Lockeridge

{{further|History of Wiltshire}}

The area has extensive evidence of Neolithic settlement and a Bronze Age burial site was discovered behind the school in the 19th century. Field enclosures on White Hill (a ridge above the village) provide evidence of Roman occupation probably linked to the nearby fortress town of Cunetio. One possible derivation of the name is from the Old English composite word loc(a)-hrycg meaning "a ridge marked by enclosure(s)".{{CN|date=February 2025}}

At the time of the Domesday Book of 1086, Lockeridge was owned by Durand of Gloucester and is described as follows: Durand himself holds LOCKERIDGE. Almær held it TRE, and it paid geld for 2 hides. There is land for 1 plough. Of this 1 hide is in demesne. There is 1 villan and 2 bordars with 1 slave, and {{convert|1|acre|m2|adj=on}} of meadow, and {{convert|12|acre|ha}} of pasture and {{convert|6|acre|ha}} of woodland. It was worth 40s ; now 30s. These two late Anglo-Saxon estates are held to be linked to the cluster of houses at Lockeridge Dene at the southern end of the village, and the eighteenth-century Lockeridge House at the northern end. Lockeridge House is adjacent to Piper's Lane, remnant of a Roman road.

Building took place between the two Saxon settlements in the 12th century on the order of the Knights Templar who acquired one of the estates between 1141 and 1143. In 1155–1156 it acquired land in Rockley to build a Preceptory. Lockeridge is therefore something rare in Britain, namely a planned Templar village. The collapse of the nearby settlement of Shaw as a result of the Plague may have triggered growth as Lockeridge was situated at an intersection of a major east–west route (now the A4) and a crossing of the Pewsey Downs. The Templar link explains the absence (rare in Wiltshire villages) of a church.

The settlement expanded from a hamlet to a village in the 1870s when Sir Henry Meux sited his estate office (Gypsy Furlong) and the estate yard (Yardacre) in the village. Houses, a school and a pub were built at the same time.

In consequence of this history there are three main architectural styles in the village.

• Sarsen stone, generally painted or left rough-hewn, and thatched with wheat or wheat-reed mix.
• Victorian estate architecture built of dressed stones or Wiltshire redbrick with sarsen banding. Many of these are the work of C.E. Ponting, architect to the Meux estate in the 1870s.
• 20th-century solid brick council housing and in-fill in a variety of styles, in the main street and on Back Lane and Rhyls Lane.

Lockeridge forms part of the civil parish of West Overton, which elects a joint parish council with the adjacent parish of Fyfield, named Kennet Valley Parish Council.{{Cite web |title=Council Information |url=https://kvparishcouncil.org.uk/parish-council/council-information/ |access-date=2023-04-17 |website=Kennet Valley Parish Council}} It falls within the area of the Wiltshire Council unitary authority, which is responsible for most local government functions.

File:Lockeridge Dean.JPG

Lockeridge House, on the other side of the river from the village, was built around 1740 and is Grade II* listed.{{National Heritage List for England|num=1182796|desc=Lockeridge House|access-date=20 June 2015}} The two-storey house is in red brick, and its five-bay front has a pedimented doorway; there are later extensions at the right and rear. At the roadside entrance are brick walls of the same period, cast iron gates and piers topped with pineapples;{{National Heritage List for England|num=1033802|desc=Gate piers, gates and flank walls to Lockeridge House|access-date=6 December 2020|fewer-links=yes}} Pevsner noted their large size.{{cite book|last1=Pevsner|first1=Nikolaus|title=Wiltshire|last2=Cherry|first2=Bridget (revision)|publisher=Penguin Books|year=1975|isbn=0-14-0710-26-4|edition=2nd|series=The Buildings of England|place=Harmondsworth|page=253|author-link1=Nikolaus Pevsner|orig-year=1963}}

Lockeridge Dene at the south end of the village is a National Trust site and is a conservation area.{{cite web|title=Lockeridge Dene and Piggledene|url=http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/lockeridge-dene-and-piggledene/|publisher=National Trust|access-date=20 June 2015}} Sarsen stones are scattered over the area, and this is one of the sites from which the stones at Avebury were obtained.{{CN|date=February 2025}}

The village is adjacent to the West Woods, which in spring are carpeted with bluebells.{{cite web|date=29 April 2004|title=Breathtaking bluebells at West Woods|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/wiltshire/entertainment/days_out/bluebells.shtml|access-date=20 June 2015|publisher=BBC}}

Walks from the village lead through the West Woods onto the Pewsey Downs and the Wansdyke,{{Cite web

|url=http://www.wansdyke21.org.uk/wansdyke/wanart/road.htm

|title=Wansdyke and the Roman Road

|author=Robert Vermaat

|publisher=self-published

|year=2001

}} an early medieval earthwork that ran from near Andover to the Bristol Channel and became the border between the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of Mercia and Wessex.

