| Aldbourne | |
|---|---|
 Houses round the village green, overlooked by the church | |
  Aldbourne Location withinWiltshire | |
| Population | 1,833 (2011 Census)[1] |
| OS grid reference | SU265756 |
| Unitary authority | |
| Ceremonial county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | Marlborough |
| Postcode district | SN8 |
| Dialling code | 01672 |
| Police | Wiltshire |
| Fire | Dorset and Wiltshire |
| Ambulance | South Western |
| UK Parliament | |
| Website | Parish Council |
| 51°28′44″N1°37′12″W / 51.479°N 01.620°W /51.479; -01.620 | |
Aldbourne (/ˈɔːldbɔːrn/AWLD-born) is a village andcivil parish about 6 miles (10 km) north-east ofMarlborough, Wiltshire, England. It is in a valley on the south slope of theLambourn Downs – part of theNorth Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. From here an unnamedwinterbourne flows south to join theRiver Kennet 4 miles (6 km) away nearRamsbury. The2011 Census recorded the parish population as 1,833.[1] The parish includes the hamlets ofUpper Upham andWoodsend and part of the hamlet of Preston, which straddles the boundary withRamsbury. The village ofSnap became deserted in the early 20th century.
Evidence of prehistoric activity on the chalk downs includes abarrow cemetery north-west of the village,[2] aBronze Agecross dyke to the north,[3] and a field system in the valley around Snap.[4]
There are extensive prehistoric orRomano-British field systems around Upper Upham.[5] The boundaries of the modern parish followRoman roads to the north-east (Ermin Way) and to the west (an un-named road from Cirencester to Mildenhall).[6]Domesday Book in 1086 recorded a large settlement atAldeborne, with 156 households, four mills and a church.[7] Lewisham Castle is a small medievalringwork about a mile and a half south-west of the village.[8] It is not certain whether it was in fact a castle.[8]
The name Aldbourne derives from theOld EnglishEaldaingburna meaning 'stream connected with Ealda'. It could perhaps derive from the Old EnglishAldingburna meaning 'the old stream'.[9]
TheWiltshire Victoria County History traces the ownership of estates including Aldbourne manor, which was unusually large until it was broken up in the 17th century. Landowners includeRotrou IV, Count of Perche and descendants in the 12th century;William Longespée, 3rd Earl of Salisbury and descendants in the 13th and 14th; and trustees for theCity of London for a short time in the 17th.[6] An estate at Upham was given by Longespée toLacock Abbey in 1249, and after thedissolution was bought in 1540 by John Goddard, whosedescendants went on to be lords of the manor of Swindon.[6]
Aldbourne was the wealthiest parish in Selkleyhundred in the Middle Ages, and in 1377 the parish had 332 taxpayers.[6] The population peaked around 1,600 in the mid-19th century, fell to 980 by the 1921 census, and has gradually risen since then.[1]
In theEnglish Civil War aRoyalist force led byPrince Rupert fought aParliamentarian force in a skirmish atAldbourne Chase on 18 September 1643, two days before theFirst Battle of Newbury.[10]
Fustian, a heavy cotton cloth, was woven in the village from at least the late 17th century. The industry was affected by a fire in 1760 and declined after the 1790s.[6]
ABaptist chapel opened in 1841 in Back Lane and was rebuilt as New Zoar Chapel in 1868. It was sold in 1914 and demolished some time after 1931; its burial ground survives.[11]
APrimitive Methodist chapel opened in West Street about 1840 and a new chapel was built on the site in 1906.[12]Wesleyan Methodists built a chapel in Lottage Road in 1807, which was rebuilt in 1844.[13] In 1968 the two congregations combined to build Aldbourne Methodist Church in Lottage Road.[14] The chapel in West Street was demolished in 1982.
