Chicklade

The parish of Chicklade is a relatively remote parish in southern Wiltshire, consisting of a main settlement, Chicklade, and a much smaller secondary settlement called Pertwood. The parish is approximately 11km south-southeast of Warminster, 9km east-northeast of Mere and 19km west-northwest of Wilton; Chicklade is separated from all three by downland. The northern boundary of the parish runs along the southern edge of Great Ridge Wood (sometimes called Chicklade Wood), the southern edge along a ridgeline track called Ox Drove, the eastern boundary along the line of the A350, and the western edge along a track rising towards Great Ridge Wood from the A303.

              Chicklade was known as Cytlid in circa 912, Chykled in 1281, Chitlad in 1300, Chiklade circa 1350, and Chicklade by 1657. The meaning of the name is somewhat unclear. The first element, Chick-, is likely to derive from the British *cet-, or ‘wood’, likely referring to Great Ridge Wood to the north of the parish. The latter part, -lade, is more obscure: Ekwall suggested that it was derived from the Old English hlid meaning ‘gate’, however this is unlikely. Gover and Stenton suggest instead that it may be the equivalent of the Welsh garth or ‘hill’.

Chicklade may therefore be ‘wood hill’ or ‘hill wood’.

              The parish has undergone many changes to its size, shape and area over the past century. Until 1934 the parish consisted of an approximately square northern part, with a spur of land jutting southwards towards Hindon, giving the parish an area of 1,085 acres. In 1934 this spur was transferred to Hindon parish, reducing Chicklade’s area to 958 acres. However, in 1986 the northernmost part of East Knoyle parish (including the former parish of Pertwood) was transferred to Chicklade. As of 2017 the parish is approximately 1,855 acres and is roughly elliptical with two spurs of land to the northeast and west, the former encompassing a small part of Great Ridge Wood and the latter, larger, spur passes some distance beyond the A350.

              Geographically the parish is similar to many of those in the south part of the county in that it is situated on chalk which is overlain by clay-with-flints at Cratt Hill. Much of the parish, including the main area of settlement, lies within a central valley along the line of the present A303, though a significant finger of high ground, Bockerly Hill, extends into this valley from the west.

The land slopes generally from the north to the south-east, at which point it drops to approximately 130m, the lowest point in the parish. To the north, west and south the parish is bounded by areas of higher land: to the north the land rises to 225m on Cratt Hill, the highest point of the parish; to the west the land rises to approximately 210m; to the south the ridges are slightly lower at approximately 200m. The northern downs slope steeply into the valley, however to the south the ridge is much gentler. There are no gravel or alluvium deposits in the valleys of the parish, and the area lacks significant water features.

              Despite its proximity to Great Ridge Wood there is little woodland in the parish. Parts of Great Ridge Wood may have been considered Chicklade land in the late thirteenth century, and in the late-twelfth or early thirteenth centuries William Longespée, earl of Salisbury (d. 1226), allowed his tenants to cut wood in what was probably part of Great Ridge Wood. However, when the boundary was drawn between Chicklade and Boyton the process excluded most of the woodland from Chicklade parish, despite the boundary remaining on the ridge. By the eighteenth century Chicklade’s citizens had regained the right to cut wood from Great Ridge, however by this point the parish was severely lacking in woodland, and by 1837 there were only 12 acres of wood in the parish.

This had doubled by 1983, with the main concentrations of woodland located on Bockerly Hill and in the north east of the parish on the edge of Great Ridge Wood.

              The primary means of transportation within the parish is by road, as there are no railways serving the parish and the nearest station is at Tisbury some distance to the south east. The main road passing though Chicklade is the London to Exeter road, currently the A303, which was turnpiked in 1761 and designated a trunk road in 1936. A number of minor roads also cross the parish to converge on Hindon to the south. The former Hindon to Warminster Road runs across the western part of the parish, over Bockerly Hill, and formerly marked its western boundary. This road is now a bridleway, use of the road having declined once the East Knoyle to Warminster road was turnpiked in 1765. A similar fate befell the Hindon-Warminster road that passed through Chicklade village itself; whilst the section to the south of the current A303 was metalled and now forms a link between Chicklade and Hindon, the northern section of this road was never made up and is now a bridleway.

