Dinton, Wiltshire

History

The northern boundary of the parish follows a prehistoric ditch boundary, known as Grim's Ditch, through downland overlooking the Wylye valley further north. Hanging Langford Camp, an Iron Age settlement, is just beyond the parish boundary. The hillfort known as Wick Ball Camp lies near the western boundary of the parish, partly within Dinton Park.

A Roman road from the Mendip lead mines to Old Sarum passed east-west, just south of the ditch. The Domesday Book of 1086 recorded a settlement of 37 households at Dinton, held by Shaftesbury Abbey.

After the Dissolution in 1540, much of Dinton's land was acquired by the Earls of Pembroke; later other land was purchased by the Wyndham family, who created Dinton Park. All Pembroke and Wyndham land was sold in the 20th century.

Dinton had a school from an early date, with some 80 children attending in 1818. A National School was built in 1872 and took children of all ages until 1935, when those over 11 transferred to Wilton. The school became a Church of England voluntary controlled school in 1945.

The Salisbury and Yeovil Railway was built across the parish in 1859, passing to the south of Dinton and Baverstock. Dinton station was southwest of the village, on the lane towards Fovant; the station closed in 1966. A branch called the Fovant Military Railway, 2 ¹⁄₂ miles (4.0 km) in length, ran south from near the station to the military camps around Fovant; it was opened in 1915 and closed in 1920.

In 1934 the parish was extended eastwards to absorb the whole of the ancient parish of Baverstock. Before, during and after the Second World War, the area was used for storage of military equipment and ammunition; some of these premises were outposts of RAF Chilmark.

St Mary, Dinton

The Church of England parish church of St Mary the Virgin, which was begun in the late 12th century, is a Grade I listed building. The north doorway survives from the earliest work, while the rest of the church is largely from the 13th and 14th centuries. Restoration by William Butterfield in 1873–75 included the addition of the south vestry and north porch. The tower has six bells; one is from the 14th century and two from the 16th.

Until the Dissolution, Dinton was a prebend of Shaftesbury Abbey. St Edward's at Teffont Magna was a chapelry of Dinton until 1922. Today the church is part of the Nadder Valley team ministry, which also encompasses Baverstock and Teffont.

St Editha, Baverstock

The church at Baverstock, dedicated to Edith of Wilton, is from the 14th and 15th centuries, with restoration in 1880–93 by Butterfield. It is Grade II* listed.

Notable buildings

Three listed houses are now in the ownership of the National Trust.

Hyde's House, near Dinton church, is a Grade I listed former rectory, an early 18th century rebuilding of an earlier house. Together with Philipps House and Dinton Park, it was given to the National Trust by Bertram Philips in 1943.

Philipps House, formerly Dinton House, was built in 1816 by William IV Wyndham (1769–1841) to the designs of Sir Jeffry Wyatville, replacing a 17th-century house. The house stands in formal gardens and parkland known as Dinton Park. In 1916 the estate was bought by Bertram Philipps, who renamed the house after himself.

Little Clarendon, also Grade II* listed, is a late 17th century former farmhouse. The house was restored in the early 20th century by George Herbert Engleheart (d. 1936), a noted breeder of daffodils; his widow gave the house to the National Trust in 1940.

Present day

The parish has local services including two public houses, a shop with a post office, and a village hall.

The railway remains open as part of the London Waterloo to Exeter line; the nearest station is Tisbury. The village school continues on the same site as Dinton C of E Primary School.

The Monarch's Way long-distance footpath crosses the parish north of Dinton, leaving via Grovely Wood.

Shaftesbury Abbey

The manor of Dinton together with Over Teffont (now Teffont Magna) were possessions of Shaftesbury Abbey from before the Norman Conquest of England until, following the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the manor passed rapidly through the hands of various Tudor property speculators. It was granted in 1540 to Sir Thomas Arundell (d. 1552), who immediately sold it, having obtained a licence of alienation, to Matthew Colthurst, who sold it to William Green of Heale, in Woodford.

Herbert

in 1547 the entire manor obtained a long-term owner when it was granted to Sir William Herbert (1501–1570), later 1st Earl of Pembroke. The manor remained part of the latter's nearby estate of Wilton until 1918 when it was sold in lots and dismembered.

Hyde

The rectory and advowson of Dinton were sold in 1585 by Henry Herbert, 2nd Earl of Pembroke (1534–1601) to Lawrence Hyde I (d. 1590) of West Hatch, MP for Heytesbury in 1584 whose eldest son Robert Hyde I sold them in 1594 to his brother Sir Lawrence Hyde II (1562–1641), attorney-general to Anne of Denmark, wife of King James I. They were inherited by the latter's son Sir Robert Hyde II (d.1665), Chief Justice of Common Pleas, who died without surviving issue when the properties became the inheritance of his nephew, Robert Hyde III (d.1722), son of Alexander Hyde, Bishop of Salisbury. Robert III died without progeny and he bequeathed the rectory and advowson to his cousin Rev. Robert Hyde IV (d.1723), a Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, to which college he bequeathed the properties, and which retained them until 1950 when they were conveyed to the Bishop of Salisbury.

The brother of Sir Lawrence Hyde II, lay rector of Dinton, was Henry Hyde (c.1563–1634), MP, father of the statesman Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon (1609–1674), who was born at Dinton. The estate of Little Clarendon is situated within the parish of Dinton, and was apparently the origin of the appellation he chose for his earldom. Henry Hyde appears to have leased the rectory and advowson of Dinton from his brother, and it was probably in the rectory house that the future Earl of Clarendon was born. Henry Hyde moved away to Purton between 1623 and 1625.

Wyndham

The descent of another estate in Dinton in the Wyndham family was as follows: