Aldbourne

Evidence of prehistoric activity on the chalk downs includes a barrow cemetery north-west of the village,{{National Heritage List for England |num=1013054 |desc=Barrow cemetery 200m south of Whitecomb Plantation |access-date=5 April 2021}} a Bronze Age cross dyke to the north,{{National Heritage List for England |num=1019191 |desc=Cross dyke and field banks in Peaks Wood |access-date=5 April 2021|fewer-links=yes}} and a field system in the valley around Snap.{{National Heritage List for England |num=1017366 |desc=Medieval settlement and prehistoric field system near Snap Farm |access-date=5 April 2021 |fewer-links=yes}}

There are extensive prehistoric or Romano-British field systems around Upper Upham.{{National Heritage List for England |num=1020131 |desc=Medieval settlement, cultivation remains and boundary 550m north-west of Upham Hall |access-date=5 April 2021 |fewer-links=yes}} The west and north-east boundaries of the modern parish follow Roman roads, respectively the road from Cirencester to Cunetio (Mildenhall) and Ermin Street.{{Cite book |url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/wilts/vol12/pp67-86 |series=Victoria County History |title=A History of the County of Wiltshire, Volume 12 |chapter=Parishes: Aldbourne |pages=67–86 |editor-first=D. A. |editor-last=Crowley |author-first1=A. P. |author-last1=Baggs |author-first2=Jane |author-last2=Freeman |author-first3=Janet H. |author-last3=Stevenson |date=1983 |via=British History Online |publisher=University of London |access-date=5 April 2021}} Domesday Book in 1086 recorded a large settlement at Aldeborne, with 156 households, four mills and a church.{{OpenDomesday|SU2675|aldbourne|Aldbourne}} Lewisham Castle is a small medieval ringwork about a mile and a half south-west of the village.{{harvnb |Pevsner|Cherry |1975 |p=82}} It is not certain whether it was in fact a castle.

File:Lewisham Castle - geograph.org.uk - 265802.jpg

The Wiltshire 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 include Rotrou 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 the City of London for a short time in the 17th. An estate at Upham was given by Longespée to Lacock Abbey in 1249, and after the dissolution was bought in 1540 by John Goddard, whose descendants went on to be lords of the manor of Swindon.

Aldbourne was the wealthiest parish in Selkley hundred in the Middle Ages, and in 1377 the parish had 332 taxpayers. The population peaked around 1,600 in the mid-19th century, fell to 980 by the 1921 census, and has gradually risen since then.

In the English Civil War a Royalist force led by Prince Rupert fought a Parliamentarian force in a skirmish at Aldbourne Chase on 18 September 1643, two days before the First Battle of Newbury.{{Cite book |last=Money |first=Walter |author-link=Walter Money |year=1881 |title=The First and Second Battles of Newbury and the Siege of Donnington Castle During the Civil War, AD 1643–6 |place=London and Newbury |publisher=Simpkin, Marshall and Co |page=25}}

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.

A Baptist 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.{{Cite web |title=Zoar Baptist Chapel, Aldbourne |url=https://apps.wiltshire.gov.uk/communityhistory/Church/Details/835 |website=Wiltshire Community History |publisher=Wiltshire Council |access-date=19 August 2015}}

A Primitive Methodist chapel opened in West Street about 1840 and a new chapel was built on the site in 1906.{{Cite web |title=Primitive Methodist Chapel, Aldbourne |url=https://apps.wiltshire.gov.uk/communityhistory/Church/Details/832 |website=Wiltshire Community History |publisher=Wiltshire Council |access-date=19 August 2015}} Wesleyan Methodists built a chapel in Lottage Road in 1807, which was rebuilt in 1844.{{Cite web |title=Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, Aldbourne |url=https://apps.wiltshire.gov.uk/communityhistory/Church/Details/831 |website=Wiltshire Community History |publisher=Wiltshire Council |access-date=19 August 2015}} In 1968 the two congregations combined to build Aldbourne Methodist Church in Lottage Road.{{Cite web |title=Aldbourne Methodist Church |url=http://www.smmct.org.uk/aldbourne.htm}} The chapel in West Street was demolished in 1982.