Aside from the southern section of this track the only other current minor road in Chicklade connects the A303 and the A350 in the south west of the parish.

              There are some minor signs of prehistoric and Roman activity within the parish, but the evidence supporting this is limited. There is some indication of a settlement on Cratt Hill, to the north, which may date to the early Iron Age however there is little archaeological evidence to support this. In addition, there are a number of barrows and mounds of Neolithic or early Iron Age origin within the parish. Several of these, including a long barrow and an oval barrow, are located near the intersection of the A303 and the A350 in the west of the parish. Finally, there is a field system on Cratt Hill which dates from the Romano-British period or perhaps earlier.

              Chicklade is not referenced in Domesday or the Geld Rolls, however its lands may have been included in Shaftesbury Abbey’s Tisbury estate in 1086. There appear to have been three significant manors within the parish of Chicklade: that held by Shaftesbury Abbey, Chicklade manor, and Lyngever. In addition there were several small land holdings in the area, however the history of these is rather unclear.

The history of the Shaftesbury Abbey manor is difficult to trace.

The Abbey was overlord of the estate until at least 1242-43, and this is likely to have continued for many years. By the eighteenth century the Barons Arundell held the overlordship of the manor, having bought a number of estates previously belonging to Shaftesbury Abbey over the preceding years. It is likely that the Abbey’s estate at Chicklade was held by Edward of Salisbury in 1086, and that it descended within the Salisbury family until at least 1488 when it was held by Edward Plantagenet, Earl of Warwick and heir to the earldom of Salisbury.

              The manor of Chicklade was held by the Norman Hugh de Milleville, from whom King John took the manor at some point after1204. By 1213 the land was held by a Robert FitzPain in whose family it descended until 1328-29 when it was passed to Thomas Berkeley. The manor passed through the Berkeley family until Elizabeth Berkely, who married Richard Beauchamp, earl of Warwick; Beauchamp held the manor until his death in 1439. In 1389-90 a small part of the manor was given by Thomas Berkeley to his servant Thomas Rigge; this portion descended with the Rigge family, who may also have acquired the remainder of the manor by 1443, until circa 1545, by which point it belonged to John Pike.

It passed with the Pike family until it was sold to Henry Hyde around 1613, who devised it to his son Edward, Earl of Clarendon at some point in the mid-seventeenth century.

              At this point Chicklade manor appears to have been divided into three parts. Much of the land was sold to a William Hughes in 1675, in whose family it descended until circa 1730. It was then sold to Reverend John Russ, and on his death in 1812 it was then sold to John Candy. Candy’s daughter sold the land to Alfred Morrison in 1867-68, in whose family it remained in the late twentieth century.

              A second part of the manor remained in the Hyde family until 1690 when it was sold to a Thomas Price. The land passed to his daughter Elizabeth Bassett before being sold to Henry Burnett at some point between 1705 and 1713, whereupon it passed to his descendants before being sold to Alfred Seymour in 1870. This portion of the manor then appears, alongside Seymour’s other lands in Chicklade, to have passed down through the Seymour family.

              The third and final portion of Chicklade manor contained a house, a small farm, and the advowson of the church.

These may have been sold to a Henry Edgell of Standerwick by the Bassett family at some point before 1735. It then remained in the Edgell family until 1837. The house was then sold to John Candy, thereby re-joining with the first portion of the manor, and the land was sold to William Daw. The land then passed to John Lock and then to John Grosvenor, marquess of Westminster, or his widow and passed withe Grosvenor’s Chicklade lands until it was bought by Frederick White, before becoming part of the larger Morrison estate by 1983.

              The Lyngevers estate arose from lands owned by Robert Lof in 1316, which in 1348 settled on John and Avice Lyngever and descended through their male and female lines until 1620 when it was sold to William Toope in 1620. It was then sold to Robert Toope, and from him to Thomas Mervyn, who sold it to Alexander Dowles by 1655. From there it descended in his family until it was sold to Thomas Benett in circa 1797. After Benett’s son sold the manor to John Farquar in 1823 it was passed through Farquar’s extended family before being sold to Henry Seymour in 1841, and was then sold by Seymour’s son to Percy Wyndham in 1877.

