Monkton Deverill
| Monkton Deverill | |
|---|---|
 Entering the village from the south east |
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 Monkton Deverill
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| Monkton Deverill shown within Wiltshire | |
| OS grid reference | ST856373 |
| Unitary authority | |
| Ceremonial county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | Warminster |
| Postcode district | BA12 |
| Dialling code | 01985 |
| Police | Wiltshire |
| Fire | Dorset and Wiltshire |
| Ambulance | South Western |
| EU Parliament | South West England |
Monkton Deverill (anciently known as East Monkton) is a village and former civil parish in Wiltshire, England, about five miles south of Warminster and four miles northeast of Mere. It stands on the River Wylye and forms part of a group of villages known as the Upper Deverills.
Two Roman roads intersect close to the village. In 1989–1990, archaeologists investigated a 7th-century Anglo-Saxon cemetery in the parish and also made a section through a Roman road.
Before the Dissolution of the Monasteries, Monkton Deverill was a manor of Glastonbury Abbey and was formerly known as East Monkton. In the Middle Ages, its church was a chapel of the church at Longbridge Deverill, also a Glastonbury manor.
For almost forty years, beginning in the late 14th century, the bailiffs of Glastonbury Abbey's manors of Longbridge and Monkton Deverill, which were remote from the Abbey's own logistical systems, kept good accounts of their stewardship. These records survive and provide detailed information on the manors' agricultural and other business. They show that most of the grain produced on the land went to markets within ten miles, except in years when it was selling for higher prices. Most buyers of the manors' wool came from within a radius of twenty miles. However, some items, such as millstones, were brought from much farther away.
After the Dissolution, the manor was sold by the Crown to John Thynne together with Longbridge Deverill and thereafter descended in his family, who much later became Marquesses of Bath. The Thynnes have preserved many of Glastonbury Abbey's records at Longleat up to the present day.
The village's later history centres on its former Church of England parish church, dedicated to St Alfred the Great. Alfred had marched into the valley of the Deverills in 878, on his way to victory at the Battle of Ethandun.
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Wikipedia