Ansty, Wiltshire

Ansty
Cottage and Maypole, Ansty
Ansty  Ansty shown within Wiltshire
Population	117 (2011 census)[1]
OS grid reference	ST957264
Civil parish	Ansty
Unitary authority	Wiltshire
Ceremonial county	Wiltshire
Region	South West
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Postcode district	SP3
Dialling code	01747
Police	Wiltshire
Fire	Dorset and Wiltshire
Ambulance	South Western
EU Parliament	South West England
UK Parliament	South West Wiltshire
List of places UK England Wiltshire

Coordinates: 51°02′13″N 2°03′47″W / 51.037°N 2.063°W / 51.037; -2.063

Ansty is a small village and civil parish in southwest Wiltshire, England, about 6 miles (10 km) east of Shaftesbury. The village is just north of the A30 road between Shaftesbury and Salisbury. The parish includes the hamlet of Ansty Coombe.

Archaeology

In the southern part of the Parish is White Sheet Hill, on which there are Bronze Age barrows including a long barrow.^[2]

In the eastern part of the parish there is bowl barrow.^[2] The barrow may be older than the pagan Saxon burial from the 7th century AD that has been found in it.^[3] Grave goods excavated from the burial include a diadem, palm cups, enamelled ironwork and an incense burner.^[3]

Parish church

The Church of England parish church of Saint James dates from before 1210 and is Grade II listed.^[4] The south wall of the nave may be a survival from that original building,^[2] and the font too is Norman.^[5] The chancel may have been rebuilt and lengthened in the 14th century.^[2] A two-storeyed north porch was added in the 15th century.^[2] The windows of the church were replaced in the 16th century.^[2] The transepts are Gothic Revival additions.^[5] In 1842 the porch was demolished and the north transept and western bell-turret were added.^[2] In 1878 the south transept was added.^[2] Also in the 19th century the 16th century windows were replaced with ones in a 13th-century style and the arches to the chancel and transept were altered.^[2]

Preceptory

In 1210 or 1211 Walter de Turberville granted the manor of Ansty to the Knights Hospitaller of St. John of Jerusalem,^[6] who founded a preceptory in the parish. The order was not formally suppressed in the Dissolution of the Monasteries but Henry VIII confiscated its properties in England because the order opposed his divorce from Catherine of Aragon. Mary I after her accession in 1553 restored the order in England and returned all its property, including that of the preceptory of Ansty.^[6] Mary was succeeded in 1558 by Elizabeth I who suppressed the Order. The commandry was demolished in her reign but the guest house survived until it burned down in 1927.^[6] A surviving building in the village with several early 16th century windows may be the former preceptory's hospice.^[3]

Manor House

The Manor House originates from the 16th century and is Grade II* listed.^[7] From 1546 the manor was granted to John Zouche (later Sir John). His son Francis sold the manor to Sir Matthew Arundell and it remained in the Arundell family until the 20th century.^[8]

A Grade II* building from 1570-80 near the manor may be a former banquet hall.^[9]

Amenities

Ansty has a polo club^[10] and a "Pick Your Own" farm shop.

References

Sources

• Crowley, D.A. (ed.); Freeman, Jane; Stevenson, Janet H. (1987). A History of the County of Wiltshire: Volume 13: South-west Wiltshire: Chalke and Dunworth hundreds. Victoria County History. pp. 93–100. 
• Pevsner, Nikolaus; Cherry, Bridget (1975). Wiltshire. The Buildings of England (revised ed.). Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. pp. 93–94. ISBN 0-14-0710-26-4. 
• Pugh, R.B.; Crittall, Elizabeth, eds. (1956). A History of the County of Wiltshire: Volume 3. Victoria County History. pp. 328–329. 

External links

Media related to Ansty, Wiltshire at Wikimedia Commons

• Ansty in the Domesday Book