Pertwood

Pertwood
Pertwood  Pertwood shown within Wiltshire
Population	19
OS grid reference	ST888357
Unitary authority	Wiltshire
Ceremonial county	Wiltshire
Region	South West
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	Warminster
Postcode district	BA12
Police	Wiltshire
Fire	Wiltshire
Ambulance	Great Western
EU Parliament	South West England
List of places UK England Wiltshire

Pertwood is a very small village, former civil parish, and manor, near Warminster in the county of Wiltshire in the west of England.^[1] Its land and houses now lie in the parishes of East Knoyle and Sutton Veny and have fewer than twenty inhabitants.

The only settlement is at Upper Pertwood, also called Higher Pertwood, but not far away is Lower Pertwood, with only one house, and 'Pertwood' is the collective name for the two together. Lower Pertwood is now run as Pertwood Organic. Higher Pertwood is run as Pertwood Manor Farm by different people.

History

Before the Norman Conquest, the manor of Pertwood was held by a man named Wlward. At the Domesday survey of 1086, it was held by Geoffrey de Mowbray, Bishop of Coutances, and contained two hides, of which one and a half were in demesne and the rest was held of the manor by tenants. Two villeins, three bordars, one plough, twenty acres of pasture and four of woodland were recorded. Pertwood later became a manor of the Earls of Gloucester, which it remained until the early 15th century.^[2]

Pertwood Down, on high ground to the west of Pertwood, has several barrows and traces of Celtic field systems, but all such remains lie outside the area of the former parish.^[2][3]

Just to the north of Lower Pertwood Farm, the Romans, in building a straight road, unusually diverted their road around an ancient tumulus instead of going through it.^[4][5] In 1829, the Roman road near Pertwood was described as "still remarkably perfect".^[4]

In 1808, a topographer wrote of Pertwood that it was "...a decayed parish in the hundred of Warminster... containing 2 houses and 15 inhabitants".^[6]

The Revd John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870–1872) said of Pertwood:

PERTWOOD, a parish in Mere district, Wilts; on the Roman road to Old Sarum, 2 miles N W of Hindon, and 5½ N W of Tisbury r. station. Post-town, Hindon, under Salisbury. Acres, 450. Rated property, £480. Pop., 30. Houses, 5. The property is all in one estate. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Salisbury. Value, £56. Patron, Mrs. Seymour. The church is good.

In 1885 the parish of Pertwood was extinguished, with its southern part being added to East Knoyle, its northern part to Sutton Veny.^[7]

A detailed parish history was published in 1965 by the Wiltshire Victoria County History in its volume 8.^[2]

In April 1993, the Tribal Gathering music festival took place at Pertwood, and in 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998 and 2000 it was the site of the Big Green Gathering.^[8]

Church

The former Church of England parish church, which stands at Upper or Higher Pertwood, is called St Peter's. It was originally a small 12th-century stone building entered by a round-headed door on its south side, but in about 1812 it was "restored" by the then lord of the manor, Richard Ricward, so that by 1822 there was nothing ancient to be seen, except one stoop. In the restored church a round-headed arch lay between the chancel and the nave. In 1872 the church was rebuilt in flint, dressed with stone, with a single church bell in a small structure over the roof at the western end. This small building contains a nave, a chancel, and a north aisle. In 1908 the bowl of a 14th-century font was found buried nearby and was returned to the church.^[2][9]

The Victorian church is still standing, but is now disused.^[10]

Present day

Upper Pertwood, on high downland in the southern half of the former parish, is approached by a drive from the A350 road and consists of the original manor house, known as Manor Farm, five farm cottages, and other buildings. This is the only settlement at Pertwood.^[2] On the other side of the A350 is Lower Pertwood, with only one house.

Lower Pertwood form part of a large organic farm of 1,100 acres (4.5 km²) usually called Lower Pertwood Farm, being based there, or Pertwood Organic Farm.^[11] The organic farming was introduced by two owners called Houghton Brown, largely to conserve the thin soil, and was continued by them until 2005 and thereafter by new owners, Wilfred and Tamara Mole.^[12][13]

Governance

Almost all local government functions are carried out by the Wiltshire Council unitary authority. Pertwood is represented in parliament by Andrew Murrison.

Notable people

In 1560, Sir John Mervyn of Pertwood was High Sheriff of Wiltshire.^[14]

Lancelot Morehouse, a 17th-century Rector of Pertwood, has been described as John Aubrey's "most familiar learned acquaintance".^[15]

Percy Scawen Wyndham (1835-1911), a younger son of the first Lord Leconfield, owned Pertwood from 1877 until his death.^[2] He was a soldier, Conservative politician, antiquarian and intellectual, one of the founding members of The Souls.^[16]

Owners

• 1400–1419: John Britte, of Hindon^[2]
• 1433: William Elys^[2]
• 1450: John Elys^[2]
• Late 15th & early 16th centuries: William Fletcher^[2]
• Agnes Maton and Margaret Ingram, daughters of William Fletcher^[2]
  • 1539: John Mervyn, son of Margaret Ingram, a moiety^[2]
  • Robert Temmys, probably Agnes Maton's son-in-law, a moiety (which later passed to George Ludlow, who in 1553 sold it to John Mervyn)^[2]
• 1553: John Mervyn^[2]
• c. 1570–1601: John Mervyn (son of above)^[2]
• 1601: Thomas Mervyn (son of above)^[2]
• George Mervyn (brother of above)^[2]
• to 1692: John Mervyn, grandson of George Mervyn^[2]
• 1692–1736: Sir James Howe (purchase)^[2]
• 1736–1804: Henry Lee, commonly called Lee Warner (nephew of above)^[2]
• 1804–1805: James Woodward (nephew of above), who assumed the name of Lee Warner^[2]
• 1805–1810: John Benett of Pythouse (purchase)^[2]
• 1810: Richard Ricward of Longbridge Deverill (purchase)^[2]
• 1838: Henry Seymour^[2]
• Alfred Seymour (son of above)^[2]
• 1877–1911: Percy Scawen Wyndham (purchase)^[2]
• 1911–1913: George Wyndham, son of Percy Scawen Wyndham
• 1913–1919: Guy Richard Charles Wyndham, grandson of Percy Scawen Wyndham^[2]
• 1919–1939: Arthur Mitchell (purchase)^[2]
• 1939–1945: Paul Weldon (purchase)^[2]
• 1945: Colonel Scrope Egerton (purchase)^[2]
• 1963: Colonel Jack Houghton Brown
• Mark Houghton-Brown^[12]
• 2005: Wilfred Mole (purchase), and his daughter Tamara Mole, later Webster^[12][13]

See also

• List of places in Wiltshire

Notes

External links

• North from the A350 near Higher Pertwood - photograph online at geograph.org.uk