Alton is a
civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...
in
Wiltshire
Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...
, England. The parish includes the adjacent villages of Alton Barnes and Alton Priors, and the nearby
hamlet
''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...
of Honeystreet on the
Kennet and Avon Canal. It lies in the
Vale of Pewsey
The Vale of Pewsey or Pewsey Vale is an area of Wiltshire, England to the east of Devizes and south of Marlborough, centred on the village of Pewsey.
Geography
The vale is an extent of lower lying ground separating the chalk downs of Salisbu ...
about east of
Devizes
Devizes is a market town and civil parish in Wiltshire, England. It developed around Devizes Castle, an 11th-century Norman architecture, Norman castle, and received a charter in 1141. The castle was besieged during the Anarchy, a 12th-century ...
.
The north of the parish is on the
Marlborough Downs
The North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) is located in the English counties of Berkshire, Hampshire, Oxfordshire and Wiltshire. The name ''North Wessex Downs'' is not a traditional one, the area covered being better k ...
and includes part of
Milk Hill, which is the highest point in Wiltshire at . The Woodborough Stream, a tributary of the
Hampshire Avon
The River Avon () is in the south of England, rising in Wiltshire, flowing through that county's city of Salisbury and then west Hampshire, before reaching the English Channel through Christchurch Harbour in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and P ...
, rises at Alton Priors and separates the two villages as it flows south.
History
The area has prehistoric sites including the
Knap Hill
Knap is a surname, and may refer to:
* Josef Knap (1900–1973), Czech writer, poet and literary critic
* Ted Knap (21st century), American journalist
* Tony Knap
Anthony Joseph Knap (December 8, 1914 – September 24, 2011) was an Amer ...
earthwork and
Adam's Grave, a
Neolithic
The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...
long barrow
Long barrows are a style of monument constructed across Western Europe in the fifth and fourth millennia BCE, during the Early Neolithic period. Typically constructed from earth and either timber or stone, those using the latter material repres ...
. A hoard of
Roman
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...
coins was discovered at Alton Barnes.
The boundaries of Alton Barnes parish were established in the early 10th century, and the
ancient parish became a civil parish in 1866. Alton Priors was a
chapelry
A chapelry was a subdivision of an ecclesiastical parish in England and parts of Lowland Scotland up to the mid 19th century.
Status
It had a similar status to a township but was so named as it had a chapel of ease (chapel) which was the communi ...
of Overton parish, now
West Overton
West Overton is a village and civil parish in the English county of Wiltshire, about west of Marlborough. The river Kennet runs immediately north of the village, separating it from the A4 road. The parish includes the village of Lockeridge, a ...
, and became a separate civil parish in 1866. In 1934 the civil parishes of Alton Barnes and Alton Priors were abolished and merged to form the new civil parish of Alton.
In 1086,
Domesday Book
Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...
recorded two landholdings within
Swanborough Hundred
Swanborough was a hundred of the English county of Wiltshire, mostly lying in the centre of the county to the south of the town of Devizes. An area of the hundred reached several miles southwards into Salisbury Plain.
The hundred contained the par ...
at ''Awltone'': one corresponding to Alton Barnes, held by
Edward of Salisbury, with 14 households and a mill; and another held by
Winchester Abbey
Hyde Abbey was a medieval Benedictine monastery just outside the walls of Winchester, Hampshire, England. It was dissolved and demolished in 1538 following various acts passed under King Henry VIII to dissolve monasteries and abbeys (see Diss ...
with 50 households and two mills. The association of the latter with the abbey led later to the name Alton Priors.
The
Wiltshire Victoria County History
The Wiltshire Victoria County History, properly called The Victoria History of the County of Wiltshire but commonly referred to as VCH Wiltshire, is an encyclopaedic history of the county of Wiltshire in England. It forms part of the overall Vic ...
traces the later ownership of the manors: Alton Barnes was granted in 1385 by
William of Wykeham
William of Wykeham (; 1320 or 1324 – 27 September 1404) was Bishop of Winchester and Chancellor of England. He founded New College, Oxford, and New College School in 1379, and founded Winchester College in 1382. He was also the clerk of wor ...
to
New College, Oxford
New College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1379 by William of Wykeham in conjunction with Winchester College as its feeder school, New College is one of the oldest colleges at th ...
which he had recently founded, and it remained in their ownership in 1970.
Alton Priors remained with the abbey until the
dissolution
Dissolution may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Books
* ''Dissolution'' (''Forgotten Realms'' novel), a 2002 fantasy novel by Richard Lee Byers
* ''Dissolution'' (Sansom novel), a 2003 historical novel by C. J. Sansom Music
* Dissolution, in mu ...
