Bishops Cannings

Coordinates: 51°22′37″N 1°56′49″W / 51.377°N 1.947°W / 51.377; -1.947

Bishops Cannings is a village and civil parish in the Vale of Pewsey in Wiltshire, England, about 3 miles (5 km) northeast of Devizes. The parish includes the village of Coate and the hamlets of Bourton, Horton and Little Horton.

Geography

Streams which become the Salisbury Avon flow through the parish. The northern part of the parish lies on the Marlborough Downs, including Morgan's Hill and part of Roundway Hill.

Bishops Cannings village is about 0.5 miles (0.80 km) south of the A361 road which links Devizes with Avebury and Swindon.

History

The manor of Cannings was recorded in the 1086 Domesday Book as held by the Bishop of Salisbury.

Horton is first attested in 1158. The place-name is a common one in England and derives from Old English horu 'dirt' and tūn 'settlement, farm, estate', presumably meaning 'farm on muddy soil'.

In the 16th and 17th centuries, Bourton manor was an estate of the Ernle family. The manor included the hamlet of Easton; today the name survives only at Easton Farm and Easton Down.