The Swindon, 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 at Ogbourne. The line became part of the Great Western Railway in 1923 and closed in 1961, then dismantled.{{Cite book |last=Oakley |first=Mike |title=Wiltshire Railway Stations |publisher=The Dovecote Press |year=2004 |isbn=1-904349-33-1 |location=Wimbourne |pages=97–98}}

During the Second World War, U.S. Army paratroopers of Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division were based at Aldbourne from late 1943 to mid-1944, in preparation for the Normandy landings in June 1944 and Operation Market Garden in September.{{Cite book |last=Ambrose |first=Stephen E. |title=Band of Brothers |year=2001 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |location=New York |isbn=0-7432-1638-5 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/bandofbrothersec00ambr/page/43 43–56] |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/bandofbrothersec00ambr/page/43}} Both Easy Company and the village featured in the 2001 HBO miniseries Band of Brothers, though scenes for Aldbourne were filmed at the village of Hambleden, near the Oxfordshire town of Henley-on-Thames.{{cite web | url= https://www.gazetteandherald.co.uk/news/7389898.a-tale-of-aldbourne-shot-in-oxfordshire/ | title= A tale of Aldbourne shot in Oxfordshire! | work=The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald | date=13 January 2001 | access-date=4 July 2022}}

Two disused village pumps survive in the village.{{Cite web |url=http://www.villagepumps.org.uk/aldbourne.htm |title=Aldbourne |work=Village Pumps |publisher=RK Williams |access-date=21 December 2014}}

For at least 130 years Aldbourne had a bell foundry.{{Cite book |url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/wilts/vol4/pp220-253 |title=A History of the County of Wiltshire, Volume 4 |date=1959 |publisher=University of London |editor-last=Crittall |editor-first=Elizabeth |series=Victoria County History |pages=220–253 |chapter=Other industries |access-date=28 August 2022 |via=British History Online}} 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).{{Cite web |author=Dovemaster |date=25 June 2010 |title=Bell Founders |url=http://dove.cccbr.org.uk/founders.php |access-date=7 October 2011 |work=Dove's Guide for Church Bell Ringers |publisher=Central Council of Church Bell Ringers |archive-date=4 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150904010159/http://dove.cccbr.org.uk/founders.php |url-status=dead }} Bells cast by the Cor and Wells families survive at parish churches including Alvescot, 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);{{Cite web |title=Newbury Tower |url=https://bellsnearnewbury.org.uk/newbury-tower-about-us/ |access-date=2023-10-18 |website=Bells Near Newbury |language=en-GB}} the tenor bell weighing 21cwt (slightly heavier than a ton) is the heaviest bell cast at Aldbourne.{{Cite web |title=Doves Guide for Church Bell Ringers|url=https://dove.cccbr.org.uk/founder/143 |access-date=2023-10-19 |website=Doves Guide for Church Bell Ringers |language=en-GB}}

File:St Michael's Church, Aldbourne - geograph.org.uk - 2253926.jpg

The medieval Church of England parish church of St Michael, overlooking the village green, is a Grade I listed building{{NHLE |num=1034152 |desc=Church of St Michael |grade=I |access-date=29 July 2018}} described by Nikolaus Pevsner as "large and interesting".{{sfn |Pevsner |Cherry |1975 |pp=81–82}} The nave and aisles were rebuilt in the first half of the 13th century, reusing fragments from a Norman church: one scalloped capital in the north arcade, and voussoirs in three of the arches in the south arcade.{{Cite web |title=St Michael, Aldbourne, Wiltshire |url=https://www.crsbi.ac.uk/view-item?i=12493 |access-date=6 April 2021 |website=The Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland |publisher=King's College London}} The south doorway of the nave is also from the 12th century, although parts of its stonework were replaced in the 19th. The chancel is Early English, with north and south chapels, and a sanctuary with lancet windows.

