Population 55 (in 2011) Unitary authority Country England Dialling code 01722 Post town Salisbury | OS grid reference SU093264 Region South West Sovereign state United Kingdom Ceremonial county Wiltshire UK parliament constituency Salisbury | |
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Stratford Tony, also spelt Stratford Toney, formerly known as Stratford St Anthony and Toney Stratford, is a small village and civil parish in southern Wiltshire, England. It lies on the River Ebble and is about 4 miles (6.4 km) southwest of Salisbury.
Contents
Map of Stratford Toney, UK
The parish is narrow in the east-west direction. To the south it extends onto high chalk downland, while to the north the parish boundary is the Shaftesbury Drove. Now a byway, this was formerly used to drive cattle and other livestock from Shaftesbury to markets at Salisbury and beyond. Salisbury Racecourse is just over the boundary, and some of its facilities are in the parish.
History
The National Gazetteer (1868) said of the parish:
STRATFORD TONY (or Stratford St. Anthony), a parish in the hundred of Cowden, county Wilts, 4 miles S. W. of Salisbury, its post town. The village is situated on a branch of the river Avon, and about a mile W. of the road from Salisbury to Dorchester, near the line of the ancient Icknield Street. It formerly belonged to the Wests. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Sarum, value £393, in the patronage of Corpus Christi College, Oxford. The church is old, and dedicated to St. Mary. There is a parochial school. John Bampton, founder of the Bampton Lectures, was once rector of this parish.
The population of the parish peaked at around 165 in the 1860s and has declined since then.
The Impressionist painter Wilfrid de Glehn lived at the village's manor house from 1942 until his death in 1951.
Parish church
The Church of England parish church of St Mary and St Lawrence is designated a Grade I listed building and is in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust. There is a canonical sundial on the south wall. Its parish registers survive in the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre for christenings, 1605-1985, marriages, 1562-1983, and burials, 1562-1988.
Local government
The civil parish does not elect a parish council. Instead the first tier of local government is a parish meeting, which all electors are entitled to attend. The parish is in the area of Wiltshire Council unitary authority, which is responsible for most significant local government functions.