Horningsham

Horningsham is a small village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, on the county border with Somerset. The village lies about southwest of the town of Warminster and southeast of Frome, Somerset.

The parish forms part of the Longleat estate and includes the hamlets of Hitcombe Bottom and Newbury.

History

At Baycliffe Farm, in the south of the parish near the boundary with Maiden Bradley, are the site of an early Iron Age settlement and a Bronze Age bowl barrow. Entries in the Domesday Book of 1086 describe Horningsham as very small, being occupied by one cottager and four small holders.

The name 'Horninges-ham' means 'Horning's homestead' in Old English. The personal name probably comes from the uncomplimentary noun 'hornung' meaning ' bastard'.

A small Augustinian priory was established at Longleat at an uncertain date before 1235 and continued as a Royal peculiar controlled by the Dean of Salisbury. In 1529, Longleat Priory failed, and its land and buildings became the property of Hinton Priory, Somerset.

The Vernon family, who held the manor during the 12th century, were the founders of the village church. The Stantors then held it for some 200 years, selling to Sir John Thynne about 1550. He built Longleat House on the site of the former priory and increased the size of the estate by buying more land. Before and after the English Civil War, the manor of Horningsham was in the possession of the Lords Arundel of Wardour Castle and changed hands several times before the Thynnes bought it for the second time in 1716.

Close to the parish boundary on the road to Frome are the remains of Woodhouse Castle, where earthworks and fragmentary ruins, largely cellar walls, survive. In the 17th century, Woodhouse Castle was owned by the Cavalier Lords Arundel and consequently was attacked by Parliamentarians during the English Civil War. The damage was so severe that the castle was no longer habitable when peace was restored. To replace it, Henry Arundell, 3rd Baron Arundell of Wardour, built a fine manor house in Horningsham, below the church.

Thomas Thynne, 1st Marquess of Bath (1734–1796), was interested in forestry and hired Capability Brown to plant large plantations of beech and pine. Gradually forestry was established as one of the two main sources of employment, joining farming, and this did not change until the late 20th century, when tourism took over.

Longleat House, its orangery, stables and boathouse are Grade I listed, as is the archway flanked by two lodges, built c. 1804 to form an impressive approach to the house from Horningsham village.

Lord Bath's School was built to the west of the church in 1844 by Harriet, widow of Henry Thynne, 3rd Marquess of Bath. Forty children attended in 1858, and in 1892 the school was enlarged to cater for 200. The school came under the control of Wiltshire County Council in 1926 and ceased taking pupils over 11 in 1931. The building continues in use as Horningsham Primary School.

Nikolaus Pevsner described Horningsham in 1963 as "a singularly loose village with houses in their own gardens, small or large, and no visual cohesion."

Religious sites

Horningsham has two places of worship, both of long standing and both Grade II* listed.

Church of England

The Church of England parish church of St John the Baptist was founded in the 12th century. The tower is from the 15th century while the body of the church was rebuilt in 1844 at the expense of the Marchioness of Bath, by T.H. Wyatt and D. Brandon. Five of the six bells are dated 1743.

Tithes from Horningsham were given to Heytesbury in the 12th century, and later in that century when Heytesbury became a collegiate church the tithes supported the canons, with the prebendary continuing after the Reformation. A notable canon was William Bradbridge, prebendary of Horningsham from 1568 to 1576 and Bishop of Exeter from 1571. The Ecclesiastical Commissioners Act 1840