Bishops Cannings is a village and civil parish in the Vale of Pewsey in Wiltshire, England, about northeast of Devizes. The parish includes the village of Coate and the hamlets of Bourton, Horton and Little Horton.
The manor of Cannings was recorded in the 1086 Domesday Book as held by the Bishop of Salisbury. Horton is first attested in 1158. The place-name is a common one in England and derives from Old Englishhoru 'dirt' and tūn 'settlement, farm, estate', presumably meaning 'farm on muddy soil'. In the 16th and 17th centuries, Bourton manor was an estate of the Ernle family. The manor included the hamlet of Easton; today the name survives only at Easton Farm and Easton Down. In the 1660s the lease of the manor of Cannings was bought by Paul Methuen, reputedly the richest cloth merchant in England; it was next held by his son, who sold it in 1720. The Wansdyke medieval earthwork crosses the north of parish. The Kennet and Avon Canal was built through the parish, passing between Bishops Cannings and Horton. The parish is now the third largest in Wiltshire, but was formerly larger. It lost a large area to the nearby town of Devizes when there was a change of boundaries in 1835. Bishops Cannings had previously reached as far into Devizes as the Crammer, a large pond on the edge of the town centre. This may explain how Bishops Cannings comes to lay claim to being the place of origin of the legend of the Moonrakers. Next to the pond is the 15th-century church of St James, which was a chapelry of Bishops Cannings. Historically, the parish was part of the Potterne and Cannings hundred of Wiltshire. A detailed parish history was published in 1953 by the Wiltshire Victoria County History.
Local government
Bishops Cannings is a civil parish with an elected parish council. It is in the area of Wiltshire Councilunitary authority, which is responsible for almost all significant local government functions.
Bishops Cannings has a primary school which serves the parish and the eastern side of Devizes. A National School was built in 1830 and transferred to the present site in 1907. The chapel at Coate was used as a school from 1848 until 1876, when a new school was opened nearby; this school closed in 1929. The parish has four pubs: the Crown Inn at Bishops Cannings, the Bridge Inn near Horton the New Inn at Coate and The Hour Glass at Cannings Hill. Part of North Wilts Golf Club, on the downs, is within the parish.
