Tisbury is a large 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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

approximately west of

Salisbury Salisbury ( , ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parish in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers River Avon, Hampshire, Avon, River Nadder, Nadder and River Bourne, Wi ...

in the English county of

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated to Wilts) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It borders Gloucestershire to the north, Oxfordshire to the north-east, Berkshire to the east, Hampshire to the south-east, Dorset to the south, and Somerset to ...

. With a population at the 2011 census of 2,253 it is a centre for communities around the upper

River Nadder The River Nadder is a tributary of the River Avon, Hampshire, River Avon, flowing in south Wiltshire, England. Course The river flows north from Ludwell, Wiltshire, Ludwell to West End where it is joined by the Ferne Brook, close to the Lower Co ...

and Vale of Wardour. The parish includes the hamlets of Upper Chicksgrove and Wardour. Tisbury is the largest settlement within the

Cranborne Chase Cranborne Chase () is an area of central southern England, straddling the counties Dorset, Hampshire and Wiltshire. It is part of the Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). The area is dominated by, ...

and West Wiltshire Downs

Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB; , AHNE) is one of 46 areas of countryside in England, Wales, or Northern Ireland that has been designated for conservation due to its significant landscape value. Since 2023, the areas in England an ...

(larger nearby settlements such as Salisbury and

Shaftesbury Shaftesbury () is a town and civil parish in Dorset, England. It is on the A30 road, west of Salisbury, Wiltshire, Salisbury and north-northeast of Dorchester, Dorset, Dorchester, near the border with Wiltshire. It is the only significant hi ...

are just outside it).

Prehistory

The area has some paleoanthropological significance. Evidence of early human activity comes from the Middle Gravel at Swanscombe, Kent, a 400,000-year-old stratum, in which skull fragments of a young woman were found. Along with the remains were several fragments of Pseudodiplocoenia oblonga (also known as Isastraea oblonga), one of four Upper Jurassic species of coral unique to the Upper Portlandian of Tisbury. This indicates that the group to which the woman belonged travelled to the Tisbury area, or were part of a trade network linked to the locality. The coral-bearing chert found at Swanscombe has been interpreted as being intentionally carved to represent the profile of a hominid head, making Tisbury the source of materiel used in what is possibly one of the world's oldest pieces of art. Tisbury Hoard

As in much of the Wiltshire Downs, there is also evidence of

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

settlement. The Tisbury Hoard comprising 114 bronze items, discovered in 2011, is from the 9th to 8th century BC. To the southeast of the village lies a large

hillfort A hillfort is a type of fortification, fortified refuge or defended settlement located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typical of the late Bronze Age Europe, European Bronze Age and Iron Age Europe, Iron Age. So ...

, now known as Castle Ditches, which was referred to as Willburge in a charter of 984 A.D. Enclosed within ramparts of the fort is a

long barrow Long barrows are a style of monument constructed across Western Europe in the fifth and fourth millennia BCE, during the Early Neolithic period. Typically constructed from earth and either timber or stone, those using the latter material repres ...

measuring 60m long, 25m wide and 0.7m high. A

stone circle A stone circle is a ring of megalithic standing stones. Most are found in Northwestern Europe – especially Stone circles in the British Isles and Brittany – and typically date from the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age, with most being ...

once stood in one of three adjacent fields, one which was known as Lost Stone Field, near the junction of the Chicksgrove and Chilmark roads. These fields have been joined to form the present Cemetery Field. The last three remaining standing stones, removed in the latter part of the 18th century, now form part of the grotto at Old Wardour.

History

There are known early references between 710 and 716 to Wintra, Abbot of Tisbury, and in 759 monks of Tisbury are mentioned in a grant of land to Abbot Ecgnold and his familia (community) at Tisbury Grange. The monastery may have been founded as early as 705 and may have been sited near an old cemetery discovered north of Church Street. The Saxon settlement came into the possession of

Shaftesbury Abbey Shaftesbury Abbey was an abbey that housed nuns in Shaftesbury, Dorset. It was founded in about 888, and Dissolution of the monasteries, dissolved in 1539 during the English Reformation by the order of Thomas Cromwell, minister to King Henry VI ...

, as recorded in

Domesday Book Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

of 1086, when there was a relatively large settlement of 90 households at ''Tisseberie''. The abbey's administration centre was the

monastic grange Monastic granges were outlying landholdings held by Monastery, monasteries independent of the Manorialism, manorial system. The first granges were owned by the Cistercians, and other orders followed. Wealthy monastic houses had many granges, mo ...

