Stanton St Bernard is a village and
civil parish in the
Vale of Pewsey,
Wiltshire, England. Its nearest town is
Devizes, about away to the west.
The parish is tall and narrow, extending north onto 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 it includes
Milk Hill
Milk Hill, located near Alton Priors east of Devizes, is the highest point in the county of Wiltshire, southwest England, at some above sea level (the adjacent Tan Hill rises to 294 m). It is the location of the Alton Barnes white horse ...
, the highest point in Wiltshire.
History
Evidence of prehistoric activity in the area includes
earthworks
Earthworks may refer to:
Construction
*Earthworks (archaeology), human-made constructions that modify the land contour
* Earthworks (engineering), civil engineering works created by moving or processing quantities of soil
*Earthworks (military), m ...
on Milk Hill. The
Wansdyke early medieval earthwork crosses the north of the parish. The boundaries of the parish were defined in
Saxon
The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic
*
*
*
*
peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...
times and remain largely unchanged.
The
Domesday Book of 1086 recorded 46 households at ''Stantone'', held by
Wilton Abbey, and the manor continued to be held by the abbey until its
dissolution in 1539.
The manor was granted to
Sir William Herbert in 1544, who was created Earl of Pembroke in 1551, and the estate remained with the Pembrokes until 1917.
Tenants of the
demesne
A demesne ( ) or domain was all the land retained and managed by a lord of the manor under the feudal system for his own use, occupation, or support. This distinguished it from land sub-enfeoffed by him to others as sub-tenants. The concept or ...
farm included the Prater family. Anthony Prater (1545-1583) was subject to litigation for extortion and was
excommunicated from the Catholic church.
The
manor house and Mill Farmhouse (a former
watermill) are from the 17th century; Church Farmhouse is from the late 18th.
The
Kennet and Avon Canal
The Kennet and Avon Canal is a waterway in southern England with an overall length of , made up of two lengths of navigable river linked by a canal. The name is used to refer to the entire length of the navigation rather than solely to the cent ...
was built through the parish in 1807.
The wharf at
Honeystreet, just over the eastern boundary, served the area.
A small school was built in 1849, next to the church. It closed in 1970 and the children transferred to the school at
Woodborough; the building became the village hall.
Population of the parish peaked in the late 19th century, with 371 recorded at the 1871 census and 373 in 1891, then declined throughout the 20th century.
Religious sites
A church, which became the
parish church of All Saints, was first mentioned in 1267.
The tower was added in the 15th century, then in 1832 all except the tower was rebuilt in
Gothic
Gothic or Gothics may refer to:
People and languages
*Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes
**Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths
**Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
style; a further rebuilding of the chancel became necessary in 1859.
Scholarly vicars of Stanton St Bernard include
Robert Parker (from 1594) and
Nathaniel Stephens (1604).
The benefice was united with that of
Alton Barnes with Alton Priors in 1928, with the parsonage house at Stanton St Bernard to be sold, taking effect on the next vacancy (which occurred in 1932).
A team ministry was established for the area in 1975, and today the parish is part of the Vale of Pewsey Churches, alongside 15 others.
A
Wesleyan Methodist chapel was built in 1841 and closed in the early 20th century.
Governance
The civil parish elects a
parish council. All significant local government services are provided by
Wiltshire Council, with its headquarters in
Trowbridge, and the parish is represented there by Paul Oatway. In the
House of Commons the parish is part of the
Devizes constituency.
References
Further reading
*
Nikolaus Pevsner, Bridget Cherry, ''
The Buildings of England: Wiltshire'' (
Penguin Books, 1975)
External links
*
Stanton St Bernardat genuki.org.uk
stantonstbernard.org– parish website
{{authority control
Villages in Wiltshire
Civil parishes in Wiltshire