Berwick St Leonard

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Berwick St Leonard
Wiltshire
St Leonards church, Berwick St Leonard (geograph 2684985).jpg
St Leonard's church
Location
Grid reference: ST924332
Location: 51°5’53"N, 2°6’36"W
Data
Population: 47  (2011[1])
Post town: Salisbury
Postcode: SP3
Dialling code: 01747
Local Government
Council: Wiltshire
Parliamentary
constituency:
South West Wiltshire

Berwick St Leonard is a small village and parish in Wiltshire, about eight miles south-east of Warminster and 14 miles west of Salisbury.

Geography

A small stream rises near that village and flows intermittently, under wet conditions. Soon after leaving the parish the stream forms Fonthill Lake and then joins the Nadder near Tisbury. The northern boundary of the parish is the watershed between the Nadder and the Wylye. The soil is chalky and mainly used for arable cropping and sheep, but increasing numbers of cows have been kept since about 1980.[2]

The A303 trunk road, linking London with the south-west, crosses the parish. Berwick St John village is on the B3089 about a mile to the south.[2] The Monarch's Way is a 615-mile long-distance footpath that passes through the parish.[3]

History

There is a prehistoric earthwork near Penning, in the north of the parish.[4] From before 1650 to around 1900, nearly all the land in the parish belonged to a single farm, probably Cold Berwick Farm, which appears on a 1773 map but had been demolished by 1822.[2]

In the 11th and 12th centuries the manor was probably part of Shaftesbury Abbey's Tisbury estate.[5] Berwick House is from the late 18th century.[6]

Parish church

St Leonard's Church was built in the 12th century. It has been designated as a Grade II* listed building.[7] The church was closed in 1966,[8] declared redundant in 1973[7] and is now in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust.[9]

References

Outside links

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