Taken from the 1773 Andrews & Drury map of North Wiltshire A middle aged woman fends off a violent intruder and one local man had a very close call when a night time burglary didn’t go according to plan in October 1850. Miss Keziah Prior was well known in Lydiard Millicent where she kept a small grocer’s shop. In 1851 the population of the North Wiltshire village was just 491. Thomas Sadler farmed at Shaw where the parish boundary met that of Lydiard Tregoze. John Bewley was at Parkside Farm, the former dower house of the St John family at Lydiard Park while John Hinder was at Parsonage Farm and the wealthy Mary Tuckey at Lower Shaw. Miss Sarah Hawkins was the schoolmistress and Thomas Howard the blacksmith. There were just four shops in the village. John Cowley and John Newith are both described as shopkeepers in trade directories of the time, while William Mouldon was a baker and shopkeeper and Keziah Prior ran a small grocer’s shop. ...