Dauntsey
| Dauntsey | |
|---|---|
 19th-century school and almshouses, Dauntsey |
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 Dauntsey
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| Dauntsey shown within Wiltshire | |
| Population | 581 (in 2011) |
| OS grid reference | ST993819 |
| Unitary authority | |
| Ceremonial county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | CHIPPENHAM |
| Postcode district | SN15 |
| Dialling code |
01249 01666 |
| Police | Wiltshire |
| Fire | Dorset and Wiltshire |
| Ambulance | South Western |
| EU Parliament | South West England |
| UK Parliament | |
| Website | Village |
Dauntsey is a small village and civil parish in the county of Wiltshire, England. It gives its name to the Dauntsey Vale in which it lies and takes its name from Saxon for Dantes- eig, or Dante's island. It is set on slightly higher ground in the flood plain of the upper Bristol Avon.
Today, the parish is split by the M4 motorway, with a chain of historic smaller settlements spread either side. Dauntsey Green is north of the motorway, along with Dauntsey Church at the entrance to Dauntsey Park; to the south are Greenman's Lane, Sodom and Dauntsey Lock. Dauntsey Lock is on the former Wilts and Berks Canal (presently being restored), the course of which runs alongside the Bristol-London mainline railway.
Malmesbury Abbey was granted an estate at Dauntsey in 850, and the Domesday Book of 1086 recorded a settlement of 26 households. The Brinkworth Brook defined the northern boundary of the parish, and the Avon most of the western; to the south the natural boundary is the ridge which forms the southern limit of the Vale.
Dauntsey Park House, north of the church and overlooking the Avon, has a 14th-century core; it was remodelled in the late 17th or early 18th, and again c. 1800. The house is a Grade II* listed building. To the north, on the road to Little Somerford, are Home Idover Farmhouse (late 18th) and Idover Demesne Farmhouse (early 19th, a remodelling of an earlier building).
Sir Henry Danvers left land for a school and almshouse, together with further land to provide an income to maintain the school, in his will of 1645. The school was built c. 1667 and continued in use until the mid 19th century when it was replaced by a National School, built 1864–66.
The family which took its name from the manor of Dauntsey is said by Macnamara to have originally been called "Oldstock", which he deduced from its Latinised name Vetus Ceppus in early charters. Ceppus or Cippus signifies in mediaeval Latin "" in which a felon's legs and feet were locked.
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Wikipedia