The small village of Keevil can claim few connections with the great events of history, and such drama and sensation it has seen over the years, very little has been recorded or is remembered today.

Archaeological evidence suggests there was a settlement at Keevil in Roman times.   Coins dating from the end of the first century to the early second century, and the middle of the third century to the end of the fourth, suggest two separate Roman occupations of the site.

It is difficult to say if there has been a settlement from Roman times:  first evidence of an English settlement is in the form of a coin dated 837.  It is though that originally Keevil would have been a woodland clearing, since the area was once extensive woodland;  this is no longer so.   In the earliest known record of Keevil, in the Domesday Survey of 1085, it mentions the castle of Keevil and also the amount of woodland.    Canon Jones, writing in the nineteenth century suggested that the first part of the name, as written in the Domesday Book as 'Chi', came from the Cornish 'Chy' meaning field.   The later half of the name 'vele' he suggests comes also from the Cornish 'wele' which means a house or villa, thus becoming a Freeholder's farm or manor.

A.T. Richardson, author of a book on Keevil, refers to a charter dated 964, which deals with land at 'Aestone' (Steeple Ashton) and which mentions 'Kefle Wirtim' on the Steeple Ashton border, referring to Keevil.   'Wirtim' comes from the Anglo Saxon, and signifies the root of a plant of the wort or wirt variety.  'Kefle' was conceivably the name of the particular wort mainly grown in Keevil, and so 'Kefle Wirtim' became the name of this place. *

* Another suggested meaning is a 'wood where they found timber for barrels or tubs'

Before the Conquest the manor of Keevil was held by Brixi, who held other manors in Somerset and Dorset.   It was granted after 1066 to Ernulf of Hesdin, one of William's chief followers, who held land in ten counties, and he held in in 1086.   It has been suggested that he forfeited his lands because of his complicity in the rising of 1093;  certainly a large part of his fief passed to Patrick de Chaworth, who is said to have married his daughter, but Keevil, with some other manors, passed to a second Ernulf of Hesdin, son of the first, who held it in 1130.   He was executed in 1138;  a third Ernulf of Hesdin witnessed a charter in 1141, and quite possibly held Keevil in his turn.

In the Domesday Survey of 1086, Keevil was assessed at 16 hides and there was land for 16 ploughs;  7 hides and 6 ploughs, with 10 serfs, were in demesne, while 18 villeins and 14 bordars had 12 ploughs.   A considerable amount of pasture and woodland belonged to the manor, which was worth £26 in all.   When Keevil was extended in 1284, the lord  had in demesne a capital messuage; 80 acre of arable land, not measured by the 'reasonable' perch, but by the works of tenants.   Twenty bond tenants did small works in the winter and Lent, and heavy ones in the hay and corn harvest.   There were 19 acremen and 11 Monday-men, the latter worked every Monday in the year except three.   Rent received from free and bond tenants amounted to over £18.   The manor was leased to Robert Burnell, Bishop of Bath and Wells, for 12 years in 1292.   In 1302, when it was again extended, the demesne was reckoned at 400 acre arable and 40 acre meadow.   Free tenants, including holders of foreign fees at a distance, paid 23 shillings.   The bond tenants then comprised three whole-virgaters, twenty five half-virgaters, thirteen third-virgaters and seven cottars.   All except the cottars still did works.

By 1160, Keevil was held my William FitzAlan, whose father, Alan FitzAlan, had married Aveline, sister of the second Ernulf.   William died childless in 1215 and his estates passed to his brother John.   In the same year he joined the rebels against King John, and the King granted Keevil to Robert of  Samford.   After the King's death Henry III granted Keevil to John the Marshal, but in 1217 John FitzAlan made his peace with the King and his lands were restored.
John married, as his first wife, Isabel, sister and coheir of Hugh, Earl of Arundel, and his issue by here became the Earls of Arundel.   Thereafter Keevil descended in the FitzAlan family to Henry, Earl of Arundel (d.1580), who in 1560 sold the manor to Richard Lambert, citizen and grocer of London.

Keevil was held by Richard Lambert's heirs until 1681, when Keevil was sold to William Beach.   Ownership continued with the Beach family until 1911, when W.A. Hicks Beach sold the estate in lots.

