Boundary row between Wiltshire parishes moves closer to resolution
Bishops Cannings Parish Council considers name change amidst ongoing dispute
Last updated 8th Oct 2026
The Battle of Bishops Cannings – a fiercely fought boundary dispute between two neighbouring Wiltshire parishes – looks likely to conclude with a parish changing its name.
Former Royal Navy Commodore Darren Bone, who is now chairman of Bishops Cannings Parish Council, entered negotiations this week over plans to change the name of the organisation – in a bid to cement the new boundary between the rural parish and neighbouring Devizes for good.
Cllr Bone told members of Wiltshire Council’s Electoral Review Committee that the parish would like to change its name to Bishops Cannings & Northfields – reflecting the houses on the northern edge of Devizes in which the majority of parishioners live.
The dispute began in January during Wiltshire Council’s Community Governance Review, which examines whether parish boundaries still reflect local communities.
At the heart of the row was Devizes Town Council’s proposal to bring a large area on the northern edge of the town, currently within the parish of Bishops Cannings, into Devizes.
The area includes Northfields and Cannings Hill housing estates, Le Marchant Barracks, Devizes Marina, Lidl and B&Q, and the proposed new development site for Aldi and Tesco supermarkets and a McDonald’s restaurant.
Devizes Town Council said the neighbourhoods were effectively
urban extensions of the town, with more than 2,000 electors who “identify geographically, economically and socially” with Devizes rather than the rural parish.
Town representatives argued that residents often assume they live in Devizes and frequently contact the town council for services.
But Bishops Cannings strongly opposed the proposal, branding it an “unsolicited and brazen land grab”.
Parish council chairman Darren Bone argued that the urban and rural parts of the parish form an interconnected community and that the parish council had worked hard to integrate residents from Northfields and surrounding estates into parish life.
Six of the parish council’s ten councillors live in the disputed urban area.
In March 2026, the Electoral Review Committee sided largely with Bishops Cannings. The committee voted 5-3 to recommend that both the semi-urban area and rural land south of Nursteed School remain within the parish, rejecting Devizes’ main expansion proposal.
But the decision actually went further than simply maintaining the status quo.
Subsequent recommendations proposed transferring around 200 homes at Lock Keeper Gardens into Bishops Cannings rather than Devizes, leading parish councillors to describe the outcome as a complete reversal of the original proposal.
On Tuesday, members of the same committee unanimously agreed that the rural parish could be renamed Bishops Cannings & Northfields.
Cllr Bone told members that a new website and logo was ready, as soon as the legal change was ratified.
Committee member Tamara Reay (Devizes Rural West, Conservative) said the parish council had “worked really hard to bring the different parts of the parish together, and so I think this is entirely appropriate.”
Committee chairman Gavin Grant (Malmesbury, Liberal Democrat) said: “These are important matters. I think it’s best that we align what people want to be called with the letter of the law.”
Elsewhere in the meeting, the committee waved through a request by Ramsbury Parish Council to rename itself Ramsbury & Axford Parish Council, reflecting a name it had used unofficially for at least 10 years.
The council already holds one meeting in Axford once a year, and the two villages are represented by one Wiltshire Councillor, Conservative James Sheppard.
The decisions will have to be ratified by a meeting of the Full Council in March.
Meanwhile, a late request by Allington with Boscombe Parish Council, near Salisbury, to have its name legally recognised will have to wait until a future meeting of the committee, members agreed.