Milston

The parish of Milston covers 2,265 acres and is 15km north of Salisbury. Long and narrow, it reaches 6.5km across Salisbury Plain and contains two small villages, Milston to the south and Brigmerston to the north. The parish boundary is very simple, long straight lines across the downs with the river Avon forming a small part of the boundary on the west. The eastern boundary is also the county boundary with Hampshire, and much of its length is marked by the prehistoric ‘Devil’s Ditch’.

The two villages are contained within a small area on the western edge of the parish; to the east the downland is crossed from north to south by a tributary of the Avon, Nine Mile river, which rises on Brigmerston down. Close to this river are the two main roads which crossed the parish’s downland. West of the river is the old Marlborough Road which ran from Chipping Campden in Gloucester via Marlborough to Salisbury. This route was prominent in the later 17^th century, appearing on John Ogilby’s road maps of England and Wales published in 1675. On the east of the river was the road from Oxford via Hungerford in Berkshire to Salisbury. This road did not cross the parish until a new more westerly route was brought into use for it after 1675.

Both roads were superseded in the early 19^th century by a turnpike road in the Bourne valley further east, and both were closed by the army in the early 20^th century.

The name Brigmerston comes from the personal name Brismar who held the manor in 1066. Milston is not as straightforward: the name means the middle-most settlement, from the common Saxon word tun (settlement) and midlesta. However, it is difficult to know in relation to what other settlements Milston is ‘midmost’.

Milston is rich in archaeology, the oldest artefacts being Bronze-Age finds on Brigmerston down. There are barrow cemeteries on Silk Hill and Milston down, and Iron Age enclosures on Milston and Brigmerston downs. There are over 20 tumuli in total. A field system based on an Iron-Age hill fort on Sidbury Hill in North Tidworth extends into the parish. A north-south ditch crossing the parish, east of Nine Mile river, and the parallel Devil's ditch, which marks the eastern parish boundary, may be associated with this field system.

In the early 20^th century, the archaeologist William Hawley investigated the chalk pit close to the Mill. The dig revealed sherds of pottery that might have been early Iron Age or Romano-British, a triangular-shaped iron knife blade, an object of baked clay with thumb impression, and a bone pin. These items were given to the British Museum. He also discovered some powdered remains of human bones.

The field adjoining the chalk-pit was known as Church Field or Old Churchyard. Although no Church of Chapel is known to be have been on this site, the names were often given to ancient pre-Christian burial sites.

The united manor of Milston and Brigmerston changed hands over forty times, but it was only sold on five occasions. Family names include Berkeley (14^th-16^th centuries) and Hyde (17^th and 18^th centuries). In 1760 the manor passed to the Rev William Bowles who was a priest, poet and critic. During his career he served as a curate in Donhead St Andrew, as vicar of Chicklade and vicar of Bremhill. Bowles’s son William filed for bankruptcy in 1815 and was forced to sell the manor. In 1899 the 2,205 acre estate (without Brigmerston House) was bought by the War Department. By 1991 it was owned by the Ministry of Defence.

The parish church of St Mary dates from at least the late 13^th century. The church consists of a chancel and a nave with north vestry, a south porch and a west bellcott. It is built of flint and of stone rubble with dressings of limestone and greensand. The church was restored in 1860 and again in 1906.

There has never been a chapel in Milston. Residents may, at various times, have attended chapels in neighbouring Figheldean, Durrington or Bulford.

The present rectory, now called Addison House, was built in 1870 by the Rev Frederick Radcliffe.

It was next to the site of the previous rectory which was built in the 17^th century. This earlier building was the childhood home of Joseph Addison whose father Lancelot was rector from 1670-1703. Joseph was an essayist, poet, playwright, and politician. His name is usually remembered alongside that of his long-standing friend, Richard Steele, with whom he founded The Spectator magazine.

The two cottages now numbered 256 and 257 Church Rd were originally one farmhouse. It was built in the 17^th century, altered in the 18^th and extended in the early 20^th. The cottages are timber framed with banded brick and flint infilling; the ground floor is built of 18^th century brick and the roof is thatched.

Also on Church Rd is a house called The Dovecote. Probably dating from the 16^th century, it belonged to the manor house that was present in the 1200s. It was made into a cottage in the early 20^th century.

The Old Manor House is a fine period house built in 1613 by Roger Pinckney. It is built of flint with limestone dressings and has a steeply pitched, tiled roof. This seven-bedroomed house was restored in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries and still retains many of its period features.

The Old Mill House and Mill Cottage both date from the 18^th century and are built of brick and flint with thatched roofs.

A mill was first mentioned in Milston in the Domesday Survey in 1086. Two new grist mills were built in 1611 and both were still working in 1761. There was only one mill in 1840 and it ceased working in the 1920s.

Brigmerston House, a large square stone building, was built in a three acre park between 1820 and 1841, probably for C.E. Rendall in the 1830s. It was converted to seven flats in the 1950s.

At the time of Domesday there were three manors in Milston occupied by 25 families; the population was approximately 80-120 people. This is very similar to the first official figure for Milston, which was 139 people in 1801. Apart from the spike in 1961 prompted by house building, the population has always been between 80 and 162.

Farming was the only source of employment until the 20^th century. Corn was grown and over 1,000 sheep were kept. In 1618 there were c. 25 tenants of Milston and Brigmerston manor, but by 1813 this had reduced to six. The owner of the manor from c. 1815 was Thomas Rendall, himself a farmer, and by 1840 nearly all the land of the parish was owned and occupied by Thomas’s son Charles Rendall. From c. 1850 Milston farm and Brigmerston farm were separate, each over 1,000 acres and with new farmhouses. The chief crop was barley and 2000 sheep were kept.

From 1899 the east part of the parish was used for military training, and this was still the situation in 1991.

In the west part in the earlier 20^th century dairy farming increased at the expense of arable and sheep farming. In 1991 a farm of c. 2,000 acres, including land in other parishes, was worked from the farmstead built north-east of Milston in the mid-19^th century. Corn and potatoes were grown and beef cattle raised.

The 1851 census shows that apart from a grocer, all the men were employed in agriculture. Thomas Dunning farmed 2060 acres and employed 60 labourers. Ten years later the farm had split into two farms that were still providing all the employment. This did not change until 1911 when the government appeared as an employer and the building trades were represented. Also, families did not stay in Milston all their lives, as they had done earlier in the 19^th century. The censuses gradually show different places of birth appearing as men sought work elsewhere.

The Kelly’s Trade Directories for Wiltshire usually give a good indication as to the number of trades and small businesses in the community. Milston was a small community, relying on agriculture for employment; the only advert for a business was the shopkeeper in 1880 and 1889. Later adverts only mention farmers and the water miller.

The neighbouring village of Durrington was more than twice the population of Milston; no doubt the Milston villagers would have gone there for their modest shopping requirements.

Milston is still a small community, with just 141 people living there in 2017. However, the village website indicates a thriving community, with its own church, village hall and a selection of small businesses.