Keevil, Wiltshire
Historical Description
Keevil, a parish in Wiltshire, on an affluent of the river Avon, and near the Kennet and Avon Canal, 4½ miles E of Trowbridge station on the G.W.R. It has a post office under Trowbridge; money order office, Steeple Ashton; telegraph office, West Ashton. Acreage, 2059; population, 384. It. includes the tithing of Bulkington. The manor, with Keevil House, belongs to the Beach family. The living is a vicarage-in the diocese of Salisbury; gross value,, £250. Patrons, the-Dean and Chapter of Winchester. The church contains several monuments and memorials, and has an embattled tower. There is a Wesleyan chapel.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
Ancient County | Wiltshire | |
Ecclesiastical parish | Keevil St. Leonard | |
Hundred | Melksham | |
Poor Law union | Westbury and Whorwelsdown |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The register dates from the year 1559.
Findmypast, in association with the Wiltshire Record Office, have the following parish records online for Keevil:
Baptisms | Banns | Marriages | Burials |
---|---|---|---|
1550-1917 | 1754-1823 | 1559-1837 | 1562-1880 |
Churches
Church of England
St. Leonard (parish church)
The church of St. Leonard is a plain building of stone, in the Perpendicular style, consisting of chancel, nave of three bays, south aisle, north porch and an embattled western tower containing 6 bells: in 1908 figures were placed in the panels of the reredos in memory of the Rev. W. H. Chamberlaine M.A. a former vicar, d. 1902: the stained east window is a memorial to the Rev. George Thomas Chamberlaine, d. 1858, and his wife: a new organ was erected in 1909 at a cost of £200, and at the same date the side chapel in the south transept was restored in memory of the Rev. Charles Y. Mitchinson, vicar, 1904-8: the church was reseated in 1910 at a cost of £250, and in 1911 a rood oak screen was erected in memory of Col. Sir John William Wallington K.C.B., J.P. (d. 1910): there are monuments to John J. Harris, citizen and alderman of London, dated 1657; the Blagden family, 1730; Jane Talbot, 1768; William Gaisford, 1754; and William Beach, 1741; and brasses to Jane Flower, dated 1662; Stephen Cox, 1761; John Halkens, 1689; Roger Jorden, 1669; Roger Blagden, 1687; and Eliza Gaisford, 1720; there are memorial windows to W. W. B. Bench esq. M.P. d. 1901; Lady Wallington, d. 1905, and J. A. Wallington: there are 250 sittings.
Methodist
Wesleyan Chapel
The Wesleyan chapel, built about 1844, will hold 200; a Sunday school was added in 1901.
Civil Registration
For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Keevil from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Keevil (St. Leonard))
Maps
Online maps of Keevil are available from a number of sites:
- Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- Google Streetview.
- National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
- OpenStreetMap.
- old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
- Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)
Newspapers and Periodicals
The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Wiltshire papers online: