Enford is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, in the northeast of

Salisbury Plain Salisbury Plain is a chalk plateau in the south western part of central southern England covering . It is part of a system of chalk downlands throughout eastern and southern England formed by the rocks of the Chalk Group and largely lies wi ...

. The village lies southeast of Devizes and north of Salisbury. The parish includes nine small settlements along both banks of the headwaters of the River Avon. Besides Enford, these are Compton, Coombe, East Chisenbury, Fifield, Littlecott, Longstreet, New Town and West Chisenbury. The name is derived from the

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

''Enedford'' meaning 'duck ford'.

History

The parish carries much evidence of prehistoric activity, including bowl barrows. Lidbury Camp, on Littlecott Down, was occupied in the Iron Age and in the Romano-British period, and further evidence of Romano-British occupation has been found around Compton. A site on the west bank of the Avon near Compton is possibly that of a Roman villa. The Domesday Book of 1086 recorded 34 households at Enford and a smaller settlement at Compton. Medieval

strip lynchet A lynchet or linchet is an earth terrace found on the side of a hill. Lynchets are a feature of ancient field systems of the British Isles. They are commonly found in vertical rows and more commonly referred to as "strip lynchets". Lynchets appe ...

s are visible north of East Chisenbury. Enford manor was held by St Swithun's priory, Winchester until the Dissolution. Later owners included Thomas Culpeper (executed in 1541 for alleged adultery with Catherine Howard), and Sir Edmund Antrobus who in 1899 sold the manor to the War Office. The parish population in 1676 has been calculated as 616. At the first census in 1841 there were 814; the population peaked at 911 in 1851 and then steadily declined to around 700 in the mid 20th century.

Chisenbury Priory Chisenbury Priory is a Grade II* listed house in East Chisenbury, Wiltshire, England. It dates from the later seventeenth century with a mid eighteenth century front that bears the date 1767 and the initials of Williams Grove. It includes a Justic ...

is a

country house An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a town house. This allowed them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these peopl ...

, approached by a tree-lined drive from the road between Littecott and East Chisenbury. The house was built in the later 17th century, with a brick front added in the 18th; it is Grade II* listed. A school was provided at Enford c. 1845 by Sir Edmund Antrobus, and supported partly by Sir Edmund and partly by a fund organised by John Prince, former vicar. By 1871 it had become a National School with some 61 pupils, increasing to 124 in 1906. The school moved to new buildings at Longstreet in 1966, next to the newly built village hall; it closed in 1989. The parish gained a small area in 1885: West Chisenbury, formerly a detached part of Netheravon parish.

Archaeology

The East Chisenbury

midden A midden (also kitchen midden or shell heap) is an old dump for domestic waste which may consist of animal bone, human excrement, botanical material, mollusc shells, potsherds, lithics (especially debitage), and other artifacts and ecofact ...

is a notable example of a large dump of

archaeological Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

material, dating to the 1st millennium BC. Now within a military training area, the midden mound contains discrete layers of flint, charcoal, bones, pottery and excrement. It survives to a height of and is wide despite 2,500 years of weathering. The accumulation is believed by some archaeologists to have a ritual basis, with organised deposition of produce and waste being suggested as an explanation for its size and longevity.

All Cannings Cross All Cannings Cross is the name of farm and an archaeological site close to All Cannings, near Devizes in the English county of Wiltshire. The site is a scheduled ancient monument. It is notable as the first site where the emergence of Iron Age t ...

, to the north, is a similar site.

Religious sites

Parish church

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 ...

, All Saints', was described by Pevsner as "Quite a large and a very interesting church. ... The chancel is astonishing." The Domesday Book of 1086 recorded a priest at Enford. There may have been a church here at that time, as 12th-century arches are cut into earlier walls. The chancel arch is late 12th or early 13th, while the chancel is 13th except for its south wall. A small octagonal building on the north side, built as a chapel but now the

sacristy A sacristy, also known as a vestry or preparation room, is a room in Christian churches for the keeping of vestments (such as the alb and chasuble) and other church furnishings, sacred vessels, and parish records. The sacristy is usually located ...

, is from a similar date. The north aisle is 14th century; in the 15th the south aisle and the tower were rebuilt. There was a spire, which fell in 1817, requiring repairs to the church in 1825–30.

Restoration Restoration is the act of restoring something to its original state and may refer to: * Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage ** Audio restoration ** Film restoration ** Image restoration ** Textile restoration * Restoration ecology ...

by C.E. Ponting took place in 1892–3. In the churchyard is the lower part of a medieval stone cross. The six bells in the tower include three from the 17th century. The church was designated as

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 ...

in 1964. Today it is part of the Avon River Team parishes.

Methodist chapel

A chapel was built at East Chisenbury c. 1845 by either

Primitive Methodists The Primitive Methodist Church is a Methodist Christian denomination with the holiness movement. It began in England in the early 19th century, with the influence of American evangelist Lorenzo Dow (1777–1834). In the United States, the Primiti ...

or Independent Methodists. A new chapel was built by the former in 1896 and continued in use well into the 20th century; the building was sold in 1990.

Local government

Enford is a civil parish in the area of the Wiltshire Council unitary authority, which is responsible for all significant aspects of local government. It also has an elected parish council, with mostly consultative functions.

Amenities

There is a modern village hall at Longstreet. The parish has two pubs: the ''Swan Inn'' at Enford (17th/18th century) and the ''Red Lion'' at East Chisenbury.

References

External links

Enford Newsletter

Enford
at Wiltshire Community History {{authority control Villages in Wiltshire Civil parishes in Wiltshire