Bishopstone is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, in the Ebble valley about south-west of Salisbury. The parish is on the county boundary with Hampshire and includes the small village of Croucheston and the hamlet of The Pitts (now Pitts Road).
History
The area was settled in prehistoric times. There was a bowl barrow near Croucheston Down Farm and Grim's Ditch, a prehistoric earthwork, forms the southern boundary of the parish. The Roman road from Old Sarum to Dorchester crosses the river near Throope.
Before the 10th century, much of the land forming the present-day parish was part of a large estate called Downton. Early in the 10th century a manor at what is now Bishopstone was granted to Winchester Abbey as an early endowment; around that time the whole river valley was known as Ebbesborne, and the village had the same name. A prefix "Bishop's" was sometimes used to distinguish the village from another in the same valley, and in the later Middle Ages the parish became known as Bishopstone; meanwhile the other village became Ebbesbourne Wake.
The Domesday Book in 1086 divided the Chalke Valley into eight manors: Chelke (Chalke – Broad Chalke and Bowerchalke), Eblesborne (Ebbesbourne Wake), Fifehide (Fifield Bavant), Cumbe (Coombe Bissett), Humitone (Homington), Odestoche (Odstock), Stradford (Stratford Tony and Bishopstone) and Trow (circa Alvediston and Tollard Royal).
The parish contained six ancient townships, possibly since Saxon times, each with land bounded by the river. To the north of the river these were Bishopstone (with the parish church), Netton and Flamston; to the south, Throope, Faulston and Croucheston. The roadside settlement known as The Pitts developed in the 19th century.
Faulston
Faulston (or Falston, Falstone) manor was inherited in 1328 by Thomas Benton (d. 1358) whose descendants had surnames Baynton or Bayntun. The estate was confiscated from Sir Robert Baynton in 1475 for his support of Henry VI at the Battle of Tewkesbury, and granted to John Cheyne, later Baron Cheyne; but returned in 1503 to Sir Robert's son John (d. 1516). Sir John's son and heir Sir Edward Bayntun (c.1480 – 1544) was a soldier and courtier who was a royal favourite, appointed vice-chamberlain to Queen Anne Boleyn and later wives of Henry VIII. Sir Edward's second wife was Isabel Leigh, half sister to Catherine Howard, Henry's fifth wife. After Isabel's death in 1573, the manor was inherited by a younger son Henry, who sat for several Wiltshire constituencies but "without leaving any mark on the known proceedings of the House".
Henry sold the manor to Charles Vaughan in 1577, and it was inherited in 1584 by his grand-nephew Walter Vaughan (c.1572–1639) who sat in Parliament for one term, was High Sheriff in 1599–1600, and later deputy lieutenant. Arbella Stuart stayed for over a month from the end of October 1603, as the royal court moved from Winchester to Salisbury and Wilton.
The manor passed to his younger son George (knighted 1643), who commanded a regiment of Royalist cavalry at the Battle of Lansdowne. After Wiltshire fell to the Parliamentarians in 1645, they seized Sir George's house and used it as the meeting-place of the 'Falstone House Committee', which determined the fines to be paid by 47 Wiltshire Royalist supporters. In 1649 the house's fortifications were ordered to be destroyed, and Sir George sold the manor in that year to the earl of Pembroke. The house was rebuilt, although traces of a moat remain. The property remained with the Pembrokes until the farm was sold to its tenant in 1919.
Settlements and notable buildings
The site of Bishopstone village has only the church, the former rectory, Manor Farm and a few houses; there are signs of a deserted medieval village east of the church. The rectory, now called Bishopstone House, was built in yellow brick around 1820 to designs of Bath architect John Lowder; it was sold into private use in the 1950s. Manor Farm was built in the early 19th century for the Wilton estate, the house in red brick and the later outbuildings in characteristic banded brick and flint.
Throope has always been a small settlement. The main dwelling is Throope Manor, built in the early 18th century for the Button family and extended in 1935 for Lord Essex. It may incorporate a 17th-century house, and contains panelling from that century.