, then passed through several hands until the estate was bought by New College in 1912.
The Ridgeway
The ancient tree-lined path winds over the downs countryside
The Ridgeway is a ridgeway or ancient trackway described as Britain's oldest road. The section clearly identified as an ancient trackway extends from Wiltshire along the chalk ...
, an
ancient trackway
Historic roads (historic trails in USA and Canada) are paths or routes that have historical importance due to their use over a period of time. Examples exist from prehistoric times until the early 20th century. They include ancient trackway ...
, passes through Alton Barnes (although this section is not part of the Ridgeway National Trail, which begins further north). The
Wansdyke, an early medieval earthwork, crosses the north of the parish on the
Marlborough Downs
The North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) is located in the English counties of Berkshire, Hampshire, Oxfordshire and Wiltshire. The name ''North Wessex Downs'' is not a traditional one, the area covered being better k ...
.
Alton Barnes Manor Farmhouse (18th-century) and the Manor House at Alton Priors (c. 1830) are
Grade II listed
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
.
Local government
Alton is a civil parish with an elected
parish council. It is in the area of the
Wiltshire Council
Wiltshire Council is a council for the unitary authority of Wiltshire (excluding the separate unitary authority of Swindon) in South West England, created in 2009. It is the successor authority to Wiltshire County Council (1889–2009) and the ...
unitary authority
A unitary authority is a local authority responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are usually performed by a higher level of sub-national government or the national governmen ...
, which is responsible for all significant local government functions, and is represented in the council by Paul Oatway, who succeeded
Brigadier Robert Hall in 2013.
Parish churches
![All Saints Alton Priors](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e0/All_Saints_Alton_Priors.jpg)
Both villages had a
Church of England parish church
A parish church in the Church of England is the church which acts as the religious centre for the people within each Church of England parish (the smallest and most basic Church of England administrative unit; since the 19th century sometimes ca ...
; Alton Barnes church continues in use.
St Mary, Alton Barnes
The Church of St. Mary the Virgin in Alton Barnes is partly
Saxon
The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic
*
*
*
*
peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...
,
built in the 10th and 11th centuries,
although Domesday Book mentions no church. It has only a
chancel
In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse.
Ove ...
,
nave
The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...
and west tower. The nave has
characteristic Anglo-Saxon features: typically tall, narrow proportions and (visible at the west end) long-and-short
quoins
Quoins ( or ) are masonry blocks at the corner of a wall. Some are structural, providing strength for a wall made with inferior stone or rubble, while others merely add aesthetic detail to a corner. According to one 19th century encyclopedia, t ...
.
The round-headed north doorway, now blocked and glazed, is another early feature.
The south door was added in the 14th century.
The original chancel was as wide as the nave, but it was demolished and replaced with a brick one in 1748.
The two bells are dated 1626 and 1788, and were rehung in the west gable in 1904.
There was a Saxon chancel arch but this was removed in 1832.
There was a
Victorian restoration
The Victorian restoration was the widespread and extensive refurbishment and rebuilding of Church of England churches and cathedrals that took place in England and Wales during the 19th-century reign of Queen Victoria. It was not the same proce ...
in 1875, and a further restoration in 1904 directed by the local architect
Charles Ponting
Charles Edwin Ponting, F.S.A., (1850–1932) was a Gothic Revival architect who practised in Marlborough, Wiltshire.
Career
Ponting began his architectural career in 1864 in the office of the architect Samuel Overton. He was agent for Meux br ...
.
Pevsner Pevsner or Pevzner is a Jewish surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Aihud Pevsner (1925–2018), American physicist
* Antoine Pevsner (1886–1962), Russian sculptor, brother of Naum Gabo
* David Pevsner, American actor, singer, da ...
assesses the nave as "over-restored" but praises its roof.
The building was designated as
Grade I listed in 1964.
All Saints, Alton Priors
Alton Priors' church was built in the 12th century and retains its original
Norman
Norman or Normans may refer to:
Ethnic and cultural identity
* The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries
** People or things connected with the Norm ...
chancel arch.
The nave has two 14th-century
ogee
An ogee ( ) is the name given to objects, elements, and curves—often seen in architecture and building trades—that have been variously described as serpentine-, extended S-, or sigmoid-shaped. Ogees consist of a "double curve", the combinat ...
-headed windows and the west window is 15th-century.
As at Alton Barnes, the original chancel has been demolished and replaced with one built of brick.
