Pewsey, Wiltshire
Historical Description
Pewsey, a village, a parish, and a district in Wiltshire. The village stands on a headstream of the river Avon, 1 mile S of the Kennet and Avon Canal, and 7 miles SSW of Marlborough. It is a seat of petty sessions, and has a station on the G.W.R., 75 miles from London, and a post, money order, and telegraph office. Acreage of parish, 4784; population, 1781. The manor belongs to St Thomas' Hospital. The Vale of Pewsey separates Marlborough Downs from Salisbury Plain, is a strip of varied colour flanked by slopes of chalk hills, and is noted for abundance of green-sand fossils. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Salisbury; net value, £470 with residence. Patron, the Earl of Radnor. The church is mainly Early English, partly Perpendicular, with an E tower; the chancel was rebuilt in 1861, and the whole building was restored and enlarged in 1889. There are Baptist, Wesleyan, and Primitive Methodist chapels. The district workhouse is here. The district comprehends also the sub-district of Netheravon, containing the parishes of Netheravon, Fittleton, Enforg, Uphaven, Bushall, Charlton, Wilsford, North Newnton, Manningford Bruce, Manningford Abbots, Woodborough, Huish, and Wilcot, and the chapelry of Alton Priors.
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 | Pewsey St. John the Baptist | |
Hundred | Kinwardstone | |
Poor Law union | Pewsey |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
Findmypast, in association with the Wiltshire Record Office, have the following parish records online for Pewsey:
Baptisms | Banns | Marriages | Burials |
---|---|---|---|
1568-1880 | 1601-1842 | 1605-1880 |
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Pewsey from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Pewsey (St. John the Baptist))
Maps
Online maps of Pewsey 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: