Uphaven (St. Mary)

UPHAVEN (St. Mary), a parish, in the union of Pewsey, hundred of Swanborough, Everley and Pewsey, and N. divisions of Wilts, 4 miles (S. W. by S.) from Pewsey; containing 512 inhabitants. A Benedictine priory, a cell to the abbey of Fontanelle, in Normandy, was founded here about the commencement of the reign of Henry I., and, at its suppression, was granted by Henry VI. to the monastery of Ivy-Church, in exchange for lands, &c, in Clarendon Park. The parish is situated on the road from Devizes to Andover, and is intersected by the river Avon: it comprises by computation 3287 acres. A market for the inhabitants was granted by Henry III. to Peter de Mauley; and in the reign of Edward I., Hugh de Spencer procured a charter of free warren, and two annual fairs, one of which, as well as the market, is discontinued. The living is a discharged vicarage, valued in the king's books at £7. 16. 8., and in the patronage of the Crown; impropriators, the Provost and Fellows of King's College, Cambridge. The great tithes have been commuted for £594. 18., and those of the vicar for £150: there are nearly 3 acres of glebe. The church was probably erected in the time of Henry VII.; the nave seems to have formed part of the priory. Here are places of worship for Particular Baptists and Wesleyans. About a mile to the west are the remains of an intrenched camp with a spacious praetorium, called Casterley, the area of which, comprising sixty acres, is intersected from north to south by a broad fosse.