The manor then descended through the Wyndham family until 1919 when it was split in two, the first part being sold to Colonel Scrope Egerton, who owned in it 1983, and the second part being sold to the Morrison family, with whom it rested in the late twentieth century.

              Chicklade is the main settlement in the parish, though there is a second, much smaller, settlement at Pertwood in the northwest. Chicklade itself is a small village arranged along the A303 London-Exeter road; in the eighteenth century the village’s larger buildings were situated to the north of the road, with the church and rectory in the centre of the village. To the south of the main road at this time were a series of smaller farmsteads and cottages, though as of 2017 there are very few buildings south of the road. These include the old school and schoolhouse, and Glebe Farm which was built in the mid-nineteenth century and altered in the later twentieth century. There are a number of listed buildings in the parish, many of which date from the mid-eighteenth century, including Chicklade House, Chicklade Bottom Farmhouse and Pertwood Manor Farmhouse, all of which are Grade II listed buildings. All Saints church at Chicklade village is an early nineteenth century Grade II church built on the site of the previous medieval church.

The oldest building in the parish is St Peter’s church in Higher Pertwood, which was originally built in the thirteenth century before being rebuilt in 1872.

              Chicklade has consistently had a relatively low population throughout its history. There were fewer than ten households in the parish in 1428, with perhaps 52 adults in 1676, rising to 100 inhabitants by 1783. The parish reached its peak population in 1801, when 150 people were recorded as living in the parish. From there it declined to 130 in 1811 and 109 in 1841, before rallying slightly to 143 by 1861. From there the population steadily fell until the early twentieth century, reaching 42 in 1911. A slight recovery followed and the population reached a twentieth century high of 76 in 1931 before once again falling away to a low of 34 in 1971. Following this the population staged another revival with 49 residents in 1981, 71 in 1991 and 2001, and finally 75 in 2011.

Much of the decline in Chicklade’s population can be attributed, as with other rural parishes in Wiltshire and elsewhere, to the declining availability of agricultural employment in the parish. Indeed the decrease between 1861 and 1871, from 143 to 122 inhabitants respectively, was attributed to many labouring families moving to nearby Berwick St Leonard, presumably in search of work.

A second incident, in which 25 adults were buried in the parish during 1758, suggests further possible reasons for sudden population decline.

              The economic history of the parish mirrors that of much of the rest of rural southern Wiltshire in that it was primarily dependent on tenant farming, chiefly sheep and grain. As elsewhere in the country during the Middle Ages Chicklade’s farmers were a mixture of free and unfree (serf) tenants. Free tenants paid their rent to the lord of the manor in coin and were relatively free to move to other lands should they have wished. In contrast, unfree tenants were liable to pay their rent by labouring in their lord’s fields (in addition to working their own lands), and they also faced restrictions on their freedom to move to other manors.

              During the Middle Ages the primary form of farming in the parish appears to have been sheep and corn. There was significant common sheep pasture in the north of the parish in 1371, and a further area of common pasture for cattle in the south. By the seventeenth century there were three common fields in the parish: South (renamed Middle by 1677), East and West. Each field was arranged into numerous strips ranging in size from ½ to 8 acres.

By the eighteenth century the distribution of grazing land had altered again, with a cattle down of approximately 150 acres in the north-east of the parish, a sheep down of 225 acres in the north-west, and a farm down of 50 acres spread across either side of the London to Exeter road. With the exception of a handful of larger estates, the majority of landholdings within Chicklade by this time appear to have been single farms run by tenants.

              The enclosure process from the seventeenth century onwards changed the way in which land was owned. In contrast to the numerous small estates of preceding centuries, by 1781 there were five estates with holdings of 100 acres or more, with the largest at 172 acres, one estate of 60 acres and six estates of less than 60 acres. This had little effect on the way in which land was used in the south of the parish, which remained largely pastoral, however in the north large sections of downland were ploughed for crops. By 1837 the north of the parish had seen a significant change in land use with 670 acres of land given over to arable farming with only 280 acres of downland pasture remaining.

              Chicklade has never been a prosperous parish. In the taxation of 1334 the parish was included with Berwick St Leonard and in total paid 33s 4d.

