Fovant is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of Parish (administrative division), administrative parish used for Local government in England, local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below district ...

in southwest

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershir ...

, England, lying about west of

Salisbury Salisbury ( ) is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers Avon, Nadder and Bourne. The city is approximately from Southampton and from Bath. Salisbury is in the southeast of Wil ...

on the A30 Salisbury- Shaftesbury road, on the south side of the Nadder valley.

History

The name is derived from the Old English ''Fobbefunta'', meaning "spring of a man called Fobbe". The

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

of 1086 recorded a settlement called ''Febefonte'' with 22 households, held by Wilton Abbey. The abbey was

surrendered Surrender, in military terms, is the relinquishment of control over territory, combatants, fortifications, ships or armament to another power. A surrender may be accomplished peacefully or it may be the result of defeat in battle. A sovereign ...

to the Crown in 1539, and Fovant was among the villages granted to Sir William Herbert, later Earl of Pembroke. (Herbert was also granted the site of the abbey, where he built

Wilton House Wilton House is an English country house at Wilton near Salisbury in Wiltshire, which has been the country seat of the Earls of Pembroke for over 400 years. It was built on the site of the medieval Wilton Abbey. Following the dissolution ...

). The Pembrokes continued as landowners at Fovant until the estate was broken up in 1919. An

elementary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ed ...

was built in 1847 with places for 100 children, and gained a second classroom in 1875. Children of all ages attended until 1944, when those aged twelve and over transferred to the senior school at Tisbury. By 1958, when the buildings were modernised, there were 58 pupils. In the 1980s children aged 10 and 11 went to a middle school at Tisbury, and falling numbers led to closure of the Fovant school in 1997 when it had 27 pupils. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

a training camp was set up at Fovant which, according to one soldier stationed there, was 'as good a camp as Chiseldon was a bad one'. Owing to the leadership of 'a giant colonel now fairly old', the recruits were well cared for and fed.

Religious sites

Parish church

The

Church of England parish church A parish church in the Church of England is the church which acts as the religious centre for the people within each Church of England parish (the smallest and most basic Church of England administrative unit; since the 19th century sometimes ca ...

of St George dates from the 13th century and has a south doorway taken from a 12th-century building. Much of the church was rebuilt in the 15th century; the tower was built c. 1492 and is surmounted with stone friezes and battlements. In the 16th century the last abbess of Wilton Abbey, Cecily Bodenham, retired to Fovant and is said to have paid for the building or rebuilding of the south aisle. Restoration in 1863 by T.H. Wyatt included the rebuilding of the chancel and major changes to the interior, including the removal of a musicians' gallery. One of the six bells in the tower is from the 15th century. The building was designated as

Grade II* listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern I ...

in 1960. Today the parish is part of the Nadder Valley Team Ministry.

Chapel

Congregational Congregational churches (also Congregationalist churches or Congregationalism) are Protestant churches in the Calvinist tradition practising congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs it ...

chapel was completed in 1820 in dressed limestone, and continues in use as Fovant Free Church.

Military connections

During the First World War, temporary camps were built in the Fovant area to handle training and medical treatment of soldiers, and later their demobilisation. The Fovant Military Railway was built in 1915 from Dinton station, passing close to Fovant with a terminus east of the village near the A30. The camps stretched beyond Compton Chamberlayne into Barford St Martin parish, and included Hurdcott Camp which was a depot of the Australian Imperial Force (AIF). The area is known for several regimental badges cut in chalk into a nearby hill (also being the site of Chiselbury

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...

hillfort A hillfort is a type of earthwork used as a fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typically European and of the Bronze Age or Iron Age. Some were used in the post- Rom ...

), created by soldiers garrisoned near Fovant.

Governance

The civil parish elects a parish council. It is in the area of

Wiltshire Council Wiltshire Council is a council for the unitary authority of Wiltshire (excluding the separate Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority of Borough of Swindon, Swindon) in South West England, created in 2009. It is the successor authorit ...

unitary authority A unitary authority is a local authority responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are usually performed by a higher level of sub-national government or the national governme ...

, which is responsible for all significant local government functions. The parish is part of the Fovant and Chalke Valley electoral ward. The ward begins in the Netherhampton parish just to the west of

, stretches west to Bishopstone and northwest to Fovant, ending at Tollard Royal. The population of the ward at the 2011 census was 4,315.

Amenities

Fovant has a village shop (with post office), a village hall, playing field and playground. At one time with three public houses, Fovant also has a pub called ''The Greater Good'' formerly known as the ''Pembroke Arms''.

References

External links

Fovant Parish Council
{{authority control Villages in Wiltshire Civil parishes in Wiltshire