Downton is a village and civil parish on the River Avon in southern Wiltshire, England, about southeast of the city of Salisbury. The parish is on the county boundary with Hampshire and is close to the New Forest; it includes the villages of Wick and Charlton-All-Saints, and the small ancient settlement of Witherington. The Trafalgar Park estate erased the former settlement of Standlynch. The parish church, Trafalgar House, and two more houses are Grade I listed. Downton village is on the east bank of the river. Wick lies on the opposite bank, and is linked to Charlton by the A338 Poole–Oxfordshire road, which accompanies the river north–south through the parish. History Downton can trace its ancient inhabitants to Neolithic, Iron Age, Roman and Saxon times. Evidence of Neolithic occupation was found at Downton in 1956–7 during archaeological excavations in advance of a housing development. Close to this site, in 1953 the site of a Roman villa was discovered. Excavations in 1955–56 revealed a villa with tessellated floors, at least two featuring mosaics, a hypocaust and bath house. Roman features were found over an area of about 12 acres. The villa is no longer visible, but the finds, including one of the mosaics, are displayed in Salisbury Museum. Clearbury Ring, on high ground in the northwest of the parish, is an Iron Age hillfort. The ancient parish of Downton covered a large area, extending north to Nunton and southeast beyond Redlynch as far as Hamptworth. Downton was probably the principal village in the 7th and 8th centuries, and became important as the centre of the manor belonging to the Bishop of Winchester. The Domesday Book of 1068 recorded a large settlement of 131 households at Downton. Henry of Blois, Bishop of Winchester, built a (possibly incomplete) motte-and-bailey castle near the river. Moot House (or The Moot) was built c. 1700 just to the east; the castle site, of some , was developed as the gardens of the house c. 1720. Today the house is a Grade I listed building. The gardens are owned and managed by a preservation trust and are open to the public. The Manor House, northwest of the parish church, is a Grade I listed hall house with attached chapel from the 14th century, altered in the 17th and 19th. The house and church were an endowment to Winchester College by William of Wykeham in 1380; the house