Tidcombe & Fosbury

Tidcombe and Fosbury is a remote parish of three settlements, Tidcombe, Fosbury and Hippenscombe, in the east of the county on the border with Hampshire and Berkshire. The parish lies some 15km south-east of Marlborough and 15km north-west of Andover. Tidcombe was known as Titicome in 1086, becoming Tydecumbe by 1249 and Tidecombe by 1286; most likely these are variations on ‘Titta’s valley’. Fosbury was recorded as Fostesberge and Fistesberie in Domesday, probably meaning ‘The hill-burh’. Hippenscombe is more complex – it is recorded as Heppingcumb’ in 1231 and Heppingescumb’ in 1255. One interpretation is that the name refers to hyppings or ‘stepping-stones’, however this is unlikely as Hippenscombe lies in a waterless valley bottom. More likely is that the name is derived from the Old English pet-name Hyppa, making the location ‘Hyppa’s valley’.

              Tidcombe and Fosbury comprise an area of 3,778 acres. The parish originally comprised of Tidcombe (895 acres) and Fosbury (1,444 acres) – the two were detached from one another until Hippenscombe (911 acres), a civil parish and previously extra-parochial, was added to the parish in 1894, linking the lands of Tidcombe and Fosbury.

At this point the parish was given its modern name by Wiltshire County Council. Later, in 1934, approximately 500 further acres was added when the land between Tidcombe and Fosbury was added to the parish. This area had previously been part of Shalbourne parish and was part of Berkshire until 1895.

              The geography of the parish follows the pattern laid down in much of the rest of the county, with its land lying on chalk and without streams or other major water features. The parish is crossed by steep-sided combs and scarps, with the highest point, at circa 262m, towards the south of the parish and the lowest point in the east, at 138m. The valleys are dry, however there are gravel deposits in various parts of the parish.

              Tidcombe and Fosbury contains large areas of woodland, much of it concentrated in the north and east of the parish; the parish was previously more heavily wooded although much was cleared in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The area surrounding Tidcombe has historically had little in the way of woodland, with Scot’s Poor plantation at the southern edge of the parish the only substantial area of woodland at around 18 acres. The Fosbury area is currently the most heavily wooded part of the parish, with Oakhill wood the largest forest at approximately 200 acres.

There are numerous smaller copses and plantations in the area, including one of 16 acres near Oakhill wood and another of circa 15 acres at Farm Down. As of 1998 there was a total of 288 acres of woodland in the Fosbury area. The Hippenscombe area is now largely clear of woodland, with around 35 acres as of 1998, much of it concentrated in Cleves Copse to the south, though there are other smaller pockets of woodland throughout the area, especially along the southern boundary. Hippenscombe was once much more heavily forested – in 1586 the Hippenscombe estate was said to contain 450 acres of woodland. However, a rabbit warren had been introduced by the 1630s and the rabbits multiplied to such an extent that they caused severe damage to the forest and many coppices were grubbed up for arable land. By the late seventeenth century there was said to be little woodland on the estate, and in1709 there were only 15 acres of wood, the remained having been given over to arable land or pasture.

              In terms of transport links, the parish is not served by the railway and the nearest station is at Great Bedwyn.

No main roads cross the parish and only a handful of minor roads serve the area, one of which is a former Roman road from Cirencester to Winchester which is distinctive in that it makes a sharp turn, following the line of a scarp, rather than continuing straight along its course across the steep valleys of the parish.

              The parish is reasonably rich in prehistoric features, but has minimal evidence of Roman activity beyond the Cirencester-Winchester road. A prehistoric earthwork, roughly 1km long, lies just to the southwest of Tidcombe village; this was probably part of a larger Bronze Age enclosure. Slightly further south and west of this ditch are a long barrow, a bowl barrow and further prehistoric ditches. The long barrow contains a chamber formed of Sarsen stone and is 55m long and 3m high, though the barrow itself was apparently badly damaged in 1750 when local people attempted to excavate it looking for treasure. Near Hippenscombe, Grim’s Ditch marks the southern boundary of the parish – the ditch is likely prehistoric, and a number of prehistoric field systems have been identified near the ditch to the south.

              Fosbury Hill Fort, an Iron Age enclosure, lies to the southeast of the parish, adjoining Oakhill Wood.

