Alvediston


Alvediston is a small village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, about east of Shaftesbury and southwest of Salisbury. The area is the source of the River Ebble and is within the Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon, who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1955 to 1957 and won the 1955 general election for the Conservatives, lived at Alvediston Manor from 1966 until his death in 1977. He was buried in St Mary's churchyard.

History

Prehistoric sites in the parish include three Bronze Age bowl barrows on Trow Down and a field system from the same era at Elcombe Down.
Much of the land was granted to the nuns of Wilton Abbey in 955. Fragmentary records from Saxon times indicate that the Ebble valley was a thriving area. The Domesday Book of 1086 recorded the division of the Chalke Valley into eight manors: Chelke, Eblesborne, Fifehide, Cumbe, Humitone, Odestoche, Stradford and Trow. Alvediston emerged in 1156 as Alfweiteston, formed from the western part of Ebbesbourne Wake and the small manor of Trow. The manor passed to the Crown at the Dissolution, then in 1541 to Sir William Herbert who became. Alvediston manor remained with the Pembrokes until 1918 when it was sold as two farms, Church Farm and Elcombe Farm.
Norrington manor was recorded as held from the king in 1210-1212. It was owned by the Gawen family from 1377 to 1658 and then by the Wyndham family until 1952.

Local government

The civil parish is governed by a parish meeting, a form of governance applied to parishes with small populations. It is in the area of Wiltshire Council unitary authority, which is responsible for all significant local government functions.

Religious sites

The Church of England parish church of St Mary is Grade II* listed. It was rebuilt in 1866 by T.H. Wyatt using elements from an earlier church dating back to the 12th century.
A Primitive Methodist chapel was built in 1894 and closed sometime before 1951. As of 2019 the building was standing but unused.

Notable buildings

is a Grade I listed 14th-century Manor House.
The Crown Inn and the Manor House are Grade II listed.

Amenities

Alvediston has a pub, the Crown Inn. The parish has no school; a small National School was built in 1872 and closed in 1922.