, where the 14th-century building, now a house at Place Farm is

Grade I listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

, as are the outer and inner gatehouses, built in limestone in the 15th century. The thatched

tithe barn A tithe barn was a type of barn used in much of northern Europe in the Middle Ages for storing rents and tithes. Farmers were required to give one-tenth of their produce to the established church. Tithe barns were usually associated with the ...

is also Grade I listed; it is now used as a multi-purpose gallery and arts centre, managed by Messums Wiltshire. The village's 13th-century prosperity came from the quarries that produced stone for the building of

Salisbury Cathedral Salisbury Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is an Church of England, Anglican cathedral in the city of Salisbury, England. The cathedral is regarded as one of the leading examples of Early English architecture, ...

, and from the wool that supported a local cloth industry. The village suffered a serious setback with the

Black Death The Black Death was a bubonic plague pandemic that occurred in Europe from 1346 to 1353. It was one of the list of epidemics, most fatal pandemics in human history; as many as people perished, perhaps 50% of Europe's 14th century population. ...

in the mid-14th century but slowly recovered. Gaston Manor, close to the High Street, is a former 14th-century

hall house The hall house is a type of vernacular house traditional in many parts of England, Wales, Ireland and lowland Scotland, as well as northern Europe, during the Middle Ages, centring on a hall. Usually timber-framed, some high status examples wer ...

which was rebuilt and then extended in the 16th and 17th centuries. To the southwest of the village centre are the remains of the village of Wyck, a

deserted medieval village In the United Kingdom, a deserted medieval village (DMV) is a former settlement which was abandoned during the Middle Ages, typically leaving no trace apart from earthworks or cropmarks. If there are fewer than three inhabited houses the conve ...

abandoned in the 14th century. Some idea of the population of the area in the 14th century is given by the number assessed as being liable to the

poll tax A poll tax, also known as head tax or capitation, is a tax levied as a fixed sum on every liable individual (typically every adult), without reference to income or resources. ''Poll'' is an archaic term for "head" or "top of the head". The sen ...

of 1377: every lay person over the age of 14 years who was not a beggar had to pay a groat (4d) to the Crown. The number of taxpayers in Hatch, East and West (in Tisbury) was 152, and in Tisbury there were 281. On

John Speed John Speed (1551 or 1552 – 28 July 1629) was an English cartographer, chronologer and historian of Cheshire origins.; superseding . The son of a citizen and Merchant Taylor in London,"Life of John Speed", ''The Hibernian Magazine, Or, Compe ...

's map of

of 1611, the village's name is recorded as ''Tilburye'': the cartographer or the engraver clearly having mistaken a ''

long s The long s, , also known as the medial ''s'' or initial ''s'', is an Archaism, archaic form of the lowercase letter , found mostly in works from the late 8th to early 19th centuries. It replaced one or both of the letters ''s'' in a double-''s ...

'' for an ''l''. At Wardour, some southwest of Tisbury, the 14th-century Wardour Castle was badly damaged in the 1640s during the

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

. It was superseded in the 1770s by

New Wardour Castle New Wardour Castle is a Grade I listed English country house at Wardour, near Tisbury in Wiltshire, built for the Arundell family. The house is of Palladian style, designed by the architect James Paine, with additions by Giacomo Quarenghi, w ...

, a country house in

Palladian Palladian architecture is a European architectural style derived from the work of the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio (1508–1580). What is today recognised as Palladian architecture evolved from his concepts of symmetry, perspective and ...

style, which was the seat of the Lords Arundell of Wardour until the 20th century. Both the ruins and the house are Grade I listed. The Fonthill estate, formerly the site of country houses including Fonthill Splendens (18th century) and Fonthill Abbey (from 1796), straddles the parishes of Tisbury, Chilmark, East Knoyle, Fonthill Bishop, Fonthill Gifford, Hindon and West Tisbury. Most of the ornamental Fonthill Lake is within the parish, as the stream which marked the parish boundary was submerged when the lake was expanded. The estate is currently the seat of Alastair Morrison, 3rd Baron Margadale, who owns land and property in Tisbury including the former abbey site at Place Farm.