Through all of these years, no momentous events seem to have disturbed the tranquility of Keevil.   However, a number of minor moments in the history of Keevil have been recorded, and related over the subsequent years to each succeeding generation of Keevil villagers .

John Maundrell was the son of a farmer who lived at nearby Rowde.  He in due course followed in his father's footsteps becoming a farmer at Bulkington.  John Maundrell was much impressed by Tyndales Bible, carrying it around with him and learning much of it by heart.   He disapproved of the ceremonial services at the village church - he spoke out strongly against holy water and other ceremonies.   Having being driven out of the church he was taken before Dr. Trigonion at Edington Abbey, and as a penance had to parade Devizes Market Place in a white sheet and carrying a candle.

He went into hiding when Mary Tudor came to the throne, but later, with two other martyrs  - John Spicer, a mason and William Coberley, a tailor, they went to Keevil Church and created such a disturbance against the worshipping of images, that they were placed in the stocks until the service was over.

They were arrested and taken to Salisbury for examination by the Bishop and Chancellor and were condemned.   The following day, March 24th 1556, they were taken from the gaol and burnt at the stake in Bemberton Field.

Further disturbances in the church took place in the early 17th century.   An injured party, Robert Blagden, declared that two of his opponents commonly disturbed the minister during service;  one of them, William Jones, tore up briefs and called the minister fool, ass and knave.   They in turn accused Robert Blagden of publicly doubting whether the writings of the prophets and apostles were true.

The tragic story of Anne Beach has a special place in Keevil folklore and still has the power to capture the imagination even though events took place more than 200 years ago.   Our story begins in the 1700's when the Manor house of Keevil was occupied by William Beach and his  wife Anne.   Over the years the wealth of the Beaches appears to have been enhanced by several judicious marriages.   Into these comfortable surroundings Anne Beach was born in 1749.

At this time, the Rector of the parish of Keevil was a Reverend Richard Wainhouse.   He had been Rector of Keevil from 1735 and he and his wife Mary had a son, William, who was preparing to follow his father into the church.   Young Wainhouse had gained a BA degree at Oxford and now at 21 he was returning to Keevil to begin his career.  Promoted by his father, he became both Curate and Deacon at St Leonard's, the Parish Church of Keevil.   In the meantime he continued his studies and in the following year, 1762, he obtained his MA degree.   Just before he completed his studies, William's father Richard died and on 15th December 1761 the Reverend James Richardson was instituted as Vicar to replace him.

On the 25th September 1763, William Wainhouse, then aged 25, was ordained a priest, but he continued as Curate at Keevil until 1764, when records show he became Curate at St Mary's in the nearby village of Steeple Ashton.

Wainhouse of course would have known Anne Beach over some years and she would have been a member of St Leonard's congregation, but it would seem that it was in the course of his duty visits to Keevil, when Anne would have been about 18, that he began to take more than a purely pastoral interest in her.   When news of the affair reached the ears of Anne's parents it was not joyfully received.   A somewhat impoverished curate was not quite what they had in mind as a suitor for their daughter.   So they soon concerned themselves with taking action to ward off any unwelcome developments by nipping matters in the bud.   Wainhouse was called to the Manor where the Beaches made their position quite clear, Mrs Beach extracting a solemn promise that he would cease any further attempts on Anne's affections.

For an account of what happened next we must turn to the contents of a pamphlet written by Wainhouse.   As we shall see later, this (doubtless unintentionally) show his behaviour to have been somewhat less than clergyman like.   He admits that in compete disregard of his promises, he made two attempts to elope with Anne.   In the first, the plan was to flee to Scotland to be married, but this was foiled by Anne's sister Henrietta who awoke at a critical moment.   The second attempt failed when her mother discovered she was missing and went to Wainhouse's lodgings to look for her.   In that attempt Anne had a long cold wait in the Manor gardens which, Wainhouse claimed later, led to her becoming ill of consumption.

