Redlynch, Wiltshire

Redlynch is a village and civil parish about 6.5mi southeast of Salisbury in Wiltshire, England. The parish includes the villages of Morgan's Vale and Woodfalls immediately west and southwest of Redlynch, and Lover, 1mi southeast of Redlynch; together with the hamlets of Bohemia, Hamptworth and Nomansland. The village, and much of the parish, lies within the boundaries of the New Forest National Park.The River Blackwater rises near Lover and flows east through the parish towards Landford and Hampshire, where it joins the Test. North of Hamptworth, the river forms the parish boundary.HistoryThe earliest settlement was at Pensworth, north of Grove Copse and northwest of the present Redlynch, in the 12th or 13th centuries. This village had declined by the 15th century and in the 20th century the name survived only as Upper Pensworth Farm.In the 18th century settlement was along roads and the edges of commons. Settlement increased in the 19th century, at Redlynch and at Warminster Green (called Lover since 1876) where the church and school were built.Religious sitesRedlynch parish church of Saint Mary at Lover is a yellow brick building dating from 1837. Originally part of Downton parish, a separate ecclesiastical district was created for the church in 1841. The vicarage was the childhood home of Bernard Walke who served as an Anglican priest in three Cornish parishes.