Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for WESTBURY

WESTBURY, a town, a parish, a hundred, a sub-district, and a district, in Wilts. The town stands adjacent to a point of the Wilts and Somerset railway whence a branch line goes to Frome, and at the foot of a range of chalk hills on the NW border of Salisbury plain, 4½ miles S by E of Trowbridge; probably took its name from standing under the W declivity of Salisbury plain; dates from ancient times; numbers among its natives Brian Edwards, who wrote a "History of the West Indies," and Withers, the author of "Aristarchus;" is governed, under a charter of Edward I., by a mayor, 12 aldermen, and other officers; sent two members to parliament from the time of Henry VI. till 1832, and now sends one; is conterminate, as a p. borough, with W. parish; is a seat of increasing woollen cloth manufacture: carries on a moderate trade in malting and other departments; has recently opened iron mines with furnaces for smelting; consists chiefly of three streets, irregularly built; and has a head post-office,‡ a r. station with telegraph, a banking office, three chief inns, a town hall, a later English church restored in 1868, six dissenting chapels, an endowed school with £49 a year, a girls' school, a workhouse, charities £139, a weekly market on Tuesday, and four annual fairs.—The parish contains three townships and a chapelry, and comprises 11,901 acres. Rated property, £31,876. Electors in 1833, 185: in 1868, 1,046. Pop. in 1851, 7,029; in 1861, 6,495. Houses, 1,526. The property is much subdivided. The manor belonged to the Manduits; passed to the Seymours, the Mountjoys, and the Berties; and belongs now to Sir M. Lopes, Bart. A residence of the Saxon kings is said to have been on a spot, called the Palace-garden, at Leigh village. An ancient seat of the Pavelys was at Brook. Many Roman coins and pieces of pottery have been found at Ham. An ancient camp, of irregular outline, with a double rampart in some parts 36 feet high, and enclosing an area of 23 acres, crowns Bratton hill. Traces of the ancient Britons are in various parts. Westbury Down, a chief one of the eminences in the neighbourhood of the town, rises to an altitude of 775 feet above sea-level. The living is a vicarage, with Dilton chapelry, in the diocese of Salisbury. Value, £385.* Patron, the Bishop of S. The p. curacies of Bratton, Dilton-Marsh, and Heywood are separate benefices.-The hundred is conterminate with the parish or p. borough.—The sub-district includes all the parish except Bratton chapelry. -The district comprehends Westbury, Edington, and Bradley sub-districts; and comprises 30,944 acres. Poor rates in 1863, £7,993. Pop. in 1851, 12,530; in 1861, 11,751. Houses, 2,744. Marriages in 1863, 89; births, 387,-of which 27 were illegitimate; deaths, 261,-of which 79 were at ages under 5 years, and 12 at ages above 85. Marriages, in the ten years 1851-60, 838; births, 3,868; deaths, 2,679. The places of worship, in 1851, were 11 of the Church of England, with 3,787 sittings; 4 of Independents, with 1,851 s.; 10 of Baptists, with 2,856 s.; 8 of Wesleyans, with 1,190 s.; 4 of Primitive Methodists, with 155 s.; 1 of Calvinistic Methodists, with 140 s.; and 1 of Latter Day Saints, with 60 s. The schools were 18 public day-schools, with 1,435 scholars; 22 private day-schools, with 391 s.; 26 Sunday schools, with 2,538 s.: and 3 evening schools for adults, with 37 s.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a town, a parish, a hundred, a sub-district, and a district"   (ADL Feature Type: "cities")
Administrative units: Westbury CP/AP       Westbury Hundred       Westbury SubD       Westbury and Whorwellsdown RegD/PLU       Wiltshire AncC
Place: Westbury

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