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Berwick St John
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Berwick St John
Berwick St John is a village and civil parish in southwest Wiltshire, England, about 5 miles (8 km) east of Shaftesbury in Dorset. The parish includes the Ashcombe Park estate, part of the Ferne Park estate, and most of Rushmore Park (since 1939 the home of Sandroyd School).
The parish is at the head of the Ebble valley, in the Cranborne Chase Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The village lies on a minor road between Donhead St Mary and Alvediston. The Ox Drove, a medieval drovers' road from Dorset to Salisbury, crosses the parish from west to east about a mile south of the village; most of its route survives as a track.
Winklebury Hill overlooks the village. In the extreme west of the parish, Win Green hill, at 277 metres (909 ft), is the highest point of Cranborne Chase. The southern part of the parish is forested and includes a golf course.
The parish population at the 2021 census was 426. In 1861 residents numbered a maximal 499 but this had fallen to a low of 258 at the 1971 census.
The area has several prehistoric sites. Winklebury (or Winkelbury) Camp, on a spur of the hill south-east of the village, is a hillfort some 6 hectares (15 acres) in area, protected by a bank and ditch, with evidence of occupation in the Bronze Age, Iron Age and the Romano-British period. In the south of the parish are a Bronze Age settlement known as South Lodge Camp, and a late Iron Age and Romano-British settlement at Rotherley Down.
The name Berwick derives from the Old English berewīc meaning 'barley farm'.
Part of Wilton Abbey's Chalke estate from the 10th century, the parish was established by the 13th century. Soon after the Dissolution, Berwick St John manor was bought by Sir William Herbert (from 1551 earl of Pembroke). His grandson sold it in 1608 to Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, and in turn his grandson sold it in 1671 to Baron Ashley (from 1672 earl of Shaftesbury), whose descendant the 5th Earl sold the manor in two parts in 1792. The lordship and land including 750 acres of woodland in the south-east around Rushmore House were bought by George Pitt, 1st Baron Rivers; the estate was held by the Barons Rivers until 1880, when it was inherited from the 6th Baron by his cousin Augustus Henry Lane-Fox who took the additional surname Pitt-Rivers. He was a noted ethnologist and archaeologist, who excavated many local sites. In 1984 the estate remained in Pitt-Rivers ownership.
A farm in the second part of the 1792 sale was bought by a tenant, then from c.1842 became part of the Ferne House estate. The Wiltshire Victoria County History traces the ownership of other estates at Bridmore, Upton Lucy and Ashcombe.
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Berwick St John
Berwick St John is a village and civil parish in southwest Wiltshire, England, about 5 miles (8 km) east of Shaftesbury in Dorset. The parish includes the Ashcombe Park estate, part of the Ferne Park estate, and most of Rushmore Park (since 1939 the home of Sandroyd School).
The parish is at the head of the Ebble valley, in the Cranborne Chase Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The village lies on a minor road between Donhead St Mary and Alvediston. The Ox Drove, a medieval drovers' road from Dorset to Salisbury, crosses the parish from west to east about a mile south of the village; most of its route survives as a track.
Winklebury Hill overlooks the village. In the extreme west of the parish, Win Green hill, at 277 metres (909 ft), is the highest point of Cranborne Chase. The southern part of the parish is forested and includes a golf course.
The parish population at the 2021 census was 426. In 1861 residents numbered a maximal 499 but this had fallen to a low of 258 at the 1971 census.
The area has several prehistoric sites. Winklebury (or Winkelbury) Camp, on a spur of the hill south-east of the village, is a hillfort some 6 hectares (15 acres) in area, protected by a bank and ditch, with evidence of occupation in the Bronze Age, Iron Age and the Romano-British period. In the south of the parish are a Bronze Age settlement known as South Lodge Camp, and a late Iron Age and Romano-British settlement at Rotherley Down.
The name Berwick derives from the Old English berewīc meaning 'barley farm'.
Part of Wilton Abbey's Chalke estate from the 10th century, the parish was established by the 13th century. Soon after the Dissolution, Berwick St John manor was bought by Sir William Herbert (from 1551 earl of Pembroke). His grandson sold it in 1608 to Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, and in turn his grandson sold it in 1671 to Baron Ashley (from 1672 earl of Shaftesbury), whose descendant the 5th Earl sold the manor in two parts in 1792. The lordship and land including 750 acres of woodland in the south-east around Rushmore House were bought by George Pitt, 1st Baron Rivers; the estate was held by the Barons Rivers until 1880, when it was inherited from the 6th Baron by his cousin Augustus Henry Lane-Fox who took the additional surname Pitt-Rivers. He was a noted ethnologist and archaeologist, who excavated many local sites. In 1984 the estate remained in Pitt-Rivers ownership.
A farm in the second part of the 1792 sale was bought by a tenant, then from c.1842 became part of the Ferne House estate. The Wiltshire Victoria County History traces the ownership of other estates at Bridmore, Upton Lucy and Ashcombe.
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