Awdry Law can trace its history back to approximately 1750. The firm’s original founder was William Salmon who started his professional life as a young Attorney in Devizes in the mid-1700s.
His son William Salmon the Second, continued the legal practice and became the owner of much of Devizes Castle and co-founded the first bank in Devizes, situated in St John’s Street close to the firm’s premises. By 1788 he was the owner of Urchfont Manor with 4000 acres of land. The firm’s first most notable client was Henry Addington, the 1st Viscount Sidmouth, who later became Prime Minister from 1801-1804.
The third Salmon to run the Devizes law firm, William Wroughton Salmon, later sold the Castle to his banking partner, Thomas Tylee, and moved to London in 1828. The law firm was left to his two partners, William Edward Tugwell and Alexander Grant Meek.
In 1865 those partners were joined by Joseph Jackson and for almost 90 years that followed the firm had at least one partner from the Jackson family. By the mid twentieth century the firm was known as Jackson & Jackson and involved two brothers, Guy Jackson and Joe Jackson.
Henry Awdry had started in legal practice in Chippenham with his cousin Daniel but began to assist with the Jackson & Jackson legal practice at 33 St John’s Street Devizes. This was in 1948 and Henry Awdry joined the Devizes firm as a partner the following year and the firm changed its name to Jackson & Awdry.
Henry Awdry’s son, Tony Awdry became a partner in the firm in 1981 and together with Julian Bailey and Andrew Douglas renamed the firm in 1987 as Awdry Bailey & Douglas. The firm was renamed to Awdry Law in 2023.
The firm now has 8 partners, Alistair Everett, Alexander David, Timothy Hotchkiss, Rachel Fereday, Jonathan Bailey, Paul Walshe, Cindy Ervine and Wendy Sinclair, and over 120 members of staff across 5 offices and we continue to go from strength to strength.
Read more detailed history of the firm and our Devizes office here.
