Box People and Places
Latest Issue 36 Summer 2022 
  • This Issue
    • Barberry Cottage
    • Currant Family
    • Poynder Fountain
    • Blind House
    • Charlie Cook
    • Slades Farm
    • Gingells at Bath View
    • Davies Family
    • Alice & Ted Vezey
    • Strong & Pictor
    • Arthur Brooke Memories
    • Murray & Baldwin Memories
    • Joan Applin
  • Inter War
    • Roaring Twenties
    • Unemployment
    • Continuity and Change
    • Box Rec 1926
    • Discovering History
    • Postwar Hopes
    • Haunted by War
    • Improving Life
    • Timeline
  • Previous
    • Issue 35 - Inter war
    • Issue 34 - Fogleigh House
    • Issue 33 - KIngsdown Post Office
    • Issue 32 - Chapel Lane
    • Issue 31 - Saxon Box
    • Issue 30 - Georgian Rudloe
    • Issues 20-29 >
      • Issue 29 - Darkest Hour
      • Issue 28 - VE Day
      • Issue 27 - Northey
      • Issue 26 - Heritage Trail
      • Issue 25 - Slave Owners
      • Issue 24 - Highwaymen
      • Issue 23 - Georgian
      • Issue 22 - War Memorial
      • Issue 21 - Childhood 1949-59
      • Issue 20 - Box Home Guard
    • Issues 10-19 >
      • Issue 19 - Outbreak WW2
      • Issue 18 - Building Bargates
      • Issue 17 - Railway Changes
      • Issue 16 - Quarries
      • Issue 15 - Rail & Quarry
      • Issue 14 - Civil War
      • Issue 13: Box Revels
      • Issue 12 - Where You Live
      • Issue 11 - Tudor & Stuart
      • Issue 10 - End of Era 1912
    • Issues 1-9 >
      • Issue 9 - Health & Leisure
      • Issue 8 - Farming & Rural
      • Issue 7 - Manufacturing
      • Issue 6 - Celebrations
      • Issue 5 - Victorian Centre
      • Issue 4 - Slump after WW1
      • Issue 3 - Great War 1914-18
      • Issue 2 - 1950s & 1960s
      • Issue 1 - 1920s
    • Index By Author
    • Partner Sites & Book Reviews
    • Currency Converter
  • People
  • Places
  • General
  • Series
    • Northeys
    • Box School Series
    • Box Farms
    • Box Library Project
    • NATS Trails
    • Prehistory
    • Roman
    • Early Medieval >
      • Vikings in Box
      • Box Before Normans
      • Common Field Farming
      • Conclusion
      • Wessex Under Attack
      • Boundaries of Box
      • Routes in Box
      • Late Saxon Locations
      • Society in Anglo-Saxon Box
      • Christianity in Box
      • Why Box is in Wiltshire?
      • Anglo-Saxon Evidence
      • Art and Craft
      • Why Speak English?
      • Box after AD 350
      • Britain in Late Antiquity
    • Feudal
    • Late Medieval
    • Tudor & Stuart
    • Georgian
    • Rail & Quarry
    • Late Victorian
    • Great War
    • WW2 Index
    • Modern
  • Contact
    • Blog
    • Q&A
Conservation Areas and Listed Buildings
Picture
Listed areas (courtesy Wiltshire Council site)
The centre of Box village, Ditteridge/Middlehill and Ashley are all designated Conservation Areas of special architectural or historic interest, the character and appearance of which it is desirable to preserve or enhance. Residential development evolved in these areas in the Georgian period but only Ashley and Middlehill have commons, not Box.
 
These three Conservation Areas have over 100 of Box’s 213 Listed Buildings and Monuments, including some of the smaller masterpieces you may not have recognised previously.
Central Area and Box Church
The greatest density of Listed Buildings is at Thomas a Becket churchyard where 67 memorial tombs have been scheduled.  
Picture
Box churchyard (courtesy Carol Payne)
This compares to the Market Place area and the central village where 58 properties are listed including The Blind House, The Manor House, The Old Dairy, Poynder Fountain, Woodstock Cottages and Frogmore House. The list also includes 1 Chapel Lane and 3-7 Market Place.
Ashley Area
​
Ashley has 19 Listed Buildings, including Ashley Manor, Ashley House, Ashley Farmhouse, Ashley Leigh, Ashley Grove, Sheylor’s, Spencer’s, The Barton and Ailsa Craig.
Middlehill / Ditteridge
The constant rebuilding of houses is evident at Middlehill, which makes the original dating of houses uncertain. The listing includes Middlehill House, Spa House and Longridge House and it also includes Laurel Cottage and Toad Hall, together with their front railings.
Picture
Toad Hall and railings are listed (photo courtesy Carol Payne)
In Conclusion
Many of the listings were made 50 years ago and those chosen often reflect the Georgian period and the listings only include a few later buildings. The extent of the village and its hamlets was very much smaller then, before the massive expansion of the late Victorian period. In earlier times, The Bear Inn, Townsend, The site of the Post Office and Pye Corner were the extent of residential development 

There are four Grade I listed buildings - Chapel Plaister, Church of St Thomas a Becket, Church of St Christopher and Hazelbury Manor - and seven Grade II* buildings. The rest are Grade II.