Chisbury

At {{convert|176|m|ft}} above sea level, Chisbury hillfort is the highest point in Little Bedwyn parishCrowley, 1999, pages 50-69 and encloses an area of about {{convert|14|acre|ha}}.Pevsner & Cherry, 1975, page 174 Palaeolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age artefacts have been found in the area, but the hillfort was most probably built in the late Iron Age in the 1st century AD. There may be a link with the 7th-century West Saxon nobleman Cissa.{{Cite web |title=Cissa 1 (Male) |url=https://pase.ac.uk/jsp/persons/CreatePersonFrames.jsp?personKey=2866 |access-date=2023-10-13 |website=Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England |publisher=King's College London}} The hillfort was re-used in the Anglo-Saxon times as a burh, cited as Cyssanbyrig in the Burghal Hidage document which lists the fortifications of Wessex in the later part of the 9th century, although Julian Orbach cautions that this may be a misreading for Tisbury.{{Cite book |last1=Orbach |first1=Julian |title=Wiltshire |last2=Pevsner |first2=Nikolaus |last3=Cherry |first3=Bridget |publisher=Yale University Press |year=2021 |isbn=978-0-300-25120-3 |series=The Buildings Of England |location=New Haven, US and London |page=228 |oclc=1201298091 |author-link2=Nikolaus Pevsner |author-link3=Bridget Cherry}}

St. Martin's chapel, on the eastern edge of the hillfort, seems to have been built in the early part of the 13th century. After the middle of the 16th century the building lapsed from use for worship and was turned into a barn. It was re-roofed in the 19th century but in 1998 its condition was semi-ruinous. The hillfort and chapel were designated as a scheduled ancient monument in 1925.{{National Heritage List for England|num=1013400|desc=Chisbury Camp and St Martin's Chapel|access-date=27 December 2016}}

Chisbury Manor farmhouse, also within the hillfort site, is a two-storey brick building from the mid 18th century.{{National Heritage List for England|num=1184320|desc=Chisbury Manor Farmhouse|access-date=27 December 2016|fewer-links=yes}}

Knowle Farm, about {{convert|1.5|mi|km}} northwest of Chisbury, has a 14th-century chapel which is now an outbuilding of the farmhouse. A blocked ogee-headed north window and the surround of the east window are the only surviving features.Pevsner & Cherry, 1975, page 463 The farmhouse is a brick-built Georgian house of five bays dated 1735.

{{Reflist|30em}}

• {{cite book |last1=Aston |first1=Michael |last2=Bond |first2=James |title=The Landscape of Towns |series=Archaeology in the Field Series |year=1976 |publisher=J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd |location=London |isbn= 0-460-04194-0 |pages=59, 60}}
• {{cite web|website=British History Online|title=Victoria County History: Wiltshire: Vol 16 pp50-69 – Little Bedwyn|editor-first=D.A.|editor-last=Crowley|author-first1=A P|author-last1=Baggs|author-first2=J|author-last2=Freeman|author-first3=C|author-last3=Smith|author-first4=J H|author-last4=Stevenson|author-first5=E|author-last5=Williamson|url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/wilts/vol16/pp50-69|publisher=University of London|date=1999|access-date=27 December 2016}}
• {{cite book |last1=Pevsner |first1=Nikolaus |author-link1=Nikolaus Pevsner |last2=Cherry |first2=Bridget (revision) |series=The Buildings of England |title=Wiltshire |orig-year=1963 |year=1975 |publisher=Penguin Books |location=Harmondsworth |isbn=0140710264 |pages=174–175, 463}}

{{Commons category}}

{{Iron Age hillforts in England}}

Category:Hamlets in Wiltshire

Category:Hill forts in Wiltshire

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