Place:Easterton, Wiltshire, England

source: Family History Library Catalog

the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia

Easterton is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, 4 miles (6.4 km) south of Devizes. The parish includes the hamlets of Easterton Sands and Eastcott.

Easterton lies at the northern edge of Salisbury Plain. The Ridgeway, runs along the scarp of the Plain, the railway north of the greensand ridge, and the former turnpike road in between. The turnpike forms the village street which is bordered by a small brook.

History

Easterton was a tithing which formed the eastern part of the ancient parish of East Lavington, now Market Lavington. Easterton was made a separate civil parish soon after its ecclesiastical parish was created in 1874, and in 1934 Eastcott hamlet was transferred to it from Urchfont parish.

The parish has three concentrations of buildings: around Easterton Manor House and the Royal Oak inn; near the Victorian parish church; and at Eastcott along a secondary road (B3098) and interspersed with modern housing. Some older houses were lost as a result of road widening in the later 20th century. A map of 1773 suggests that there were then more buildings at Eastcott, and between Eastcott and Easterton than at present, and therefore that the settlements have declined. The survival of timber-framed houses in separate groups in an area where from the 18th century brick buildings have predominated is consistent with such a decline. For more information, see the EN Wikipedia article Easterton.

Religious sites

Until 1874 when Easterton became a separate ecclesiastical parish, it was a tithing of St Mary's, Market Lavington. The Church of England parish church of St. Barnabas was built in 1875, in red brick with coloured brick decoration. Today the church is part of the benefice of the Lavingtons, Cheverells and Easterton.

A Wesleyan Methodist chapel was built at Easterton in 1868. It was sold and became a private house in 1985.

Eastcott had a small chapel by 1309, which passed to Edington Priory later in the century. The chapel fell into disuse after the 1548 Dissolution and its location is not known.

Research Tips