TheSwindon, Marlborough and Andover Railway (later the Midland and South Western Junction Railway) opened between Swindon and Marlborough in 1881, alongside the Roman road in the west of the parish, just over the parish boundary. There was a station and small goods yard atOgbourne. The line became part of theGreat Western Railway in 1923 and closed in 1961, then dismantled.[15]
During theSecond World War,U.S. Armyparatroopers ofEasy Company, 2nd Battalion,506th Parachute Infantry Regiment,101st Airborne Division were based at Aldbourne from late 1943 to mid-1944, in preparation for theNormandy landings in June 1944 andOperation Market Garden in September.[16] Both Easy Company and the village featured in the 2001HBO miniseriesBand of Brothers, though scenes for Aldbourne were filmed at the village ofHambleden, near theOxfordshire town ofHenley-on-Thames.[17]
Two disusedvillage pumps survive in the village.[18]
For at least 130 years Aldbourne had abell foundry.[19] Master-founders at Aldbourne included Robert Cor (active 1694–1724), William Cor (active 1696–1722), Oliver Cor (active 1725–1727), John Cor (active 1728–1750), John Stares (active 1744–1746), Edward Read (active 1751–57), Edne Witts (active 1759–1774), Robert I Wells (active 1760–81), Robert II Wells (active 1781–1793) and James Wells (active 1792–1826).[20] Bells cast by the Cor and Wells families survive at parish churches includingAlvescot,Ashbury,Berwick St John,Blewbury,Church Hanborough,East Challow,Drayton,East Lockinge,Faringdon,Farnborough,Great Coxwell,Horspath,Longworth,Marcham,Marsh Baldon,St Nicolas Newbury,Northleach,Uffington,Seend,Sutton Courtenay,West Hanney and others. The ten bells at St Nicolas in Newbury include the only surviving full set of eight bells cast by James Wells of Aldbourne (in 1803);[21] the tenor bell weighing 21cwt (slightly heavier than a ton) is the heaviest bell cast at Aldbourne.[22]
The medievalChurch of England parish church ofSt Michael, overlooking the village green, is a Grade Ilisted building[23] described byNikolaus Pevsner as "large and interesting".[24] Thenave andaisles were rebuilt in the first half of the 13th century, reusing fragments from a Norman church: one scallopedcapital in the north arcade, andvoussoirs in three of the arches in the south arcade.[25] The south doorway of the nave is also from the 12th century, although parts of its stonework were replaced in the 19th.[25] Thechancel isEarly English, with north and south chapels, and a sanctuary withlancet windows.
ThePerpendicular Gothic three-stage tower was added in 1460 at the expense of Richard Goddard of Upham House.[23] Until then the church probably had a central tower.[6] It isashlar, hasangled buttresses andtransomed three-light bell openings, withgargoyles above. There aretransepts with three-light windows, a tall south porch – originally two-storey – and a bay between the porch and south transept. There was also a north porch until the building wasrestored byWilliam Butterfield in 1863–1867; the work included new roofs for the nave and chancel, with the 15th-century roofs kept as a ceilings.[26] The outside walls are offlint andlimestone with some chequer-work andsarsen. They arecrenellated. The roofs are lead andslate.