One of the largest Wiltshire hill forts according to Watts, the camp is bivallate (double banked) and approximately 26 acres in size, with its main entrance to the East. It is surrounded by extensive field systems which may have been associated with the fort, the largest of which is to the east and is approximately 190 acres. Pevsner notes that a probable dwelling remains within the interior of the camp, and further indications of habitation include burnt flints and pottery sherds.

              Tidcombe and Fosbury are referred to in Domesday, with 2 hides held by the “wife of Wenesius” at Tidcombe and the two estates held by Robert fitzGerold of 2 and 10 hides respectively at Fostesberge (Fosbury).

              The estates of Tidcombe, Fosbury and Hippenscombe have a complex history. For Tidcombe manor, this dates back to around the 8^th century when it was probably part of the estate called Bedwyn which passed with the crown; by 1066 it was no longer in the crown’s possession and was held by the widow of Wenesius. By the late 12^th century it was held by Henry Hussey, passing from him through his son to his grandson, then the Earl of Warwick, after which it descended with the Earldom.

The manor remained with the Hussey family until circa 1285, when it passed to Margaret and Isabel Hussey, then infants. From this point until the late 14^th century there were two portions of the manor which descended in separate lines, Thorney and Sturmy, into whose families Margaret and Isabel had married. It was reunited under Sir William Sturmy, and descended through his line until it was acquired by Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset, before 1540. After Somerset’s attainder and execution in 1552 the manor passed to his son and descended in the Seymour family, with Pewsey manor, until circa 1767. Around this point the manor was sold by Hugh Percy, Duke of Northumberland, to Edward Tanner and from there to his granddaughter Martha, who married the Revd. W. R. H. Churchill in 1798. From there it passed to Martha’s son who sold it to Thomas Hayward and remained in the Hayward family until 1998, although the manor house and circa 25 acres were sold off at some point between 1921 and 1947.

              The records of Fosbury Manor do not go back quite as far as those of Tidcombe, with the first definitive reference dating to the Norman Conquest. In 1066 there were two estates called Fosbury in the area, one of 10 hides held by Vitel and one of 2 hides held by Alwin. By the time of Domesday both were held by Robert, son of Gerald, and of him by Rainer.

The manor was given to Shaftesbury Abbey at some point after this although it is not clear how long the abbey held it for, though it is likely that the Abbey’s ownership was fairly brief. The records are then unclear, except to say that by 1275 the overlordship of Fosbury Manor was held by the priory of Noyon-surAndelle (now Charleval, France) until the priory’s property was confiscated during the wars with France, after which the manor was given to the priory of Sheen (Surrey) at its founding. Sheen priory remained overlord of the manor until the dissolution of the monasteries. Lordship of the manor was held by Peter Fosbury in 1275, by William Sparsholt in 1428, and by Margaret Ernle in 1475. It passed in the Ernle family until Mary Ernle (fl. 1562-63), and on her marriage to Walter Skilling the manor descended within the Skilling family until 1748. At this time Henry Skilling was foreclosed by the mortgagee Baron Trevor from all of the estate apart from 170 acres. These 170 acres passed to Skilling’s sister Elizabeth, then to her daughter Elizabeth Craven. The Cravens then sold this portion of the manor to John Poore in 1773. The main part of the manor passed from Lord Trevor (d. 1753) to his daughter Elizabeth, the wife of Charles Spencer (Duke of Marlborough), and then to their son George (Duke of Marlborough) who sold it to John Poore in 1776, thus reuniting the manor.

The manor then passed through a rapid succession of owners: in 1804 Poore’s son John conveyed the manor to trustees, who in turn sold it to Trustees of Joseph Gulston; Gulston’s grandson, his beneficiary, then sold the manor to Silvanus Bevan in 1810. From here it passed through the Bevan family until it was bought by A. H. Huth at some point between 1899 and 1903. It passed to Huth’s brother in 1929, and then was sold to Sir Eastman bell in 1934. From there it passed to C. W. Garnett in 1956 and to Garnett’s stepson William Govett by 1987. In 1993 Govett sold Fosbury House and approximately 330 acres of Fosbury’s land to Erskine Guinness, who owned the estate as of 1998.

