Avon

Bremhill

Bremhill is located on Wick Hill, a corallian escarpment which falls sharply to the valley of the river Avon. The geology is from the upper oolite, providing loam, brash and clay soil. The Wiltshire and Berkshire Canal ran through the centre of the parish from the north east to the south west, parts of which are currently being reclaimed and renovated. eg Foxham Locks. The name Bremhill seems to have its origins in the name ‘bremel’, meaning a collection of brambles, although it has previously been called Breomel (937), Bremleshill (1226), Bremhill, (1468), Bremyll (1540). ‘Hill’ is not original and is thought to have developed due to the village being situated on a hill. Athelstan gave Bremhill to Malmesbury Abbey in 935. The Domesday Book included the manor of ‘Breme’ and at the time of Edward the Confessor assessed the parish at 38 hides. It was one of the donations of King Edgar. The chief crops grown in the 1870s were wheat, barley and beans. The area covered 5,920 acres and the population in 1871 was 1,286. In the 1650s a beautifully wooded park-like knoll stood opposite the parsonage windows called Pinnel’s Knoll. It is in the possession of the Marquis of Lansdowne, forming part of the Bowood Estate. Pinnel was the name of one of the church wardens, Jeffrey Pinnel, in the 1590s when records began. There are also parcels of land called Jenkins’, from churchwarden Robert Jenkins in the 1590s. Most of the houses in the parish are two storey rubble or brick buildings with thatched or tile roofs. Bremhill is no exception. A late medieval barn is present, of ironstone rubble with a steep roof. There is a 17th century farmhouse, rubble stone with a slate roof. North east of the Church and by the intersection of two roads stood the Glebe Farmhouse, of 17th/18th century. Opposite stood a small Victorian school, built 1846, rubble with a stone slate roof. The schoolroom has a coped west gable with bell cote. In the open space between the church and Glebe House stands a medieval ‘Wayside Cross’ and adjacent grew a large tree. There is also a well house in the village of a fish scale design and a tile pyramid roof. To the north of this are rubble thatched cottages. East of the church are Victorian buildings with high pitched roofs, weather boarding and dormers. The 19th century Bowood Estate cottages are rubble with brick dressings and tile roofs. Bremhill Court was the former Vicarage and home of William Bowles, the poet and ‘eccentric’. The house has a 15th century core but is 17th century with alterations made by Bowles in the 1820s. It is gabled with mullioned windows on the façade and a gothic trim. There is also a parapet, turrets and pinnacles. The gardens were based on Shenstone Leasowes 60 year old design. Thomas Moore said Bowles had ‘frittered away its beauty by grottos, hermitages and Shenstonian inscriptions’. Sheep wandered in front of the terrace wearing bells tuned into fourths and fifths. St. Martin’s Church is an Anglican Church built c.1200. It was restored in 1850. The north west of the village contains more modern development.

Bremhill Wick

Bremhill Wick now only has a scattering of cottages and farms with a small modern development built by the Council. It is below Bremhill on the bottom side of Wick Hill.  

Charlcutt

Charlcote, now called Charlcutt is one and a half miles north west of Bremhill. It had a Sunday and day school with 40 pupils in 1846. The Old Reading Room is now a private house with the proceeds of the sale forming a local charity 'The Charlcutt Reading Room and Library Fund'.

East Tytherton

East Tytherton is situated in a valley and clusters around the rectangular green edged by a grey stone manor. The 17th century cottage has a timber frame and is painted brick with a corrugated iron roof. The 18th century saw the Moravian Society established in the village, with a Church, Manse and Church cottage, and the community joined the Moravian Brethren in 1745. A new home for the single sisters was built 1785-6 and in 1792-3 the former Chapel and manse were rebuilt. The present buildings were built 1792-4 and are red brick with ashlar dressings and stone slate roofs. The Chapel is single storey and two 2 storey houses are attached at each end. There is a small timber bell cote at the east end of the manse. The buildings to the left are in Flemish Bond brickwork and to the right are English Bond. The Chapel was founded in 1792-3. The church cottage appears to be the girls’ school, added in 1793-4 and extended or altered later. In 1871 a school was erected for 50 children but had about 70 pupils. The Church still retains its original organ and gallery inside. Other buildings in the village are 19th century houses of rubble stone with ashlar.

