Manton is a small village in

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, on the western outskirts 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 ...

just off the A4 Bath Road.

History

A settlement of twelve households and an estate held by

Miles Crispin Miles Crispin (died 1107), also known as Miles or Milo of Wallingford, was a wealthy Norman landowner, particularly associated with Wallingford Castle in Berkshire (now Oxfordshire). The Domesday Book records Miles as a major landowner with holding ...

were recorded at ''Manetone'' in the 1087 Domesday Book. In the 17th century the estate came into the ownership of the earls and marquesses of Ailesbury, whose seat was nearby at

Tottenham House Tottenham House is a large Grade I listed English country house in the parish of Great Bedwyn, Wiltshire, about five miles southeast of the town of Marlborough. It is separated from the town by Savernake Forest, which is part of the Tottenham ...

; their ownership continued into the 20th century. Manton was a

tithing A tithing or tything was a historic English legal, administrative or territorial unit, originally ten hides (and hence, one tenth of a hundred). Tithings later came to be seen as subdivisions of a manor or civil parish. The tithing's leader or s ...

Preshute Preshute is a civil parish immediately west and northwest of Marlborough in Wiltshire, England. Unusually for a Wiltshire parish, it does not take its name from any town or village. The population at the 2011 census was 193. The River Kennet an ...

parish until 1934, when it was transferred to Marlborough

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 ...

Local economy

A small industrial estate on the A4 to the west of Manton houses several businesses including the headquarters of P&M Aviation, a manufacturer of ultralight aircraft.

Amenities

The village primary school is Preshute Primary School, which feeds into St Johns Academy in Marlborough. The village has a

pub A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...

, the ''Oddfellows''. The

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

Church of St George is west of the village, next to Preshute House. This settlement was identified as Preshute as recently as the 1961 (7th series) Ordnance Survey map but on current maps and road signs it is part of Manton. There was a church at Preshute in the 12th century, and possibly earlier; fragments of 12th-century masonry survive. The font of black

Tournai Tournai or Tournay ( ; ; nl, Doornik ; pcd, Tornai; wa, Tornè ; la, Tornacum) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. It lies southwest of Brussels on the river Scheldt. Tournai is part of Euromet ...

marble, 12th century, said to have been brought from St. Nicholas's chapel in

Marlborough Castle Marlborough Castle, locally known and recorded in historical documents as ''The Mound'', was an 11th-century royal castle located in the civil parish of Marlborough, a market town in the English county of Wiltshire, on the Old Bath Road, the ol ...

in the 15th or 16th centuries, is described by Pevsner as a "truly amazing piece". The church was rebuilt, on the same foundations and retaining the 15th-century tower, by

T.H. Wyatt Thomas Henry Wyatt (9 May 1807 – 5 August 1880) was an Anglo-Irish architect. He had a prolific and distinguished career, being elected President of the Royal Institute of British Architects 1870–73 and being awarded its Royal Gold Medal for A ...

in 1854; it is

Grade II* listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

. Today the parish is part of the Marlborough Anglican Team, together with St Mary's in Marlborough and St John the Baptist at Mildenhall.

The Manton Estate

The Manton Estate is northwest of the village, on 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 k ...

in the parish of Preshute. It includes Manton House, Manton Lodge and Manton House Stables, currently operated by

thoroughbred The Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known for its use in horse racing. Although the word ''thoroughbred'' is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed. Thoroughbreds are c ...

horse trainer A horse trainer is a person who tends to horses and teaches them different disciplines. Some of the responsibilities trainers have are caring for the animals' physical needs, as well as teaching them submissive behaviors and/or coaching them for e ...

Brian Meehan Brian Joseph Meehan (born 16 July 1967 in Limerick, Ireland) is a trainer of Thoroughbred racehorses who began his career as a licensed trainer in 1992. Since 2006 he has been based on the Marlborough Downs at the historic Manton Estate near Mant ...

. The stables were established in the 1860s by Alec Taylor and then run by his son Alec Taylor, Jr. The estate was purchased by Leeds-born soap manufacturer Joseph Watson (died 1922), who in 1921 won the Oaks with ''

Love in Idleness ''Love In Idleness'' is a 1944 comedy play by the British writer Terence Rattigan. A young man with radical left-wing views returns from Canada to discover to his horror that his mother is in a relationship with a wealthy businessman currently se ...

'' and came 3rd in the

Derby Derby ( ) is a city and unitary authority area in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Derwent in the south of Derbyshire, which is in the East Midlands Region. It was traditionally the county town of Derbyshire. Derby gai ...

with ''Lemonora''; in 1922 he was raised to the peerage as

Baron Manton Baron Manton, of Compton Verney in the County of Warwick, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 25 January 1922 in recognition of war services for the Leeds industrialist Joseph Watson. the title is held by his g ...

. Later the estate was acquired by the Sangster family.

References

External links

* {{authority control Villages in Wiltshire