Winterbourne Earls

"WINTERBOURNE DANTSEY, (and Winterbourne Earls and Winterbourne Gunner) three adjoining parishes in the hundred of Alderbury, county Wilts, 4 miles N.E. of Salisbury, and 2 S.E. of Porton railway station. These three villages are situated in the Bourne Valley, on the river Avon. In the vicinity is an ancient earthwork called Chlorus's camp, or Figbury Ring, from its circular form, including an area of about 15 acres. The livings of Dantsey and Earls are both perpetual curacies in the diocese of Salisbury, the former value £80, and the latter £160, in the patronage of the bishop, while that of Gunner or Cherborough, as it is sometimes called, is a rectory,* value £235 and 9 acres of glebe.

The church of Dantsey is dedicated to St. Edward, and was repaired and the chancel re-roofed in 1858; that of Earls, to St. Michael, and is a dilapidated Gothic structure, while that of Gunner is dedicated to St. Mary, and was repaired in 1810, having been much injured by the Roundheads. The registers all date from the reign of Elizabeth. At Dantsey is a chapel for New Connexion Methodists, at Hurdcot in the parish of Earls and at Gunner are chapels for Wesleyans. There is a National school at Dantsey for the children of this and the two adjoining parishes of Earls and Gunner."

[Description(s) from The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868) - Transcribed by Colin Hinson ©2003]

Winterbourne Earls is 3 miles NE of Salisbury and just SW of Winterbourne Dauntsey. Grid Ref SU175346. Population 243 in 1831. Postcode SP4 6EP.