| THE HISTORY OF CHIRTON |
This is an extract from John Chandler's book Devizes and Central Wiltshire. Our thanks to Dr Chandler for his kind permission to reproduce this material
Domesday Book records both Chirton and Conock (the two tithings which make up Chirton parish) as ten-hide estates; in 1377 Chirton had slightly more adult taxpayers (73 to Conock's 59), and in 1851 Chirton's population was almost twice that of Conock. Recent housebuilding in Chirton has pushed this imbalance a great deal further. Both tithings are typical strip territories running north-south from the Cannings arm of the stripling River Avon (and a tributary, the Lul or Lulland brook), over rich, flat greensand (The Sands), and up gently sloping lower chalk loam (The Clays) to the Salisbury Plain escarpment and wild downland beyond. The boundary between them, as it makes its way towards the scarp, is depicted on the 1845 tithe award as irregular, as if respecting the right-angled corners of early furlongs. By contrast the boundaries with the neighbouring parishes to east and west are mostly regular. They include a straight stretch between Chirton and Marden which is marked by a substantial bank; and the boundary with Urchfont follows an ancient downland road, a continuation of the Lydeway. The implication is perhaps that the tithing boundary is later, and that the territory defined by the medieval and modern parish is an early unit which was divided during the Saxon period (after the lower chalk had been divided into furlongs), rather than that two separate units (Conock and Chirton) combined to form the parish.
Conock, first recorded as Cowic (probably a misreading of Connic) in 1086, seems to derive from an obscure Celtic hill word cunaco, which is found, for example, in Consett (Durham) and Cannock. It is hardly appropriate here to the negligible rise on which Conock village sits, and so presumably (like Crookwood in Urchfont) refers to the prominent chalk escarpment. It may, therefore, have been used to describe the whole territory, of which Chirton (cirice-tun, 'the church settlement') was a more specialised part. However, as we have seen from the opening statistics, it was Chirton (Ceritone in Domesday, and often spelt Cherrington and variants up to the twentieth century), that gained the ascendancy over Conock in the middle ages, and which has developed into a populous and lively village. Conock meanwhile has subsided into a comfortable, shrunken cul-de-sac, complete with Victorian wall letter-box. Both tithings lost their downland to the War Department's firing range in 1899, but both retain working farms in their village streets - a hallmark of the chalkland parishes to which enclosure came late (Chirton 1808, Conock 1816).
The first church, for it to have named the village by the eleventh century, must undoubtedly have been Saxon and dating from a period before churches were commonplace. The present building which adorns Chirton village is later, but it boasts fine transitional Norman features - a south doorway, ornamented roof timbers, north and south arcades ('terribly scraped', Pevsner observes), and a font depicting the twelve apostles - all of which are probably connected with the gift of the church in 1167 to Llanthony Priory, some thirty years after it was refounded in Gloucester. Various tell-tales suggest an early settlement around the church. There are awkward bends in the village street; a holloway running up the eastern side of the churchyard; possible earthwork features north-east of the church; a suggestive field name - Darkmead (on the tithe award) - north-west of the church; and the predominantly east-west orientation of footpaths and tracks in this area.
Yew Tree Cottage, east of the church by the second bend, is thought to be a former vicarage, which is referred to in glebe terriers from 1609; a 1783 terrier describes in great detail its oak frame, brick panes, thatched roof, elm-boarded rooms and wainscotting. Patney Road, which has carved itself a deep cutting as it runs northwards down the hill to the river, reminds us that the village is built on greensand. From the foot of the slope, past Plummers Farm and squatter cottages on the right, and modern houses set behind trees on the left, there is a good view across Pewsey Vale to the Alton white horse. A lane leads eastwards to the former Church Mill, where converted buildings and a malthouse occupy a secluded spot in a hollow by the river where Chirton, Marden and Patney boundaries meet.
The church tower looks south down Chirton Street, which retains at its northern end something of the flavour of the linear green which it once was. A pond stood by the church corner in 1808, near another former vicarage, and several encroachments occurred to narrow the street between 1808 and 1845. The National school, of 1845 and still in use, stands where the street is widest and most green-like, and between the school and Manor Farm a number of Victorian and earlier brick cottages have survived. George Watts, a farmworker who was hanged for arson in 1835, was responsible for destroying a number of farm buildings along the street. Southwards from Manor Farm and along Small Street most houses are modern, and include small residential closes - The Orchard, Yew Tree Close and Miller Close. The southern end of the Street connects Chirton village with the main Devizes-Upavon road (A342), which was turnpiked in 1762. This portion of the Street, as well as Small Street, were incorporated in the roads of the late (1840) Kennet and Amesbury turnpike trust, which helped to open up Pewsey Vale to the outside world; by 1885 two inns, the Three Horseshoes (now a private house) and the New Inn (now the Wiltshire Yeoman, but displaying the old name) were the sole buildings in this area.
Conock village shares with Chirton a number of characteristics. It sits on the greensand, is approached by a turning off the main road, and lies along a north-south street which leads down to a river-crossing. But there the similarity ends. Conock now has the appearance of an adjunct to a gentleman's park, adorned by driveways and plantations, lodges and cottages in various picturesque styles, and with few traces remaining of the closely-built village depicted along its street on a map of 1773. There are in fact two manor houses, Conock Manor, with its striking stable block graced by a gleaming copper cupola, and Conock Old Manor, lower and less dominant. They are of similar date, around 1700 with later alterations, and both were associated with the related Yerbury, Ernle or Warriner families until the nineteenth century. From the 1960s until his death in 1997 Conock Old Manor was the country home of Woodrow Wyatt, a descendant of the architectural dynasty, remembered as an unpredictable socialite and controversial confidant of famous politicians. Across the lawn at Conock Manor, by contrast, lived Bonar Sykes, respected diplomat and steady champion of Wiltshire's heritage, who died in 1998. His father, Sir Frederick Sykes, one of the founders of the Royal Air Force, had bought the estate in 1945.
Slight earthworks north and north-west of the manor houses may indicate the site of the medieval village, which had a chapel-of-ease recorded between 1224 and 1410. The continuation of Conock Street towards Wedhampton, and the footpath which leads to Chirton church (and which has the appearance of a lychway) are presumably relics of early alignments. They seem to be portions of a valley road (superseded by the turnpike) which connected all the villages between Urchfont and Rushall, and which gave Wilsford and Charlton further east their village streets. A good view of Conock and Chirton is obtained from Redhorn Hill, on the Chirton-Urchfont boundary. Here the old Devizes-Salisbury downland road climbed the escarpment, and crossed the great ridgeway at the top, where now an army vedette sports its red flag.