Template:Wp-Pewsey-History

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Archaeological excavations on Pewsey Hill show evidence of a settlement in the 6th century. In the Tudor era, the Manor of Pewsey belonged to the Duchess of Somerset. Several of the village's houses were built in this era: the timber framed cruck house at Ball Corner, Bridge Cottage on the Avon and the Court House by the Church.

In 1764, the founder of the Methodist movement John Wesley (1703–1791) preached at Pewsey's Church of England parish church. The rector at that time, Joseph Townsend, was responsible for the building of Pewsey's first bridge over the River Avon.

The Kennet and Avon Canal reached Pewsey in 1810. Of more lasting effect for the village was the completion of the Hungerford to Devizes section of the GWR's Berks & Hants line in 1862, which allowed fast travel to London and to the West Country. Since 1906, the line at Pewsey has been part of the Reading to Taunton line, a more direct route via Westbury to the West Country.

In 1898 Pewsey Carnival was first held, a tradition that flourishes today with a fortnight of events, including The Feaste, culminating in an illuminated procession in mid to late September.

A prominent statue of King Alfred the Great, the former Anglo Saxon King of Wessex and a local landowner, stands in the middle of the village.