19th-century development

Quarrying of stone increased from the mid-18th century, and by 1846 there were 40 quarries in the parish. The industry was most active later in that century and into the early 20th, although none of the quarries extended underground. The

Salisbury and Yeovil Railway The Salisbury and Yeovil Railway linked Salisbury, Wiltshire, Salisbury (Wiltshire), Gillingham, Dorset, Gillingham (Dorset) and Yeovil (Somerset) in England. Opened in stages in 1859 and 1860, it formed a bridge route between the main London a ...

opened Tisbury station with the first section of its line, from Salisbury to Gillingham, on 2 May 1859. The original plan for a railway west of Salisbury was to bypass Tisbury and Shaftesbury but the Quaker activist John Rutter campaigned for the line to be routed through both settlements. At first only passengers were catered for, but goods traffic started on 1 September 1860 with the line being extended to Exeter. Services were operated by the

London and South Western Railway The London and South Western Railway (LSWR, sometimes written L&SWR) was a railway company in England from 1838 to 1922. Originating as the London and Southampton Railway, its network extended to Dorchester and Weymouth, to Salisbury, Exete ...

. By 1870 the line had been doubled, although the part crossing the parish was reduced to single track in 1967. From 1861 the room above a building near to St John the Baptist parish church, known as The Rank, was used as a glove factory. It employed 36 women, and production continued until the early 1970s. In 1873 St. John's Infants' School was built midway up the High Street at the suggestion of Rev. F.E. Hutchinson. It was paid for by Lord Arundell, Sir Michael Shaw-Stewart and Alfred Morrison. After the workhouse on Church Street closed in 1868, Archibald Beckett converted it to a brewery; it was later replaced by a steam brewery which in turn was rebuilt in 1885 after a fire. Beckett carried out other improvements including the construction of a new road through the village, the present-day High Street. From 1914 the brewery buildings housed a steam-powered flour mill, and later a mill for animal feed, which closed in 1964.

Religious sites

Parish church

Pevsner describes the limestone

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in com ...

of St John the Baptist as "the largest church in its part of Wiltshire". It is a Grade I

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

. The first record of the church is in the early 12th century and there are fragments of masonry from that time in the north and west walls of the nave. The base of the central tower is from the late 12th century and its first stage is from the 13th, as is the two-storey north porch. In 1299 the north transept became the Lady Chapel. The chancel was rebuilt in the late-13th or early-14th century, and in 1450 the nave was rebuilt, wider and with a clerestory and wagon roof; the roofline of the earlier nave is visible on the west wall of the tower. The pews, choir stalls and pulpit were installed in the 1660s, and the font – possibly 13th-century – was restored at the same time. The

reredos A reredos ( , , ) is a large altarpiece, a screen, or decoration placed behind the altar in a Church (building), church. It often includes religious images. The term ''reredos'' may also be used for similar structures, if elaborate, in secular a ...

of 1884 is by

Ewan Christian Ewan Christian (1814–1895) was a British architect. He is most frequently noted for the restorations of Southwell Minster and Carlisle Cathedral, and the design of the National Portrait Gallery (London), National Portrait Gallery. He was Arch ...

. The four bells were recast in 1700 and two more added in 1720; all remain in place except one of the 1720 pair, which cracked and was recast in 1989. The tower carried a spire, which fell in 1762 and was replaced by adding a shorter storey to the tower. The clock was fabricated by local clockmaker Thomas Osmond, father of William Osmond, mason at

. Thomas Osmond was a resident of The Clockhouse on The Avenue and is buried at St John's, his gravestone showing a clockface. A church organ was installed in 1887 by the Victorian organ builder, "Father"

Henry Willis Henry Willis (27 April 1821 – 11 February 1901), also known as "Father" Willis, was an English organ player and builder, who is regarded as the foremost organ builder of the Victorian era. His company Henry Willis & Sons remains in bus ...

. The organ was restored in 2014. Restoration in the 19th century included the building of the south vestry, and in 1927 the tower was restored and the bells rehung. The church was recorded as

in 1966. The largest of the yew trees in the churchyard is over 1,000 years old. Several chest tombs are listed structures, including three from the 17th century. Also here are the graves of

Rudyard Kipling Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English journalist, novelist, poet, and short-story writer. He was born in British Raj, British India, which inspired much ...

's parents,

John John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second E ...

and

Alice Alice may refer to: * Alice (name), most often a feminine given name, but also used as a surname Literature * Alice (''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland''), a character in books by Lewis Carroll * ''Alice'' series, children's and teen books by ...