The realization that Wainhouse was not a man of his word and that Anne was still bent on marrying him, led the Beaches to decide upon a plan which would ensure their lasting infamy.   They would force the affair to finish by the simple expedient of keeping the lovers apart, and to that end Anne would be confined to the house for as long as was needed for her to give up the curate.   In 1611 a porch had been built over the main doorway of the Manor House and above it a small room.   This room became Anne's prison and it is said she remained there for two years.
At that time the high walls round the Manor house had not been built, so perhaps occasional glimpses of the Curate from her window as he went about the village helped to keep her love alive.   Certain it is that it survived the imprisonment and finally her parents were forced to accept their plan had failed.   In any case by then she was 21 years old and free to do as she wished.

But the Beaches still had one more card to play.  Hard and determined as ever, they presented her with a cruel choice;  she must agree to give up Wainhouse for ever or be cast out of the family home with "but a shilling" and lose all claim to a share of the family fortune.   Steadfast as ever, Anne chose Wainhouse and on the 22nd November 1770 they were married by special licence at St Leonard's Church by Reverend Richardson.   their hard won happiness was short lived however and the consumption which Anne had contracted killed her after only three months of married life.  She is buried in the south aisle of the Parish Church of St Mary's, Steeple Ashton where the gravestone bears the inscription 'Blessed are the Meek'.

In  the Beach Chapel, now the Baptistery, at St Leonard's Church there is a wall memorial inscribed:

Meanwhile William Wainhouse continued as Curate in Steeple Ashton but he did not remain alone for long.   In May 1772, a little more than a year after Anne's death, we find him penning a love poem having the rather quaint title "To Miss Madocks with a Smelling Bottle".   The subject of his inspiration and delight was a Miss Sarah Madocks, a Welsh lady from Denbigh.   Her bottle it seems contained not smelling salts for revival from 'the vapours' - but what would now be called perfume!.   After a rapid courtship Wainhouse and Sarah were married four months later on the 29th september 1772 in Sarah's home town.   Their first child was born in August 1773, the next in 1775.   They had five children in all, two sons and three daughters, the last born in 1780.

Of all the characters in our story however, Anne Beach is the one best remembered in Keevil and today we are reminded of her by Beach House, formerly a public house, The Beach Arms, and of course the Manor house.   By far the most poignant memento of her is to be found in a room over the Manor porch which was her prison.   There, scratched in ancient glass of the window pane, can be seen the words 'Remember Ann* Beach' which she wrote with her diamond ring.   We can be sure that she will not be forgotten while this fragile fragment survives.
* The spelling of her name here differs from that of most records.

Everyone is taught at school that Dr. Edward Jenner is credited as being the discoverer of vaccination.   He lived from 1749 to 1823.   His mission was to eradicate the widespread anddreaded disease of smallpox.   His researches were based on the probability of farm workers, notably one dairymaid, being immune to it after having contact with cowpox.   The eventual acceptance of his theory resulted in a wide campaign to vaccinate the population.

The County Record Office has the snippet that two vaccination programmes were carried out in Keevil, one on the 3rd November 1794 when Dr Lewis of Steeple Ashton officiated, and the second in December 1805 when it was performed by Mr Cary of Trowbridge.   These would have been arranged by the Overseers of the Poor of Keevil.   Overseers were appointed to determine the level of financial help to be given to the poor, the money having been raised by a rating system on those judged to be able to contribute.   They therefore exerted considerably influence over the population and were able to persuade many folk to submit to vaccination.

In Keevil we are fortunate to have the account of the Overseers of the Poor with details of names and payments made in 1834 and 1835.   About 35 villagers received each month approximately five shillings.   Many of the surnames are familiar to us today either as current residents or on church memorials.
 
 

The earliest record of a postal service in Trowbridge is 1672.  A later record indicates that one William Ball was appointed Postmaster in 1769.   Presumably "letter carriers" of one sort or  another would collect mail, either from a central point or on their rounds and take it to Trowbridge, returning with mail to be delivered en route or left at a point in a village where it could be picked up.  By early 1850's the new cheap penny postage had even encouraged the people of remote villages and hamlets to write letters and the Post Office, to meet their demands for a local official postal service, was obliged to open letter receiving houses in places hitherto cut off from the General Post network.

