Fragmentary records from Saxon times indicate that the
Ebble valley was a thriving area. The
Domesday Book in 1086 records the Chalke Valley as divided into eight
manors,
Chelke (Chalke –
Broad Chalke and
Bowerchalke),
Eblesborne (
Ebbesbourne Wake),
Fifehide (Fifield Bavant),
Cumbe (
Coombe Bissett),
Humitone (Homington),
Odestoche (
Odstock),
Stradford (
Stratford Tony and
Bishopstone) and
Trow (
circa Alvediston). The name of Fifield Bavant has evolved over the centuries. The Domesday Book records the manor as Fifehide (probably representing Five
Hides). By 1264 it was called
Fifield Scudamore because Peter de Scudamore was
lord of the manor. By 1463 it was recorded as
Fiffehyde Beaufaunt after ownership had passed to the Beaufaunt family, later usually spelt Bavant. In 1891 the parish had a population of 43. In 1923 the separate ecclesiastical parish also came to an end, when the
benefice of St Martin's was united with that of St John the Baptist in Ebbesbourne. A detailed parish history was published by the
Wiltshire Victoria County History in 1987, as part of its
Volume XIII: Chalke hundred. ==References==