Wilcot

[7] Hare Street, now a minor road passing east of Wilcot village, was once part of the route from Upavon to Marlborough.

[8] Another ancient route was Workway Drove, a drovers' road from Pewsey, through Wilcot and northwest to Knap Hill.

Susannah Wroughton, owner of Wilcot Manor, persuaded John Rennie to route the canal further north to take it away from the house, and to provide an ornate limestone bridge known as Ladies Bridge[9] (1808, today carrying a farm track) next to a wider stretch of the canal known as Wide Water.

At the time of the Norman survey it had a church, vineyard, and seat of Edward de Salisbury, and subsequently came to the Lovells, by whom it was held till the reign of Henry VII.

[11]As noted by the Gazetteer, at the time of the Domesday Book Wilcot was one of the manors of Edward of Salisbury, who was High Sheriff of Wiltshire from 1070 to 1105 and had a "very good house" there.

[7] The land was retained by the priory until the Dissolution, and in 1549 was bought by John Berwick (died 1572), who was part of the Seymour entourage and had sat as Member of Parliament for Great Bedwyn and Marlborough.

It is said that a wizard caused the tolling at a request of a drunkard, who wanted to revenge himself on the vicar for refusing to ring his bells late at night.

[17] The parish falls within the area of the Wiltshire Council unitary authority, which is responsible for all significant local government functions.

[19] Holy Trinity church at Oare was built as a chapel of ease in 1858,[23] and in 1892 a separate ecclesiastical parish was created for it.

[31][32] Later owners include Lord Ernest St. Maur (d.1922; son of the 14th Duke of Somerset) and, from 1950 to 1951, the actor David Niven.

[35][36] The ashlar limestone house is five bays wide and three deep, and parkland was designed around it, extending south to the recently completed canal.

[7] The Golden Swan public house was built at Wilcot Green in 1859, in malmstone under a thatched roof.

[39] Rainscombe House, below Oare Hill, was built around 1816 to designs of Thomas Baldwin;[7] its main block is five by three bays.