The Perpendicular Gothic three-stage tower was added in 1460 at the expense of Richard Goddard of Upham House. Until then the church probably had a central tower. It is ashlar, has angled buttresses and transomed three-light bell openings, with gargoyles above. There are transepts 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 was restored by William Butterfield in 1863–1867; the work included new roofs for the nave and chancel, with the 15th-century roofs kept as a ceilings.{{Cite web |title=Church of St Michael, Aldbourne |url=https://apps.wiltshire.gov.uk/communityhistory/Church/Details/827 |website=Wiltshire Community History |publisher=Wiltshire Council |access-date=19 August 2015}} The outside walls are of flint and limestone with some chequer-work and sarsen. They are crenellated. The roofs are lead and slate.

The font is probably from the 15th century, and the hexagonal carved wooden pulpit from about 1600. There are eight bells: two from the early 15th century, two from the 17th, and four cast locally in the 18th,{{Cite web |title=Aldbourne |url=https://dove.cccbr.org.uk/detail.php?tower=16642 |access-date=6 April 2021 |website=Dove's Guide for Church Bell Ringers}} one of them recast in 1915. Details of the gravestones and burial plots in the churchyard were recorded digitally in 2017–2018.{{Cite web |title=Aldbourne Monuments Digital Record |url=http://aldbourneheritage.org.uk/village-history/aldbourne-monuments-digital-record |access-date=6 April 2021 |website=Aldbourne Heritage Centre}}

In 1956 the incumbent was authorised to hold both Aldbourne and Baydon,{{London Gazette |issue=40952 |date=18 December 1956 |page=7175}} and the two benefices were united in 1965.{{London Gazette |issue=43610 |date=26 March 1965 |page=3048 |nolink=y}} Ramsbury was added in 1973,{{London Gazette |issue=46116 |date=30 October 1973 |page=12883 |nolink=y}} and today the church is one of six in the Whitton grouping.{{Cite web |title=Aldbourne |url=http://whittonteam.org.uk/?p=21 |access-date=6 April 2021 |website=Whitton Team}}

File:The Old Manor, Aldbourne (geograph 6974999).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.{{National Heritage List for England |num=1034188 |desc=Court House |access-date=8 April 2021|fewer-links=yes}} North of the house is an 18th-century carriage house and stables, with a small central clock-tower.{{National Heritage List for England |num=1283255 |desc=Carriage House and stables at the Court House |access-date=8 April 2021 |fewer-links=yes}} 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.

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.{{National Heritage List for England |num=1034167 |desc=The Old Rectory |access-date=8 April 2021 |fewer-links=yes}}

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.{{National Heritage List for England |num=1200440 |desc=Upham House |access-date=8 April 2021 |fewer-links=yes}}{{Cite web |title=Upper Upham |url=http://aldbourneheritage.org.uk/village-history/upper-upham |access-date=8 April 2021 |website=Aldbourne Heritage Centre}}

West Leaze, on Ogbourne Road was built for Labour Party politicians Hugh and Ruth Dalton 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.Dictionary of Scottish architects

File:The Square, Aldbourne - geograph.org.uk - 267532.jpg

The parish has an elected parish council. It is within the area of the Wiltshire Council unitary authority, which performs the major local-government functions, and the Aldbourne and Ramsbury electoral ward, which includes the adjacent parishes of Baydon, Froxfield and Ramsbury. The 2011 Census gave a ward population of 5,231.{{Cite web |url=http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadKeyFigures.do?a=7&b=13695552&c=Aldbourne+and+Ramsbury&d=14&e=62&g=6475396&i=1001x1003x1032x1004&m=0&r=1&s=1427837429658&enc=1 |title=Aldbourne and Ramsbury (Ward): Key Figures for 2011 Census: Key Statistics |work=Neighbourhood Statistics |publisher=Office for National Statistics |access-date=31 March 2015}} For Westminster elections, the parish is in the East Wiltshire constituency.{{Cite web |title=Election Maps: Great Britain |url=https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/election-maps/gb/ |access-date=16 July 2024 |website= |publisher=Ordnance Survey}}

