Tisbury, Wiltshire
Encyclopedia
The large village
of Tisbury lies approximately 13 miles (20.9 km) west of Salisbury
in the English county of Wiltshire
.
With a population at the 2001 census of 2,056 it is an important local centre for communities around the upper River Nadder
and Vale of Wardour
. It is the largest settlement within the Cranborne Chase
and West Wiltshire Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
(larger nearby settlements such as Salisbury and Shaftesbury
are just outside it).
is on the West of England Main Line
, placing its residents within commuting
distance of London. The village is 2.5 miles (4 km) from the A303
trunk road
linking Andover
with the West Country
.
, there is evidence of Bronze Age settlement and traces of a probable henge monument
with some evidence of settlement 3–4000 years ago. To the southeast of the village there is a quite large hill fort
, known as Castle Ditches
.
The Saxon settlement came into the possession of Shaftesbury Abbey
across the county border in Dorset. The administration centre was the monastic grange, still called Abbey Grange Place Farm. Its 15th-century thatched tithe barn
bears the largest thatched roof in England. The old Wardour Castle
lies approximately 2.5 miles (4 km) to the southwest of Tisbury.
The village's 13th-century prosperity came from the quarries that produced stone for the building of Salisbury Cathedral
, and from the wool that supported a local cloth industry. The village suffered a serious setback with the Black Death
in the mid-14th century but slowly recovered.
On John Speed
's map of Wiltshire
(1611), the village's name is recorded as Tilburye: the cartographer may have mistaken a long s
for an l.
The churchyard
of the parish church
of St John's holds the graves of Rudyard Kipling
's parents, John Lockwood Kipling
and Alice Kipling
(nee MacDonald). It also holds the second oldest tree in Great Britain, a large yew tree
, which is believed to be around 4,000 years old.
Thomas Mayhew
(March 31, 1593 – March 25, 1682) who established the first English settlement of Martha's Vineyard
in America in 1642 was born in Tisbury.
Some scenes in the 2009 film Morris: A Life with Bells On
were filmed in Tisbury, including at the Tisbury Sports Centre and other scenes were filmed at the nearby Compasses Inn at Lower Chicksgrove
.
Tisbury has recently become home to The Ashley Wood Festival of the Acoustic Arts which is hosted at Ashley Wood Farm.
Village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...
of Tisbury lies approximately 13 miles (20.9 km) west of Salisbury
Salisbury
Salisbury is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England and the only city in the county. It is the second largest settlement in the county...
in the English county of 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...
.
With a population at the 2001 census of 2,056 it is an important local centre for communities around the upper River Nadder
River Nadder
The River Nadder is one of the chalk stream rivers of southern England, much sought after by fly fishermen because of its clear waters and abundance of brown trout. It is one of the main tributaries of the River Avon, rising from a number of springs and small streams at Donhead St. Mary in south...
and Vale of Wardour
Wardour, Wiltshire
Wardour is a settlement in Wiltshire, England, five miles to the south of Hindon. Formerly a parish in its own right, it is now part of the civil parish of Tisbury.The ruins of Wardour Castle are a prominent feature...
. It is the largest settlement within the Cranborne Chase
Cranborne Chase
Cranborne Chase is a Chalk plateau in central southern England, straddling the counties Dorset, Hampshire and Wiltshire. The plateau is part of the English Chalk Formation and is adjacent to Salisbury Plain and the West Wiltshire Downs in the north, the Dorset Downs to the south west and the...
and West Wiltshire Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty is an area of countryside considered to have significant landscape value in England, Wales or Northern Ireland, that has been specially designated by the Countryside Agency on behalf of the United Kingdom government; the Countryside Council for Wales on...
(larger nearby settlements such as Salisbury and Shaftesbury
Shaftesbury
Shaftesbury is a town in Dorset, England, situated on the A30 road near the Wiltshire border 20 miles west of Salisbury. The town is built 718 feet above sea level on the side of a chalk and greensand hill, which is part of Cranborne Chase, the only significant hilltop settlement in Dorset...
are just outside it).
Transport
Tisbury railway stationTisbury railway station
Tisbury railway station serves the village of Tisbury in Wiltshire, England. Opened in 1859, it is currently managed by South West Trains and is on its London Waterloo to Exeter line, from London.-History:...
is on the West of England Main Line
West of England Main Line
The West of England Main Line is a British railway line that runs from , Hampshire to Exeter St Davids in Devon, England. Passenger services run between London Waterloo station and Exeter...
, placing its residents within commuting
Commuting
Commuting is regular travel between one's place of residence and place of work or full time study. It sometimes refers to any regular or often repeated traveling between locations when not work related.- History :...
distance of London. The village is 2.5 miles (4 km) from the A303
A303 road
The A303 is a 92-mile long trunk road in England. It is the main road between Basingstoke in Hampshire and Honiton in Devon. The M3, the A303 and the A30 together make up one of the main routes from London to South West England, running from London to Land's End in Cornwall...
trunk road
Trunk road
A trunk road, trunk highway, or strategic road is a major road—usually connecting two or more cities, ports, airports, and other things.—which is the recommended route for long-distance and freight traffic...
linking Andover
Andover, Hampshire
Andover is a town in the English county of Hampshire. The town is on the River Anton some 18.5 miles west of the town of Basingstoke, 18.5 miles north-west of the city of Winchester and 25 miles north of the city of Southampton...
with the West Country
West Country
The West Country is an informal term for the area of south western England roughly corresponding to the modern South West England government region. It is often defined to encompass the historic counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset and Somerset and the City of Bristol, while the counties of...
.
History
The village has some certain historical significance. As in much of the Wiltshire downsDowns
-Places:In the 'hill' context, the word 'down' derives from Celtic dun "hill, hill fort".*Downland, a geographical feature*The North Downs and the South Downs, England, as a collective term*North Wessex Downs AONB, England...