File:Lockeridge School.JPGThe Kennet Valley Church of England Primary School draws children from Lockeridge and nearby villages. The first building for Overton cum Fyfield National School, designed by C. E. Ponting, opened in 1875{{cite web|title=Overton cum Fyfield Church of England School|url=https://apps.wiltshire.gov.uk/communityhistory/School/Details/1533|access-date=30 November 2020|website=Wiltshire Community History|publisher=Wiltshire Council}} and by 1906 was attended by 117 pupils.{{cite web|author-last1=Baggs|author-first1=A.P.|year=1980|editor-last=Crowley|editor-first=D.A.|title=Victoria County History – Wiltshire – Vol 11 pp181-203 – Parishes: Overton|url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/wilts/vol11/pp181-203|access-date=30 November 2020|website=British History Online|publisher=University of London|author-first2=Elizabeth|author-last2=Crittall|author-first3=Jane|author-last3=Freeman|author-first4=Janet H|author-last4=Stevenson}} After numbers fell, in 1990 the school was federated with the village school at East Kennett; accommodation at Lockeridge was increased and in 2011 the East Kennett site was closed.{{cite web|title=Kennet Valley C. of E. VA Primary School|url=https://apps.wiltshire.gov.uk/communityhistory/School/Details/1531|access-date=30 November 2020|website=Wiltshire Community History|publisher=Wiltshire Council}} For secondary education, most children go on to St John's, Marlborough.

Kennet Valley Cricket Club has its ground next to the village hall, drawing members from Lockeridge as well as West Overton, East Kennett and Fyfield.{{Cite web|title=Kennet Valley Cricket Club|url=https://www.kennetvalleycc.co.uk/|access-date=2020-11-29|language=en}}

The Lacket, an 18th-century thatched cottage on the southwest edge of the village,{{National Heritage List for England|num=1033806|desc=The Lacket|access-date=27 November 2020}}{{Cite web|date=2016-12-22|title=Village Heritage booklet, 1987|url=https://www.upperkennetnews.co.uk/the-heritage-of-the-upper-kennet-valley/|access-date=2020-11-29|website=Upper Kennet News|language=en-US}} was bought in 1908 as a weekend retreat by the politician and writer Hilton Young (later Baron Kennet), and was rented in 1914–15 by the author Lytton Strachey.{{Cite web|last=Levy|first=Paul|date=2002-07-20|title=Rereadings: Eminent Victorians by Lytton Strachey – a string quartet in four movements|url=http://www.theguardian.com/books/2002/jul/20/featuresreviews.guardianreview22|access-date=2020-11-29|website=the Guardian|language=en}} The cottage was also the home of Young's son Wayland.{{Cite web|date=21 May 2009|title=Lord Kennet|url=https://www.gazetteandherald.co.uk/news/4385042.lord-kennet/|access-date=2020-11-27|website=The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald|language=en}}

From 1910, A. N. Whitehead and his wife Evelyn also had a cottage at Lockeridge, from where he collaborated with Bertrand Russell on Principia Mathematica.{{Cite web|date=1987|title=Valley Heritage booklet|url=https://fwoparishcouncil.org.uk/heritage-and-landscape/valley-heritage|access-date=2020-11-29|website=Fyfield and West Overton Parish Council}}{{Cite journal|last=Lowe|first=Victor|date=31 March 1974|title=Whitehead's 1911 Criticism of The Problems of Philosophy|url=https://mulpress.mcmaster.ca/russelljournal/article/view/1368/0|journal=Journal of Bertrand Russell Studies|volume=13|pages=1–28}}

{{Reflist}}

• Fowler, P & Blackwell I (1998) "The Land of Lettice Sweetapple" pp 88–90

{{Commons category inline}}

• {{cite web|title=West Overton (includes Lockeridge)|url=https://apps.wiltshire.gov.uk/communityhistory/Community/Index/238|website=Wiltshire Community History|publisher=Wiltshire Council|access-date=20 June 2015}}
• {{cite web|title=Postcode SN8 4EL|url=http://neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/NeighbourhoodProfile.do?a=7&c=SN8+4EL&g=497576&i=1001x1012&j=316239&m=1&p=1&q=1&r=0&s=1221382675482&enc=1&tab=2&inWales=false|website=2011 Census|publisher=Office for National Statistics|access-date=20 June 2015}}
• [https://kvparishcouncil.org.uk/ Kennet Valley Parish Council]

{{authority control}}

Category:Villages in Wiltshire