Berwick Bassett is a small village and

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 ...

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, about northwest of

Marlborough Marlborough may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Marlborough, Wiltshire, England ** Marlborough College, public school * Marlborough School, Woodstock in Oxfordshire, England * The Marlborough Science Academy in Hertfordshire, England Austral ...

and southwest of

Swindon Swindon () is a town and unitary authority with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Wiltshire, England. As of the 2021 Census, the population of Swindon was 201,669, making it the largest town in the county. The Swindon un ...

. The village is on the west bank of a headstream of the

River Kennet The Kennet is a tributary of the River Thames in Southern England. Most of the river is straddled by the North Wessex Downs AONB (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty). The lower reaches have been made navigable as the Kennet Navigation, which � ...

and close to the

A4361 road The A361 is an A class road in southern England, which at is the longest three-digit A road in the UK. History When first designated in 1922, the A361 ran from Taunton (Somerset) to Banbury (Oxfordshire). It was later extended west through ...

, formerly the A361, which links

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 ...

and

Avebury Avebury () is a Neolithic henge monument containing three stone circles, around the village of Avebury in Wiltshire, in southwest England. One of the best known prehistoric sites in Britain, it contains the largest megalithic stone circle in t ...

with

Wroughton Wroughton is a large village and civil parish in northeast Wiltshire, England. It is part of the Borough of Swindon and lies along the A4361 between Swindon and Avebury; the road into Swindon crosses the M4 motorway between junctions 15 an ...

and Swindon.

Geography

The parish of Berwick Bassett is part of Calne Hundred and comprises about 1400 acres about north of Avebury. It has a slender rectangular shape, oriented east and west, and is crossed from north to south by the upper part of the

, which flows only in the winter months. The village of Berwick Basset lies to the west of the stream and has a small

village green A village green is a commons, common open area within a village or other settlement. Historically, a village green was common pasture, grassland with a pond for watering cattle and other stock, often at the edge of a rural settlement, used for ...

close to the bridge, around which are clustered the Manor, Home Farm and Berwick House Farm.

History

There are a number of ancient sites in the parish; these include

flint tool A stone tool is, in the most general sense, any tool made either partially or entirely out of stone. Although stone tool-dependent societies and cultures still exist today, most stone tools are associated with prehistoric (particularly Stone Ag ...

s, Romano-British pottery fragments,

cropmark Cropmarks or crop marks are a means through which sub-surface archaeological, natural and recent features may be visible from the air or a vantage point on higher ground or a temporary platform. Such marks, along with parch marks, soil marks an ...

s, enclosures, a round barrow and a medieval farmstead. The

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 ...

known as the Ridgeway forms the eastern boundary of the parish. Berwick was not recorded in the

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 ...

of 1086 and was probably part of the king's

Calne Calne () is a town and civil parish in Wiltshire, southwestern England,OS Explorer Map 156, Chippenham and Bradford-on-Avon Scale: 1:25 000.Publisher: Ordnance Survey A2 edition (2007). at the northwestern extremity of the North Wessex Downs h ...

estate. The Bassett suffix arose after the manor was granted in 1206 to

Alan Basset Alan Basset (died 1232 or 1233) was an English baron. Basset was a younger son of Adeliza and Thomas Basset of Headington, Oxfordshire. In like favour with Richard I and with John, he received from the former the lordships of Woking and Mapledu ...

. He was succeeded by three of his sons in turn:

Gilbert Gilbert may refer to: People and fictional characters * Gilbert (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters *Gilbert (surname), including a list of people Places Australia * Gilbert River (Queensland) * Gilbert River (South ...

, Fulk (who went on to become Bishop of London), and

Philip Philip, also Phillip, is a male given name, derived from the Greek (''Philippos'', lit. "horse-loving" or "fond of horses"), from a compound of (''philos'', "dear", "loved", "loving") and (''hippos'', "horse"). Prominent Philips who popularize ...

(Chief Justiciar). 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 ...

recounts the later landowners. Manor Farmhouse or Old Manor House, next to the church, is from the late 15th century or early 16th. The newer Manor House, near the stream, is from the early 17th. The population of the parish peaked at 203 at the time of the 1851 census. A National school was built near the church in 1847 and was in use until 1922.

Local government

Berwick Bassett is in the area of

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 Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-loca ...

functions. It elects a joint parish council with the adjacent parish of

Winterbourne Monkton Winterbourne Monkton is a small village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, about north of Avebury Stone Circle and northwest of Marlborough. The village lies immediately west of the A4361 road between Swindon and Devizes. History T ...

Church

St Nicholas's Church dates from the early 13th century. Having been declared redundant in 1972, the 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 Irel ...

is now 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 ...

. The parish of Winterbourne Monkton with Berwick Bassett is part of the Upper Kennet benefice.

References

External links

Berwick Bassett and Winterbourne Monkton Parish Council
* {{authority control Villages in Wiltshire Civil parishes in Wiltshire