National Gazetteer (1868) - Tilshead

"TILSHEAD, a parish in the hundred of Branch and Dole, county Wilts, 10 miles S.E. of Amesbury, and 4 from South Lavington. Devizes is its post town. The village is on the road from Devizes to Salisbury, adjoining Salisbury Plain. There are several barrows in the Down", which were once celebrated for great numbers of bustards; also an embankment designated Old Ditch. The soil is light and chalky. The living is a vicarage* in the diocese of Sarum, value £200. The church, dedicated to St. Thomas-a-Becket, has recently been restored and enlarged. There is a National School. Fossil sponge is found, and madrepores abound in the flint stones."

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