Churchwardens
Capt William Chatterton-Dickson RN 01747 870375
Mr Paul Gorford 01747 820502
Please see the Rota page for details of services.
HISTORY
FONTHILL AFTER THE CONQUEST
William the Norman made a grant of land at Fonthill and Berengar Giffard is recorded in the Domesday Survey of 1086 as the holder of part of Fonthill, in contradistinction to the land at Fonthill Bishop granted to the Bishops of Winchester in 901.
Recent research by Professor McLynn of Strathclyde University identifies Berengar Giffard as one of the four Norman knights who concerted the fatal attack on Harold's person at Hastings. They and their heirs were richly rewarded with land and went on to establish powerful positions in the country's ruling circles.
John Giffard, chief constable of Staffordshire in 1998, is directly descended from one of them and his family still farms 4,000 acres near Wolverhampton which was part of the original grant. (S.Times 5/4/98)
One of Berengar's sons William Giffard was Rufus's chancellor and held the bishopric of Winchester in gift from Henry I from 1100 ‑ 1129.
The circumstances of Rufus's death have never been fully explained: an eccentric canon of St Paul's has even written a book explaining that both Rufus and Becket 60 years later were victims of ritual murder (Ross Williams: The Arrow and the Sword). The circumstances become interesting when it is noticed that William Giffard, who was in the hunting party in the New Forest, was nominated to the Bishopric on 3rd August 1100, the day the Council, assembled at Winchester, elected Henry to the throne and the day after Rufus's death.
Rufus's dead body was lying in the Cathedral awaiting burial and it must have been Giffard who arranged its burial within the cathedral. We shall never know if burial at a location under Giffard's personal control, guarded day and night by his own retainers, was to make sure the body was never examined by supporters of Duke Robert of Normandy. They may have wished to cast doubt on the story of the fatal arrow, striking an overhead branch and falling vertically upon Rufus, or whether he was shot from a distance ‑ or not shot at all. His body never lay in state where all could see a death wound ‑ the origin of the custom continued to this day.
Giffard continued to find favour in the eyes of Henry I, and he officiated at Henry's marriage to Adela of Louvain in 1122. He founded the first house of the Cistercian Order in 1128 at Waverley near Farnham (Hants) where his successor, Henry of Blois, built his castle. The castle was the seat of the Bishops of Winchester until 1935 when it was included in the new diocese of Guildford. It was Giffard, too, who built the episcopal palace in Southwark, the Clink, later used by the Bishops of Winchester as their prison.
Contemporary writers express approval and respect for him ‑ "vir nobilissimus" ‑ but the crucial point and enigma of his life remains that of William Rufus's death and of the real reasons for the death if it was not an accident.
There is a great deal written in the Dictionary of National Biography under the entry on Gifford about his role in the affair and it is worth taking a look at the copy in the County Library in Salisbury.
Anthony Harriss
On September 29th 1760 Alderman William Beckford stood by the font in Fonthill Gifford parish church to see William, his only child born in wedlock, baptised into the Christian faith, sponsored by the great politician William Pitt. However young William was not destined to follow in his father's footsteps as his parents hoped, and instead he made Fonthill Gifford best known as the site of one of the most remarkable buildings of the early 19th century, Fonthill Abbey. He also transformed the surrounding countryside by the planting of more than a million trees.
The earliest reference to Fonthill Gifford is in the Domesday book when it was described as an estate held by Ewing. By 1086 it was in the ownership of Berenger Gifford. By 1476 the ownership of the manor belonged to John Mervyn and passed through his descendants until 1620 when it was sold to Mervyn Tuchet, Earl of Castlehaven who was executed for felony in 1631. At this juncture the estate reverted to the crown and was held by Cottington as representative of the crown.
In 1745, Francis Cottington sold and the Fonthill Estate was bought by Alderman William Beckford, who was Lord Mayor of London in 1768 and 1770. When Fonthill House was burnt down in 1755 Alderman Beckford had a new Fonthill House built a little to the south of the old building and to the west of the lake. This house, a Palladian mansion known as 'Fonthill Splendens' consisted of a main block and 2 pavilions, the whole measuring 390 feet from east to west. The interior fittings of the house were not completed until long after 1760.
In 1825, a few years after Beckford left Fonthill Gifford for Bath, the tower collapsed, due to faulty workmanship, and destroyed the west arm of the house. It was not rebuilt. Only the north end remains along with some fragments of the sanctuary and a corridor and tower. The Western Avenue that used to lead to the principal main entrance is still there.
The main house was demolished in 1807 but the square pavilion remained and was eventually incorporated into a house designed for James Morrison in 1848. From 1856 - 59 a new Fonthill Abbey was built about 500 metres SE of the old abbey for Richard, Marquess of Westminster. It was built in Scottish baronial style with a turreted three storey main block and a stable courtyard. Two lodges were built at the drive entrances to the new house, Tisbury Lodge was built south of the church and Lawn Lodge south of the new house. The house was eventually demolished in 1955 but the lodges remain.
From the 16 - 20th centuries the landowners in the parish were wealthy and employed large households, and in 1801 the population of the parish was 493. However by 1981, when there were fewer landowners and they employed much smaller households , the population had dropped to 160.
In 1291 the original Fonthill Gifford church, dedicated to St Nicholas, stood in the north east corner of the parish beside a stream. This church was demolished in 1747. The site for the second Fonthill Gifford church, built by Alderman Beckford between 1747 and 1749, was near the crossroads on the eastern boundary of the parish and dedicated to the Holy Trinity. In 1864 – 1866 this was replaced by another new church built by the Marquess of Westminster and is still in use. Close by stands the Beckford Arms which used to be called the Fonthill Inn until the mid 19th century.
There is a small hamlet within the parish called 'Stop'. It includes Stop Farm built in the 17th century and the settlement in the street leading south west and called at one time Fonthill Street and now Stop Street. Near to Stop Farm was a small group of cottages called Greenwich dating from the 18th century. These buildings have been replaced by a row of estate cottages built between 1840 and 1880.
There were two dame schools in Fonthill Gifford in 1818 with 24 children altogether on their rolls. In 1846 a National School was built beside the road between Stop Farm and the church. By 1858 it was decided that the older boys should attend Hindon School. This left 30 children at Fonthill Gifford School. However by 1933 numbers had fallen severely because the local landowners now employed many fewer household staff causing a decrease in the local population, and Fonthill School was closed.
During the Second World War from 1940 – 1941, 48 acres of the Fonthill estate were used as an army camp.