Place:Alvediston, Wiltshire, England

source: Family History Library Catalog

the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

Alvediston is a small village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, about 7 miles (11 km) east of Shaftesbury and 11 miles (18 km) southwest of Salisbury. The area is the source of the River Ebble. According to the UK census of 2011 the parish population was 106.

Much of the land was granted to the nuns of Wilton Abbey in 955. Fragmentary records from Saxon times indicate that the Ebble valley was a thriving area. The Domesday Book of 1086 recorded the division of the Chalke Valley into eight manors: Chelke (Bower Chalke and Broad Chalke), Eblesborne (Ebbesbourne Wake), Fifehide (Fifield Bavant), Cumbe (Coombe Bissett), Humitone (Homington), Odestoche (Odstock), Stradford (Stratford Tony) and Trow (equivalent to Alvediston and Tollard Royal). Alvediston emerged in 1156 as Alfweiteston, formed from the western part of Ebbesbourne Wake and the small manor of Trow. The manor passed to the Crown at the Dissolution of the Monasteries (circa 1535), then in 1541 to Sir William Herbert who became Earl of Pembroke. Alvediston manor remained with the Pembrokes until 1918 when it was sold as two farms, Church Farm and Elcombe Farm.

Norrington manor was recorded as held from the king in 1210-1212. It was owned by the Gawen family from 1377 to 1658 and then by the Wyndham family until 1952.

A Vision of Britain through Time provides the following description of Alvediston from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72:

"ALVESDISTON, or Alvediston, a parish in Tisbury [registration] district, Wilts; on an affluent of the Avon, under White sheet-hill, 4 miles SSE of Tisbury [railway] station, and 8 E of Shaftesbury. Post Town: Broad Chalk under Salisbury. Acres: 2,531. Real property, with [parishes of] Berwick-St. John and Tollard-Royal: £7,280. Population: 267. Houses: 56. The property is not much divided. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Salisbury. Value: £82. Patron: the Vicar of Broad Chalk. The church is good."

Research Tips

• Victoria County History - Wiltshire - Vol 13, pp6-16 - Parish: Alvediston. British History Online. University of London.
• From this Ancestry page you can browse the Wiltshire parishes which have parish register transcripts online, quite often from very early dates. However, reading the early ones requires skill and patience. Transcriptions should also be in FamilySearch.
• A further collection of online source references will be found on the county page for Wiltshire.