Parish

Besides Tisbury, the ecclesiastical parish encompassed part of Wardour and the area which is now West Tisbury civil parish. In 1976 a team benefice was created to include the churches of Tisbury, Swallowcliffe, Ansty and Chilmark; today the parish is part of the Nadder Valley Team Ministry, a group of 15 churches. St Andrew's church at Newtown (now in West Tisbury) was built in 1811 using Chilmark stone salvaged from a former church in the grounds of

Pythouse Pythouse, sometimes spelled Pyt House and pronounced ''pit-house'', is a English country house, country house in southwest Wiltshire, in the west of England. It is about west of the village of Tisbury, Wiltshire, Tisbury. Described as a "fine ...

. It was a

chapel-of-ease A chapel of ease (or chapel-of-ease) is a church architecture, church building other than the parish church, built within the bounds of a parish for the attendance of those who cannot reach the parish church conveniently, generally due to trav ...

of Tisbury until it was declared redundant in 1975, and is now in residential use.

Others

Zion Hill, a

Congregational Congregationalism (also Congregational Churches or Congregationalist Churches) is a Reformed Christianity, Reformed Christian (Calvinist) tradition of Protestant Christianity in which churches practice Congregationalist polity, congregational ...

chapel, was opened in 1842 and went out of use sometime after 1977; it is now residential accommodation and is Grade II listed. The

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

Church of The Sacred Heart was built on the lower High Street in 1898 with support from the Arundells of Wardour. The Arundells had a large private chapel at

, built integral to the mansion in the 1770s and enlarged in 1789; now Grade I listed, it is owned by the Wardour Chapel Trust. A

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...

chapel was built on the High Street in 1902.

Education

A National School was built on church land immediately west of the church in 1843, replacing earlier informal schools; F. E. Hutchinson, vicar from 1858 to 1913, was much involved. A separate infants' school was built in 1873, and in 1905 the school for older children could accommodate 290. Children of all ages were educated until 1961, when Dunworth Secondary Modern School was built at Weaveland Road for those over 11. The 19th-century school remained in use until the opening in 1973 of a new primary school, next to the secondary school, and the redundant building became the village hall. From 1983 the three-tier system was introduced and Dunworth School became the Nadder Church of England Middle School; children over 13 travelled to Shaftesbury. In 2004 the system reverted to two tiers: the middle school closed and its site was later used to build the Nadder Centre. The 1973 school continues as St John's CofE ( VC) Primary School.

Governance

The civil parish elects a parish council. It is in the area of

Wiltshire Council Wiltshire Council, known between 1889 and 2009 as Wiltshire County Council, is the Local government in England, local authority for the non-metropolitan county of Wiltshire (district), Wiltshire in South West England, and has its headquarters a ...

, a

unitary authority A unitary authority is a type of local government, local authority in New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Unitary authorities are responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are ...

which is responsible for all significant local government functions. The historic parish covered a large area. From at least the 15th century, until the early 19th century, the parish was split into the four tithings of Tisbury, Staple, Chicksgrove, and Hatch. In 1835, it was divided into three parishes: East Tisbury, West Tisbury and Wardour. In 1927, East Tisbury and Wardour were united as Tisbury civil parish.

Notable people

Thomas Mayhew Governor Thomas Mayhew, the Elder (April 1, 1593 – March 25, 1682) established the first European settlement on Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket and adjacent islands in 1642. He is one of the editors of the Bay Psalm Book, the first book published i ...

(1593–1682), who in 1642 established the first

English settlement ''English Settlement'' is the fifth studio album and first double album by the English rock band XTC, released 12 February 1982 on Virgin Records. It marked a turn towards the more pastoral pop songs that would dominate later XTC releases, wi ...

Martha's Vineyard Martha's Vineyard, often simply called the Vineyard, is an island in the U.S. state of Massachusetts, lying just south of Cape Cod. It is known for being a popular, affluent summer colony, and includes the smaller peninsula Chappaquiddick Isla ...

in North America, was born in Tisbury. Other people born in Tisbury include the Rev. William Jay (1769–1853, preacher); Christopher Hinton (1901–1983, nuclear engineer); and

Gillian Lewis Gillian Lewis (born 1935) is an English character actress who, after a varied stage career in the 1950s and early '60s, appeared in a number of television drama series until the late 1970s. Notable roles were as the runaway heiress Geraldine Me ...

