Tilshead () is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

in the county of

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated to Wilts) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It borders Gloucestershire to the north, Oxfordshire to the north-east, Berkshire to the east, Hampshire to the south-east, Dorset to the south, and Somerset to ...

in Southern England, about northwest of the town of

Amesbury Amesbury () is a town and civil parish in Wiltshire, England. It is known for the prehistoric monument of Stonehenge which is within the parish. The town is claimed to be the oldest occupied settlement in Great Britain, having been first settl ...

. It is close to the geographical centre of

Salisbury Plain Salisbury Plain is a chalk plateau in southern England covering . It is part of a system of chalk downlands throughout eastern and southern England formed by the rocks of the Chalk Group and largely lies within the county of Wiltshire, but st ...

, on the A360 road approximately midway between the villages of

Shrewton Shrewton is a village and Civil parishes in England, civil parish on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, around west of Amesbury and north of Salisbury. It lies on the A360 road between Stonehenge and Tilshead. It is close to the source of ...

and West Lavington and is near the source of the River Till. Its population in 2011 was 358, down from a peak of 989 inhabitants in 1951.

History

Salisbury Plain has much evidence of prehistoric activity. One kilometre south of Tilshead village, under the ridge of Copehill Down, is the White Barrow, a large

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

long barrow Long barrows are a style of monument constructed across Western Europe in the fifth and fourth millennia BCE, during the Early Neolithic period. Typically constructed from earth and either timber or stone, those using the latter material repres ...

. To the southwest and southeast are ancient boundary ditches, partly followed by the parish boundary; the ditch in the southeast has a long barrow next to it. The name of the settlement derives from "Theodwulf's hide". In 1086, ''Tydolveshyde'' or ''Tidolthide'' was a

borough A borough is an administrative division in various English language, English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History ...

and large royal estate, with a relatively large population of 164 households and nine mills. The

tithing A tithing or tything was a historic English legal, administrative or territorial unit, originally ten hides (and hence, one tenth of a hundred). Tithings later came to be seen as subdivisions of a manor or civil parish. The tithing's leader or ...

of South Tilshead was a manor of

Romsey Abbey Romsey Abbey is the name currently given to a parish church of the Church of England in Romsey, a market town in Hampshire, England. Until the Dissolution of the Monasteries it was the church of a Benedictine Order, Benedictine nunnery. The surv ...

until the dissolution of the monasteries, and came to be a detached part of the

hundred 100 or one hundred (Roman numerals, Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 (number), 99 and preceding 101 (number), 101. In mathematics 100 is the square of 10 (number), 10 (in scientific notation it is written as 102). The standar ...

of Whorwellsdown. The name Tilshead came into use in the 16th century. The river was called the Winterbourne until around the start of the 20th century, when the name River Till began to be used on

Ordnance Survey The Ordnance Survey (OS) is the national mapping agency for Great Britain. The agency's name indicates its original military purpose (see Artillery, ordnance and surveying), which was to map Scotland in the wake of the Jacobite rising of ...

maps. The village has houses from the 17th and 18th centuries, some thatched. Tilshead House, on the High Street, is a three-storey house of the early 19th century, in red brick. Tilshead Lodge was built in the early 18th century to the southwest of the village, then rebuilt c. 1800. The estate was used for racehorse training in the early 19th and early 20th centuries, then was sold to the

War Office The War Office has referred to several British government organisations throughout history, all relating to the army. It was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, at ...

in 1911 and 1933. The house was demolished sometime after 1957.

Local government

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

Wiltshire Council Wiltshire Council, known between 1889 and 2009 as Wiltshire County Council, is the Local government in England, local authority for the non-metropolitan county of Wiltshire (district), Wiltshire in South West England, and has its headquarters a ...

, a

unitary authority A unitary authority is a type of local government, local authority in New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Unitary authorities are responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are ...

which is responsible for all significant local government functions.

Religious sites

Parish church

There was a church at Tilshead in the early 12th century, possibly since Saxon times. The three-bay north and south arcades with their square piers are from that period, and the font bowl is also from that century. The chancel was rebuilt in the mid-13th century, and were renovations in the 17th and 18th centuries included re-roofing it. T.H. Wyatt and D. Brandon directed restoration in 1845-6 which added the south porch and north vestry, and there was further work in 1904. The church is built in flint and limestone, partly chequered, and has a low central tower with a small conical roof; it was recorded as

Grade I listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

in 1958. The three bells were cast in 1764 by Thomas Bilbie I. Income from the church went to

Ivychurch Priory Ivychurch Priory was a medieval monastic house in Alderbury, southeast of Salisbury, Wiltshire, England. According to Historic England, "all that remains is a cylindrical pier with multi-scalloped capital and part of the double-chamfered arch wi ...

near Salisbury from 1317. The dedication to St Thomas is first recorded in 1763; it may come from the link with Ivychurch, as it is thought that the saint stayed at the priory during the Council of Clarendon in 1164. A plain-fronted vicarage was built in red brick to the west of the church in 1818, and sold c.1972. In 1971 the benefice was united with those of

Chitterne Chitterne is a village and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the county of Wiltshire, in the south west of England. The village lies in the middle of Salisbury Plain, about east of the town of Warminster. The Chitterne Brook, a small ...

and

Orcheston Orcheston ) is a Civil parishes in England, civil parish and village in Wiltshire, England, lying on Salisbury Plain less than a mile north-west of neighbouring Shrewton. The present-day parish combines the two former parishes of Orcheston St Ma ...

. Today the parish forms part of the Salisbury Plain benefice, which also encompasses the churches at

Others

A small redbrick

Baptist Baptists are a Christian denomination, denomination within Protestant Christianity distinguished by baptizing only professing Christian believers (believer's baptism) and doing so by complete Immersion baptism, immersion. Baptist churches ge ...

chapel was built next to the main road in 1882 and closed in 2015.

Amenities

Tilshead has a primary school, St Thomas à Becket C of E (Aided) Primary School, which was built next to the church in 1905. There is a

pub A pub (short for public house) is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the late 17th century, to differentiate private ho ...

– the Rose and Crown, a 17th-century building – and a village hall. The whole length of the River Till (which is a winterbourne, dry for much of the year) is a

biological Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain, or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland, is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle ...

Military land

Much of Salisbury Plain is used by the

Ministry of Defence A ministry of defence or defense (see American and British English spelling differences#-ce.2C -se, spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and Mi ...

for military training. Westdown Camp, to the east of the village, is an accommodation centre for the

Salisbury Plain Training Area The Salisbury Plain Training Area is a large expanse of land on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, which is managed by the Defence Infrastructure Organisation on behalf of the Ministry of Defence. History The British Army's Salisbury Pla ...

. RAF Tilshead, to the southwest of the village, was in use from 1925 to 1941.

References

External links

*
Parish website
{{authority control Villages in Wiltshire Civil parishes in Wiltshire