KELLY’S DIRECTORY 1889
FONTHILL BISHOP (or BISHOP’S FONTHILL) is a village and parish, 4 miles west from Salisbury, and 3 from the Tisbury station on the Salisbury and Yeovil branch of the London and South Western railway and 10 north-east from Shaftesbury, in the Southern division of the county, Downton hundred, Hindon petty sessional division, Tisbury union, Shaftesbury county court districts, Chalke rural deanery Tisbury portion, archdeaconry and diocese of Salisbury. The church of All Saints is a pure cruciform stone structure, about 700 years old, originally in the Norman style, and consisting of chancel, nave and two transepts and south porch; its tower rises from the centre of the building, and contains 2 bells; in 1871 the chancel was rebuilt at the expense of the present rector, and the whole church was thoroughly restored in 1879 at the cost of Thomas Sheldon esq. of Clevedon, a brother of the present rector, Mr. Wyatt being the architect; there are 125 sittings. The registers date from the year 1754. The living is a rectory, yearly value £250, including 3½ acres of glebe and residence, in the gift of the Bishop of Oxford and held since 1866 by the Rev. Robert William Sheldon, M.A., of Trinity College, Cambridge. There is a small charity, dispensed by the rector and churchwardens. The Bishop of Winchester is lord of the manor. The chief landowners are Alfred Morrison esq., D.L., J.P., of Fonthill House, Fonthill Gifford, and Frederick King, esq., of Chilmark. The soil is chalky loam; subsoil, chalk and stone. The chief crops are wheat, barley, oats and pasturage. The area is 1,735 acres; rateable value, £1,250; the population in 1881 was 196.
Parish Clerk, Henry Pain.
POST OFFICE – Mrs. Susan Snook, postmistress. Letters from Salisbury by mail cart, arrive at 5.55 a.m.; dispatched at 6.55 p.m. The nearest money order and telegraph office is Hindon. Wall Letter Box, Salisbury road, cleared at 6.40 p.m.
A Free school, for 16 poor children, which was endowed with £10 annually, left by Abijah Clark, in the year 1847, the cost of erecting the school-house being then defrayed by voluntary contributions, has of late years been formed by the Charity Commissioners into a National school, to hold 60 children; average attendance, 45; and is supported in part by the endowment of Abijah Clark, the government grant and subscription; Miss Frances Ryder, mistress.
Carrier to Salisbury – George Snook, tues., returning same day.
Mrs. Kingstead Chermside.
Rev. Robert Wm. Sheldon, M.A., Rectory.
George Percival Coombs, farmer.
Charles Harvey, King’s Arms P.H.
Chas. Hull, New Inn, Chicklade Bottom.
Frederick Ingram, farmer.
George Snook, shopkeeper and carrier.