(stage and television actress). Etheldred Benett (1776–1845), the early geologist, was born at Tisbury and studied fossils in the area. Sir Matthew Arundell of Wardour Castle, a great landowner and a cousin of

Queen Elizabeth Queen Elizabeth, Queen Elisabeth or Elizabeth the Queen may refer to: Queens regnant * Elizabeth I (1533–1603; ), Queen of England and Ireland * Elizabeth II (1926–2022; ), Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms * Queen B ...

, was entombed in the parish church in 1598. The Tisbury stonemasons Joseph and Josiah Lane, father and son, were responsible for the construction of many grottos during the 18th century in England. The parents of poet

Alice Kipling Alice Caroline Kipling (4 April 1837 – 22 November 1910) was one of the MacDonald sisters, Englishwomen of the Victorian era, four of whom were notable for their contribution to the arts and their marriages to well-known men. A writer and poet ...

and

John Lockwood Kipling John Lockwood Kipling (6 July 1837 – 26 January 1911) was an English art teacher, illustrator and museum curator who spent most of his career in India. He was the father of the author Rudyard Kipling. Life and career Lockwood Kipling was b ...

, lived at Tisbury in later life. According to one source, "After a long and distinguished artistic career in India, the Kiplings moved to a residence along Hindon Lane which they renamed 'The Gables'. Their famous son visited them here and, whilst working on his novel '' Kim'', his father (his illustrator) used the drawings of one of the pupils from Tisbury Boys' School as the model for the main character." In 2013, The Gables, with five bedrooms and an adjoining cricket pitch, was for sale at a price of £950,000. Ecclesiastical architect Edward Doran Webb (1864–1931) lived at Gaston Manor in Tisbury. Other Tisbury residents included Northern Irish colonial administrator and politician

Henry Clark Henry Clark may refer to: Politicians *Henry Toole Clark (1808–1874), Governor of North Carolina, 1861–1862 *Henry Selby Clark (1809–1869), U.S. Representative from North Carolina *Henry A. Clark (New York politician) (1818–1906), New Yor ...

(1929–2012), army officer and campaigner for refugees Major Derek Cooper (1912–2007) and businessman John Meade, 7th Earl of Clanwilliam (1919–2009). Charles "Snaffles" Payne (1884–1967), humorous painter, lived and worked at Tisbury from the late 1940s. The artist and children's book author John Strickland Goodall lived in Tisbury in 1946. Sir Horace Rumbold (1869–1941), diplomat, lived at Tisbury in later life. Charles McLelland (1930–2004), controller of BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 2 from 1976 to 1978, and the controller solely of BBC Radio 2 from 1978 to 1980, lived at Tisbury in later life.

Martin Fleischmann Martin Fleischmann FRS (29 March 1927 – 3 August 2012) was a British chemist who worked in electrochemistry. By Associated Press. The premature announcement of his cold fusion research with Stanley Pons, regarding excess heat in hea ...

(1927–2012), a chemist noted for his work in

electrochemistry Electrochemistry is the branch of physical chemistry concerned with the relationship between Electric potential, electrical potential difference and identifiable chemical change. These reactions involve Electron, electrons moving via an electronic ...

and (controversially)

cold fusion Cold fusion is a hypothesized type of nuclear reaction that would occur at, or near, room temperature. It would contrast starkly with the nuclear fusion, "hot" fusion that is known to take place naturally within Main sequence, stars and artific ...

, moved to Tisbury following his retirement as Professor of Electrochemistry at

Southampton University The University of Southampton (abbreviated as ''Soton'' in post-nominal letters) is a public research university in Southampton, England. Southampton is a founding member of the Russell Group of research-intensive universities in the United K ...

. Robert Willis (1947−2024), later

Dean of Canterbury The Dean of Canterbury is the head of the Chapter (religion), Chapter of Canterbury Cathedral, the Cathedral of Christ Church, Canterbury, England. The current office of dean (religion), Dean originated after the English Reformation, although Dea ...

from 2001 to 2022, was team rector of Tisbury from 1978 to 1987.

Amenities

In August 2016

opened the Nadder Centre, which provides leisure activities and is home to the local library. Since April 2017, after the closure of the local

police station A police station is a facility operated by police or a similar law enforcement agency that serves to accommodate police officers and other law enforcement personnel. The role served by a police station varies by agency, type, and jurisdiction, ...

