Teffont Evias

The village street follows the perennial stream, which rises at Spring Head at the north end of Teffont Magna, and flows some 2.5 km south to its debouchement into the River Nadder.

Teffont Evias Quarry and Lane Cutting is protected as a geological Site of Special Scientific Interest, where fossils include some of the best Purbeck fish, with crocodile, turtle, and insect remains.

In the 13th century, Teffont Evias's quarries of Purbeck limestone at the southern end of the former parish were the source of much of the freestone used in the building of Salisbury Cathedral.

There is an extensive sacred site and settlement, with much Roman-period material but possibly started well before the Roman arrival, on the ridge to the west of the village.

[12] Early Saxon remains have not been found to the west of the stream, and the original boundary may have separated the Romano-British from the Anglo-Saxons.

[15] According to Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870–1872): TEFFONT-EVIAS, a parish in Tisbury district, Wilts; 1¼ mile W of Dinton r. station, and 6½ W of Wilton.

These are scattered along the valley of the south-flowing stream and the road, in irregular clumps giving views of the woods and fields.

The present building, in local rubble stone and ashlar with a tiled roof, is largely a rebuilding of 1824–26 to designs of Charles Fowler, at the expense of John Mayne.

Sir Walter Raleigh mentions the church of "Tevont Evias" in his Discoverie of Guiana (1596), in connection with the Ley family.

[29] A royal heraldic achievement, dating from 1675, painted on wooden boards, is displayed facing the main entrance.

[30] There is also a marble tarsia panel by Henri de Triqueti, who went on to work in the Albert Memorial Chapel at Windsor Castle.

[33] In 1979 the benefice became part of a group ministry,[34] today called the Nadder Valley team and covering fourteen parishes with sixteen churches.

[35] The church's parish registers survive in the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre for the following dates: christenings 1684–1991, marriages 1701–1994, and burials 1683–1991.

[38] The Crown granted the manor to Henry Ley (d.1574), whose descendant James – created Earl of Marlborough in 1626 – sold it to John Ash in 1652.

[3] Christopher Mayne (1655–1701), descendant of a prosperous though plebeian Exeter family, bought the manor in 1679 for £12,000[citation needed] and moved there in 1692.

[45] From 1852 until her death in 1896, J. T. Mayne's eldest daughter Emily, and her husband William Fane de Salis, were in charge.

He sold it to his younger brothers Maurice Walter and Gerald Francis (1872–1965),[46] who shared the advowson of the benefice of Teffont Evias with the patrons of the church of Dinton.

Fossil fish, Purbeck beds, Blackfurlong, DF7 1769
Enamelled Roman trumpet brooch, Upper Holt, Teffont Evias
The River Nadder at the site of Teffont Mill
Teffont Manor (left, with water tower) is close to the church (right)
St Michael's Church
Tarsia panel in the church by Henri de Triqueti dated 1863, photo circa 1870
Emily-Harriet Mayne, Mrs Fane de Salis from 1859, eldest daughter of John Thomas Mayne; portrait by Camille Silvy , April 1861
Conservatory front of Teffont Manor, late nineteenth century
Church and corner of the manor house, circa 1870 (from an album belonging to Emily Fane De Salis)