Wily (St. Mary)
WILY (St. Mary), a parish, in the union of Wilton, hundred of Branch and Dole, Hindon and S. divisions of Wilts, 6 miles (S. E. by E.) from Heytesbury; containing 508 inhabitants. It lies on the great western road, and comprises 2277a. 1r. 20p., of which 1165 acres are arable, and 1100 meadow and pasture; the soil is a black loam, with a substratum of chalk. The village is pleasantly situated, and contains the well-known Deptford inn. A large sheep-fair is held on the 4th of October. The living is a rectory, valued in the king's books at £21. 14. 2., and in the gift of the Earl of Pembroke: the tithes have been commuted for £535, and the glebe contains 10½ acres. The church was lately repaired and beautified, and re-opened for divine service in November 1844: the cost was £1100. Elizabeth Mervyn, in 1581, bequeathed 7½ bushels of wheat and 100 ells of linen and cloth, to be provided by the possessor of her estates, on Good-Friday, and distributed among the poor of Wily, Steeple-Langford, Upton, Padworth, and Tisbury. Christopher Willoughby, in 1678, gave £200 for the poor of Wily and Marlborough. About a mile from the village is a large British encampment called Badbury-Rings, or Wily Carnp, which occupies a point of down projecting from the principal ridge, and incloses an area of more than seventeen acres. Two miles from Deptford inn is Yarnbrough Castle, a Roman encampment.
Transcribed from A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858.