Seagry is a civil parish in Wiltshire

Wiltshire

Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, about 4.5 miles (7.2 km) south of Malmesbury and 5.5 miles (8.9 km) north of Chippenham

Chippenham

Chippenham may be:* Chippenham, Wiltshire* Chippenham * Chippenham, Cambridgeshire-See also:* Virginia State Route 150, also known as Chippenham Parkway, USA* Cippenham, Berkshire, UK...

. Its main settlements are the village of Upper Seagry and the hamlet

Hamlet (place)

A hamlet is usually a rural settlement which is too small to be considered a village, though sometimes the word is used for a different sort of community. Historically, when a hamlet became large enough to justify building a church, it was then classified as a village...

 of Lower Seagry.

The toponym

Toponymy

Toponymy is the scientific study of place names , their origins, meanings, use and typology. The word "toponymy" is derived from the Greek words tópos and ónoma . Toponymy is itself a branch of onomastics, the study of names of all kinds...

 is thought to derive from the Old English for "sedge stream", possibly referring to the River Avon which flows through the area.

History

There is evidence that the area was settled in the Upper Paleolithic period, and also of Saxon

History of Anglo-Saxon England

Anglo-Saxon England refers to the period of the history of that part of Britain, that became known as England, lasting from the end of Roman occupation and establishment of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in the 5th century until the Norman conquest of England in 1066 by William the Conqueror...

 occupation. The Domesday Book

Domesday Book

Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...

 of 1086 records two manors, that of Durand of Gloucester Segrete, and that of Dru Fitz Ponz, Segrie.

Segrete became part of the estates of the Earl of Hereford

Earl of Hereford

The title of Earl of Hereford was created six times in the Peerage of England. See also Duke of Hereford, Viscount Hereford. Dates indicate the years the person held the title for.-Earls of Hereford, First Creation :*Swegen Godwinson...

, and later passed into the ownership of Bradenstoke Abbey

Bradenstoke Abbey

Bradenstoke Priory is a medieval priory in the village of Bradenstoke, Wiltshire, England. It is noted today for its structures having been used by William Randolph Hearst for the renovation of St Donat's Castle, near Llantwit Major, Wales, in the 1930s....

 until the Dissolution of the Monasteries

Dissolution of the Monasteries

The Dissolution of the Monasteries, sometimes referred to as the Suppression of the Monasteries, was the set of administrative and legal processes between 1536 and 1541 by which Henry VIII disbanded monasteries, priories, convents and friaries in England, Wales and Ireland; appropriated their...

. A grange farm at Lower Seagry was associated with the Abbey.

The Church of England parish church

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 the smallest and most basic Church of England administrative region, known as a parish.-Parishes in England:...

 of St Mary the Virgin

Mary (mother of Jesus)

Mary , commonly referred to as "Saint Mary", "Mother Mary", the "Virgin Mary", the "Blessed Virgin Mary", or "Mary, Mother of God", was a Jewish woman of Nazareth in Galilee...

 was founded in 1172 by Walter de Clifford

Walter de Clifford

Walter I de Clifford was an Anglo-Norman marcher lord of Bronllys Castle on the Welsh border, and Clifford Castle , in Herefordshire...

, who was a descendant of the Fitz Ponz family. Clifford is buried in the church, as is Isabell Mompesson.

Seagry School was founded in 1966 and has about 62 pupils.