By 1377 Chicklade had 69 Poll Tax payers, a below average figure, whilst the tax assessment of 1576 was also very low. The rateable value of the parish slowly decreased over the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, from £1000 in 1885 to £709 in 1907. From there the rateable value began to steadily increase to £958 in 1923, before dropping again to £867 in 1927.

              There is some record of crime and punishment within the parish. In the late ninth or early tenth centuries a man named Helmstan stole oxen from Fonthill and drove them to Chicklade. Despite attempting to deny the theft, Helmstan’s face had apparently been badly scratched by brambles during his attempted evading capture, and this was held to be sufficient evidence to prove his guilt. As a result he was taken to Tisbury where he was outlawed and his property was confiscated.

              The parish register of 1781-1812 records a second incident of theft in August 1806 in which John Portnall, 38, and David Ford, 28, were found to have stolen seven sheep and seven lambs from farmers in nearby Stockton and Boyton. The two men were taken to the County Gaol and Fisherton Anger where they were executed by hanging.

Ford left behind a pregnant widow and six young children.

              In terms of services within the parish there is some circumstantial evidence that Chicklade possessed a mill in or before the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries: a mill path was mentioned in 1601, and there may have been a Millhouse Lane in 1705, whilst in 1773 there was a windmill house south of what is now the A303.

              The village currently has no public house, however several alehouse keepers are recorded in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, and in the eighteenth century there appears to have been an inn called the Bull. This pub appears to have been linked in some way to the village bakery, though there is little further information on the bakery.

              A village shop is listed in Kelly’s Directory from at least 1885 through to 1903, and is not listed from 1907 onwards, perhaps indicating that the shop closed at some point between 1903 and 1907. Kelly’s lists the shopkeeper as a Mrs Ann Hibbard in 1885, and a Mrs Fanny Fry from 1889 to 1903.

Fry’s shop was apparently a favourite of children from Chicklade House, who “used to buy bottles of ginger-pop and then run up the Chimney to hide from their nurse, and enjoy in privacy what was probably a forbidden pleasure”.

              Chicklade never possessed a Post Office, the nearest of which was in Hindon to the south, however it did have a letter box. The village also had relatively few carriers serving it when compared to others of similar size, with only one carrier, Frederick White, listed as operating in the parish. Other services included a motor engineer, Brian Coombs, in the 1920s and 1930s, and a filling station during the 1930s.

              In common with many other parishes, during the nineteenth century Chicklade also operated a form of pest control, offering bounties for stoats, moles, sparrows and, perhaps more unusually, hedgehogs. In 1837 the parish paid out £1 14s 9½d for sparrows, the largest amount recorded. At other times the parish paid anywhere between 2s and 18s 6d per dozen sparrow heads collected, with the number of heads varying from 8 dozen to 72 dozen.

              There is currently no school in Chicklade, however this was not always the case.

There was a dame school for 10 children in 1818, and there was a small school for infants in 1833 which was attended by six boys and one girl. A more formal school – possibly a National School – was built south of what is now the A303 in 1848, and a schoolhouse was added in 1867. By 1859 the school had 15-20 pupils, however by 1872 the building was felt to be inadequate and at some point between 1885 and 1892 the school was closed.

              Chicklade experienced little military activity during the two World Wars. Two parish citizens lost their lives during the First World War: Captain J. A. Halliday of the 11^th Hussars who died of his wounds in Belgium in 1914; and Corporal R. G. Hacker, of the Wiltshire Regiment. Both men are commemorated by brass tablets on the wall of All Saints’ church nave, and Haliday is buried in the Churchyard.

              Unlike in other parishes there do not appear to have been any private charities established for the benefit of the poor in Chicklade, and support for the poor was instead provided only through the formal system of poor relief. In 1775-76 the parish spent £19 relieving the poor, and this rose to an average of £30 between 1753 and 1755.

By the early years of the nineteenth century 13 adults and 13 children were in constant receipt of poor relief, and by 1816-18 the parish was spending £200 per year on the poor. The poor rate was nearly £1 per head of the population in the period 1833-35, which was high for the Dunworth Hundred in which the parish is situated and further illustrates the parish’s lack of prosperity at this time.