Chippenham villages
Bremhill and its history project
The parish of Bremhill is made up of a collection of small villages - Tytherton Lucas, East Tytherton, Foxham, Charlcutt, Spirthill, Stanley and Bremhill Wick - with Bremhill itself prominent on a hill.
The village of Bremhill sits on Wick Hill, which is made up of corallian limestone, which falls away into the valley of the River Avon. The geology is from the upper oolite and provides excellent loam, brash and clay soils for farming. The line of the old Wilts & Berks Canal runs through the parish from north east to south west.
The history of Bremhill is now being researched and written by the Bremhill Parish History Group, in partnership with Wiltshire VCH. This project will produce a full, locally published, parish history, together with the Bremhill chapter for the VCH Chippenham volume.
More information on this exciting joint project can be found here.
The origin of the name Bremhill is probably Saxon and refers to a collection of brambles. In 935 Athelston gave Bremhill to Malmesbury Abbey. In the Domesday survey of 1086 it belonged to the Crown. Two miles south west of Bremhill was the Cistercian monastery of Stanley Abbey founded in 1154. It is also the site of one of the earliest fulling mills (in which cloth was cleansed to remove oils, dirt and other impurities) recorded in Wiltshire in 1189. After the dissolution of the abbey the estates were held by the Bayntun family of Spye Park.
The vernacular architecture of the parish is mostly made up of rubble or brick buildings, with thatched or tile roofs. Most of the buildings date from the 17th century with good examples of farmhouses. In the 19th century Victorian buildings were built with high pitched roofs, weatherboarding and dormers.
William Bowles, the local poet and 'frightened eccentric', lived in the former vicarage of Bremhill Court. The house has a 15th century core with both 17th and 18th century additions.
The church of St Martin was built c1200 and was restored by the Victorians in 1850.
Credit bremhillparishhistory.com
Members of the Bremhill Parish History Group at the Wiltshire History Centre researching old maps of the parish. Credit bremhillparishhistory.com
Villagers from Christian Malford on a charabanc outing to the Great Western Railway works in Swindon. Photo courtesy of Chippenham Museum Collection
Christian Malford
The village of Christian Malford lies in the hundred of North Damerham. Until 1319 the parish lay in Startley hundred. In 1319 the abbots of Glastonbury, who were the chief landowners, arranged for their severance from Startley hundred into the new North Damerham hundred. An earlier record shows that Christian Malford was granted by King Edmund to Glastonbury Abbey in 940.
The village is near the River Avon and the name translates as ford by the cross. As the village is only six miles north east of Chippenham all of its agricultural production was linked to the markets in the main town. The geology is made up of alluvium around the river with spreads of gravel and large areas of Oxford clay. The village grew up around the ford and the cross on the high ground above the rivers.
There is good evidence of prehistoric settlement along the gravels with finds of Neolithic and Mesolithic flint tools and Bronze Age weapons. In the Domesday survey of 1086 much of the area was under the control of the monks of Glastonbury Abbey and the population was probably around 140 people. After the dissolution of the monasteries Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, acquired the manors. In the 19th century the principal landowner in the parish was the Earl of Carnarvon with lesser areas owned by the Marquis of Lansdowne. In 1875 Sir Henry Meux, who lived at Dauntsey Manor House became the principal landowner of the parish. Whilst the production of wheat was the main agricultural staple in the 19th century there was also a brick maker, haulier, three shoemakers, wheelwright, carpenter, tailor, three bakers, butcher, beer retailer, pig dealer, cabinet maker and three shopkeepers.
The construction of the Great Western Railway in the 1840s and, in the 20th century, the building of the M4, opened up the parish with new buildings in the village and surrounding areas.
Kington Langley
The parish of Kington Langley was formed out of the parish of Kington St Michael in 1865. The original hamlet was known as Langley Fitzurze in medieval times. The village is situated on high ground two miles north of Chippenham and is separated from Kington St Michael by the main Chippenham to Malmesbury road.
The geology of the parish is mostly of the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods on a high water table with soils composed of sand and Oxford clay. The village plan is of the squared village type with three greens. The common/village green of 30 acres was the focal point of the village and was used for pasturing animals.
Early records in 940 AD suggest that there were 30 households in the village on land owned by the king. Further holdings belonged to the monks at Glastonbury Abbey. At the dissolution of the monasteries large parts of these estates at Langley were enclosed for the first time.
Many of the houses in the village are built of local rubble stone and roofed with slates. Some of the more high class buildings have ashlar dressings and reflect classical architectural styles.
Kington Langley was without a church for many years, though the population had use of a chapel of ease which was later turned into cottages in 1670. The new St Peter's church was built further up the road in 1856 by Mr Miller of Seagry and was designed in the early English style.