              During the Middle Ages, the Hippenscombe estate belonged to the Crown, as it was part of Savernake Forest and later Chute Forest. In 1544 Hippenscombe was given to an agent of Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset, however after his execution the land returned to the crown in 1552. It was then assigned to Somerset’s Son, Earl of Hertford, and descended in the Seymour, Bruce, Brudenell and Bruce-Brudenell families with Tottenham House in Great Bedwyn. In 1827 Charles Brudenell-Bruce sold it to William Fulbrook, after which the manor was bought by James Wheble in 1834 and passed in the Wheble family until 1879, when it was sold to Sir Edward Bates.

Bates’ representatives then sold the estate to F. W. Lillywhite at some point before 1907. In 1922 the mortgagees offered it for sale and it may have been bought by A. W. Crawford. From the late 1920s to the mid 1930s it may have passed within members of the Stephens family, and from approximately 1936 to 1949 it was owned by A. J. Hosier. John Cherrington bought the estate in 1955, before selling it to his son in 1962. In 1998, now known as Hippenscombe Farm, it was owned by Anders Bergengren.

              A small part of Hippenscombe, called Blagden and probably around 10% of the total parish area, became detached from the whole in 1632 when it was granted by the crown to Sir William Russell, who then sold it to Sir Edward Wardour, who conveyed it to William Seymour, all in 1633. From there it descended in Seymour, Bruce, Brudenell and Bruce-Brudenell families with Tottenham House (alongside the remainder of Hippenscombe until 1827) until 1929 when it was sold. In 1936, as Blackdown Farm, was sold by Lady Eleanor Yarrow to Friend Sykes and remained in the Sykes family to 1998 as part of the Chantry estate based in Chute parish.

              Each of the three settlements are arranged along a single main street.

The church at Tidcombe was standing in the mid-thirteenth century, and was called St Michael by 1763 and is now Grade II* listed. The clerestory dates to the fifteenth century, whilst the porch is a seventeenth century construction. Tidcombe manor house dates to the mid to late eighteenth century, though there were extensive alterations and extensions during the twentieth century, and is now a Grade II* listed building. Fosbury Church, called Christchurch, was built in 1854-56 to designs by Samuel Saunders Teulon, a Gothic Revival architect, and financed by the Bevan family. It is now Grade II* listed. Teulon also designed the vicarage, which is in Tudor Gothic Style. Fosbury House was built in the early nineteenth century, probably before 1820, for Silvanus Bevan though much of the original building was pulled down over the course of the nineteenth century. It is now Grade II listed.

              One notable resident of Tidcombe was General Christodoulos Tsigantes, 1897-1970. General Tsigantes was commanding officer of the Greek Sacred Battalion, a Second World War Special Forces unit operating in the Mediterranean theatre, often alongside the British Special Air Service with whom Tsigantes also served. Tsigantes was awarded a CBE in 1943 and the DSO in 1945.

When he died, Tsigantes requested that his ashes be placed in Tidcombe churchyard until democracy had been restored in Greece; his ashes have now been returned to Greece where they were interred with a State Funeral with full military honours. A gravestone remains in St Michael’s church ground in his memory.

              In terms of population, in 1377 Tidcombe had 50 poll-tax payers whilst Fosbury had 37. Tidcombe and Fosbury’s population was largely stable over the early 1800s, before rising steeply towards the 1870s and 1880s before gradually falling again over the next 100 years, stabilising towards the end of the twentieth century. By the turn of the nineteenth century the population of the parish as a whole was 220, rising to 243 in 1831 before falling again to 218 in 1851. 1861 saw a sharp rise to a peak of 274 before once again slowly falling away, to 238 in 1881 and 190 in 1901. A brief resurgence occurred in 1911 when the population increased to 251, however after this the number of people in the parish steadily declined, to 186 in 1931, 158 in 1951 and 97 in 1971. From the 1970s through to the present the rate of decline seems to have decreased, with the population only dropping from 111 in 1981 to 93 in 2001. Until 1901, these figures are for Tidcombe and Fosbury villages only, as Hippenscombe was not part of the parish before this date.

The population of Hippenscombe appears to have been largely stable over the majority of the nineteenth century, with 47 residents in 1801, 21 in 1811 (for reasons that are unclear), 58 in 1831 and 57 in 1871, before dropping to 35 in 1891, after which the parish was subsumed into the larger population figures. This suggests that the decrease in overall population for the parish from 199 in 1891 to 190 in 1901 hides a much larger drop in the population of the villages of Tidcombe and Fosbury, as the addition of Hippenscombe will have served to bolster the overall figures for the parish.