The first Post Office recorded in Keevil and shown on the OS map of 1886 was in a front room of Beech Cottage.   At least five premises have been used at different times through subsequent years.

The first postal deliveries to Keevil was on foot.  The postman had to be at the Trowbridge Post Office at 5.30am to collect the letters for delivery, consequently he had to lodge in Trowbridge overnight.   On his way to Keevil he would stop at the bottom of Hags Hill and blow his horn if he had any letters for the farmer living at the top of the hill.   The farmer would then send someone down to collect them.   The postman  walked to Hinton and on to Keevil, delivering letters on his way.   Having finished his round by about 9.30am, he would often go to work on the land  to supplement his small remuneration.   After dinner he walked to Steeple Ashton to collect the letters for afternoon delivery.  He walked back to Keevil emptying the boxes at Hinton and Keevil on his way.....    Having collected the letters, he walked back to Steeple Ashton, through, Rood Ashton Park to West Ashton, emptying the boxes as he came to them, on to Trowbridge to be at the Post Office before 8pm.

One of the first Keevil postmen was a Mr Bailey....   Mr Bailey was found dead in a ditch between Keevil and Steeple Ashton one winter's evening in 1887.   A report of this sad occurrence appeared in the Wiltshire Times on Saturday 15th October 1887.   It ran to some 1080 words and part of it is reproduced below.

The so called 'postman's stone' in Green Lane - a single piece of limestone looking rather like an old gate post - is said to mark where he died;  it is also said that an inscribed stone was placed on the spot where he was found", but that this was removed during or just after the last  war.   No trace of it has been found.

John Bailey was born in Keevil and lived with his wife Anne in a cottage in Martins Road.   His children were Anna (born 1870), Eva (b.1872), George (b.1874), William (b.1876), Arthur (b.1878) and Gertrude (b.1887).

Another Keevil postman was Albert Alfred Bodman.   He was born in the village in August1864 and by 1891 is shown living with his mother, Flora Bodman, aged 74, a widow "living on her own means", also in a cottage in Martins Road.   Albert was appointed 'Rural Postman' in 1889 and held the post for 15 years.

Only two postmen have been positively identified from Census data currently available for Keevil.   Others, however, would have come from surrounding villages;  it is also conceivable that part time postal workers may have recorded only their main occupation.   The Sub Postmasters and Postmistresses themselves undertook deliveries within the village, for which they were paid a special allowance.

Conclusion  -   There has been a Post Office in Keevil for over 105 years;  now it is gone.   A postal service is being provided at present on two afternoons a week at the Village Hall.

Just like most agricultural villages, Keevil had its own farrier and blacksmith.   Prior to the last war it was an everyday occurrence to see two or three horses waiting to be shod.   It is recorded that one Edward Moore, the son of a farrier in Steeple Ashton, on his marriage to Mabel Orchard in 1903, moved to Keevil.   His forge is still in existence and now used as a garage.   They had three children, Edward, Sidney and Marjorie, born there in 1904, 1906 and 1908 respectively.

Edward Moore served in the Wiltshire Yeomanry as a farrier in the 1914 - 18 war and returned to his trade on demobilization.   The work in Keevil during his time away ha been largely carried out by Steeple Ashton farriers but the business, it seems, recovered itself quite naturally.   He was a blacksmith as well as a farrier.    Marjorie, his daughter, who still lives in Keevil, recalls that her father had to have the assistance of his brother on occasions, when horses had to be "thrown".   These were often young horses experiencing their first shoeing - or who were natural kickers.

Through the 20's and 30's there were many more farmers in the parish than today.   But with gradual mechanization, insufficient farrier work existed to maintain a family of five.   Blacksmithing therefore made a growing and considerable contribution to the family income.

Sundial
On the south side of Keevil  Church, below the stone winged beast on the corner of the Lady Chapel, was a sundial.   The metal gnomon is still there - pointing downwards and slightly bent to the west to compensate for the south wall not being due south - but its face, which may have  been painted, has long since disappeared.

Scratch Dials
Also on the south side, but more or less at eye level are the Scratch Dials.   Unlike the sundial, these devices do not mark the daylight hours.   It is generally agreed that their prime purpose was to indicate the times of church services - always Mass at 9am, sometimes Vespers at 2pm or 3pm, according to the time of year.   The noon line is consistently shown, though for what purpose is still a matter of speculation.   In addition there was often a number of other lines which might or might not be significant.