There is a distinctive brass plaque to local landowner
William Button (1526–1591), with complex artwork and inscription. All Saints was declared
redundant in 1972 and was placed in the care of the
Churches Conservation Trust
The Churches Conservation Trust is a registered charity whose purpose is to protect historic churches at risk in England. The charity cares for over 350 churches of architectural, cultural and historic significance, which have been transferred in ...
.
It is a
Grade II* listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Ir ...
.
Parish
Alton Priors was anciently a
chapelry
A chapelry was a subdivision of an ecclesiastical parish in England and parts of Lowland Scotland up to the mid 19th century.
Status
It had a similar status to a township but was so named as it had a chapel of ease (chapel) which was the communi ...
of Overton parish.
In 1913, Alton Priors was annexed to Alton Barnes to form the parish of Alton Barnes with Alton Priors. The benefice was united with
Stanton St Bernard
Stanton St Bernard is a village and civil parish in the Vale of Pewsey, Wiltshire, England. Its nearest town is Devizes, about away to the west.
The parish is tall and narrow, extending north onto the Marlborough Downs where it includes Milk Hi ...
in 1928,
with the parsonage house at Stanton St Bernard to be sold, taking effect on the next vacancy (which occurred in 1932).
At the same time, Honeystreet hamlet was brought into the parish from
Woodborough and West Stowell hamlet was transferred to
Wilsford.
A team ministry was established for the area in 1975, and today the parish is part of the Vale of Pewsey group, alongside 15 others.
Notable buildings
The former Alton Barnes
glebe
Glebe (; also known as church furlong, rectory manor or parson's close(s))McGurk 1970, p. 17 is an area of land within an ecclesiastical parish used to support a parish priest. The land may be owned by the church, or its profits may be reserved ...
house, now called the Old Rectory, stands west of the church. Built in vitrified brick with dressings in red brick and stone, it has two storeys with an attic. The five-bay east range is from the 1720s or 1730s, the rear block was added in 1785 and further alterations were made around the 1830s.
Augustus William Hare
Augustus William Hare (17 November 1792 – 22 January 1834) was a British writer who was the author of a history of Germany.
Life
Hare was the son of Francis Hare-Naylor and his wife, the artist Georgiana, daughter of Jonathan Shipley, Bisho ...
, orator and writer, lived here c.1829 to 1833 during his rectorship, until his early death.
At Alton Priors, the limestone T-plan house known as the Manor House was built c.1830 in the north of the village; it is surrounded by an earlier walled garden and probably replaced an earlier house.
The original manor house, now The Priory, stands by the stream that separates the two Altons; built in Flemish brickwork in the late 17th century, it was much reduced in size in the early 19th century. What remains is a four-bay block of two storeys with attic, and a single-storey kitchen wing.
Canal
The
Kennet and Avon Canal, opened in 1810, crosses the parish. A wharf at Honeystreet served the local area and a rural industrial area developed around it, including a firm of barge builders – Robbins, Lane, and Pinniger – who continued until the 1950s.
The Barge Inn was built at Honeystreet in 1858, replacing an earlier building, to cater for those living and working on the canal. It was designated as Grade II listed in 1987. In 2010, following the closure of the business, local volunteers successfully applied for funding to aid its reopening from the
Village SOS lottery fund. In 2011 the project was the subject of episode 2 of ''Village SOS'' on
BBC One
BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, p ...
. The group ceased to run the pub in October 2012.
Notable people
William Button (by 1503–1547, landowner) is buried in Alton Priors church, as is his son, also
William
William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...
(1526–1591). Both were Members of Parliament, as were two more family members:
Ambrose
Ambrose of Milan ( la, Aurelius Ambrosius; ), venerated as Saint Ambrose, ; lmo, Sant Ambroeus . was a theologian and statesman who served as Bishop of Milan from 374 to 397. He expressed himself prominently as a public figure, fiercely promo ...
(c.1549–c.1608) and
Sir William Button, 1st Baronet
Sir William Button, 1st Baronet (1584 – 16 January 1655) was an English landowner who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1614 and 1629. He supported the Royalist cause in the English Civil War.
Button was the son of William B ...
(c.1584–1655).
Distinguished
rectors of Alton Barnes include
Richard Steward
Richard Steward or Stewart (1593? – 1651) was an English royalist churchman, clerk of the closet to Charles I of England, Charles I and designated Dean of St. Paul's and Westminster, though not able to take up his position because of the warti ...
