Norton Bavant

The parish of Norton Bavant lies in the Wylye Valley, 2.5 miles south-east of Warminster. Its shape is a long, thin rectangle, with the village situated in the small section between the river Wylyle on the parish border and the railway line. The village is on greensand, rising to a steep scarp of chalk that includes Scratchbury Hill and Cotley Hill. Both hills are over 600 feet high. The land then drops again to a broad valley of greensand before rising once more onto the high chalk downs on Salisbury Plain.

Together with Bishopstrow, the village was described by William Cobbett as ‘the brightest and most beautiful’ [spot in England]. He had a particular liking for Middleton Farm and apparently dropped several hints to Mr Benett that he would like to live there.

In 1086 the parish was known simply as Norton, meaning ‘North Farm’. It was held by the Scudamore family and the name changed when Peter Scudamore’s daughter Alice married Adam de Bavent c1295.

The parish is rich in archaeology, with numerous barrows. The most significant site is Scratchbury Camp, which was investigated by Sir Richard Colt Hoare for Miss Benett of Norton House in the early 1800s. This Iron-Age hill-fort contains within its defences at least seven barrows of the Early or Middle Bronze Age. One is a large bowl-barrow, about 45 feet in diameter and 3.5 feet high in which a cremation was found.

Two objects, a bone pin and a perforated bone plate are kept at the Wiltshire Museum in Devizes.

A group of six barrows lies half way between Scratchbury and Cotley Hill. Some of them were opened by William Cunnington and contained burnt bones and a large amount of pottery. There are two long barrows high up on the chalk downs.

The manorial descent of Norton Bavant is complicated, as it includes separate pieces of land in Corsley and Crockerton. Within Norton Bavant itself were the manors of Norton and Middleton. The lease of the manor farm at Norton was acquired by the Benetts after the Dissolution. In 1611 William Benett was granted the manorial rights with the farm. The manor remained in the Benett family until 1930, when most of the Norton Bavant property north of the railway was sold to the War Office. The remainder was sold after 1947. The Benetts also owned Pythouse near Tisbury. This mansion house was built in 1805, but the Benetts had lived at Tisbury since at least the 15th century. The first known connection between the two families was the marriage between William Benett of Norton Bavant and Patience, the granddaughter of Thomas Bennett (note the different spelling) of Pythouse that took place in 1686.

The manor of Middleton was given in 1441 to the newly-founded Eton College by Henry VI.

They let the estate as a farm until c1887 when it was sold to Vere Fane-Benett-Stanford and added to his Norton Bavant estate.

One of the detached portions was 115 acres of land near Crockerton which included Butler’s Coombe Farm. In 1884 this was transferred to the civil parish of Warminster. The second portion was 246 acres of land in Corsley, which included Dartford Wood. In 1550 it was sold to Sir John Thynne and is still part of the Longleat Estate. In 1884 it was transferred to the civil parish of Corsley. In the same year 56 acres of land at Pitmead was moved to Sutton Veny parish, making the modern civil parish of Norton Bavant 1,856 acres.

The parish church of All Saints now stands just inside the park gates of Norton Bavant house. It consists of a nave and chancel, a south chapel off the middle of the nave, a north porch and vestry, and a tower at the west end. Of these only the tower and the arch into the chapel date from before 1838, when the rest of the church was rebuilt. There are no aisles. Further work was needed in 1894, this time to the tower. The church was built close to a stream and the tower was suffering from severe subsidence. This was remedied by underpinning the walls of the tower and turret with cement concrete.

There was no chapel built in Norton Bavant.

The neighbouring parish of Sutton Veny had both Independent and Primitive Methodist chapels where Norton Bavant parishioners could worship.

There are eight listed buildings in Norton Bavant. They all date from the 17th century, except the Mill House which is mid-18th century. Norton Bavant House lies within its own park, between the main road through the village and the river. The Brewhouse and Carriage House are also in the park, along with the church and the Old Vicarage. 

In 1641 Thomas Benett had a house built in a meadow called the West Garden. Around 1700 the house was completely remodelled, including the addition of a west wing. In the 1920s a two-storey extension was added. The country house we see today is of rendered brick, with a fish scale tiled, hipped roof. The front return has a central doorway with six windows on the ground floor and seven on the first floor. The Brewhouse and the Old Carriage House are both substantial houses. The former is of brick with a hipped, tiled roof. Attached to the rear is a two-storey stable block. The Carriage House also has a tiled roof but is built of chequered limestone. Attached to the left return is a former icehouse. 

The Old Vicarage has its origins in the early 18th century, fragments of which have been retained and reused in the present layout of the house.

A glebe terrier dated 1783 described the house as built of brick and stone all covered with thatch except the brewhouse which was tiled. The ground floor consisted of a parlour, a kitchen, a small brewhouse and a cellar. The first floor had two good sized bedrooms and two smaller ones. 

Alterations and repairs were carried out in 1802, including the addition of a new kitchen. In 1838 the house was enlarged and altered again. There were two new reception rooms, turning the old principal rooms into an entrance hall and a back parlour. A ground floor plan shows a parlour, dining room, drawing room, kitchen, scullery and larder. The first floor had seven bedrooms of varying sizes and three dressing rooms. The last vicar to live here was the Reverend Penney until 1938.

Agriculture was the main source of employment in the village until the Second World War. In 1851 North Farm was occupied by William Melsome who farmed 1300 acres and employed 48 labourers. Robert Coles at Middleton Farm farmed 300 acres and employed 19 labourers, whilst Isaac Flower at Butler’s Coombe farmed 300 acres and employed 15 labourers. There were 59 households on the census and almost every family would have included someone working on one of the farms. 

Some of the wealthier families were able to employ servants, but they generally came from other parts of the country. The vicar, Edward Eliot, employed four servants.

A large proportion of the people on this census were not born in the village, showing that families did not stay very long in this small community. Perhaps the farmers chose to only employ their labourers for a year at a time, or perhaps the men were soon looking to move on to better prospects and possibly a bigger community with more opportunities.

The village was too small to support any form of industry, except a shopkeeper and baker. The villagers would have looked to neighbouring Sutton Veny, with a population approximately three times larger, to provide the services they needed. In 1903 trades at Sutton Veny included a laundryman, coal merchant, plumber, carrier and beer retailer, as well as the services attached to agriculture.

At the time of Domesday Norton Bavant was held by Alfred of Marlborough. There were two mills and sufficient land for eight ploughs. The population was approximately 90-110. The first official figure is for 1801 when the population was 264. It reached its peak of 285 in 1841 and was back to 264 again in 1881. Ten years later the figure had dropped to 163, due partly to the transfer of Norton Common and Butler’s Coombe Farm and cottages to other parishes. In 2011 the population was 116.

Between 1911 and 1971 the population dropped by 50%, mainly due to fewer people working on the land. In 1911, of the nine men listed in the commercial section of Kelly’s Directory, seven were connected with farming.

By 1939 there were just three men listed, all farmers. There was no mains electricity in the village, no shop (which had closed c. five years earlier), no post office, bus service or school – all services that by this time people were beginning to expect, and all of which were available in Sutton Veny.

The school house was sold in 1955 but the school room was kept as a meeting room for the village. It was run initially as a church hall and became a village hall c. 1993.

The Warminster bypass opened in 1988, which would have made the main road between Norton Bavant and Warminster much quieter, as most of the traffic travelling to Salisbury used the new bypass. Cobbett’s description of this small Wiltshire village still stands; it is indeed a ‘bright and beautiful’ place to live in or visit.