From The Warminster Official Guide And Souvenir 1928 (penned by Victor Strode Manley):
The Wylye Valley
W. H. Hudson, the great naturalist, delighted to cycle up and down this valley between Warminster and Salisbury. “A Shepherd’s Life” embraces his impressions of it in the biography of a local character. Spenser in his “Faery Queen” and Drayton in “Poly Olbion” allude to it, hence it is a praise-burdened valley which the prospective resident would do well to explore thoroughly.
It is a sequestered vale where a glistening trout stream steals silently through luscious meadows shouldered by rolling downs, dotted along its course with many nestling villages half-concealed in green bowers, often only betrayed by some grey tower.
The main road from Boreham (1 mile) to Heytesbury (3 and a half miles) reveals a breadth of valley which pleased Cobbett more than any other scene. The latter village offers really desirable building plots and has its own electric power. It boasts a proud history associated with its large collegiate church of Norman foundation, and the Hungerford royal favourites whose almshouses and the village prison interest the visitor. From it one may branch off through Shrewton to Stonehenge (15 miles) or proceed direct to Codford (6 miles), “a complete and satisfying type of Wiltshire village,” then on to Deptford (10 miles) and again branch off to Stonehenge (which has lately provided an hotel), past Yarnbury Castle rings.
Crossing Deptford bridge one is in Wylye and passing under the railway arch, a pleasant surprise is awaiting at Stockton. Here is a gem of rural beauty unspoiled, with its thatched and timbered cottages looking as though it had tumbled out of a toy box. Few places are more suggestive of the olden time.
Over the hills run the ancient trackway from Old Sarum to Severn Sea, and the London coach road to Exeter branches from Wylye. Boyton Church deserves notice for its effigy of the Crusader, Sir Alex Giffard. A dip down into Corton and Sherrington reveals yet other rural Utopias. With luck one may discover the noble ruins of St. Leonard’s Church, a mile or two ahead on the right, and then Sutton Veny itself, now being revived as a convenient residential district. It is well known to hundreds of thousands of British and Colonial troops who passed through the large training camps there, and in the adjacent villages of Longbridge Deverill, Heytesbury, Codford, and Chitterne during the Great War. There was also a German Prisoners’ Detention Camp at Sutton Veny, where a large number of German prisoners were buried. Two more miles, passing through the pretty village of Bishopstrow en route, and one is in Warminster again. Between these two routes are several other shy villages deserving exploration either for their charm or prospective residence.
The valley is traversed by the G. W. R., and motor ‘buses serve the main road.