsham was formed by uniting the parishes of Brixton Deverill, Kingston Deverill with Monkton Deverill, and Longbridge Deverill with Crockerton and Hill Deverill. Today the parish, together with the parish of Corsley and Chapmanslade, is part of the Cley Hill Churches benefice.

References

External links

Upper Deverills Parish Council
*
Kingston Deverill
at genuki.org.uk {{authority control Villages in Wiltshire Civil parishes in Wiltshire