Stapleford, in the Wylye Valley, Wiltshire.
Kelly’s Directory 1889
Stapleford is a parish and village on the river Wylye, 7¼ miles north-west from Salisbury, 4½ north-west from Wilton and 2 north from Wishford station on the Great Western railway, in the Southern division of the county, hundred of Branch, Salisbury and Amesbury petty sessional division, Wilton union, Salisbury county court district, Wylye rural deanery and Salisbury archdeaconry and diocese.
The church of St. Mary is an edifice of flint and stone, in the Norman style, consisting of chancel, nave of four bays, south aisle, south tranept, with south porch, and a square embattled and pinnacled tower on the north side with 5 bells: it was restored in 1862 and has 200 sittings. The register dates from 1637. The living is a vicarage, gross yearly value £205, with residence and about 1½ acres of glebe, in the gift of the Dean and Canons of Windsor, and held since 1877 by the Rev. Frederick William Macdonald, M.A., of Queen’s College, Oxford, who is also vicar of Berwick St. James.
The Wesleyans have a small chapel here. The lords of the manor are Lord Ashburton, M.A., D.L., J.P., and the representatives of the late Alfred Seymour esq. of East Knoyle, who are also the principal landowners. The Ecclesiastical Commissioners are owners of the tithes. The soil is chalk and gravel; subsoil, chalk. The chief crops are wheat and barley. The area is 2,072 acres of arable and meadow land and 12 of water; rateable value, £1,836; the population in 1881 was 228.
Over Street is a quarter of a mile west, on the opposite bank of the river.
Uppington is a hamlet 1 mile north.
Parish Clerk, George Williams.
Post Office – Mrs. Emily Grant, receiver. Letters arrive from Salisbury via Wilton at 8 a.m.; dispatched at 5.55 p.m. in summer and 4.45 p.m. in winter; Sundays 11.10 a.m. Wilton is the nearest money order and telegraph office.
National School (mixed) with master’s residence, for 40 children; average attendance, 35; Rd. Elsworth, master.
Rev. Frederick William Macdonald, M.A., Vicarage.
William Morris.
Mrs. Vander-Meulen.
COMMERCIAL:
Charles Brown, farmer.
James Burrough, farmer.
Mrs. Emily Grant, carpenter and Post Office.
John Holmes, blacksmith.
Henry Miles, New Inn.
George Mitchell, farmer.
Alfred Powell, farmer.
Joseph Saph, maltster.
Henry Thring, Pelican Inn.
James Upshall, baker and grocer.
Mark Wallis, farmer, Church Farm.
George Williams, nursery and seedsman.