Foxham

Foxham is five miles north by north east from Chippenham on the River Avon and strays along lanes with strips of common on either side which widens into a long rectangular green, grazed by cattle in the 19th century. The area of housing lies around this green. St John the Baptist Church was built in 1878-81 by William Butterfield but an Andrews and Dury's map of 1773 shows an earlier church on the site. It is of squared rubble stone with ashlar dressings and a stone slate roof. There is a 16th century rubble stone farmhouse with brick re-fronted walls and a slate roof. The 17th century manor house of the Hungerford family stood on an adjoining moated site to Cadenham Manor. The present one was extended 1920-30. It is in ashlar with stone slate roofs. Cadenham Manor was the estate of the Hungerford family c.1500-1712. It was bought by Edward Hungerford in 1468. John Evelyn stayed there in 1654 but John Aubrey stated it was in a ruinous state in the 1670s. The 18th century farmhouse is, again, of rubble stone with a tile roof. There is a farmhouse which adjoins a former lock of the disused Wilts and Berks Canal, now partly restored. Foxham had a Sunday and day school in 1846 with 100 pupils, built by Lady Lansdowne.

Ratford

Spirthill

Spirthill is a hamlet in the civil parish of Bremhill in Wiltshire, England, 2.5 miles (4.0 km) to the south of Lyneham. It is on top of a hill with views over the Avon valley to the east and the towns of Calne, Chippenham and Cherhill can be seen from some vantage points. It is a quiet community of farmland and residential housing spread out along a narrow and unlit lane. There are 20 homes in the hamlet, including five farms with livestock or arable crops. It is believed there were farms in the area around the Domesday time or before. The area was once part of the nearby Bowood Estate and can trace historical links back to the 16th Century with land and buildings owned by Sir Edmund Baynton (1480- 1544), one of Wiltshire’s biggest landowners, a member of parliament and vice-chamberlain to Henry VIII's queens. Nowadays as well as farming there are small business activities in the hamlet largely based on cottage industry. A Wesleyan Methodist chapel dated 1825 was built at Spirthill but is now a private residence and several stone buildings have been demolished to be replaced by individual architect designed homes. Clacks Way, an ancient drove road along which livestock were driven to market can be traced from the site of Bradenstoke Abbey to Calne passing through fields in Spirthill near to a, now disused, sand pit where the local Home Guard practised their .303 rifle skills during WW2.  

Stanley

Two miles south west of Bremhill is Stanley Abbey, a Cistercian nunnery, founded 1154. It was the site of the earliest known fulling mill in 1189. There is also the preserved Hazeland Mill in the parish, situated between Bremhill and Stanley. The present mill dates from the early 18th century. The original was part of the estates of Malmesbury Abbey, recorded as a grist and tucking mill in 1534. The freehold was held by the Bayntun family of Spye Park from the 17th century and it was recorded as a cloth mill until c.1835 and as a grist mill until 1965. Stanley has a 17th century (possibly medieval) farmhouse, made of rubble stone with a Bridgewater tile roof. It adjoins the site of the former Stanley Abbey. The abbey was given by Empress Matilda in 1151 to monks from Quarr Abbey on the Isle of Wight. Originally at Loxwell, to the east of Chippenham, it moved to nearby Stanley in 1154. Its operation finally ceased as a result of the dissolution of the monasteries. The last abbot was Thomas Calne (also called Morley), and the abbey was dissolved in February 1536. Nothing now remains in situ except a green site on private property, but access may be obtained to visit it from Old Abbey Farm. At the dissolution the land passed into the possession of Sir Edward Baynton, who plundered the materials to build his manor house at Bromham. At various times since, remains such as burial places and a blacksmith's forge, as well as coins and tiles, have been found.[4] Harold Brakspear's 1905 excavation discovered the layout of the monastery, including the church, infirmary and a dovecote. Its original entrance now forms the gateway to Spye Park, Wiltshire and is known locally as Spye Arch. Beside the remains of the Abbey the foundations of roman buildings have been discovered including a Villa which is thought to be the summer residence of an important Roman official with his principal residence in Bath There are other 17th and some 18th century thatched cottages of rubble stone and a farmhouse, extended in the 19th century with a slate roof. The mill house is of mid 19th century but does include earlier work. It is of rubble with a slate roof. The south front has a centre door at the first floor level and an arched headed opening to the right. Stanley Lane has a former turnpike house on the London Road c.1830-40. It was extended as a farmhouse in the mid to late 19th century. It is of red brick with ashlar dressings and a slate roof. The original cottage was single storey.

Tytherton Lucas

Tytherton Lucas has a few cottages and one or two farms. The Anglican parish church, 13th century, was rebuilt in 1802 and again in the mid 19th century. It has its original rubble stone masonry and a stone slate roof. A 16th/17th century manor house has been altered around 1700 and is of rubble stone with ashlar dressings and a hipped Bridgewater tile roof. There is also a stable. The 17th century farmhouse was altered in the 18th century. It is timber framed with rubble stone, red brick and a slate roof. Scott’s Mill Farmhouse was part of the estates of Stanley Abbey. Before the 16th century the mill was let to H. Goldney, clothier 1526 and J Scott 1554. A mill building stood on the opposite side of Marden until it was demolished in 1987. There is also a range of 19th century farm buildings of red brick which is an unusually intact example of a 19th century farmstead.

Wick Hill