Nonconformist

There was a strong tradition of nonconformity in Tidcombe and Fosbury, though no dedicated nonconformist chapel was built. Members of the parish are recorded to have refused communion in the 1580s and in 1686, and in 1676 it was recorded that there were five nonconformists (a figure that included 4 ‘papists’) living in the parish.

A meeting house was certified in Tidcombe village in 1816, probably by Independents, and it is known that Independents also certified a meeting house in the village in 1828. By 1864 it was noted that there were eight Primitive Methodists and four Baptists in Tidcombe village, and it appears that some or all of these individuals met privately in a cottage.

There was at least one “popish recusant”, Francis Browning, in Fosbury village in 1577 and during the 1580s several members of the Skilling family were among those who refused communion at Tidcombe church; it is possible that they too were recusants. The Victoria County History speculates that the four papists living in the parish in 1676 likely included Skillings, as it is known that Edward Skilling, then the lord of Fosbury manor, was a recusant in 1646. By the nineteenth century there was a small but strong tradition of non-conformity in Fosbury, often supported by the lords of the manor.

Silvanus Bevan, lord of Fosbury manor from 1810 until his death, was a great supporter of nonconformity, lending his support to an Independent meeting house in 1816 and to nonconformist pastors such as J. B. Walcott. Walcott took the services for the Fosbury meeting house before becoming pastor of a Strict Baptist chapel in Ludgershall and was generously supported by Bevan, who offered him £40 a year to preach at Fosbury each Sunday and £20 per year for a pony to enable him to reach Fosbury from Ludgershall. By 1864 there were two Baptists, one Congregationalist, and two families of Primitive Methodists within the Fosbury ecclesiastical district.