Preshute

Preshute
Civil parish
Above Preshute
Above Preshute
Map
Coordinates: 51°25′59″N 1°46′08″W / 51.433°N 1.769°W / 51.433; -1.769
CountryEngland
CountyWiltshire
Population
 (2011)
 • Total
193
Websitepreshutepc.org.uk Edit this at Wikidata

Preshute (/ˈprɛʃuːt/) is a civil parish immediately west and northwest of Marlborough in Wiltshire, England. Unusually for a Wiltshire parish, it does not take its name from any town or village. The population at the 2011 census was 193.[1]

The River Kennet and the A4 road cross the parish; the boundary between Marlborough and Preshute is beyond Manton, about 1.3 miles (2.1 km) along the A4 from the centre of Marlborough.

The parish is almost entirely downland and farmland. The settlements are Manton House (with Manton Stables, where racehorses are trained) and the hamlet of Clatford.

Etymology

The name Preshute is first attested in 1185, in the form Prestcheta, 1249, as Presteshethe, and 1252, as Preschut. Its first element is thought to be the Old English word prēost ("priest"), but its second element is less clear. It could be the Old English word ciete ("cottage"), in which case the name once meant "priest's cottage", or it could be the Common Brittonic word that survives in modern Welsh as coed ("woodland"), in which case it meant "[2][3]: 81 [4]: 146–47 

History

In the 12th or 13th century the boundary between Preshute and Marlborough was immediately west of Marlborough Castle and the parish included the villages of Manton and Clatford. In 1925 an eastern section, including Preshute church. was transferred to Marlborough and in 1934 the Marlborough boundary moved further west to include Manton.[5]

Church

The Anglican Church of St George is at grid reference SU 179 685 about 0.6 miles (0.97 km) west of the centre of Marlborough, beyond Marlborough College and just south of the Kennet. It has a 15th-century tower and was restored in 1854 by T.H. Wyatt; it is Grade II* listed[6] and forms part of the Marlborough Benefice.

This area was identified as Preshute as recently as the 1961 (7th series) Ordnance Survey map[7] but on current maps and road signs it is part of Manton.

School

Preshute Primary School is in Manton, outside the parish.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Parish population 2011". Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 4 April 2015.
  2. ^ Gover, J. E. B., Allen Mawer and F. M. Stenton, The Place-Names of Wiltshire, English Place-Name Society, 16 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1939), p. 307.
  3. ^ Tomkins, Richard (1983). Wiltshire place names. Swindon: Redbrick. ISBN 978-0-9507182-5-5.
  4. ^ Eilert Ekwall, 'An Old English Sound-change and Some English Forest Names', Beiblatt zur Anglia: Mitteilungen über englische Sprache und Literatur und über englischen Unterricht, 36 (1925), 146–51.
  5. ^ "Victoria County History - Wiltshire - Vol 12 pp160-184 - Parishes: Preshute". British History Online. University of London. Retrieved 4 April 2015.
  6. ^ Historic England. "Church of St George, Preshute (1243100)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 2 April 2015.
  7. ^ "Ordnance Survey 7th Series - Sheet 157". National Library of Scotland. Retrieved 2 April 2015.

Media related to Preshute at Wikimedia Commons


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