Transcription from Kelly’s Directory of Wiltshire, 1885
Fovant
is
a parish and village in the Southern division of the county, hundred of Cawdon
and Cadworth, Wilton Union, Salisbury and Amesbury petty sessional division,
Salisbury County Court district, Chalke Rural deanery first portion,
archdeaconry and diocese of Salisbury, 2 miles south from Dinton station on the
Salisbury and Yeovil Branch of the South Western Railway and 7 west from Wilton.
The Church of St George is an ancient Norman stone structure, it has a double
chancel, nave and north and south aisles, a fine chancel door and a tower (the
finest in the county) at the western extremity, terminating in battlements,
containing 5 bells, and has a striking stained east window to the memory of Lord
Herbert of Lea, also two other stained windows in the chancel and one at the
west end given by contributions raised in the parish: the interior was refitted
with open benches, and re-decorated in 1863: it will seat about 300 persons.
The
register dates from the year 1541. The living is a rectory, gross yearly value
£563, including 45 acres of glebe, with residence, in the gift of the Earl of
Pembroke, and held since 1836 by the Rev. Wellesley Pole Pigott, M.A. Oxon who
is also rector of Fugglestone-with-Bemerton where he resides; the Rev Alfred
Earle M.A. of Magdalen College Oxford is curate. A church hall was erected here
in 1885, given by the Rev. Alfred Earle, on a site granted by the Earl of
Pembroke, available for all church purposes, also for the use of working men in
the village for reading and recreation. Here is a congregational chapel.
The
Earl of Pembroke is Lord of the Manor and chief landowner. The soil is loam,
subsoil, chalk and flint. The chief crops are wheat, oats and barley. The area
is 2076 acres, rateable value £3246, the population in 1881 was 559.
Parish
Clerk, George Futcher.
Post
Office:- John Lever, receiver. Letters from Salisbury are delivered at 6am,
dispatched at 7.30 pm on weekdays, 12 noon Sundays. The nearest money order and
telegraph office is at Dinton.
Wall
Letter Box, cleared at 6.45 pm week days, 12.30pm on Sundays.
National
School (Mixed), built in 1847 for 150 children, average attendance 100; Miss
Georgina Fussell Mist.
Carriers
to Salisbury:- George Reed, Tues and Sat.
PRIVATE
RESIDENTS
Clay,
Challoner, Manor House
Earle,
Rev. Alfred M.A. (Rector)
Futcher,
Aaron
COMMERCIAL
Clay,
Challoner L.R.C.P. Edin, surgeon and medical officer and public vaccinator
Fovant Dist, Wilton Union, Manor House.
Cowdry,
Solomon, Baker and Shopkeeper
Foyle,
John, tailor
Futcher,
George, farmer and parish clerk
Futcher
James, Farmer
Goodfellow,
William. Dairyman
Gray
George, Miller (Water)
Green
James Charles Pembroke Arms
Jarvis
Henry, Blacksmith
Lever
Edwin, Blacksmith, Carpenter and Farmer
Lever
John, Postmaster
Read
George, Cross Keys and carrier
Toomer
Henry, Shopkeeper