John Aubrey, in his Natural History Of Wiltshire, written between 1656 and 1691, noted:
“At Wilton is a very noted faire for sheepe, on St. George’s Day also; and another on St. Giles’s Day, September the first. Graziers, &c., from Buckinghamshire come hither to buy sheep.”
Aubrey adds:
“Wilton was the head town of the county till Bishop Bingham built the Bridge at Harnham which turned away the old Roman way (in the Legier-booke of Wilton called the herepath, i.e. the army path), and brought the trade to New Sarum, where it hath ever since continued.”