Downton, United Kingdom

Moot House (or The Moot) was built c. 1700 just to the east; the castle site, of some 3.6 hectares (8.9 acres), 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 was later leased by Elizabeth I, and was occupied by a brother of Sir Walter Raleigh in the 17th century.

The manor house at Standlynch was built in 1733 for Sir Peter Vandeput and extended in 1766 by Henry Dawkins, plantation owner and Member of Parliament. In 1814 the nation bought the estate and gave it to Lord Nelson's heirs. They changed its name to Trafalgar Park, to commemorate Nelson's victory at the Battle of Trafalgar.

The artist John Constable visited Downton in 1820, and his sketch of the Avon with the church in the background is held in the British Museum. In 1836, a time of continued agricultural hardship, the parish sponsored an emigration of more than 200 of its poor people to Upper Canada for opportunities there; they sailed in April 1836 on the ship King William.

From 1880 to 1906 John Wrightson, a pioneer in agricultural education, had his Downton Agricultural College here.

The Salisbury and Dorset Junction Railway, linking Salisbury with the line to Poole and Bournemouth, was built north–south across the parish and opened in 1866. Its route passed close to the east of Downton village, with Downton station reached from Lode Hill. The line was absorbed into the LSWR in 1883. It was closed in 1964 and the track was lifted the following year.

Nunton (with Bodenham) and Standlynch) became civil parishes in the 19th century, then as the population grew and churches were built, Downton was reduced in size. In 1896 its eastern part became Redlynch civil parish, in 1897 Charlton and Witherington were united with Standlynch to form the civil parish of Standlynch with Charlton All Saints, and in 1923 Morgan's Vale and Woodfalls were taken to form a new civil parish. Finally, in 1934 Standlynch and Charlton were reunited with Downton, and Morgan's Vale and Woodfalls were added to Redlynch.

For about a decade from around 1961, Downton had an important part to play in British motorsport. Its Downton Engineering Works produced some of the motors used by racing cars.

Housebuilding in the 20th and 21st centuries has developed the Wick area into a western extension of Downton village.

In 1999 a community project, The Downton Millennial Book Fund, published an illustrated history of the village from its ancient days.

Downton is the namesake for the British ITV show Downton Abbey, but there Downton is placed in Yorkshire. As a result of this confusion, the place received some inflow of American tourists, searching for the fictional manor house (which was actually Highclere Castle). The creator Julian Fellowes stated that the name was inspired from the Downton College of Agriculture (which was located in Salisbury and closed in 1906) that had been operated by John Wrightson, whose daughter Georgiana was Fellowes' paternal grandmother.