Sutton Mandeville

Hamlets

The hamlet of Sutton Row is about one mile west of Sutton Mandeville village. Lower Chicksgrove, in the northwest of the parish and on the left (north) bank of the Nadder, was transferred from Tisbury parish in 1986.

The Apshill area, south of the river on the road from Sutton Row to Lower Chicksgrove, was also part of the transfer from Tisbury parish. The hamlet here, which includes the Compasses Inn, is unmarked on a 1958 Ordnance Survey map but on some modern maps is labelled as Chicksgrove.

History

No prehistoric sites are recorded in the area, although an Iron Age hillfort known as Castle Ditches lies to the west in Tisbury parish. Domesday Book in 1086 recorded a settlement of 25 households at Sudtone, with woodland and a mill.

Later landowners included the Wyndham family of Dinton House (later Philipps House).

In 1859 the Salisbury and Yeovil Railway opened their line from Salisbury to Gillingham, following the Nadder valley and crossing the parish north of Sutton Mandeville. The station at was closed in 1966; station remains in use, and the line forms part of the route from London Waterloo to Exeter via Salisbury.

Military camps

During the First World War, in the fields to the south of the village across to Sutton Down thousands of British and Australian soldiers were encamped in temporary wooden huts, undergoing training and preparation for the battlefields of France and Belgium. They made up two camps, one to the north of the A30 road and another to the south.{{cite web | access-date = 31 January 2021

Hillside badges

Right: The Warwickshire Regiment badge on the hillside at Sutton Mandeville has two hillside badges. Soldiers of the Shiny 7th and the Warwickshire Regiment each carved their regimental cap badges on the chalk downland of Sutton Down in 1916. These were cared for by the Fovant Badges Association until the 1990s, after when they started to become overgrown. In 2018 a local group was formed to uncover the badges and restore them to their former condition; renovation work was carried out in 2018–19 and they are now clearly visible from the A30.

Parish church

The parish church dedicated to All Saints, built in uncoursed dressed limestone, dates from the 13th century; the chancel arch is from that period. The chancel was restored in 1850 and there was further restoration in 1862. The church was recorded as Grade II* listed in 1966.

The three-stage west tower was built in the 15th century and carries three bells: one possibly dated 1399, the others cast by John Wallis in 1615 and 1616. In the churchyard is a late 17th-century sundial, restored in the 19th century.

At some point the benefice was united with those of Fovant and Compton Chamberlayne. In 1979 the benefice of Teffont Evias with Teffont Magna was added to the union{{London Gazette

Notable buildings

Church Farmhouse, now a dwelling, began as a cottage in the 17th century.

Chicksgrove Manor at Lower Chicksgrove is Grade II* listed. The house, in rubble stone under a thatched roof, has 14th-century origins and is described by Historic England as "a very fine Wiltshire manor house retaining many features from different periods of its development". Behind the house is an 18th-century timber-framed granary, on staddle stones.

Apshill House, part of the hamlet between Sutton Row and Lower Chicksgrove, dates from the 14th century and was altered and extended in the 16th and 17th. Historic England state it is "an unusual survival of a hall house". The Compasses Inn, in the same hamlet, is a late 17th-century building.

Governance

The parish has a locally elected parish council, which was created in 1974 to replace the earlier parish meeting. This is consulted on all parish matters, while most significant local government functions are carried out by Wiltshire Council, a unitary authority.

Notable people

• John Wyndham (1870–1933), cricketer and army officer, born in the parish

References

References

1. "Wiltshire Community History – Census". Wiltshire Council.
2. (1987). "Victoria County History – Wiltshire – Vol 13 pp195-248 – Parishes: Tisbury". University of London.
3. "The Compasses Inn, Chicksgrove".
4. (1958). "Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 maps of Great Britain, sheet ST92".
5. "Election Maps". [[Ordnance Survey]].
6. {{National Heritage List for England
7. {{OpenDomesday. ST9828. sutton-mandeville. Sutton Mandeville
8. {{National Heritage List for England
9. (2004). "Wiltshire Railway Stations". The Dovecote Press.
10. "The People: 3/7th London Regiment". Sutton Mandeville Heritage Trust.
11. "The People: Royal Warwickshire Regiment". Sutton Mandeville Heritage Trust.
12. "The People: Royal Field Artillery". Sutton Mandeville Heritage Trust.
13. "The People: Australian Imperial Force". Sutton Mandeville Heritage Trust.
14. "What We are Doing". Sutton Mandeville Heritage.
15. {{National Heritage List for England
16. "Sutton Mandeville".
17. {{National Heritage List for England
18. "Nadder Valley (Team Ministry)".
19. An 18th-century watermill on the Nadder, northwest of the village, was in use to grind flour until the 1940s.{{National Heritage List for England
20. "Watermill, Sutton Mandeville".
21. {{National Heritage List for England
22. {{National Heritage List for England
23. {{National Heritage List for England
24. {{National Heritage List for England