The font is probably from the 15th century, and the hexagonal carved wooden pulpit from about 1600.[23] There are eight bells: two from the early 15th century, two from the 17th, and four cast locally in the 18th,[27] one of them recast in 1915.[6] Details of the gravestones and burial plots in the churchyard were recorded digitally in 2017–2018.[28]
In 1956 the incumbent was authorised to hold both Aldbourne andBaydon,[29] and the two benefices were united in 1965.[30]Ramsbury was added in 1973,[31] and today the church is one of six in the Whitton grouping.[32]
.jpg)
Court House, in its own grounds north of the church, has at its core a 16th-century farmhouse in flint and chalkstone; additions were made in brick in the 18th century and later.[33] North of the house is an 18th-century carriage house and stables, with a small central clock-tower.[34] A bell foundry was established in the grounds, probably in 1694, and continued to operate there until the 1760s. From 1809 to 1956 the house was used as the vicarage.[6]
The Old Manor (formerly the Old Rectory), set behind brick walls on the south side of The Square, is a five-bay brick house from about 1740, with two further bays added on each side in the early 19th century.[35]
Upham House, in the hamlet north-west of Aldbourne village, was built in 1599 for the Goddard family. The main part of the house, built in gritstone and flint, has a five-bay south-east front. It was Grade II* listed in 1966 and is now three dwellings.[36][37]
West Leaze, on Ogbourne Road was built for Labour Party politiciansHugh Dalton and his wife in 1929 as one of the most radical 20th-century concrete houses to be built. It was designed by Irish born architect Frederick Edward Bradshaw MacManus who was working in the office of Sir John Burnet.[38]
The parish has an electedparish council. It is within the area of theWiltshire Councilunitary authority, which performs the major local-government functions, and the Aldbourne and Ramsburyelectoral ward, which includes the adjacent parishes ofBaydon,Froxfield andRamsbury. The 2011 Census gave a ward population of 5,231.[39] For Westminster elections, the parish is in theEast Wiltshire constituency.[40]
An open space in the centre of the village known as The Square has had a pond since at least the 18th century.[6] Aldbourne has twopublic houses, theBlue Boar[41] and theCrown,[42] and a volunteer-run sports and social club.[43] There is a Co-op supermarket and a village shop that includes a post office and a cafe. Aldbourne has had a village library since the 1930s, housed for the last few decades in South Street.
The village primary school, St Michael's C of E (Aided) School, was built in 1963 on the site of anational school that opened in 1858.[44][45]
Aldbourne Heritage Centre, next to theCrown Inn, is a museum run by the Aldbourne Community Heritage Group. It displays a changing array of exhibits from Aldbourne's history, ranging fromStone Age flints and medieval documents to 19th and 20th-century photographs.
Aldbourne Band is abrass band that has won numerous national competitions.[46]
Aldbourne people are nicknamed "Dabchicks" after thelittle grebe.[47]
Johnny Morris (1916–1999), narrator and TV presenter known for theAnimal Magic children's programmes, was employed as a manager at an Aldbourne farm in the 1940s before becoming a full-time freelance broadcaster in the 1950s; he lived in Aldbourne until late in life.[48]
Margaret Longhurst (1882–1958), the first female keeper in a major British museum, retired here and is remembered in the village's heritage centre.[49] Aldbourne was the home of the novelistMavis Cheek in 2003–2015.[50] Earlier residents includedJankel Adler (1895–1949), a JewishPolish painter andprintmaker who lived his last few years at Whitley Cottage, where he had a studio;Ruth Dalton (1890–1966), a Labour politician; andAnthony Marreco (1915–2006), a barrister and founding director ofAmnesty International.
The author and historianGerald Brenan and his American wife, the poet and novelistGamel Woolsey, lived in Aldbourne from the late 1930s to 1953.[51] Gerald's long-time friendJohn Hope-Johnstone, a photographer with links to theBloomsbury Group, lived in a cottage attached to their house until his death in 1970.[52]
Hilda Hanbury (1872–1939), known for voluntary work, bought Upham House atUpper Upham in 1909 and restored and enlarged the house and its gardens.[6] She became Lady Currie when her husband James Currie was knighted in 1920,[53] and stood unsuccessfully for the Liberals atDevizes in the 1922 general election.
The classicist and educatorMary Creighton Bailey moved to Aldbourne after retirement, and died there.[54] ComposerDavid Gow and his wife Margaret lived in Aldbourne, having moved from Axford.
In 1971, Aldbourne was the filming location for theDoctor Who storyThe Dæmons, starringJon Pertwee. The village in the story was called Devil's End.[55] In 1992,Reeltime Pictures filmed adirect-to-video documentary calledReturn to Devil's End in Aldbourne, featuringChristopher Barry (director of the 1971 story) with cast members Jon Pertwee,Nicholas Courtney,Richard Franklin andJohn Levene.[56]
Aldbourne was the filming location of the 2014E4 television dramaGlue, portraying the village of Overton.[57] The village was also used as the filming location forVodafone's Christmas advertisement in 2018.[58]