Design
Common features of the Scratch Dials include:

• A centre hole which held the Style or Gnomon
• Some times a circle (just over 5 inches diameter) scratched on the stones
• Sometimes a series of holes instead of a circle
• Sometimes a series of lines radiating from the gnomon, often of varying lengths.
• Always a South Line
• Always a Mass Line
• Sometimes a Vesper Line.

Age
No general and positive method of determining the age of Scratch Dials has been found.   Scratch Dials have been found in Normandy and it would seem reasonable to date any found in England at any time from the Norman Conquest to the Reformation, when Mass and Vespers no longer took place.

Who Made Scratch Dials
No one knows for certain.   The workmanship is nearly always amateurish and of low quality  and could never the attributed to professional masons.   The original dials were probably scratched (hence the name) on church walls by local labour - even by the sexton ot priest.   Subsequent prettification, mutilation and apparently meaningless additions, not to mention copy-cat reproductions and partially completed dials have all been laid at the door of "idle boys with knives".   There must have been an enormous number of idle boys!.

Style or Gnomon
None have survived.   Pieces of metal have been found in some holes, broken off at the face of the wall, but these may not be original.   Like wise pieces of wood at the bottom of holes might be part of original gnomons or plugs for metal styles.   Bearing in mind the simple and primitive nature of the incised parts of the dial, it might not be unreasonable to assume that the original gnomens were simple and primitive bits of wood stuck into the wall at right angles to the face.

Where to find Scratch Dials
The obvious place to find a Scratch Dial is where the sun shines and where the priest and public walked.   When the church had entrances on the south, be they porches or priest doors, dials are usually found in their vicinity

Scratch Dials on Keevil Church
The Scratch Dials on the south face of St Leonard's Church may at first be a little difficult to identify.   Centuries of erosion on this exposed side and the more recent growth of moss and lichen have tended to obscure some of the circumferential holes and radiating lines.

Anyone going into Keevil Church will notice the large wooden board hanging over the main entrance.   The board tells how on May 10th, 1852 George Taylor added a codicil to his willleaving £3000-0-0 to buy bread for the poor in the parishes of Keevil, Edington, Steeple Ashton and Poulshot and, once a year cakes for children.

Keevil has kept faith with his wishes.   Until 1981 the Bun Service was held on  the Wednesday after Easter, but in 1982 the Parochial Church Council agreed "that we can best keep the spirit of Mr Tayler's bequest by having it on a day when more parents and children can attend" - so the service was changed to the first Sunday after Easter.

George Tayler, as a farmer, knew something of the hardship suffered by rural communities.   For several reasons the Southern Counties of  England were particularly badly affected  the "Hungry Forties" - failure of the potato harvest did not just apply to Ireland.   George decided that he should make a contribution to alleviate the poverty of those who worked on the land.   The agricultural labourers who may have received less than £1-0-0 per week in wages lived on a staple diet of bread, potatoes and a little cheese.   Meat would have been a rarity and a sticky bun to a child must have seemed like a taste of real luxury.

In 1783 there was a school in Keevil teaching children English and Arithmetic.   By 1819, two day schools in the parish are mentioned, one in Bulkington and one in Keevil, which received £5-0-0 per annum from a farm owned by the then Lord of the Manor, Nicholas Hicks Beach.   Between eight and twelve poor boys were educated with this money, and a further twenty were paid for by their parents.

One of the earliest official records is from a 'return' dated 1859 as follows:

The old man was Joseph Wiltshire, Shoemaker.

In 1880 the Education Authority proposed to build a school at Keevil Wick, to serve both  Keevil and Bulkington.   A petition opposing this was raised,  resulting in the proposal being withdrawn.   A school was eventually built  in 1868 at the cost of Mrs Chamberlaine.   Although it was recognized as a public elementary school, and began to receive a grant about ten years after its foundation, management remained largely in the hands of the Chamberlaine family.   In 1871 it was found that the accommodation would be insufficient to accommodate children from Bulkington.   At that time 21 children attended a Church of England school there, but places for 45 would be needed under the 1870 Act.   Keevil people were unwilling to contribute to a school  large enough to accommodate the Bulkington children.   A School Board was suggested and discussions continued until 1880, when it was finally decided to keep the Bulkington children in a cottage there.

