West Tisbury

West Tisbury is a large rural parish in the south of Wiltshire comprising the hamlets of Hatch to the south, Newtown in the centre of the parish and scattered homes and farms across the rest of the parish. The population at the time of the 2001 census was 601.An area of West Tisbury in the south east of the parish is known as Newtown, and this is as remote as the rest of the parish. The parish is seven miles north east of Shaftesbury in Dorset and four miles east of East Knoyle. It sits to the west of the parish of Tisbury, which includes the village of Tisbury itself and the boundary lines of the parish of West Tisbury begin in the east on the edge of Tisbury village. It extends west to take in the grounds of the Pythouse estate and is marked to the south by the River Sem which lies just south of the railway line, which goes through Tisbury and stops in the north at the woods south of Fonthill Gifford. This was the Salisbury and Yeovil Railway in 1859 and the line was double tracked by 1870, but had returned to a single line by 1967. In 1931 the parish consisted of 2,803 acres of land and 635 residents and in 1975 the parish was made up of 2, 782 acres.

West Tisbury became a parish in its own right in 1835, when East Tisbury, West Tisbury and Wardour were divided into separate poor law parishes. West Tisbury held 2,803 acres and 734 inhabitants in 1841 at the time of the census. Prior to this date, the history of the parish must be considered as being linked with East Tisbury and Wardour. Tisbury is the civil parish which contains the village of Tisbury itself and was created when East Tisbury and Wardour were put together in 1927 so this meant West Tisbury stood alone as a separate parish.

The two parishes which had once been united then went on diverging paths; the Salisbury and Yeovil Railway was built in 1859 and Tisbury Station was built to the south of the village. This had the natural effect of focusing settlement and industry around Tisbury (especially because of the transportation of Tisbury stone to London) and the village grew to resemble a small bustling town. The hamlets in West Tisbury remained small and isolated with the River Nadder, one of the main tributaries of the River Avon, flowing through the parish.

The Newtown area of West Tisbury is to the south east of the parish and is made up of a row of houses which are akin to a terrace; rather incongruous in the middle of the countryside, but charming nevertheless. There are some further houses in the area, all grouped around the road. In 1985 there were a total of 25 houses in Newtown; all of which were built after 1800. Two pairs of council houses were built in 1954. There was a school at Newtown, built in 1846, which was endowed by Thomas Benett and Miss Benett Stanford of Pythouse, the large mansion lying west of Newtown. It closed in 1931 and became a private home.

There was a quarry at Newtown in 1846; from this stone was extracted for building. For a long time the stone was used purely for building locally, but with the advent of the railway, Tisbury stone was transported to other areas of the country where it achieved a good price. At Hatch, the landscape is very similar to that of Newtown, with scattered houses sitting beside winding roads and woods. It used to be known as West Hatch and East Hatch, but is now known simply as Hatch.
Settlement in the Middle Ages centred around West Hatch and the manor had fifteen small farmsteads in the 12th century. In the 18th century there were also many farmhouses in East Hatch and in the early 19th century 34 houses were recorded as standing there. The older buildings in the hamlet were probably demolished at the start of the 20th century.

Hatch was very badly affected by the Black Death in 1348-1349; it was recorded that in 1349 there were 75 deaths in the whole Tisbury area because of the plague and many of these were at West Hatch. It is possible there was a mill at West Hatch in the early 13th century. In the mid 16th century there was a meadow at East Hatch which was common land providing pasture for cattle and sheep. There was also an iron foundry in the parish in the 1850s, possibly at Tuckingmill to the north east of the parish. However, this had fallen into disuse just a few decades later and was converted into cottages in 1871.

There are a number of listed buildings within the parish of West Tisbury, primarily farmhouses and they include Pouldens Farmhouse, Hatch Farmhouse, and Lawn Farmhouse. A large, well known house lies within the parish of West Tisbury; this is Pythouse, the home of the Benett family. It is found near East Hatch and is a Grade II listed building. Other parts of the estate are also listed; for example a dovecote near to the gates, a monument of the family dog, Nelson, the Orangery and the gate piers leading to the estate. A family named “Pytt” was given the land in 1225 by the Abbess of Shaftesbury.

This name somehow become Benett over the years, with the names “Pytt-alias- Bennett”, “Bennett -alias-Pytt” and “Bennett-at-Pyte” all featuring in documents. The first real documentation of the original Elizabethan house is recorded when Thomas Bennett owned a house on the site in 1562. He was involved in the Civil War and was a rather unwilling Royalist. After the war ended, he had to pay fines for being on the losing side and this resulted in his son having to sell the estate. It then passed into the Dove family for 56 years. Thomas' granddaughter Patience married into a family from Norton Bavant who had the name “Benett” with only one “n”, who bought the Pythouse estate from the Doves. They were no relations, but in this curious way the estate passed back into the original Bennett family through Patience, but the Benett family from then on were referred to with this second spelling of the family name.

The original Elizabethan house was pulled down and a Queen Anne or early Georgian house was built in its place in or around 1725. The building was enlarged in 1891 and an east wing was added. Pythouse Farmhouse was built to the east of the house in the early 19th century. This impressive building of Pythouse still stands in the parish today and in the second half of the 20th century it was used by a charity as a luxury retirement home. This closed in 2005 and is now a private home once again.

The Benett family purchased Hatch House in the 19th century; formerly the Dower House, it now lies in the grounds of the Pythouse estate. It was once a manor in its own right, known either as Hatch House estate or West Hatch Manor and is thought to have been built in the late 16th or early 17th century.

One of the most famous Benet's is John Benett who lived in the 19th century and was a Member of Parliament, elected in 1819, and he did much to renovate Pythouse in 1805. A local history study regarding Pythouse and John Benett reads: “John Benett seems to have added considerably to the Pythouse Estate in the early 19th century. He was a very tall and a very thin man. He was not liked by his fellow landowners, or by the agricultural workers, but he received support from farmers.”

West Tisbury and Pythouse played a role in the Swing Riots of 1830; a series of revolts by labourers against, in part, the introduction of new farming equipment such as threshing machines, which threatened to harm an already struggling way of gaining a living for those living in rural areas. John Benett of Pythouse was woken in his bed on the night of 24th November 1830 and was told that a group of rioters had attacked a factory at Fonthill Gifford, to the north of the parish. Having ridden there, he found a group of 500 men intent on destruction. The mob followed him back to Pythouse and destroyed farm machinery and pulled the roof from the barn. Benett was then hit by a stone and knocked unconscious; on coming around he barricaded himself and his men inside Pythouse while the group of 500 men caused mayhem in the grounds of Pythouse and in the nearby woods. 29 men were arrested afterwards and one man, John Harding, was killed by the Yeomanry, who arrived in the midst of all the damage being caused. This event was later known as “The Pythouse Battle”.