The History Of Hill Deverill

Saturday 5th August 1893

The following is the paper read by Mr. J.U. Powell, at last week’s meeting of the Wiltshire Archaeological Society:-

Hill Deverill, or Hulle Deverill, as the name usually appears, has not played a conspicuous part in English history, although it is a place of great antiquity.

The name Deverill occurs in Domesday, and Hill Deverill appears in records of the visitations made by the Deans of Salisbury, and in various papers in the Public Records Office. In Domesday the names that occur, amongst others, are Gifford and Maltravers. Both their names still exist in Wilts, and we have Ashton Gifford and Fonthill Gifford. One Elyas Gifford, previous to 1154, granted the Church to the Collegiate Church of Shaftesbury (Hegtredsbury). We do not know when Giffords ceased to possess property here, but in 1319, in the reign of Edward II., Sir John Maltravers obtained charter of free warren for his manor of Deverill. Eleanor, his great granddaughter, brought Hill Deverill to her first husband, a son of the Earl of Arundel.

The family named Deverill seem to have been inferior tenants. Their history is obscure. The first date connected with the Church is 1220, in the reign of Henry III., shortly after Magna Charta. The foundation of the Cathedral Church of New Sarum was laid in this year, and the activity of the energetic Bishop Richard Poore apparently spread to the Dean, William de Wands, who made a visitation of this part of Wilts.

A record of this visitation is preserved in the Chronicle of St. Osmund, which has been published in the Rolls series from the manuscript at Salisbury. There are some interesting features in the account of this visitation. There is a complete inventory of all the Church furniture, down to the service books, and we may notice the jealous way in which the Church of Heytesbury maintained its rights, for the holy oil and the chrism had to be fetched from Heytesbury. Amongst other things we read that “non est ibi pixis continens sacram Eucharistam, sed deponitur in quadam bursa serica.” The Church is dedicated to the Assumption, a feast concerning which Cardinal Newman has one of his most imaginative pieces of writing. The old parish revel was held on this day, August 15th, or Lady-day in harvest. In 1408 there is the record of another visitation by the Dean Chandler. In 1403, John de Gowayne and others gave to the priory of Maiden Bradley lands in Hill Deverill to maintain a certain lamp in the Church.

Returning to the Manor, we find it in 1478 in the possession of William Ludlow, though how it came into his hands is unknown. The Ludlows obtained it during the Wars of the Roses (1455-1485). It is described in 1478 as consisting of “two tofts (house and farm-buildings), 2½ carucates of land, 6 acres of meadow, 15 acres of wood, and 3 shillings rent in Hull Deverill and Deverill Langbrigge.” Perhaps the Arundels took some part in the Wars of the Roses, and were glad to sell property. On the other hand, the Ludlows were a family who had steadily been growing in importance during this century. They held offices about the Court, and in 1449, William Ludlow appears as farmer of certain customs in Wilts. He had been appointed Marshal of Calais in 1439, and was afterwards made Parker of the Park at Ludgershall.

We read in Green (Short History of the English People, p.285) that through the fall of the great houses, and the dispersion of their vast estates, the smaller county proprietors were growing enormously both in wealth and numbers, while the destruction of serfdom was leading to the rise of the yeoman class. Just about this time too, acts were passed to prevent the conversion of arable land into pasture, and the consequent depopulation of the country districts, for “many farms have been taken into one man’s hold and hands that of old times were wont to be in many persons hold and hands.”

In Sir Thomas More’s Utopia, published 1516, we find, “By the increase of pasture, your sheep which are naturally mild, may be said now to devour men, and unpeople not only villages but towns. The best inhabited places are turned into solitudes. There is no more occasion for country labour to which the men have been bred, when there is no arable land left.”

The Ludlows seem to have lived quietly as country gentlemen for the next 180 years. Their monuments are in Hill Deverill Church. A Ludlow represents Ludgershall in 1597, Andover in 1601, Hindon in 1604, Heytesbury in 1620 and 1624. But the member of the family who comes prominently into notice is Edmund Ludlow, who took a leading part in the Civil Wars, and was one of the judges at the trial of Charles I. In 1643 he was sent into Wilts by the Parliament to raise a troop of horse, and in the early pages of his memoirs he narrates the siege of Wardour Castle, which he besieged and took. There are several notices of brisk encounters between his forces and the Royalists commanded by the sheriff of Wilts. To one of these skirmishes perhaps belongs the tradition which is still repeated, that the mill at Hill Deverill was used as a headquarters.

