# Teffont

> Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Teffont
> Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Teffont.md
> Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teffont
> Source revision: 1314668162
> License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)

Civil parish in Wiltshire, England

Human settlement in England

Teffont Bridges, Teffont Evias Teffont Location within Wiltshire Population 248 (in 2011)[1] OS grid reference ST990317 Unitary authority Wiltshire Ceremonial county Wiltshire Region South West Country England Sovereign state United Kingdom Post town Salisbury Postcode district SP3 Police Wiltshire Fire Dorset and Wiltshire Ambulance South Western UK Parliament Salisbury Website www.teffont.com List of places UK England Wiltshire 51°05′06″N 2°00′58″W / 51.085°N 2.016°W / 51.085; -2.016

**Teffont** is a [civil parish](/source/Civil_parishes_in_England) in the south of [Wiltshire](/source/Wiltshire), England, consisting of the [villages](/source/Village) of [Teffont Magna](/source/Teffont_Magna) and [Teffont Evias](/source/Teffont_Evias). It is in the [Nadder](/source/River_Nadder) valley, north of the river, about 10 miles (16 km) west of [Salisbury](/source/Salisbury). The parish was created in 1934 by combining the two Teffonts.[2][3] The population taken at the [2011 census](/source/United_Kingdom_Census_2011) was 248.[4]

## Description

Teffont has a [parish council](/source/Parish_councils_in_England) and is in the area of the [Wiltshire Council](/source/Wiltshire_Council), a [unitary authority](/source/Unitary_authorities_of_England) which is responsible for almost all significant local government functions.

The two former parishes each had a church, and both continue in use, although they are only about three-quarters of a mile apart; they are both [Grade II* listed](/source/Grade_II*_listed) buildings. Until 1922 Teffont Magna was a [chapelry](/source/Chapelry) of [Dinton](/source/Dinton%2C_Wiltshire),[2] and its modest church dates from the 13th century.[5] The church at Teffont Evias was rebuilt in the 1820s, when an imposing tower was added.[6]

Part of [Chilmark Quarries](/source/Chilmark_Quarries), a former stone quarry and now a [Site of Special Scientific Interest](/source/Site_of_Special_Scientific_Interest), is in the far southwest of the parish.

## Roman sacred site

The modern village is within the valley of a perennial spring at the north end of the village. A [greensand](/source/Upper_Greensand_Formation) ridge overlooks the valley from the west, and here the Teffont Archaeology Project has since 2008 investigated the site of a large [Roman-period](/source/Roman_Britain) temple complex.[7] The area crosses the boundary of the two Teffonts. This sacred landscape may have marked the western edge of the territory of the [Durotriges](/source/Durotriges), whose coins have been found in Teffont.[8]

## Post-Roman status

The name Teffont has an Old English element (**tēo*, boundary),[9] though it has also been said to derive from an unattested personal name **Teōwa*.[10] The second element is from Latin (**funta*, from *fontāna*, spring).[11] *Funta sites usually lay between areas occupied by [Britons](/source/Celtic_Britons) and the recently-occupied territories of incoming [Anglo-Saxons](/source/Anglo-Saxons), and the name may have been applied to a spring where people met to agree boundaries.[12] "Funta" and other Latin and British place-name elements in this area of south-west Wiltshire suggest that [Brittonic speech](/source/Common_Brittonic) may have survived in the area to a late date.[8]

Teffont may have continued to mark a boundary, this time between British and Saxons, for decades after the departure of Roman authority and the fall of the neighbouring [civitas Belgarum](/source/Belgae#Britain) to the Saxons. To the east there are many sixth-century Saxon cemeteries, but to the west the graves all belong to the second quarter of the seventh century and are of a different character, with weapons and other grave goods which may make a political statement following the conquest of new territory.[13]

## Later Saxon history

In 860 [Æthelbald, King of Wessex](/source/%C3%86thelbald%2C_King_of_Wessex) granted 14 [hides](/source/Hide_(unit)) at Teffont to his thegn, Osmund.[14][15]

