Stratford Tony

Stratford Tony, also spelt Stratford Toney, formerly known as Stratford St Anthony and Toney Stratford, is a small village and civil parish in southern Wiltshire, England. It lies on the River Ebble and is about 4 miles (6.4 km) southwest of Salisbury.[2]

Stratford Tony
River Ebble at Stratford Tony
Stratford Tony Location within Wiltshire
Population	55 (in 2011)[1]
OS grid reference	SU093264
Unitary authority	Wiltshire
Ceremonial county	Wiltshire
Region	South West
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	Salisbury
Postcode district	SP5
Dialling code	01722
Police	Wiltshire
Fire	Dorset and Wiltshire
Ambulance	South Western
UK Parliament	Salisbury

The parish is narrow in the east-west direction. To the south it extends onto high chalk downland, while to the north the parish boundary is the Shaftesbury Drove. Now a byway, this was formerly used to drive cattle and other livestock from Shaftesbury to markets at Salisbury and beyond. Salisbury Racecourse is just over the boundary, and some of its facilities are in the parish.

History

The National Gazetteer (1868) said of the parish:[3]

STRATFORD TONY (or Stratford St. Anthony), a parish in the hundred of Cowden, county Wilts, 4 miles S. W. of Salisbury, its post town. The village is situated on a branch of the river Avon, and about a mile W. of the road from Salisbury to Dorchester, near the line of the ancient Icknield Street. It formerly belonged to the Wests. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Sarum, value £393, in the patronage of Corpus Christi College, Oxford. The church is old, and dedicated to St. Mary. There is a parochial school. John Bampton, founder of the Bampton Lectures, was once rector of this parish.

The population of the parish peaked at around 165 in the 1860s and has declined since then.[1]

The Impressionist painter Wilfrid de Glehn lived at the village's manor house from 1942 until his death in 1951.[4]

Parish church

Main article: St Mary & St Lawrence's Church, Stratford Tony

The Church of England parish church of St Mary and St Lawrence is designated a Grade I listed building and is in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust.[5][6] There is a canonical sundial on the south wall. Its parish registers survive in the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre for christenings, 1605–1985, marriages, 1562–1983, and burials, 1562–1988.[2]

Local government

The civil parish does not elect a parish council. Instead the first tier of local government is a parish meeting, which all electors are entitled to attend.[7] The parish is in the area of Wiltshire Council unitary authority, which is responsible for most significant local government functions.

Notable residents

The painters Wilfrid de Glehn (1870–1951) and his wife Jane Emmet (1873–1961) lived at Stratford Tony from 1942.[8]

References

1. "Wiltshire Community History - Census". Wiltshire Council. Retrieved 31 January 2016. Note ONS raw data (as opposed to this County Council figure) is for an area 'too small to publish all data for reasons of confidentiality of living people' its parish data being combined with part of Bishopstone, Salisbury into output area E00163145 so more demographic statistics will become available in a few decades from 2011
2. Stratford Tony at genuki.org.uk
3. "Stratford Tony". GENUKI. Retrieved 31 January 2016.
4. "Retirement to Stratford Tony". Wilfrid Gabriel de Glehn - His Life and Works. David Messum Fine Art Limited. Retrieved 31 January 2016.
5. Historic England. "Church of St Mary and St Lawrence (1181901)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 19 February 2011.
6. "St Mary & St Lawrence, Stratford Tony". Churches Conservation Trust. Retrieved 31 January 2016.
7. "Stratford Tony Parish Meeting". Wiltshire Council. Retrieved 31 January 2016.
8. "Wilfrid Gabriel De Glehn, R.A. (1870-1951) , Boats in a harbour, St Tropez". Christie's. Retrieved 23 February 2020.