Liddington

The parish has been an area of settlement since the earliest times. The ancient Ridgeway traverses the parish just north of the village and the Iron Age hill-fort known as Liddington Castle, which is a scheduled monument, overlooks the present-day village.{{National Heritage List for England|num=1016312|desc=Liddington Castle|access-date=8 December 2021}} Liddington is recorded in the late Saxon period, around 940 AD. The Domesday Book of 1086 refers to the settlement as Ledentone.{{OpenDomesday|SU2081|liddington|Liddington}} The population of the parish peaked at 454 in 1841 and then gradually declined.{{Cite web |last= |first= |date= |title=Liddington Census Information |url=https://history.wiltshire.gov.uk/community/getcensus.php?item=Liddington |website=Wiltshire Community History |publisher=Wiltshire Council |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211208140400/https://history.wiltshire.gov.uk/community/getcensus.php?item=Liddington |archive-date=8 December 2021 |via=Internet Archive}}

The spelling Lyddington has sometimes been used, and still appears in the name of the Church of England parish.

Most of the village was designated as a Conservation Area in 1990.{{London Gazette

| issue = 52292

| date = 4 October 1990

| page = 15595

}} The Great Western Hospital, a large district hospital, was built in the north-west corner of the parish in 2002.{{Cite web |title=Great Western Hospital - Swindon |url=https://www.semperian.co.uk/great-western-hospital-swindon/ |access-date=2024-03-19 |website=Semperian |language=en-GB}}

== Parish church ==

File:All_Saints_church,_Liddington_-_geograph.org.uk_-_2995960.jpg

A church at Liddington is first mentioned in 1291.{{Cite book |author-last1=Dunning |author-first1=R. W. |url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/wilts/vol9/pp65-75#h3-s5 |title=A History of the County of Wiltshire, Volume 9 |author-last2=Rogers |author-first2=K. H. |author-last3=Spalding |author-first3=P. A. |author-last4=Shrimpton |author-first4=Colin |author-last5=Stevenson |author-first5=Janet H. |author-last6=Tomlinson |author-first6=Margaret |date=1970 |publisher=University of London |editor-last=Crittall |editor-first=Elizabeth |series=Victoria County History |pages=65–75 |chapter=Parishes: Liddington |access-date=18 March 2024 |via=British History Online}} All Saints, the Church of England parish church, stands south of the present village and is a Grade I listed building.{{National Heritage List for England|num=1299741|desc=Church of All Saints|access-date=17 March 2024}} It has a 13th-century chancel, a three-bay nave from the 14th or 15th century, and a plain three-stage west tower. The north aisle is described by Historic England as 13th-century and little altered. The arches below the tower are off-centre, indicating that there was a south aisle in the past.{{Cite book |last1=Orbach |first1=Julian |title=Wiltshire |last2=Pevsner |first2=Nikolaus |author-link2=Nikolaus Pevsner |last3=Cherry |first3=Bridget |author-link3=Bridget Cherry |publisher=Yale University Press |year=2021 |isbn=978-0-300-25120-3 |series=The Buildings Of England |location=New Haven, US and London |pages=399–400 |oclc=1201298091}} The church was heavily restored in 1847 by J. H. Hakewill; the work included renewal of most windows and the nave roof, and the addition of the south porch.

The oldest feature of the church is the font, a tapered stone tub of c.1200 on a 19th-century base.{{Cite web |title=All Saints, Liddington, Wiltshire |url=https://www.crsbi.ac.uk/view-item?i=11446 |access-date=17 March 2024 |website=The Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland |publisher=King's College London}} The original ring of five bells, now unringable, includes three cast in 1663 by Roger and William Purdue. A new ring of six dated 2016 by John Taylor & Co is installed below them.{{Cite web |title=Liddington |url=https://dove.cccbr.org.uk/tower/13250 |access-date=17 March 2024 |website=Dove's Guide for Church Bell Ringers}} The churchyard has the remains of a 15th-century cross: only the base and a stump of the shaft.{{National Heritage List for England|num=1023397|desc=Churchyard Cross|access-date=19 March 2024|fewer-links=yes}}

The church was anciently attached to Shaftesbury Abbey as a prebend, and the prebendaries or rectors – who did not live at Liddington – provided a vicar to serve the church. Although the prebend ceased after William Sharington bought the manor in 1543, it came back into use towards the end of the 17th century and was still recognised in 1975.{{London Gazette

| issue = 46622

| date = 1 July 1975

| page = 8391

}}

The benefice was united with that of Wanborough in 1975, and at some point the parishes were united too.{{Cite web |title=All Saints, Liddington |url=https://www.achurchnearyou.com/church/11851/more-information/ |access-date=18 March 2024 |website=A Church Near You |publisher=The Archbishops' Council}} Today the parish is part of a larger benefice which also covers Bishopstone and Hinton Parva.{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=2012 |title=Profile of the Benefice of Lyddington & Wanborough and Bishopstone with Hinton Parva |url=https://www.wanborough.info/Church/Villages%20and%20Swindon%20Profile.pdf |access-date=18 March 2024 |website=Wanborough.info}}

Notable rectors include the mathematician Nathaniel Torporley (around 1611) and William Baker Pitt (from 1882 to 1935, remembered as the founder of Swindon Town Football Club).{{Cite web |title=In The Beginning... |url=http://www.swindon-town-fc.co.uk/InTheBeginning.asp |access-date=2024-03-19 |website=www.swindon-town-fc.co.uk}}

Liddington Hill was the site of a control bunker for a World War II 'Starfish' bombing decoy site. This would have been used to control fires, which would have acted as a decoy to enemy planes targeting the town of Swindon to the north. The bunker had a hatch in its concrete roof and consisted of two rooms off a central passage; the room on the right housed generators, while the control room was on the left.{{Historic England research records|mnumber=19191|desc=Starfish Bombing Decoy Sf41a|access-date=8 December 2021}}

Just east of the village is the children's adventure centre PGL Liddington,{{Cite news |date=2010-05-13 |title=Adventure centre creates 106 jobs |language=en-GB |work=BBC News |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/wiltshire/8679930.stm |access-date=2023-10-15}} based at the historic King Edward's Place. Whilst the centre takes its name from Liddington as the nearest village, the centre is in the neighbouring parish of Wanborough.

{{Reflist}}

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• [https://liddington.org/ Community website]

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Category:Civil parishes in Wiltshire

Category:Villages in Wiltshire

Category:Borough of Swindon

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