Bower Chalke   Victoria County History     Year published
Supporting documents     Comment on this article  Citation Show
another format:  'Parishes: Bower Chalke', A History of the
County of Wiltshire: Volume 13: South-west Wiltshire: Chalke and
Dunworth hundreds (1987), pp. 28-35. URL: Date accessed: 30
August 2014.   (Min 3 characters)   Bower Chalke c. 1790  The
lands of Bower Chalke, 15 km. WSW. of Salisbury, (fn. 1) were
part of an estate called Chalke, granted to Wilton abbey in the
10th century, and perhaps also of a large parish called Chalke,
served from Broad Chalke church in the 11th century. (fn. 2) The
name Bower Chalke, apparently given to that part of the Chalke
estate where lands were in 'bower hold' tenure, (fn. 3) and the
fact that, unlike its neighbours in the Ebble valley, it has
land on only one side of the river suggest that Bower Chalke was
a late offshoot from Broad Chalke. Bower Chalke had become a
separate parish by the early 14th century; a church was built
there c. 1300. (fn. 4)