, there is evidence of Bronze Age settlement and traces of a probable henge monument
Henge
There are three related types of Neolithic earthwork which are all sometimes loosely called henges. The essential characteristic of all three types is that they feature a ring bank and ditch but with the ditch inside the bank rather than outside...
with some evidence of settlement 3–4000 years ago. To the southeast of the village there is a quite large hill fort
Hill fort
A hill fort is a type of earthworks 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 and Iron Ages. Some were used in the post-Roman period...
, known as Castle Ditches
Castle Ditches
Castle Ditches is the site of an Iron Age trivallate hillfort located in Wiltshire. It is probable that its ancient name was Spelsbury. Its shape is roughly triangular, and follows the contours of the small hill upon which it sits. The earthworks comprise triple row of ramparts and ditches, which...
.
Shaftesbury Abbey
Shaftesbury Abbey was an abbey that housed nuns in Shaftesbury, Dorset. Founded in the year 888, the abbey was the wealthiest Benedictine nunnery in England, a major pilgrimage site, and the town's central focus...
across the county border in Dorset. The administration centre was the monastic grange, still called Abbey Grange Place Farm. Its 15th-century thatched tithe barn
Tithe barn
A tithe barn was a type of barn used in much of northern Europe in the Middle Ages for storing the tithes - a tenth of the farm's produce which had to be given to the church....
bears the largest thatched roof in England. The old Wardour Castle
Wardour Castle
Wardour Castle is located at Wardour, near Tisbury in the English county of Wiltshire, about west of Salisbury. The original castle was partially destroyed during the Civil War...
lies approximately 2.5 miles (4 km) to the southwest of Tisbury.
The village's 13th-century prosperity came from the quarries that produced stone for the building of Salisbury Cathedral
Salisbury Cathedral
Salisbury Cathedral, formally known as the Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is an Anglican cathedral in Salisbury, England, considered 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
Black Death
The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, peaking in Europe between 1348 and 1350. Of several competing theories, the dominant explanation for the Black Death is the plague theory, which attributes the outbreak to the bacterium Yersinia pestis. Thought to have...
in the mid-14th century but slowly recovered.
On John Speed
John Speed
John Speed was an English historian and cartographer.-Life:He was born at Farndon, Cheshire, and went into his father's tailoring business where he worked until he was about 50...
's map of 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...
(1611), the village's name is recorded as Tilburye: the cartographer may have mistaken a long s
Long s
The long, medial or descending s is a form of the minuscule letter s formerly used where s occurred in the middle or at the beginning of a word, for example "ſinfulneſs" . The modern letterform was called the terminal, round, or short s.-History:The long s is derived from the old Roman cursive...
for an l.
The churchyard
Churchyard
A churchyard is a patch of land adjoining or surrounding a church which is usually owned by the relevant church or local parish itself. In the Scots language or Northern English language this can also be known as a kirkyard or kirkyaird....
of the parish church
Parish church
A parish church , in Christianity, is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish, the basic administrative unit of episcopal churches....
of St John's holds the graves of Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling
Joseph Rudyard Kipling was an English poet, short-story writer, and novelist chiefly remembered for his celebration of British imperialism, tales and poems of British soldiers in India, and his tales for children. Kipling received the 1907 Nobel Prize for Literature...
's parents, John Lockwood Kipling
John Lockwood Kipling
John Lockwood Kipling, C.I.E. was an English art teacher, illustrator, museum curator, and father of author Rudyard Kipling.-Biography:...
and Alice Kipling
MacDonald sisters
The MacDonald sisters were four British sisters, notable for their marriages to well-known people of the Victorian era. Alice, Georgiana, Agnes and Louisa were four of the seven daughters and 11 children of Reverend George Browne MacDonald , a Methodist minister, and Hannah Jones .- Biographies...
(nee MacDonald). It also holds the second oldest tree in Great Britain, a large yew tree
Taxus
Taxus is a genus of yews, small coniferous trees or shrubs in the yew family Taxaceae. They are relatively slow-growing and can be very long-lived, and reach heights of 1-40 m, with trunk diameters of up to 4 m...
, which is believed to be around 4,000 years old.
Thomas Mayhew
Thomas Mayhew
Thomas Mayhew, Sr. established the first English settlement of Martha's Vineyard in 1642.-Biography:He was born in Tisbury, in the county of Wiltshire in England. He married Anna Parkhurst, born about 1600, in Hampshire, England, daughter of Matthew Parkhurst...
(March 31, 1593 – March 25, 1682) who established the first English settlement of Martha's Vineyard
Martha's Vineyard
Martha's Vineyard is an island located south of Cape Cod in Massachusetts, known for being an affluent summer colony....
in America in 1642 was born in Tisbury.
Some scenes in the 2009 film Morris: A Life with Bells On
Morris: A Life with Bells On
Morris: A Life with Bells On is a 2009 British independent film, a comic spoof documentary about morris dancing.-Development:Morris: A Life with Bells On was written by Charles Thomas Oldham , who also co-produced it with his wife, the film's director Lucy Akhurst...
were filmed in Tisbury, including at the Tisbury Sports Centre and other scenes were filmed at the nearby Compasses Inn at Lower Chicksgrove
Lower Chicksgrove
Lower Chicksgrove is a hamlet in the civil parish of Tisbury in the south of the county of Wiltshire, England. The settlement is recorded in the 12th century as Chicksgrove and a nearby settlement as Stoford; Chicksgrove was first recorded as Lower Chicksgrove and Stoford as Upper Chicksgrove in...
.
Tisbury has recently become home to The Ashley Wood Festival of the Acoustic Arts which is hosted at Ashley Wood Farm.