Have you ever called in at Willoughby Hedge Services on the A303 just outside West Knoyle and wondered at its unusual name...? I can tell you the story of the last Willoughby of West Knoyle after whom the services were named: his days as a young man dealing with the loss of his family's fortunes and his desperation to keep his Tudor manor house in the face of financial ruin; his work as a solicitor in London and his responsibilities as Justice of the Peace for Wiltshire; his appointment to the royal household; his connections to Salisbury and to Henry Fielding; his role as steward to Henry Hoare of Stourhead and as Seneschal of Mere; and his links to Alderman William Beckford of Fonthill. And as for his intriguing personal life and troublesome will...! But no spoiler alerts here! Suffice to say that this was a fascinating, complex and often contradictory man whose life story speaks volumes about the social history of Wiltshire in the 1700s.