, the Nadder Centre provides basic facilities for police officers patrolling the area. Next to the Nadder Centre is an open-air heated swimming pool, the only one of its type in

. The village has an amateur dramatic society, the Tisbury Arts Group, which also hosts regular musical events. Tisbury holds an annual carnival, usually in September, which celebrated its centenary in 2019. However, in 2020 and 2021, the event was cancelled due to restrictions in effect for COVID-19. There is a biannual Brocante, "A Festival of Antiques and Vintage Finds". The

village hall A village hall is a public building in a rural or suburban community which functions as a community centre without a religious affiliation. United Kingdom In the United Kingdom, a village hall is a building which is owned by a local gover ...

for the parish is the Victoria Hall, on the High Street. It is run by a charity, Victoria Hall Tisbury Ltd. There is a small fire station, run by Dorset & Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service, with one pumping appliance and a Land Rover, and staffed by

retained firefighter In the United Kingdom and Ireland, a retained firefighter, also known as an RDS firefighter or on-call firefighter, is a firefighter who does not work on a fire station full-time but is paid to spend long periods of time on call to respond to eme ...

s. In 2017, Tisbury was listed in the ''Sunday Times'' 'Best Places to Live' rundown. Lady Down Quarry, in the north-east of the parish, is a

geological Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain, or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland, is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle ...

Transport

Tisbury railway station is on the

West of England Main Line The West of England line (also known as the West of England Main Line) is a British railway line from , Hampshire, to in Devon, England. Passenger services run between London Waterloo station and Exeter; the line intersects with the Wessex Ma ...

, placing its residents within

commuting Commuting is periodically recurring travel between a place of residence and place of work or study, where the traveler, referred to as a commuter, leaves the boundary of their home community. By extension, it can sometimes be any regular o ...

distance of London. The village is from the

A303 The A303 is a trunk road in southern England, running between Basingstoke in Hampshire and Honiton in Devon via Stonehenge. Connecting the M3 and the A30, it is part of one of the main routes from London to Devon and Cornwall. It is a prima ...

trunk road A trunk road is a major highway with a specific legal classification in some jurisdictions, notably the United Kingdom, Sweden and formerly Ireland. Trunk roads are planned and managed at the national-level, distinguishing them from non-trunk ro ...

linking

Andover Andover may refer to: Places Australia *Andover, Tasmania Canada * Andover Parish, New Brunswick * Perth-Andover, New Brunswick United Kingdom * Andover, Hampshire, England ** RAF Andover, a former Royal Air Force station United States * Andov ...

with the

West Country The West Country is a loosely defined area within southwest England, usually taken to include the counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset and Bristol, with some considering it to extend to all or parts of Wiltshire, Gloucestershire and ...

. Salisbury Reds operate three buses a day from Tisbury to Salisbury and two in the other direction, . Buses on the

to Salisbury service, also operated by Salisbury Reds, call at Tisbury. The village is also served by TISBUS, a community transport organisation which provides weekly shopping trips to Salisbury, Gillingham, Warminster and Shaftesbury.

Planned housing

In 2021, Tisbury Community Homes submitted outline plans for a development called Station Works, with 86 homes and a care home with up to 40 beds, on an industrial site adjacent to the railway line. The development would increase the village's population by 12%. Part of the site would be safeguarded for any future rail improvements, and businesses on the site would have to close with a loss of about 50 jobs. The Environment Agency objected to the development because of the potential increased risk of flooding. Tisbury Parish Council voted to object to the Station Works planning application in December 2021, and the Southern Area Planning Committee of Wiltshire Council refused the planning application. In March 2023, crowd-funding organised by Tisbury residents raised over £15,000 for potential legal costs to challenge the development. In June 2023, the Planning Inspectorate dismissed the developer's appeal against the planning refusal.

Film locations

Scenes of the fictional Locksley Castle for the 1991 film '' Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves'' were shot at Old Wardour Castle. Fonthill Lake was used for riverside scenes in the 2000 film '' Chocolat'', starring

Juliette Binoche Juliette Binoche (; born 9 March 1964) is a French actress. She has appeared in more than 60 films, particularly in French and English, and has been the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Juliette Binoche, numerous accolades, ...

and

Johnny Depp John Christopher Depp II (born June 9, 1963) is an American actor and musician. He is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Johnny Depp, multiple accolades, including a Golden Globe Award as well as nominations for ...

. Some scenes in the 2009 film '' Morris: A Life with Bells On'' were filmed in Tisbury, including at the Tisbury Sports Centre. Other scenes were filmed at the Compasses Inn nearby at Lower Chicksgrove.

References

External links

Tisbury Parish Council

St John's Church, Tisbury
{{authority control Villages in Wiltshire Civil parishes in Wiltshire