Fisherton de la Mere

Fisherton de la Mere
Cottages and church, Fisherton de la Mere
Fisherton de la Mere is located in Wiltshire
Fisherton de la Mere
Fisherton de la Mere
Location within Wiltshire
OS grid referenceSU000385
Civil parish
Unitary authority
Ceremonial county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townWarminster
Postcode districtBA12
Dialling code01985
PoliceWiltshire
FireDorset and Wiltshire
AmbulanceSouth Western
UK Parliament
List of places
UK
England
Wiltshire
51°08′46″N 2°00′04″W / 51.146°N 2.001°W / 51.146; -2.001

Fisherton de la Mere, also spelt Fisherton Delamere, is a small village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Wylye, on the River Wylye, Wiltshire, England. The village lies just off the A36, midway between Salisbury and Warminster, each about 10 miles (16 km) distant. The parish came to an end in 1934 and was divided between Wylye and Stockton, the latter gaining the hamlet of Bapton while the village of Fisherton de la Mere retained a separate identity within Wylye. In 1931 the parish had a population of 195.[1]

History

In the Domesday Book of 1086, the settlement name is spelt Fisertone[2] and there were 42 households and a mill.[3] The estate was held by Roger de Corcelle, alongside Curry Mallet in Somerset.[2]

The ancient parish of Fisherton de la Mere formed a detached part of the Warminster hundred of Wiltshire. It contained two villages, Fisherton itself, to the north of the River Wylye, and Bapton, about a mile away and to the south of the river, and covered 2,834 acres, of which 1,660 were in Fisherton. The civil parish was extinguished in 1934, when Fisherton was transferred to Wylye, and Bapton to Stockton.[4][5]

The former parish was a rough oblong stretching both north and south up into the downland on each side of the river, each slope running down from an altitude of about 600 feet. At the south is a level area called the Bake. On the north-east the parish boundary ran along the old road from Chitterne to Stapleford, on the south along Grim's Dyke, an ancient earthwork, while on the south-west the boundary cut through a combe, Roakham Bottom.[4]

A schoolroom was built in 1865 just west of the church, attached to an 18th-century cottage,[6] and was later supported by the National Society. Attendance had dwindled to 15 by 1922, and the school was closed.[7]

Almost the whole of the village was designated as a Conservation Area in 1975.[8] A detailed parish history was published in 1965 by the Wiltshire Victoria County History.[4]

Landowners

The name Delamere, Delamare, or de la Mere, refers to the family of Nunney Castle, Somerset,[9] who owned the manor in the Middle Ages, and whose name was spelt in all of those ways. The last of the family was Sir John Delamare (c. 1320–1383).[10]

When his niece and heiress Eleanor Delamare died in 1413, Fisherton passed into the Paulet family and thus to the William Paulet who was Lord Chamberlain and Secretary of State to Henry VIII, and Lord High Treasurer to Edward VI, Lady Jane Grey, Mary I, and Elizabeth I.[10] Fisherton continued to belong to the Paulets as Dukes of Bolton.[11] The Fisherton estate was owned by the Dukes of Somerset in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

Bapton was owned by Sir Cecil Chubb from 1927, and he lived at Bapton Manor. In 1939 his heirs sold his estate to Alfred Douglas-Hamilton, 13th Duke of Hamilton, who died in 1940.[4]

Church

St Nicholas' Church
Main article: St Nicholas's Church, Fisherton de la Mere

The Church of England parish church, St Nicholas's Church, built in the 14th century in a chequerboard pattern of flint and Chilmark stone, stands on a hill overlooking the River Wylye at the centre of the village. It is now a Grade II* listed building[12] in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust.[13]

The parish registers survive in the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre for the following dates: christenings 1561–1895, marriages 1566–1992, and burials 1569–1992.[14]

Governance

Almost all of the present village of Fisherton de la Mere is now part of the parish of Wylye. However, as the River Wylye is the parish boundary, Fisherton Mill (lying on the south of the river) is in Stockton. On 1 April 1934 the parish (called "Fisherton de la Mare" or Fisherton de la Mere[15]) was abolished and merged with Wylye and Stockton.[16]

The village comes under the Wylye parish council and is in the area of the Wiltshire Council unitary authority, which is responsible for almost all significant local government functions. It forms part of the South West Wiltshire Parliament constituency, and the serving Member of Parliament is Andrew Murrison.