An open space in the centre of the village known as The Square has had a pond since at least the 18th century. Aldbourne has two public houses, the Blue Boar{{Cite web |url=http://www.thepubonthegreen.com/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090712040019/http://www.thepubonthegreen.com/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=12 July 2009 |title=The Blue Boar |access-date=27 February 2014}} and the Crown,{{Cite web |url=http://www.thecrownaldbourne.co.uk/ |title=The Crown |access-date=22 May 2015}} and a volunteer-run sports and social club.{{Cite web |url=http://clubaldbourne.weebly.com/ |title=Aldbourne Sports & Social Club |access-date=14 August 2016}} 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 a national school that opened in 1858.{{Cite web |title=St. Michael's C of E (Aided) School |url=http://www.stmichaelsaldbourne.co.uk/ |access-date=19 August 2015}}{{Cite web |title=St Michael's C. of E. (Aided) Primary School |url=https://apps.wiltshire.gov.uk/communityhistory/School/Details/952 |website=Wiltshire Community History |publisher=Wiltshire Council |access-date=19 August 2015}}

File:Aldbourne Heritage Centre.jpg

Aldbourne Heritage Centre, next to the Crown Inn, is a museum run by the Aldbourne Community Heritage Group. It displays a changing array of exhibits from Aldbourne's history, ranging from Stone Age flints and medieval documents to 19th and 20th-century photographs.

Aldbourne Band is a brass band that has won numerous national competitions.{{Cite web |title=Aldbourne Brass Band |url=http://www.aldbourne-band.co.uk |url-status=live |access-date=4 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20021222031650/http://www.aldbourne-band.co.uk:80/ |archive-date=22 December 2002}}

Aldbourne people are nicknamed "Dabchicks" after the little grebe.{{Cite web |title=Aldbourne |url=https://apps.wiltshire.gov.uk/communityhistory/Community/Index/1 |website=Wiltshire Community History |publisher=Wiltshire Council |access-date=19 August 2015}}

Johnny Morris (1916–1999), narrator and TV presenter known for the Animal 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.{{Cite web |title=Johnny Morris - TV personality |url=http://aldbourneheritage.org.uk/village-history/wholived/johnny-morris |access-date=2021-04-07 |website=Aldbourne Heritage Centre |language=en-GB}}

Margaret Longhurst (1882–1958), the first female keeper in a major British museum, retired here and is remembered in the village's heritage centre.{{Cite web |title=Margaret Longhurst - Writer and Curator |url=http://aldbourneheritage.org.uk/village-history/wholived/margaret-longhurst-writer-curator |access-date=2023-02-13 |website=Aldbourne Heritage Centre |language=en-GB}} Aldbourne was the home of the novelist Mavis Cheek in 2003–2015.{{Cite news |url=http://www.mavischeek.co.uk/press/Wiltshire%20Life.pdf |last=Singleton |first=Sarah |date=September 2010 |title=The cultured face behind Marlborough's book fair |newspaper=Wiltshire Life |publisher=Mavis Cheek |access-date=26 November 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303210823/http://www.mavischeek.co.uk/press/Wiltshire%20Life.pdf |archive-date=3 March 2016}} Earlier residents included Jankel Adler (1895–1949), a Jewish Polish painter and printmaker who lived his last few years at Whitley Cottage, where he had a studio; Ruth Dalton (1890–1966), a Labour politician; and Anthony Marreco (1915–2006), a barrister and founding director of Amnesty International.

