Sedgehill is a former civil parish, with scattered small settlements, now within

Sedgehill and Semley Sedgehill and Semley is a civil parish in the English county The counties of England are areas used for different purposes, which include administrative, geographical, cultural and political demarcation. The term "county" is defined in sever ...

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 the southwest of the

English county The counties of England are areas used for different purposes, which include administrative, geographical, cultural and political demarcation. The term "county" is defined in several ways and can apply to similar or the same areas used by each ...

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 ...

. It lies to the west of the A350 primary route, about north of

Shaftesbury Shaftesbury () is a town and civil parish in Dorset, England. It is situated on the A30 road, west of Salisbury, near the border with Wiltshire. It is the only significant hilltop settlement in Dorset, being built about above sea level on a ...

, Dorset.

History

In the 12th century, and possibly the 11th, the lands which became Sedgehill parish were part of the estates of

Shaftesbury Abbey Shaftesbury Abbey was an abbey that housed nuns in Shaftesbury, Dorset. It was founded in about 888, and dissolved in 1539 during the English Reformation by the order of Thomas Cromwell, minister to King Henry VIII. At the time it was the seco ...

. After the Dissolution, Sedgehill manor was bought by

Thomas Arundell of Wardour Castle Sir Thomas Arundell of Wardour Castle in Wiltshire (c. 150226 February 1552) was a Cornish administrator and alleged conspirator. Arundell was connected by birth and marriage to the crown and to several of the most important families in England, ...

(c. 1502 – 1552) and then in 1573 by William Grove (died 1582) who was briefly MP for

. The estate remained in the Grove family (from 1874 the Grove baronets), although reduced in size as farms were sold, until the death of Gerald Grove in 1962. The population of the parish rose to 216 at the 1871 census, and by 1961 had declined to 130. In 1986, on recommendation of

Salisbury District Council 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 Wi ...

, the parish was amalgamated with Semley to form Sedgehill and Semley civil parish.

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 Catherine has origins in the 14th century. In 1395 it became a

chapelry A chapelry was a subdivision of an ecclesiastical parish in England and parts of Lowland Scotland up to the mid 19th century. Status It had a similar status to a township but was so named as it had a chapel of ease (chapel) which was the com ...

of the church at Berwick St Leonard, which was connected with

. This pertained until 1914, when Sedgehill was made a parish and supplemented with 318 acres transferred from East Knoyle. Today the parish is part of the Benefice of St Bartholomew, which covers six churches including St Leonard's at

Semley Semley is a village in Sedgehill and Semley civil parish in Wiltshire, England, about north-east of Shaftesbury in neighbouring Dorset. The hamlet of Sem Hill lies about a quarter of a mile west of the village. The River Sem, from which the ...

. The church is in limestone with slate roofs. The west tower was built in the 15th century; work in the 17th included rebuilding of the tower's upper stage, and the porch was rebuilt in 1765. In 1845 the chancel and nave were rebuilt, and the vestry added. The tower has five bells, including two from the 17th century, but they are said to be unringable. The church was recorded 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 1966.

References

Villages in Wiltshire Former civil parishes in Wiltshire {{Wiltshire-geo-stub