By 1894, however, the children from both villages went to Keevil School, with average attendance 68 and accommodation for 91.   In 1906 the Managers still held the school from the Chamberlaine family on a yearly tenancy, paying a £20-0-0 rent, but a 21 year lease was granted in 1913.   Finally the school was conveyed in trust to the Diocesan Board of Finance in 1925.   Senior children were removed to Trowbridge schools in 1941.   Controlled status was granted in 1950.

Whilst there has been past rumours of  imminent closure, these have been met with fierce oppositions from the parents and village.    It is difficult to comprehend  the buildings that today  provide accommodation for this vibrant and happy school,  saw the birth of this country's education system.   It is to the credit of Headmistress, Mrs M. Laycock and her committed staff  that the school is thriving today.

Most of us have heard of, and possibly read, the Diary of the Reverend Francis Kilvert, who lived and wrote in the second half of the eighteenth century.   Born in 1804, at Hardenhuish, near Chippenham, he was the eldest son of the Rector the Reverend Robert Kilvert.   What is perhaps less well known is that his father was also a diaryist,  recording details of his childhood and early life, mainly for the entertainment of his family.   Robert Kilvert was for some time curate of St Leonard's Church, Keevil.   It was his first job for which he received just £79-0-0 per annum plus a rent free house which he had to furnish himself.   He arrived in 1827.  His description of his first sight of the village is still easily recognizable.
 

"The church I found an excellent one, but lately restored, situated on rising ground slightly receding from the village, which consisted of a long irregular street of straggling cottages, with here and there a farmhouse of second or third class.   Beside these, half down the street on the left....nearly opposite the Church, there was fine old Elizabethan manor house...among some well timbered grounds - the neglected property of the Hicks-Beach family.   A little lower down on the opposite side was a house of less size but somewhat similar character belonging to the Chamberlains, also non resident.   Immediately below stood the Vicarage house, much humbler in every way than the other two"

He goes on to describe the parish, which was considerably larger then than it is now, consisting of "Keevil proper containing nearly five hundred people, and the hamlet of Bulkington, with three hundred more."

The diary provides some interesting comment on his parishioners, who appear to have been an independent lot!

"I had been warned before going to Keevil that the people were a rude lot and that I should very likely be badly treated as some former curates had been.   I think they were injudiciously meddlesome, and brought the indignation of the villagers upon themselves.   I have no doubt they tried to keep the people from the public houses, of which there were four in the place, but they went among them when there were high jinks going on, and not infrequently got the worst of it."

It would seem that the Revd. Robert combined tact with a sympathetic insight into his parishioners' needs.   Several instances are recorded of visit to the sick which are to long to reproduce here but he appears to have taken his duties seriously and the people responded with gratitude and genuine concern.

The arrival of a new resident Vicar forced Kilvert to seek a fresh post and he left Keevil in the summer of 1832, never to return except in memory.

In the early 17th century a three field course of husbandry was followed in Keevil, each field being successively sown with wheat and then beans, and then fallow.   The fields were Cooplechurch, North Field and Wick Field.   In 1613, the field for wheat was rid of stock on 9th October, and the last wheat field was 'broken' the same day.   In 1617 tenants were allowed to graze in the fields one cow or four sheep for every acre of arable land they held, and double this allowance for meadow.   These stints were varied in succeeding years by court orders.   It was evidently the custom to sell pasture rights in the fields.   An agreement of 1619 stipulated that any men who could neither sell or use their pasture should be compensated by a rate raised from other commoners.  In 1624 sheep were allowed in the wheat field as long as they had a shepherd to keep them from the green corn.

There seems to have been no open common in Keevil by 1600, but considerable commons, in which tenants had stinted common rights at certain times of the year;  fifteen copy holders of Keevil and two freeholders had pasture for three beasts from April until December.   By 1603 they agreed with the Lord of the Manor that it should be inclosed, every man having an acre for each beast leaze and the Lord the remainder.