Trade directories from 1875 list the primary occupations in Kington Langley as shopkeeper, baker and maltster, blacksmith, butcher and farmer, beer retailer and wheelwright. By 1901 the village had a post office along with plasterers, carpenters, masons, farmers, a horse breaker and dealer and a haulage firm. By 1920 there was also a physician and surgeon, baker and beer retailer, florist and nurseryman, timber merchant, laundry and dressmaker, boot and shoe dealer.
The village was also home to Robin and Heather Tanner from 1931. He was an artist and etcher born in 1904. Later, after an innovative life in education, he created etchings of many villages and local scenes. Both he and his wife were lifelong Quakers and Heather was a leading member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND).
St Peter’s Church, Kington Langley. Photo courtesy of Chippenham Museum Collection
A street scene in Kington St Michael. Photo courtesy of Chippenham Museum Collection
Kington St Michael
The village of Kington St Michael lies either side of the road between Chippenham and Hullavington. The earliest settlement is mentioned in documents in the 10th century around the church of St Michael. Recent chance finds clearly show that there was both Iron Age and Romano-British activity around the existing village. The village was originally just called Kington, meaning a royal farm or manor, in 934. After the re-dedication of the church to St Michael the village was known as Kington St Michael in 1279.
Lands in the parish were bestowed upon Glastonbury Abbey between 934 and 987, when a Benedictine priory was endowed by Robert Wayfer of Brimpton in c1155. This was a very small establishment which survived until the dissolution. Some of the buildings still survive as Priory Farm.
Records from Glastonbury Abbey clearly show their large holding in the parish, which was very profitable, with many tenants. The existing manor house was rebuilt by Herbert Prodgers in the 1860s after he demolished the earlier 17th century house.
In 1672 Isaac Lyte, who was born in the village in 1612, through industrious hard work became an alderman of the City of London. In his will he left money to build the almshouses in 1675, which are the oldest secular buildings still standing in the parish. With the improvements to road transport through the Turnpike Trust in the 1760s links between the parish and Chippenham were much improved. The village economy prospered and in the trade directories there are farmers, tailors, two blacksmiths and a carpenter, along with bakers, maltsters and a grocer. There was also a growing number of female home industries with dressmakers and laundresses.
The village is justly famous for having two great Wiltshire antiquarians born within its boundaries. John Aubrey became a founder member of the Royal Society and brought both Avebury and Silbury Hill to the attention of the educated people of the day. The second antiquarian was John Britton who learnt the trades of both baker, maltster, shopkeeper and small farmer. He then began to write down his early life in the village before he moved to London to be apprenticed into the wine trade. Gradually he moved into literature and his two volume work entitled The Beauties of England became very popular and launched him on a successful new career.
Langley Burrell
The parish village of Langley Burrell is only two miles north east of Chippenham and includes Kellaways and Maud Heath's causeway between Wick Hill and Chippenham. The name Langley means a long clearing or wood, whilst the name Burrell appears to have come from Peter Burel who comes from the Borel family, who held the estate in 1086.
Archaeologically there are finds and occupation throughout the parish. The earliest finds date from the Palaeolithic with flint implements. There are also good collections of flint from Peckingell Farm and Kellaways Farm. Near Birdsmarsh Wood there is both Iron Age and Roman occupation. There was probably Anglo-Saxon settlement and the Domesday survey of 1086 refers to acres of meadow and woodland with a population of around 100 people.
The Borel family held the manor up to 1304 when it was then owned by Sir John Delamare. Later it passed to the Earl of March, Roger D Mortimer and came down into the ownership of Thomas, Second Lord Berkeley. Through marriage it then passed to Sir Reginald de Cobham in 1343.
The parish contains the well-known causeway, which was funded through a deed of covenant by Maud Heath, who owned land and houses in the village. The 4.5 mile causeway allowed the people of the village to get to the market in Chippenham without passing through mud and water.
Langley House was lived in by Joseph Ashe and was a reconstruction in 1711. The parish is associated with Robert Kilvert, rector of Langley Burrell, who was related through his wife to the Ashe family. His diary is still in print and gives excellent descriptions and a good social history of the population around the village and into Chippenham.
St George’s Church, Langley Burrell. Photo courtesy of Chippenham Museum Collection
St Nicholas Church in Tytherton Lucas. Photo courtesy of Chippenham Museum Collection
Tytherton Lucas
The small hamlet of Tytherton Lucas has a few cottages and farms. The Anglican parish church, built in the 13th century, was rebuilt in 1802 and again in the 1850s. Nearby archaeological remains suggest that there is both Iron Age and Romano-British remains of a possible temple.
The 16th-17th century manor house was altered around 1700 and is built of rubble stone with ashlar dressings and a bridgewater tile roof. The nearby 17th century farmhouse was altered in the 18th century but still has its timber frame with rubble stone and red brick infilling. The estates of Stanley Abbey owned Scotts Mill farmhouse which, after the dissolution, was let to H Goldeney in 1526, who was a wealthy clothier.