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Market Lavington,
Wiltshire
Market Lavington
is a small village located some 5 miles south of Devizes in the
borough of the same name, which is located in in Mid-Wiltshire.
The Parish is about five miles long and a mile wide, a lot of this
area being Salisbury Plain.The Marlborough Downs are to the north
and the Salisbury Plain to the south. The current population of
the town approximately 3,000.
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There
are a number of prehistoric settlement sites in the surrounding
area, and recent excavations within the area of the village,have
shown that people have been living in the area for about four
thousand years. The various types of soil in the Parish -
chalk downland, clay and sand - together with an abundant
water supply, made it an ideal place for settlement.
The area
is renowned for its sheep and corn husbandry, and is still
primarily rural, with very few large settlements.
Market
Lavington was originally referred to as "Laventone" in the
Doomsday Book, which is the earliest written reference to
the
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village. The name
changed several times over the years, Chepyng Lavington, Steeple Lavington
and East Lavington amongst them.
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In
1254 Richard Rochelle was granted a charter to hold a market
here, but Steeple Ashton - which was where the hundred court
was held - remained the main market town. After Steeple Ashton
was destroyed by a fire in the early 1500s, the bulk of market
activities moved to Lavington, and the town became known as
Market Lavington. The market sold commodities such as wheat,
wool, lambs, pigs, apples, cheese and woven products. |
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Market
days were held every Wednesday until the early years of the
19th century. A
large fair was held each year on August 15, the date of the
Patronal Festival of the Parish Church. Even in those early
days of the market, there was a traffic problem with the wagons
and carts, so they arrived via Parsonage Lane, and left the
Market Place by going down the hill into Northbrook and then
going along the bed of the stream to link up with Spin Hill.
The present
village grew clustered around the Market Place. The centre
of the village has changed but little over the last hundred
or more years. Being a little town, the houses were closely
packed together leaving no room for new houses or extensions
to be added. Many of the houses have eighteenth century facades
on older buildings.
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A churchwarden’s
account book from Market Lavington reveals that in 1689 "there happened
a terrible fire at West Lavington", and in 1786 the locals bought
the parish a new fire engine.
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The village
has fewer large houses than many of the surrounding villages,
for its size, probably due to the fact that it had its industries
-farming, brick making and the numerous little malt houses,
as well as the usual trades and shops. Of the larger houses
The Old House is aptly named as it dates from the early fourteenth
century. Clyffe Hall was built in 1732, and the Manor House,
now part of Dauntsey's school, in the 1860's for the Pleydell
Bouverie family who were the Lords of the Manor at that time.
The Parish
Church was built mainly in the thirteenth century and replaced
an earlier
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Norman one. Carved
stone from the Norman Church forms a string course in the church porch.
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Sanctuary is possible the oldest residence in the area. It was
evolved between 967-1539 AD in the period when the village belonged
to Romsey Abbey. It is a timber framed / brick infill building
with cruck trusses. The house was modernised in 1687, when the
ceiling was added to the central cruck hall to create the second
storey. There are features from various historical periods still
present, including a 14th century lancet window and a 15th century
jetty. The tudor-style fireplace in the main hall (still in
use for special occasions) has a metal back-plate dated 1702,
and the well preserved oak pannelling in the living room is
also thought to be 18th century. |
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The village
has a small fountain called the 'eye-well', which was a renowned
source of water, popular until the 1940s for healing eye ailments
such as cataracts.
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