Market Lavington

"MARKET LAVINGTON, (or East Lavington), a parish and small market town in the hundred of Swanborough, county Wilts, 6 miles S. of Devizes, its post town and nearest railway station. It is situated in a valley at the foot of the chalk hills which form the northern boundary of Salisbury Plain. The town consists chiefly of one long street. The houses are irregularly built, but commodious. The trade is chiefly in corn and malt. A court baron for the manor is held twice a year. The Dean and Canons of Christ Church, Oxford, are appropriators of the great tithes.

The living is a vicarage* in the diocese of Salisbury, value £300, in the patronage of Christ Church, Oxford. The church, dedicated to St. Mary, is an ancient edifice conspicuously situated on an eminence W. of the town, from which circumstance the latter is popularly called Steeple-Lavington. The charities consist of bequests by the Sainsbury family, for the benefit of the poor. The Baptists and Independents have each a chapel. There is a National school. Dr. Thomas Tanner, Bishop of St. Asaph, and author of the "Notitia Monastica", was born in this parish in 1674, his father being vicar at that time."

[Description(s) from The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868) - Transcribed by Colin Hinson ©2003]

Market Lavington or East Lavington is 6 miles South of Devizes. Grid Ref SU014541. Postcode SN10 4DU. Population 1,525 in 1831, 1,202 in 1951