(c. 1593–1651, royalist churchman), rector from 1630;
William Crowe (1745–1829, poet) from 1787; and
Augustus William Hare
Augustus William Hare (17 November 1792 – 22 January 1834) was a British writer who was the author of a history of Germany.
Life
Hare was the son of Francis Hare-Naylor and his wife, the artist Georgiana, daughter of Jonathan Shipley, Bisho ...
(1792–1834, writer) from 1831.
In popular culture
The Barge Inn at Honeystreet was a filming location for a 1998 episode of ''
Inspector Morse
Detective Chief Inspector Endeavour Morse, GM, is the eponymous fictional character in the series of detective novels by British author Colin Dexter. On television, he appears in the 33-episode drama series '' Inspector Morse'' (1987–2000), ...
'', an adaptation of ''
The Wench Is Dead
''The Wench Is Dead'' is a historical crime novel by Colin Dexter, the eighth novel in the Inspector Morse series. The novel received the Gold Dagger Award in 1989.
Plot summary
In 1859, the body of a young woman was found floating in the Oxf ...
''. In 2013 the white horse, Adam's Grave and the Barge Inn featured in an episode of ''Walking Through History'', presented by
Tony Robinson
Sir Anthony Robinson (born 15 August 1946) is an English actor, author, broadcaster, comedian, presenter, and political activist. He played Baldrick in the BBC television series ''Blackadder'' and has presented several historical documentarie ...
on
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...
.
Amenities
The Barge Inn at Honeystreet is the sole
pub
A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...
in the parish. Alton Barnes has a village hall, the Coronation Hall, which was built in 1953 and extended in 2000.
The nearest primary school is at
Woodborough. A
Parochial school was opened at Alton Barnes in 1837 and closed in 1976 owing to falling pupil numbers.
Alton Barnes white horse
![Alton Barnes white horse - from the air](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7d/Alton_Barnes_white_horse_-_from_the_air.jpg)
There is a chalk
hill figure
A hill figure is a large visual representation created by cutting into a steep hillside and revealing the underlying geology. It is a type of geoglyph usually designed to be seen from afar rather than above. In some cases trenches are dug and ...
of a horse dating from 1812 (), a little more than 1000 m north of Alton. It is based on another white horse hill figure in Wiltshire, the
Cherhill White Horse
Cherhill White Horse is a hill figure on Cherhill Down, 3.5 miles east of Calne in Wiltshire, England. Dating from the late 18th century, it is the third oldest of several such white horses in Great Britain, with only the Uffington White Horse ...
.
The figure is the third largest white horse in Wiltshire. The
Pewsey White Horse
Pewsey White Horse is a hill figure of a white horse near the village of Pewsey, Wiltshire, England. Cut of chalk in 1937, it replaces an earlier horse that had disappeared under the grass and is one of eight remaining white horses in Wiltshire ...
can be seen from
Milk Hill (the location of the horse). The figure is featured in ''Staying Out for the Summer'', a music video for a song of the same name by
Dodgy
Dodgy is an English rock band formed in Hounslow in 1990. The band rose to prominence during the Britpop era of the 1990s. They are best known for their hits "Staying Out for the Summer", "If You're Thinking of Me", and " Good Enough". Good ...
.
For
April Fool's Day
April Fools' Day or All Fools' Day is an annual custom on 1 April consisting of practical jokes and hoaxes. Jokesters often expose their actions by shouting "April Fools!" at the recipient. Mass media can be involved in these pranks, which ma ...
in 2003 and 2014, the horse was temporarily transformed into a zebra, on the latter occasion by applying black stripes, made from plastic sheeting, across the horse.
Crop circles
Since the late 1970s Wiltshire has become known for
crop circle
A crop circle, crop formation, or corn circle is a pattern created by flattening a crop, usually a cereal. The term was first coined in the early 1980s by Colin Andrews. Crop circles have been described as all falling "within the range of the ...
s (patterns created by flattening a crop, usually of cereal). In 1990 a pattern at Alton was used on the cover of the ''
Box Set
A box set or (its original name) boxed set is a set of items (for example, a compilation of books, musical recordings, films or television programs) traditionally packaged in a box and offered for sale as a single unit.
Music
Artists and bands ...
'' compilation by rock band
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin were an English rock band formed in London in 1968. The group comprised vocalist Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham. With a heavy, guitar-driven sound, they are ci ...
.
References
*
External links
geograph.co.uk: photos of the Altons and surrounding areaBBC webpage about the White HorseThames Valley Hang Gliding Club*
*{{OpenDomesday, SU1162, alton-priors, Alton [Priors]
Civil parishes in Wiltshire