Ansty Village Chronicles
Ansty Village in Maps, Diagrams and Pictures
Ansty, Wiltshire, has a long and interesting history. The village parish boundary is set in an outstanding landscape ranging from steep chalk escarpments and rolling down land to greensand ridges sharply incised by water worn clay coombes or valleys. The following links are an attempt at putting some of the history and geography together to build up a comprehensive picture of our immediate locality. This is an ongoing project and is likely to be added to and revised periodically. Some of the files in the table below are quite large and may take more than a second or two to load up – please be patient!
View the Ansty Village Timeline!
The Ansty Timeline travels through the periods of British history from Prehistoric to Modern times taking a look at how these events affected and shaped our village right to the present day.
The timeline concept and some of the contents were inspired by Mr Tony Keating who lived in Ansty Manor for 25 years through the late 20 C into the very early 21st C. His knowledge and painstaking historical research left a far reaching legacy for Ansty which we have yet to fully explore.
The Ansty Timeline, merely sets the context and is not in any way an academic exercise but rather the drawing together of many sources – some of which might spur the interested reader to delve a little deeper.
Part 1 looks at the time span from the Prehistoric age to the end of the Medieval Age.
We hope to add Part 2 at a later stage when the Ansty Timeline will conclude by looking at the periods of British history from the Tudors to Modern Times and will record how further changes continued to etch their mark on the village.
Click on the scroll to get started!
‘Bygone Days of Ansty’ looks at the more recent past as outlined by local newspaper cuttings and other articles carefully saved and cherished by some long standing Ansty villagers and their families. This represents part of their story … Tap on the tabs below for a fascinating read!
| Down Your Way | St James’, the Crusader Church | March of the Maypoles |
| Maypole Mayhem! | Maypole Revelries | Ansty May Controversy? |
More local items of interest ….
Something else of local interest for us all…
Here is a website for anybody who has a connection with Ansty past or present and its local hinterland. All the things on this website were painstakingly collected by a Jan Oliver for the Wiltshire Online Parish Clerk (OPC) Project and the Ansty section allows us a fascinating window into Ansty Village life when it was a truly rural settlement owned lock stock and barrel by the Arundell family of the nearby Wardour Estate. So click on the link and step into an age long gone yet not so far away.
And there is more…
Here is a similar website where other contributors have researched more material for the Ansty OPC Project – for a while not much was added recently. There was a vacancy for anyone who would like to take on the challenge and this seems to have been filled. Nevertheless, more interesting facts can be found particularly for people who have a direct or distant family connection to Ansty and are researching their family tree. Even today some of the names from the past are still to be heard in Ansty village today! You will have to to register and include a username and password in order to log in. But once you register you can view many documents that reflect the rich history of bygone Ansty! It is well worth the effort!
Other items of interest relating to Maps and History…
Britain Now and Then – Maps, Statistics and Photos
Ansty Photo Files (contemporary)
Each year we hope to feature some ‘photo sets’ taken in and around the parish of Ansty covering the various seasons and anything else that ‘shows off’ the beauty of our local landscape. Last year we started off with the unusually cold and snowy weather on March 1st 2018 and then it all happened again on March 18th! In both cases this notable wintry weather cloaked Ansty in a thick mantle of snow. Contrasting with the winter pictures is another set taken in early August reflecting elements of the recent memorable sunny summer in the parish. Ansty’s Autumn Almanac delivers some stunning autumn colours seen in Ansty during mid October, along with a most spectacular late October sunset and moonrise seen over Ansty Down and Horwood.
This year we hope to add a few more files and we would welcome a contribution from any Ansty Villager or friend of Ansty (young or not so young) to send us a few local landscape photographs taken in and around the parish.
Ansty Photo-files 2020
| Parish Snapshots 2020 |
Ansty Photo-files 2019
| Ansty Snow, February 2019 | Ansty Pictorial – the year so far … |
Ansty Photo-files 2018
| Spring Snow in Ansty part 1 | Spring Snow in Ansty part 2 | Our long hot summer! |
| Ansty’s Autumn Almanac | Spectacular Sunset and Moonrise |