Notable people

List of vicars

  • William de Beloney: 1314[4]
  • John Conge: early 15th century[20]
  • Joel Doughty: 1596–1613[21]
  • Thomas Crockford: 1613–1634[22]
  • Edward Seymour: 1793[23]
  • William Davis: 1807[24]
  • Edward Graves Meyrick: 1813
  • William Davison Thring DD: 1844[25]
  • Thomas John Davis: 1854–1868[26]
  • W. G. N. Fenwick: 1868–1883[27][28]
  • Thomas Ratcliffe:1885–1893[29]
  • Raymond Williams: 1897

References

  1. ^ "Population statistics Fisherton de la Mare CP/AP through time". A Vision of Britain through Time. Retrieved 8 December 2023.
  2. ^ a b William Henry Jones, Domesday for Wiltshire: extracted from accurate copies of the original (1865), p. 216 at books.google.co.uk
  3. ^ Fisherton Delamere in the Domesday Book
  4. ^ a b c d e f "Fisherton de la Mere". A History of the County of Wiltshire, Volume 8. Victoria County History. University of London. 1965. pp. 34–46. Retrieved 14 March 2021 – via British History Online.
  5. ^ A History of the County of Wiltshire: Volume IV (1959), p. 361
  6. ^ Historic England. "Old School House (1146208)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 17 March 2021.
  7. ^ "National School, Fisherton de la Mere". Wiltshire Community History. Wiltshire Council. Retrieved 15 March 2021.
  8. ^ "No. 46649". The London Gazette. 1 August 1975. p. 9882.
  9. ^ John Murray (publishers), A handbook for travellers in Wiltshire, Dorsetshire and Somersetshire, p. 67 at books.google.com: "Fisherton de la Mere, so named after its ancient lords, the De la Meres of Nunney Castle."
  10. ^ a b Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, vol. 20, p. 959: "William Paulet, by his marriage with Eleanor Delamare (d. 1413), daughter of Philip Delamare and heir of her brother, acquired for his descendants Fisherton Delamare in Wiltshire and Nunney Castle in Somerset. Their son Sir John Paulet married Constance, daughter and coheir of Hugh Poynings, son and heir of Sir Thomas Poynings, Lord St John of Basing."
  11. ^ Edward Hungerford Goddard, ed., The Wiltshire archaeological and natural history magazine, vol. 1 (1854), p. 173 online at books.google.co.uk
  12. ^ Historic England. "Church of St Nicholas (1183381)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 14 March 2021.
  13. ^ "St Nicholas' Church, Fisherton Delamere, Wiltshire". Churches Conservation Trust. Retrieved 27 April 2023.
  14. ^ Fisherton Delamere at genuki.org.uk, accessed 5 November 2010
  15. ^ "Wilton Registration District". UKBMD. Retrieved 8 December 2023.
  16. ^ "Relationships and changes Fisherton de la Mare CP/AP through time". A Vision of Britain through Time. Retrieved 8 December 2023.
  17. ^ Mike Pincombe, abstract Archived 14 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine of Rowland Broughton's The Life and Death of Sir William Paulet, at hrionline.ac.uk, accessed 13 November 2010: Broughton says Paulet was born at Fisherton de la Mere
  18. ^ J. D. Alsop, William Paulet, First Marquis of Winchester: A Question of Age (1987): "So when, and where, was William Paulet born? The family tradition that the event took place at Fisherton de la Mere in Wiltshire..."
  19. ^ Dr Alan Bryson, The Legal Quays: Sir William Paulet, First Marquis of Winchester (Gresham College lecture, 2008), online Archived 27 December 2010 at the Wayback Machine at gresham.ac.uk: "Winchester may have been born at Fisherton-Delamare in Wiltshire..."
  20. ^ The register of Robert Hallum, Bishop of Salisbury, 1407–17
  21. ^ Wiltshire notes and queries Volume 1 (1896), p. 419
  22. ^ Martin Ingram, Church courts, sex and marriage in England, 1570–1640 (1990), p. 119
  23. ^ Eldest son of Lord William Seymour, younger brother of Edward, 9th Duke of Somerset
  24. ^ R. E. Sandell, ed., Abstracts of Wiltshire inclosure awards and agreements, (Wiltshire Record Society Vol. 25, 1971), p. 74
  25. ^ Edmund Burke, The Annual register of world events: a review of the year Volume 85 (1844), p. 212
  26. ^ Crockford's Clerical Directory for 1868, p. 176 at books.google.co.uk
  27. ^ Thompson Cooper, ed., The Register, and magazine of biography (1869), p. 135
  28. ^ The Family Churchman (1883), p. 730: Fenwick was reported to have been missing for more than a month, having last been seen near the sea at Cherbourg.
  29. ^ The Eagle vol. 17 (1893), p. 551
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