Fisherton de la Mere

In the Domesday Book of 1086, the settlement name is spelt Fisertone[1] and there were 42 households and a mill.[2] The estate was held by Roger de Corcelle, alongside Curry Mallet in Somerset.[1]

The ancient parish of Fisherton de la Mere formed a detached part of the Warminster hundred of Wiltshire. It contained two villages, Fisherton itself, to the north of the River Wylye, and Bapton, about a mile away and to the south of the river, and covered 2,834 acres, of which 1,660 were in Fisherton. The civil parish was extinguished in 1934, when Fisherton was transferred to Wylye, and Bapton to Stockton.[3][4]

The former parish was a rough oblong stretching both north and south up into the downland on each side of the river, each slope running down from an altitude of about 600 feet. At the south is a level area called the Bake. On the north-east the parish boundary ran along the old road from Chitterne to Stapleford, on the south along Grim's Dyke, an ancient earthwork, while on the south-west the boundary cut through a combe, Roakham Bottom.[3]

A schoolroom was built in 1865 just west of the church, attached to an 18th-century cottage,[5] and was later supported by the National Society. Attendance had dwindled to 15 by 1922, and the school was closed.[6]

Almost the whole of the village was designated as a Conservation Area in 1975.[7] A detailed parish history was published in 1965 by the Wiltshire Victoria County History.[3]

St Nicholas' Church

The Church of England parish church, St Nicholas's Church, built in the 14th century in a chequerboard pattern of flint and Chilmark stone, stands on a hill overlooking the River Wylye at the centre of the village. It is now a Grade II* listed building[11] in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust.[12]

The parish registers survive in the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre for the following dates: christenings 1561–1895, marriages 1566–1992, and burials 1569–1992.[13]

Almost all of the present village of Fisherton de la Mere is now part of the parish of Wylye. However, as the River Wylye is the parish boundary, Fisherton Mill (lying on the south of the river) is in Stockton.

The village comes under the Wylye parish council and is in the area of the Wiltshire Council unitary authority, which is responsible for almost all significant local government functions. It forms part of the South West Wiltshire Parliament constituency, and the serving Member of Parliament is Andrew Murrison.

• Sir Elias Delamere, of Fisherton Delamere, High Sheriff of Wiltshire in 1413
• William Paulet, later Lord Chamberlain, Secretary of State, Lord High Treasurer and first Marquess of Winchester, was probably born at Fisherton de la Mere[14][15][16]
• Granville Ryder, a former Member of Parliament for Salisbury, owned Fisherton De La Mere House from 1895 until his death in 1901.[3]

• William de Beloney: 1314[3]
• John Conge: early 15th century[17]
• Joel Doughty: 1596–1613[18]
• Thomas Crockford: 1613–1634[19]
• Edward Seymour: 1793[20]
• William Davis: 1807[21]
• Edward Graves Meyrick: 1813
• William Davison Thring DD: 1844[22]
• Thomas John Davis: 1854–1868[23]
• W. G. N. Fenwick: 1868–1883[24][25]
• Thomas Ratcliffe:1885–1893[26]
• Raymond Williams: 1897