Monkton Deverill

Monkton Deverill (anciently known as East Monkton) is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Kingston Deverill, in Wiltshire, England, about five miles south of Warminster and four miles north-east of Mere. The area has been part of Kingston Deverill parish since 1934. It lies on the River Wylye and forms part of a group of villages known as the Upper Deverills. In 1931 the parish had a population of 108.

Two Roman roads intersect close to the village. In 1989–1990, archaeologists investigated a 7th-century Anglo-Saxon cemetery in the parish and made a section through a Roman road.

Before the Dissolution of the Monasteries, Monkton Deverill was a manor of Glastonbury Abbey and was formerly known as East Monkton. In the Middle Ages, its church was a chapel of the church at Longbridge Deverill, also a Glastonbury manor.

For almost forty years, beginning in the late 14th century, the bailiffs of Glastonbury Abbey's manors of Longbridge and Monkton Deverill, which were remote from the Abbey's own logistical systems, kept good accounts of their stewardship. These records survive and provide detailed information on the manors' agricultural and other business. They show that most of the grain produced on the land went to markets within ten miles, except in years when it was selling for higher prices. Most buyers of the manors' wool came from within a radius of twenty miles. However, some items, such as millstones, were brought from much farther away.

After the Dissolution, the manor was sold by the Crown to John Thynne together with Longbridge Deverill and thereafter descended in his family, who much later became Marquesses of Bath. The Thynnes have preserved many of Glastonbury Abbey's records at Longleat up to the present day.

The village has two farmhouses dating from the 17th century: Manor Farmhouse and Burton Farmhouse. The mid-18th-century house at number 85 on the village street bears a large panel displaying the Ludlow arms, said to have been moved from Hill Deverill manor house in 1737.

A small school was built near the church c. 1870 but had closed by 1895. Historic England describe the building (now a private house) as "a good example of a simple village school with Gothic and vernacular detail". The population of the parish was 204 in 1831, but is now lower.

A detailed parish history is in progress and will be published as part of volume XIX of A History of the County of Wiltshire.