Retirement Properties Spotlight in Wilton

Wilton has a good range of amenities from banks, post office, and chemist to bakery, hairdresser and a weekly market, all within easy walking distance of Pembroke Court. There is a good bus service to Salisbury with its comprehensive shopping facilities.

Wilton became famous for its carpets many years ago but the Wilton Royal Carpet Factory eventually closed its doors in 1995. Today the Wilton Shopping Centre opposite the Garden Centre occupies much of the original site. Salisbury is four miles further down the valley and Stonehenge about seven miles to the north.

HISTORY

Wilton is an ancient and historic market town occupying the site of a former Saxon monastery where the rivers Wylie and Nadder meet. Once the capital of Wessex the town declined in importance with the rise of Salisbury four miles to the east. Wilton House, the ancestral seat of the Earls of Pembroke, has beautiful landscaped gardens.

Pembroke Court is almost opposite the beautiful parish church of St Mary and St Nicholas built in the Italian Romanesque style. This church replaced the medieval church of St Mary the ruins of which can still be seen in the market place.

Wilton remained the administrative centre of Wiltshire until the 11th century and was a prosperous market town until the building of Salisbury Cathedral. Wilton Abbey founded in the eighth century, was surrendered to Henry VIII's commissioners and much of the estate was granted to the Earl of Pembroke who built Wilton House. Much of the house was destroyed by fire in the seventeenth century and rebuilt. Today it stands in beautiful gardens spanning the River Wylye with the main entrance just east of the market place.