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 The Village of Heytesbury, Wiltshire, England.

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The Parish of Heytesbury, Knook, Tytherington and Imber

Heytesbury
Wiltshire

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Welcome to Heytesbury, Wiltshire, England -Local Gossip (Hoorah!) click 

Latest village hall news: May 2008. 

The vicar of Heytesbury has written to request ‘a more convenient and spacious village hall’. There is to be a village fete and fancy dress competition to raise funds. He also tells us that the church roof is leaking and that it is in need of ‘extensive repairs’.

The letter is from the Rev. Hedley Balance and is dated Thursday July 20^th 1949. It was addressed to Mrs. Sassoon. 

Resource: Photographs from the 1930s and 1960s by kind permission of the late George Sassoon with explanatory notes from Robert Pulvertaft (please contribute) 1930 1966. George mailed me images of Imber from the 1960s house church. I have received complaints that the site is too 'Sassoon' focussed so please send anything you think should here and I will put it up. There is a new section about visitors to this site from around the world. visitors this includes family history enquiries.

Could Heytesbury be the birthplace of modern Archaeology? read more

Local businesses links here.  

Heytesbury is 3 miles SE of Warminster. Grid Ref ST924426. Postcode BA12 0EA. Population 1,412 in 1831, 555 in 1951. map 25000 map 10000

Dating to the Saxon period, with evidence of Roman settlement, Heytesbury was named after the Saxon warrior Heghtred. Featuring a Norman Church and a recently re-furbished stately home, Heytesbury House. Heytesbury was once the major market town & settlement in the area.

 
Heytesbury House & the once substantial estates were until the end of the 19th century in the ownership of the Lords Heytesbury (Family names including Hungerford & à Court). The reason behind websites such as www.heytesbury.com is that the late Robert Holmes à Court's business holdings were named after the village. 

In 1933, Siegfried Sassoon, the noted war poet & author, bought the estate and lived there until his death in 1967. His son George and assorted family continued to live there until the early 1990s. The Angel dates to the 17th century & a former landlord claims to have heard Laurence of Arabia's motorcycle leaving Heytesbury House en route to his fatal crash.

Image of Siegfried Sassoon with 'Cockbird'. The author of 'Memoirs of a Foxhunting Man' would surely be delighted with the decision of HMG to erase our history.

 
Heytesbury is located in the Wylye Valley
In mid 1998, 1,600 people lived in Wylye Valley of which 20 per cent were aged under 16, 53 per cent were aged between 16 and 59, and 27 per cent were aged 60 and over.

WWDC District Plan maps for Heytesbury and Tytherington (These are large files to allow for sufficient resolution.  I would go and make a nice cup of tea, watch Gone With The Wind, read War and Peace and listen to Al Steel on the subject of taxi windows in Lagos while it downloads). Key to maps click.

New Page -The Supernatural at Heytesbury House ghosts

Illegal Activity -The Infantry Beagles at the Angel 01.01.01.  

The imagery on the site is Saxon.  The Wyvern is the symbol of the Kingdom of Wessex.  The armorial bearings are those of the Holmes family, à Court family and the Borough of Heytesbury 1168 AD. The competition for having the most Saxon name will, of course, be won by Pulvertaft although Griffins and Godwins (derivative of King Harold's family name) are in the running. 

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