Some inclosure of open field land had taken place in Keevil by early 17th century.   Most of the land which belonged to Horton's Chantry was inclosed by 1549, and in 1603 Roger Blagden held eighty acres of inclosed land at Wick Meads and Wicks Leaze.   A survey of the Lambert property in 1644 lists fifty-four copy holders, mainly half-virgated and less, which were still largely open arable fields.

In 1302 an inquisition held before the Escheator of Kyvele on the last day of June in the 30th year of King Edward I, concerning the land and tenements which belonged to Richard, Earl of Arundel, in the County of Wiltshire, at his death.

"And the said Richard paid each year at the Feast of St Michael, 20 shillings to the Castle of Devizes"
"There are in the demesne 400 acres of arable land, which are worth about £6-13-4, at 4d per acre.   There are 40 acres of meadow which are worth 60 shillings per annum at 18d per acre"
"there are also three Cusformass, each of whom holds 1 virgate (about 10 acres) of land with appurtenances and pays 10 shillings a year, and each of them has to mow for 12 days, and a day's work is worth 1d, and he has to weed for 2 days, and a day's work is worth 1 farthing, and he has to reap between the days of St Peters (August 1st) and the Feast of St Michael, eight and one half acres of all kinds of corn, and the reaping is worth 2 1/2d per day, and he has to carry corn for 4 days and his day's work is worth 2d."

By the end of the eighteenth century the modern pattern of farming in Keevil had largely emerged.  The common fields and meadows, of which only remnants remained, were enclosed by the Parliament Act of 1795.   Only forty-four acres out of over eight hundred were still held by copyholders.   In 1801 there were just over four hundred acres of arable land in the ancient parish, mainly sown with wheat and beans.   By 1914 the parish was almost entirely given over to dairy farming, which is still the situation today.
 
 

At the beginning of the present century, most of the adult inhabitants of both Keevil and Bulkington found employment as farm labourers or indoor or outdoor staff in the larger houses. Farm workers wages were about nine shillings per week, with a cottage rented at between two shillings and sixpence or three shillings weekly.

Most of the cottages had large ovens, brick built, with an iron door.   These were usually in the kitchen - often the only ground floor living room.   The oven was heated by lighting a 'faggot' of dry sticks, with the ashes raked out, prior to the bread being placed in the oven for baking.   The yeast or 'barm' needed for the bread making  was obtained from the local public house where home brewed beer was made.   Most housewife's had a large wooden trough in which the bread was kneaded and 'risen'.   This was made up into large loaves and slid into the oven on a flat board, known as a peel.

Many cottages kept two or three pigs, one of which was killed and cured at home.  The other were sold to supplement the families income.   The shop price of bacon was about 6d per pound weight, with butter about the same price.   Eggs in a plentiful season were one shilling for two dozen.

Although beef and mutton were comparatively low in price, not many labourers wife's could afford to buy more than one joint each week, which was for Sunday dinner.   For the rest of the week, cheese and bacon were eaten for the main meal.

.......As related by Mrs Wilcox

It is evident from the registers that the population of Keevil and Bulkington, during the 17th and 18th centuries, was greatly larger than today.   The rise in the wool trade no doubt bought a large increase, and for a long time the sound of the loom would be quite common in the cottages built by the wool traders.

In the 17th century, the building of cottages met with difficulty and there was a shortage of small houses for the working class.   The difficulty arose partly from an Act of Elizabeth, which required an allotment of 4 acres of land to each cottage built.   In 1625 the....

"inhabitants petitioned the Quarter Sessions for a license (which was granted) for the erection, at their own charge, in a place given by the Lord of the Manor, Thomas Lambert, of an almhouse, to be forever a habitation for the poor people of the parish, many of whom are now forced to live in barns, outhouses and other unwholesome places"

Population census for Keevil, over the period 1801 - 2001, remained remarkably stable: 1801 - 466; 1841 - 505; 1881 - 377; 1911 - 376; 1961 - 294 and 2001 - 432. During this 200 year period, the population of Wiltshire grew from 185,107 to 613.024