Erlestoke
| Erlestoke | |
|---|---|
.jpg) High Street, Erlestoke |
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 Erlestoke
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| Erlestoke shown within Wiltshire | |
| Population | 210 (in 2011) |
| OS grid reference | ST964539 |
| Civil parish |
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| Unitary authority | |
| Ceremonial county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | Devizes |
| Postcode district | SN10 |
| Dialling code | 01380 |
| Police | Wiltshire |
| Fire | Dorset and Wiltshire |
| Ambulance | South Western |
| EU Parliament | South West England |
| UK Parliament | |
| Website | Village |
Erlestoke is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, on the northern edge of Salisbury Plain. The village lies about 6 miles (10 km) east of Westbury and the same distance southwest of Devizes.
Erlestoke Prison, the only prison in Wiltshire, is within the parish.
The ancient parish of Erlestoke was a chapelry of Melksham. The Crown was lord of the manor of Erlestoke; the first recorded grant of land was by Henry I in the 12th century. From the 16th until the early 18th the Brouncker family held land at Erlestoke, including Henry Brouncker, a Member of parliament in the 16th and early 17th. Later owners included Peter Delmé, an 18th-century MP; Joshua Smith (1732-1819), MP for Devizes; and George Watson-Taylor (1771-1841), also MP for Devizes. The Watson-Taylors built up large estates at Erlestoke, Coulston (including Baynton House),Great Cheverell and Edington until they were divided and sold between 1907 and 1910, following the death in 1902 of Simon Watson Taylor; Erlestoke Park remained in the family until it was sold in 1919.
The current form of the village is largely due to Joshua Smith, who between the 1780s and the 1810s was responsible for replacing the existing Elizabethan house with one higher up the hill east of the village. He landscaped the park which surrounds the village on three sides, adding a lake, and moving the houses of the village to the current High Street. Newly built estate cottages incorporated pieces of sculpture and architectural fragments from the earlier manor house; an example is Tilted Lodge, c. 1800.
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