              Whilst it is not possible to say for certain what caused the decline in the parish population it seems likely that one of the principal causes was the scarcity of agricultural employment within the parish, as the decrease in population was far too generalised and too late in time to have been associated with the enclosure movement. Other, more generalised pressures on the population would have included agricultural depression and the increasing use of steam power and machinery on local farms.

In later years it is likely that, in common with other rural locations in the late twentieth century, an aging population and declining birth rate would account for much of the later decline.

              As with much of the rest of Wiltshire, and in common with other remote rural parishes, the economy of Tidcombe and Fosbury was almost entirely based on agriculture In fact, in the 1880s Kelly’s Directory noted that the population of Fosbury were “wholly employed in agriculture”. The principal pasture animal appears to have been the sheep, whilst the main crops were wheat, oats and barley; in this the parish was again following the pattern set by the majority of similar parishes in rural Wiltshire.

At Tidcombe, during the sixteenth century all the land of the manor was held customarily – that is, held by tenants who did not pay cash rent, but rather worked their lord’s land in addition to farming their own plot. These plots varied considerably in size, with the largest nominally having 67 acres and the smallest nominally 13 acres. The average nominal plot size was 38 acres. Each holding consisted of land in each of the three fields, common pasture for animals, and a tenement (probably in the village). In addition, there was a freehold of 2 yardlands (around 60 acres) and the land of the rectory estate (approximately 1 yardland).

The sheep stints in Tidcombe were apparently generous, with 60 sheep per yardland. During the late 17^th century there was a cow down on which sheep were to be kept during the winter, and from 1692 (perhaps earlier) no more than three animals per yardland were permitted on common pasture, and from circa 1702 no more than 40 sheep or 80 lambs were permitted on the cow down. By 1774 all but one of the copyholds had been acquired under one farm, and the final copyhold was added in 1791-92; the remaining open fields and common lands were enclosed in 1775 by Act. The lord of Tidombe manor was allotted 295 acres of the open fields and 296 acres of the downland under these arrangements. By 1840 Tidcombe had approximately 590 acres of arable land, 42 acres of meadows or lowland pasture, and 236 acres of downland pasture.

Fosbury had both open fields and common pastures, with the manor including demesne land (that is, land owned and often farmed by the lord directly) of approximately 600 acres as well as customary tenants. The demesne land included Oakhill Wood and two rabbit warrens, one of which was in Shalbourne parish. The common pasture land appears to have been primarily on the ground to the north-east of the Vernham-Dean to Oxenwood road, whilst the open fields probably lay between that road and the southern downs.

Between 1708 and 1710 the open fields and common land at Fosbury were divided and allotted privately, although in 1709 one copyholder refused to enclose the land allotted to her, and by 1710 there were three main farms in the area. By 1840 Fosbury Farm had 675 acres including roughly 500 acres of arable land, Lower Farm had 301 acres with 23 acres of arable land, and Church Farm had 153 acres, only 72 of which were arable. The agricultural land of the Fosbury area was worked by those three farms into the late twentieth century, when the three farms were merged.

The land of the Hippenscombe estate has an interesting and varied economic history, with the use of the land changing drastically over time. The land had been enclosed by the Crown by 1343 and from that point was managed as a deer park, though some grass was grown for hay. By the 1630s the park contained a rabbit warren and was used for deer hunting and as a source of rabbits and timber. The use of the land as a warren would later prove to have been a mistake, as the rabbits multiplied out of control; those killed in 1657 were worth £130, and caused much damage to the estate. By 1693 the farmer had been licensed to kill rabbits and to plough approximately 250 acres for arable land, beginning a process that would eventually see the deer park and almost all of the woodland replaced by farmland.

