Transcription from Kelly’s Directory of Wiltshire, c 1888-1891
Fovant
is a parish
and village, 2 miles south-west from Dinton station on the Salisbury and Yeovil
Branch of the South western Railway and 7 west from Wilton, in the Southern
division of the county, hundred of Cawdon and Cadworth, Salisbury and Amesbury
petty sessional division, Salisbury County Court district, Wilton Union, Chalke
Rural deanery, archdeaconry and diocese of Salisbury. The Church of St George is
an ancient Norman stone structure, it has a double chancel, nave of four bays,
aisles, a fine chancel door and a fine tower 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 43 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. of New Inn
Hall, Oxon who is also rector of Fugglestone with Bemerton where he resides; the
Rev Alfred Earle M.A. of Magdalen College Oxford is curate. Here is a
congregational chapel. 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.
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 £2744, the population in 1881 was 559.
Parish
Clerk, George Futcher.
Post
Office:- Thomas Lever, receiver. Letters from Salisbury are delivered at 6am,
dispatched at 7.40 pm on weekdays, 7.40 Sundays. The nearest money order and
telegraph office is at Dinton.
Wall
Letter Box, Fovant Elm, cleared at 6.45 pm week days, 12 noon 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
Bracher,
Eliza (Mrs), dairykeeper
Clay,
Challoner L.R.C.P. Edin, surgeon and medical officer and public vaccinator
Fovant Dist, Wilton Union, Manor House.
Cowdry,
Rhoda (Mrs) Baker and Shopkeeper
Foyle,
John, tailor
Futcher,
George, farmer and parish clerk
Futcher
James, Farmer
Goodfellow,
Wm. Dairyman
Gray
George, Miller (Water)
Green
Ernest W.Pembroke Arms Public House
Jarvis
Henry, Blacksmith
Lever
& Co, Blacksmiths, Carpenters and Farmers
Lever
Thomas, Postmaster and carpenter
Read
Geo. Cross Keys Public House and carrier
Read
Mary Ann (Mrs), shopkeeper
Simper
Thomas, Overseer and Farmer