296 



Erlestoke and its Manor Lords. 



the boundary to Erlestoke. The area of Erlestoke is a little over 

 two thousand acres, of which, roughly speaking, one-third is on 

 the chalk of the plain, one third on the Kimmeridge Clay of the 

 vale, and the remaining third on the Upper Green Sand, the Gault, 

 and the Portland Sand that intervene in that order between the 

 chalk and the clay. The village is situated, like those of its 

 neighbours, near the foot of the downs, on the Upper Green Sand 

 where the springs break out that have their origin in the chalk. 

 Across the parish runs the county road that skirts this part of the 

 plain, and further north the district road lately made in the track 

 of an old bridle path to join East Coulston with Marston. 1 To the 

 north and south there is no access from within the parish except 

 by a rough track that runs from the top of the hill, along Brouncker's 

 Down to the parish of Imber and by a bridle road through Pudnell 

 Farm to Bulkington and Keevil Wick. In coaching days the 

 county road was the direct road to London by Upavon and Andover, 

 by which route Erlestoke is ninety-three-and-a-quarter miles from 

 London, but at the present clay it is chiefly used for local traffic 

 between the Westbury and Devizes districts, and a part of this 

 traffic has been diverted to the new district road. On the west 

 the nearest hard road to the south is at Westbury, seven miles off, 

 and to the north at Edington, two-and-a-half miles ; on the east 

 the access to the south is at Littleton Panell, two-and-a half miles 

 off ; and to the north and north-west by the same road, which can 

 be reached through Great Cheverell or Marston. The new line of 

 the Great Western Eailway from Patney to Westbury also crosses 

 the parish, and has, to some extent, brought this quiet corner of 

 Wiltshire into closer touch with the outside world, but Erlestoke 

 is less affected than its neighbours, from the fact that the village 

 is farthest removed from the two nearest stations, at Edington and 

 Lavington. In its geographical relation to the different adminis- 

 trative areas of the county Erlestoke is also in a remote situation, 



1 The grass slow-coach road from Bath to Salisbury also crosses the parish 

 on the hill, but is not used for through traffic except by an occasional gipsy 

 van. The half-way milestone stands at the junction of the track to Imber, 

 and the distance to that village (3| miles) is cut on its south face. 



