250 A Sketch of the History of Hill Deverill. 



building stones, and there are others elsewhere, all pointing to a 

 good building. A mediaeval tile with fleur-de-lys pattern was 

 turned up close by in 1893. The group of ancient buildings in the 

 farmyard, mentioned above,' has its front face built in a style 

 common in this district, that is, alternate squares of hewn stone and 

 flints, giving the appearance of a chess-board. 



The present road through the parish is not the ancient road. 

 Fonnerly the road ran to about 180 yards short of the Church, Avhen 

 it bent to the south-east, and joined the afore-mentioned road from 

 the Manor Fann. A close observer can still mark its direction by 

 an old hedge and trees : it ran just under the east wall of the 

 churchyard. To get from the village to Brixton Deverill the way 

 would have been along these two roads to the old road over the 

 shoulder of Bradbury, or by a footpath, where a causeway can still 

 be traced on the west bank of the river. This was the more direct 

 way ; there were cottages on it called Hobath (short for Eehobfith) ; 

 in all the meadows close by numbers of building stones may be 

 turned up. The beams in the barn at Rye Hill Farm are popularly 

 said to have been brought from the Manor Farm, and go by the 

 name of " Ooker's bedstead." The present road to Brixton Deverill 

 was made in 1854, tlu'ough the exertions of the Rev. W. Barnes, 

 an active-minded man, who held the livings of Brixton and Hill 

 Deverill. From the isolated position of the place it is not surprising 

 to find that the inhabitants were credited with speaking a broader 

 dialect than their neighbours, and that a good amount of folk-lore 

 can still be unearthed. At the eastern boundary of the parish are 

 thorn-bushes known by the name of " Grospel Thorn " ; this probably 

 points to thQ custom of reading the gospel under the trees which 

 had been planted to mark the boundaries, when the bounds were 

 beaten.^ 



The parish, like most parishes in this district, runs across the 

 valley, the idea being that each should have its share of water- 

 meadow, low-lying land, and upland. The name " Lady-well " is 



' See Wilts Arch. Mag., vol. xxvii., p. 270-1. 

 ^ See Clodd, Childhood of Eeligions, p. 99. 



