A Roman villa a short distance north of the present village was the subject of an episode of the archaeological television programme Time Team, broadcast in 1995. As a result of their geophysical survey, sample trenches and environmental core samples, the site was subsequently scheduled to give it legal protection. Based on pottery finds, the site was occupied from the mid 2nd century to the late 4th century. Although no complete mosaic floors were found, tesserae and painted plaster were both found in some numbers, suggesting a major building phase in the 4th century.
Later history
The Domesday Book of 1086 recorded 17 households in the area. At Tockenham Wick, in the north of the parish, is a substantial manor house dating from c. 1600, now Grade II* listed. Meadow Court, Tockenham, is a country house of 1630 and 1730, the latter designed by the potter-architect Nathaniel Ireson. The manor house at Tockenham is Queen Court Farmhouse in the northwest of the village. The present building is from the 18th and 19th centuries and stands on the site of an earlier moated house. A Free School was built at Tockenham in 1844, and became a National School in the 1870s. Children of all ages were taught until 1926, when the school closed owing to falling numbers. The school was reopened for wartime reasons from December 1940 to the autumn of 1946; subsequently the building became a private house. A detailed parish history was published by the Wiltshire Victoria County History as part of its volume IX, Kingsbridge hundred.
Parish church
The Church of England parish church is dedicated to St Giles and was first recorded in 1276. The dedication is, however, only from the beginning of the 20th century, and the church was originally dedicated to Saint John the Evangelist. The building was lightly restored in 1876 and 1908 and is Grade II* listed. The font bowl is from the 12th century. Parish registers survive for the following dates: christenings 1653–1991, marriages 1655–1999, burials 1653–1992. Built into the south wall of the church is a well-preserved Roman statue. At one time thought to be St Christopher, it was later claimed to be Aesculapius. In 1978 Jocelyn Toynbee identified it as a Genius loci statue, a pre-Christian Roman religious item, assumed to be from the nearby villa complex. The church walls contain a number of Roman dressed stones and tiles amongst the medieval masonry.
