Grafton is a civil parish in Wiltshire, England, in the Vale of Pewsey about southeast of Marlborough. Its main settlement is the village of East Grafton, on the A338 Burbage - Hungerford road; the parish includes the village of Wilton (not to be confused with the town of Wilton near Salisbury) and the hamlets of West Grafton, Marten and Wexcombe. The parish is within the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, while Marten lies under the northwest edge of the Hampshire Downs. History Prehistoric earthworks in the parish include the long barrow known as Tow Barrow, on Wexcombe Down, south of Wexcombe. Neolithic pottery was found in 1914 when the site was partially excavated by Crawford and Hooton. Marten is one of several possible sites for the murder of Cynewulf of Wessex in 786, and one of several suggested sites for the Battle of Marton in 871, in which Æthelred of Wessex suffered a defeat by the Viking army. A Roman road between Cirencester and Winchester passes Wilton and Marten. The area was part of the ancient parish of Great Bedwyn, formed from a large estate called Bedwyn which was recorded in 968. The 1086 Domesday Book recorded 16 households at (East) Grafton and six at Marten. Earthworks at Marten, including evidence of a moat, are listed as a deserted medieval village. The manor farmhouses at West Grafton and Wilton are from the 17th century; Wexcombe Manor is from the 18th. The southern half of Great Bedwyn parish (south of the railway) became a separate ecclesiastical district in 1844, when the church was built at East Grafton; the civil parish of Grafton was created in 1895. Having no large settlements, the population of the parish changed little in the 20th century. The manor of Wolfhall was transferred to Burbage parish in 1988. The parish war memorial stands at the approach to the church. A Celtic cross in granite on a tapering four-sided plinth, it honours 19 casualties of the first war and six of the second. Canal and railways The Kennet and Avon Canal, opened in 1809, passes north of Wilton. Wilton Water was created by damming a spring-fed valley as a reservoir for the summit pound of the canal. Seven of the nine Crofton Locks are within the parish. In 1862 the Great Western Railway built the Berks and Hants Extension Railway from Hungerford to Pewsey and