By 1709 it was estimated that Hippenscombe farm consisted of no more than 15 acres of woodland (down from over 300 acres in the sixteenth century) but more than 600 acres of arable land, 160 acres of downland, 40 acres of pasture and 15 acres of meadows. This pattern of land use continued until the late nineteenth century; in 1867 the farm still had 600 acres of arable land, and it now managed a flock of over 1000 sheep and a herd of pigs. However beyond this point the pattern of land use began to change once again, and by 1886 much of the arable areas had been laid to grass and a herd of cattle introduced in addition to the previous sheep and pigs. By the 1930s there were no arable lands on the farm. Instead, the farm’s principle concern was cattle, a pattern which persisted into the late twentieth century; in 1998 the farm was principally a cattle, poultry and arable farm.

Being a small and isolated parish, Tidcombe and Fosbury had relatively few services or amenities. A saw mill was built in Fosbury village at some point between 1909 and 1922, though it had fallen into disuse by the end of the twentieth century, whilst from at least 1885 to 1939 Kelly’s Directory records that the parish had a post office in Fosbury.

From 1885 to 1939 the parish was connected to its neighbours by a number of carriers operating services from Fosbury to Hungerford (on Wednesdays and Saturdays), Marlborough (Saturdays until the 1890s when the service seems to have stopped) and Andover (Fridays). From 1927 to at least 1939 a service also ran to Newbury on Thursdays. Aside from this there is no evidence of other services, such as a village pub, blacksmiths, and so on, within the parish.

The parish school was built around 1810 by Silvanus Bevan on the Fosbury to Oxenwood road, near Fosbury House, on land which was at that point part Shalbourne Parish. The school served the children of both Fosbury and Oxenwood and had 45-60 pupils in 1858. The original building was closed in 1904 and replaced by a new one in Oxenwood village in 1905, before the school finally closed in 1967.

There is little indication of any military activity in the parish, even during the two World Wars. A memorial plaque in St Michael’s church at Tidcome records six casualties from the area during the First World War: Albert Daw (Wiltshire Regiment, Dardanelles, 1916), John S. Hayward (Wiltshire Regiment, Somme, 1916), Cuthbert R. Rowden (RAF, Hornchurch, 1916), Charles Randall (Royal Berkshire Regiment, France, 1914), Ernest Talbot (Wiltshire Regiment, France, 1916) and Walter H.

Viveash (HMS Queen Mary, Rosyth, 1915).

There were two major charities in the parish, both intended to aid the poor of the community over the winter. Ann Crook (d. 1825) left provision for blankets and fuel for four poor inhabitants of Tidcombe village, which in 1849 Edward Tanner left provision for fuel for four more members of the parish. In 1904 the trustees of the two charities gave coal to 14 people, whilst in the 1950s coal was being given away every few years, and by 1998 the charities were being wound up. Over time, as can be seen from the number of people who benefitted from the charity in 1904, the trustees began to ignore the instructions to only donate to 4 people; in 1908 it was noted that “practically all poor householders in the parish share in the dole”, the amount varying according to the number of persons in the family. In 1904 10 families received 6 hundredweight each (approximately 300kg) and 4 received 3 hundredweight each (approximately 150kg).

In terms of poor relief, there were two overseers of the poor in the eighteenth century, and in 1775-76 the parish spent £142 on poor relief, dropping to an annual average of £106 for 1782-1785 before rising to £160 in 1802-3, £344 in 1814-15 and a peak of £441 during 1817-18. After this the rate of expenditure on the poor fell to £146 by 1822-23, only exceeding £300 twice between 1823 and 1834.

In or before 1848 Tidcombe parish joined the Hungerford (Berkshire) Poor Law Union. In the eighteenth century there was a workhouse in the parish, situated at Fosbury, and there were usually 3 paupers there in 1780. The workhouse probably closed in 1783. The number of poor people in the parish in need of relief seems to have varied: in 1802-3 15 adults and 14 children received relief regularly and a further 10 people occasionally, however by 1814-15 this had decreased to 5 adults receiving relief on a regular basis and 41 occasionally. The rate of poor relief in Tidcombe appears to have been reasonable, at 3 shillings in 1802-3, which was about the average for the hundred.

In contrast, in 1802-3 the rate in Hippenscombe was 6 pence, which was very low indeed. In this year the parish helped eight adults and nine children regularly and three people occasionally for a total spend of £54. By 1812-13 the amount had increased to £73, but in 1814-15 had fallen again to only £26. No poor rate was levied in the 1830s and by 1864 Hippenscombe had joined Tidcombe and Fosbury within the Hungerford Poor Law Union.