It is also said that the mounds and ditches in the field facing the Church (marked in the Ordnance map as a British settlement) are the remains of houses in the village which were battered down by the Royalist cannon mounted upon what is known as the Burnbake, between the Manor House and the road from Warminster to Shaftesbury. It is said that the shots were fired at the house, but the elevation was too high, and the shots passing over, hit the houses in the village. There is another piece of tradition, namely, that the oval window in the Manor House facing the church, had cannon mounted at it; and that traitors were shut up in the house. But although the Royalists may not have succeeded in destroying Ludlow’s house at Hill Deverill, their house at Maiden Bradley, where Edmund Ludlow was born, is expressly stated by Aubrey to have been dilapidated in the Civil Wars.

Another encounter took place on the Heath, above Warminster Common, on the Deverill road. We may notice that there is still a tradition which says that the mound near the Reservoir was a position taken by troops; and there are mounds at Pertwood and Cold Kitchen said to be earth works.

Whether these traditions have any value or not as history, they show that the Civil War made a great impression in this quiet valley. Which side public sympathy lay, we do not know, but in a letter dated April 2nd, 1660, William Thynne, writing to Sir James Thynne about the election at Hindon, for which Edmund Ludlow was standing, says “the country generally are against Ludlow.” His judgement seems correct, for Ludlow was not elected. Hindon apparently was afraid of him, “his appearance (for fear more than love) takes much with them, and many of our voices appeared but with cloudy countenances after he came into town.”

The Manor House presents some features of interest. It is situated near the river, bordered by a marsh; a moat runs round three sides. This position rendered it difficult of access by an enemy, while food and water were close at hand for defenders. There is still a tradition which represents it as surrounded by water and guarded by a drawbridge. There still remain five loopholes guarding the only road, which leads direct from the house by an ancient track to the Maiden Bradley road. At Maiden Bradley was a priory.

The date of part of the house and the large barn is usually put at about 1480; but in the yard there is a group of buildings perhaps a century earlier. There is a large room, with apparently a porch attached to it, with two fine arches, and above the porch a small room, where there are traces of ornament on the plaster. The ornament is roughly done, but there seems to have been a good deal of it. It simply consists of an ornamented square pattern with letters in the middle. It is possible that this room was an oriel or oratory, such as we find frequently mentioned in records of this period; or it may have been a small living room.

Further investigation may perhaps throw light upon this building, which at present offers many puzzles. Is it possible that there were two dwelling-houses, the two “tofts” mentioned in the deed of 1478, above referred to? The history of the house after 1630 is brief. The last Ludlow was a woman, who married Sir Henry Coker, of Maypowder in Dorset, and it stayed in the possession of the Cokers till 1737.

There is a curious book in the possession of a family living at Longbridge Deverill; it is a copy of Culpeper’s Herbal, and contains a number of prescriptions in various hands, some of which were “taken by me, Sir Henry Coker.” Cokers seem to have struck the popular imagination, for there are a number of ghost stories connected with “old Coker,” as he is called, and even now his name is a name of mysterious terror. He may still be heard leading the chase with horse and hound, hoofs sounding and chains rattling. In 1737 the property was sold by Thomas Coker to the Duke of Marlborough. He retired to Monkton Deverill, where his coat-of-arms can still be seen. In 1796 it was bought by the Duke of Somerset, who held it till 1888, when it was bought by Mr. C.H. Stratton, of Kingston Deverill.

If the tradition and folk-lore of the district were ever to be written, there would be a fair amount of matter. Stories of King Alfred are still repeated – for this is the very heart of the Alfred country – and the story of the burnt cakes is placed at Deverill, and the exact spot can be pointed out. In this connexion it is interesting to note that till quite lately a red-haired man was called at Kingston Deverill a “Dane” or “Daner.”

The writer of the paper is much indebted first, of course, to Sir Richard Hoare for general information, and for many particulars to Mr. H.H. Ludlow-Bruges, of Seend, who traces his descent to the Hill Deverill Ludlows, and has collected from the State papers many curious and valuable facts; and lastly to Mr. C.H. Stratton, the present owner, who has given every opportunity for investigation, and has taken much interest in the history of the place.

Report in The Warminster & West Wilts Herald, Saturday 5th August 1893.