Fosbury 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 eastern edge of the county, near

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...

. It lies about southeast 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 ...

and south of

Hungerford Hungerford is a historic market town and civil parish in Berkshire, England, west of Newbury, east of Marlborough, northeast of Salisbury and 60 miles (97 km) west of London. The Kennet and Avon Canal passes through the town alongside the ...

, Berkshire. With few inhabitants, it forms part of the

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 ...

of Tidcombe and Fosbury, which has a

parish meeting A parish meeting, in England, is a meeting to which all the electors in a civil parish are entitled to attend. In some cases, where a parish or group of parishes has fewer than 200 electors, the parish meeting can take on the role of a parish cou ...

History

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 ...

hill fort A hillfort is a type of earthwork used as a fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typically European and of the Bronze Age or Iron Age. Some were used in the post-Roma ...

of Fosbury Camp lies on high ground south of the village. Two estates at ''Fostesberie'' were 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 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manus ...

of 1086, with altogether 14 households. The smaller one was granted for a time to

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

and then to the priory at Noyon-sur-Andelle, France (now Charleval, Eure). In 1414 it was granted to the new priory at

Sheen Sheen may refer to: Places * Sheen or West Sheen, an alternative name for Richmond, London, England ** East Sheen ** North Sheen ** Sheen Priory * Sheen, Staffordshire, a village and civil parish in the Staffordshire Moorlands, England * Sheenb ...

, Surrey. Fosbury lay within

Savernake Forest Savernake Forest stands on a Cretaceous chalk plateau between Marlborough and Great Bedwyn in Wiltshire, England. Its area is approximately . Most of the forest lies within the civil parish of Savernake. It is privately owned by the Earl of C ...

until 1330. A small medieval village has disappeared; most of the present buildings are from the 19th century.

Fosbury House Fosbury House is a Grade II listed country house northwest of the village of Fosbury in Wiltshire, England, about southeast of Marlborough. The mansion was built about 1800, in limestone ashlar with a hipped tiled roof, and has three storeys. ...

, northwest of Fosbury, was built around 1800. From 1810 it was the seat of the

Bevan Bevan is a name of Welsh origin, derived from ab Ifan meaning "son of Evan" (Ifan being a variant of Ieuan, the Welsh equivalent of John). Notable people with the name include: First name * Bevan Congdon (1938–2018), New Zealand cricketer *Beva ...

banking family, and later was the home of bibliophile

Alfred Henry Huth Alfred Henry Huth (1850–1910) was an English bibliophile. From a banking family, he followed his father Henry Huth's interest in book collecting, and helped found the Bibliographical Society of London. Life Born in London on 14 January 1850, ...

until his death in 1910.

Church

The Anglican Christ Church is Grade II* listed. It was built in 1854–56 by S.S. Teulon, declared redundant in 1979, and is now in private ownership. In flint with stone dressings, it has a three-stage tower with an octagonal stair turret.

Pevsner Pevsner or Pevzner is a Jewish surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Aihud Pevsner (1925–2018), American physicist * Antoine Pevsner (1886–1962), Russian sculptor, brother of Naum Gabo * David Pevsner, American actor, singer, da ...

writes that, apart from details of the chancel roof, there is "little otherwise of Teulon's obstinate originality". Teulon also designed the house for the

perpetual curate Perpetual curate was a class of resident parish priest or incumbent curate within the United Church of England and Ireland (name of the combined Anglican churches of England and Ireland from 1800 to 1871). The term is found in common use mainly du ...

, close to the church and known as Buchan House. In flint with brick decoration, and with stonework matching the church, it too was completed in 1856. Fosbury was anciently 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 ...

of Tidcombe parish. In 1856, after the consecration of Christ Church, an ecclesiastical district was created for it. The benefice was united with Tidcombe in 1926, although the parishes remained distinct; the incumbent was to live at the Fosbury parsonage. In 1962 the benefice was united with East Grafton. The parish was united with Tidcombe in 1979 and the church was declared redundant; soon after it was sold to the owner of Buchan House.

References

{{authority control Villages in Wiltshire