Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for LAVINGTON (WEST)

LAVINGTON (WEST), a village and a parish in Devizes district, Wilts. The village stands under the Ridge way, 1 mile SW of Market-Lavington, and 6¼ S by W of Devizes r. station; suffered much from a fire in 1689; is still a considerable place; and has a post office under Devizes. The parish contains also the tything of Littleton-Pannell; and is sometimes called Bishops-Lavington. Acres, 6, 283. Real property, £10, 461. Pop. in 1851, 1, 739; in 1861, 1, 589. Houses, 363. The decrease of pop. was caused by the removal of pauper lunatics from an asylum here to the county asylum. The manor belongs to the Bishop of Salisbury, and is held by Lord Churchill. A seat of the Danvers family was here; passed to the Dauntseys and the Montagues; and was sold to the late Duke of Marlborough. A considerable area is disposed in market gardens, for sending produce to Salisbury and Bath. Limestone is quarried and calcined. Tumuli and traces of ancient camps are on the downs. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Salisbury. Value, £350. Patron, the Bishop of Salisbury. The church is good; has an embattled tower; and contains monuments of the Danverses, and a brass of 1550. There are an endowed school, alms houses for ten persons, and other charities £8.


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

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a village and a parish"   (ADL Feature Type: "populated places")
Administrative units: West Lavington AP/CP       Devizes RegD/PLU       Wiltshire AncC
Place names: LAVINGTON     |     LAVINGTON WEST     |     WEST LAVINGTON
Place: West Lavington

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