Monkton Farleigh, Wiltshire

Description
Monkton Farleigh, a parish, with a village, in Wiltshire, adjacent to the river Avon and the boundary with Somerset, 2 miles from Box station on the G.W.R. It has a post office under Bradford-on-Avon; money order and telegraph office, Batheaston. Acreage, 1860; population, 388. There is a parish council consisting of seven members. A Cluniac priory, a cell to Lewes Abbey, was founded here in 1125 by Humphrey de Bohnn, was given at the dissolution to the Seymours, and has left some traces. Monkton Farleigh House was erected out of materials of the priory, occupies part of its site, belonged for a time to the family of Long, and is now the seat of the Hobhouse family. An exquisitely worked silver seal, supposed to have been that of the last prior, was found in the vicinity. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Salisbury; value, £180 with residence. Patron, the Bishop of Salisbury. The church comprises nave and chancel and an old tower. There are some extensive freestone quarries on Farleigh Down.