The author and historian Gerald Brenan and his American wife, the poet and novelist Gamel Woolsey, lived in Aldbourne from the late 1930s to 1953.{{Cite web |date=2007-10-15 |title=The Queen of Spain's literary past |url=https://www.theolivepress.es/spain-news/2007/10/15/the-queen-of-spains-literary-past/ |access-date=2021-04-04 |website=Olive Press News Spain |language=en-GB}} Gerald's long-time friend John Hope-Johnstone, a photographer with links to the Bloomsbury Group, lived in a cottage attached to their house until his death in 1970.{{Cite book |last1=Palmer |first1=Alan Warwick |title=Who's Who in Bloomsbury |last2=Palmer |first2=Veronica |publisher=Harvester Press |year=1987 |page=23}}

Hilda Hanbury (1872–1939), known for voluntary work, bought Upham House at Upper Upham in 1909 and restored and enlarged the house and its gardens. She became Lady Currie when her husband James Currie was knighted in 1920,{{London Gazette |issue=31840 |date=30 March 1920 |page=3759 |supp=1}} and stood unsuccessfully for the Liberals at Devizes in the 1922 general election.

The classicist and educator Mary Creighton Bailey moved to Aldbourne after retirement, and died there.Mary Creighton Bailey. Died 16 August 2009 at Aldbourne Nursing Home, Aldbourne, Wiltshire. Probate 12 February 2009, no.2949948. Proved at Winchester. Composer David Gow and his wife Margaret lived in Aldbourne, having moved from Axford.

In 1971, Aldbourne was the filming location for the Doctor Who story The Dæmons, starring Jon Pertwee. The village in the story was called Devil's End.{{Cite book |last=Haining |first=Peter |title=Doctor Who - A Celebration |year=1983 |publisher=W. H. Allen |location=London |isbn=0-491-03351-6 |page=196}} In 1992, Reeltime Pictures filmed a direct-to-video documentary called Return to Devil's End in Aldbourne, featuring Christopher Barry (director of the 1971 story) with cast members Jon Pertwee, Nicholas Courtney, Richard Franklin and John Levene.{{Citation |title=Return to Devil's End |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0217764/ |type=Documentary |publisher=Reeltime Pictures |access-date=2021-12-08}}

Aldbourne was the filming location of the 2014 E4 television drama Glue, portraying the village of Overton.{{Cite web |url=https://metro.co.uk/2014/09/22/i-grew-up-in-glue-country-and-this-is-what-its-really-like-4870368/ |title=I grew up in Glue country and this is what it's really like |work=Metro |first=Yvette |last=Caster |date=22 September 2014 |access-date=27 April 2021}} The village was also used as the filming location for Vodafone's Christmas advertisement in 2018.{{Cite web |url=https://www.newburytoday.co.uk/news/vodafone-film-christmas-ad-in-aldbourne-9185215/ |title=Vodafone film Christmas ad in Aldbourne |work=Newbury Today |first=Fiona |last=Tomas |date=24 December 2018 |access-date=27 April 2021}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{Cite book |last1=Pevsner |first1=Nikolaus |author-link1=Nikolaus Pevsner |last2=Cherry |first2=Bridget (revision) |orig-year=1963 |year=1975 |title=Wiltshire |series=The Buildings of England |place=Harmondsworth |publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=0-14-0710-26-4 |pages=81–82}}
• {{Cite book |last1=Gandy |first1=Ida |author-link=Ida Gandy |year=1975 |title=The heart of a village: An intimate history of Aldbourne |publisher=Moonraker Press |isbn=978-0239001481}}

{{Commons category}}

• [https://www.aldbourne.net/ Aldbourne.net] – community website
• [https://www.aldbourne.org.uk/ Aldbourne Parish Council]
• [http://www.aldbourneyouthcouncil.co.uk/ The Aldbourne Youth Council]
• [http://aldbourneheritage.org.uk/ Aldbourne Heritage Centre]

{{authority control}}

{{Portal|geography}}

Category:Civil parishes in Wiltshire

Category:Villages in Wiltshire