## References

1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** ["Wiltshire Community History: Census"](https://apps.wiltshire.gov.uk/communityhistory/Census?communityId=221). Wiltshire Council. Retrieved 11 September 2022.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-vch2_2-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-vch2_2-1) ["Victoria County History: Wiltshire: Vol 8 pp74–78 – Teffont Magna"](https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/wilts/vol8/pp74-78). *British History Online*. University of London. 1965. Retrieved 11 May 2020.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-vch3_3-0)** Freeman, Jane; Stevenson, Janet H (1987). Crowley, D.A. (ed.). ["Victoria County History: Wiltshire: Vol 13 pp185-195 – Parishes: Teffont Evias"](https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/wilts/vol13/pp185-195). *British History Online*. University of London. Retrieved 11 May 2020.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** ["Parish population 2011"](https://neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadKeyFigures.do?a=7&b=11129478&c=SP3+5RG&d=16&e=62&g=6476209&i=1001x1003x1032x1004&m=0&r=0&s=1426359037128&enc=1). Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 14 March 2015.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-chlisting_5-0)** [Historic England](/source/Historic_England). ["Church of St Edward (1251111)"](https://HistoricEngland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1251111?section=official-list-entry). *[National Heritage List for England](/source/National_Heritage_List_for_England)*. Retrieved 11 May 2020.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-chlisting2_6-0)** Historic England. ["Church of St Michael and All Angels (1146266)"](https://HistoricEngland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1146266?section=official-list-entry). *National Heritage List for England*. Retrieved 11 May 2020.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-7)** ["Teffont Archaeology Project"](https://romanresearchtrust.org/teffont/). *Roman Research Trust*. 2013. Retrieved 14 March 2021.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEEagles20185_8-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEEagles20185_8-1) [Eagles 2018](#CITEREFEagles2018), p. 5.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-9)** Gover JEB, Mawer A, Stenton FM 1939. *The Place-Names of Wiltshire*. English Place Name Society 16. Cambridge

1. **[^](#cite_ref-10)** *Teōwa* being a hypocoristic form of such a name as e. g. Teōwald (Tiuuald, Tiouald, see Müller, p. 85). In the earliest M(iddle) [E(nglish), the w has been assimilated to the following f and the long vowel has normally been shortened before two consonantal sounds." The place-names of Wiltshire, their origin and history. Page 150. Ekblom, Einar Laurentius; Uppsala universitet, Publication date 1917. [https://archive.org/details/placenamesofwilt00ekblrich/page/160/mode/2up?q=teffont](https://archive.org/details/placenamesofwilt00ekblrich/page/160/mode/2up?q=teffont)

1. **[^](#cite_ref-11)** University of Winchester. The significance of the place-name element *funta in the early middle ages. Jillian Patricia Hawkins. Thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy July 2011 [https://cris.winchester.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/2545372/hawkins_Jillian_PhD.pdf](https://cris.winchester.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/2545372/hawkins_Jillian_PhD.pdf) accessed 27 January 2025. Page 15.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-12)** Jillian Patricia Hawkins. Thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy July 2011 [https://cris.winchester.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/2545372/hawkins_Jillian_PhD.pdf](https://cris.winchester.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/2545372/hawkins_Jillian_PhD.pdf) accessed 27 January 2025. From abstract, no page number.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEEagles2018109_13-0)** [Eagles 2018](#CITEREFEagles2018), p. 109.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-14)** [Charter S 326](https://www.esawyer.org.uk/charter/326.html)

1. **[^](#cite_ref-15)** Keynes, Simon (November 1994). "The West Saxon Charters of King Æthelwulf and his sons". *English Historical Review*. **109** (434): 1123. [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.1093/ehr/cix.434.1109](https://doi.org/10.1093%2Fehr%2Fcix.434.1109). [ISSN](/source/ISSN_(identifier)) [0013-8266](https://search.worldcat.org/issn/0013-8266).

- Eagles, Bruce (2018). *From Roman Civitas to Anglo-Saxon Shire: Topographical Studies on the Formation of Wessex*. Oxbow Books. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-1-78570-984-5](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-1-78570-984-5).

## External links

- [Parish website](https://www.teffont.com/)

Authority control databases International VIAF Other Yale LUX

---
Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Teffont](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teffont) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teffont?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.