Burcombe is a village in the
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 authorit ...
of Burcombe Without, 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 village is about west of
Salisbury
Salisbury ( ) is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers Avon, Nadder and Bourne. The city is approximately from Southampton and from Bath.
Salisbury is in the southeast of ...
city centre and lies each side of an unclassified road. Burcombe is an unspoiled village with many of the houses' gardens leading down to the
River Nadder
The River Nadder is a tributary of the River Avon, flowing in south Wiltshire, England.
Course
The river flows north from Ludwell to West End where it is joined by the Ferne Brook, close to the Lower Coombe and Ferne Brook Meadows site of spec ...
. The parish includes the hamlet of Ugford which is on the
A30 road
The A30 is a major road in England, running WSW from London to Land's End.
The road has been a principal axis in Britain from the 17th century to early 19th century, as a major coaching route. It used to provide the fastest route from Lond ...
near the boundary with
Wilton parish.
History
The name is thought to derive from the Saxon name of Brydancumb or Bryda's Valley.
At one time in antiquity the village was called South Burcombe and had a twin, North Burcombe, which stood on the north side of what is now the A30 road. Nothing remains of North Burcombe but the church.
Evidence of
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 p ...
or
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...
activity in the area includes, in the south of the parish, a
round barrow at the top of a steep slope overlooking Punch Bowl Bottom, a deep valley in the downland with a semicircular head. Part of the northern boundary of Burcombe parish follows Grovely Ditch or
Grim's Ditch
Grim's Ditch, Grim's Dyke (also Grimsdyke or Grimes Dike in derivative names) or Grim's Bank is a name shared by a number of prehistoric bank and ditch linear earthworks across England. They are of different dates and may have had different funct ...
, an
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostl ...
earthwork.
Small settlements at ''Bredecube'' (Burcombe) and ''Ocheforde'' (Ugford) were recorded in the 1086
Domesday survey, when some of the land was held by
Wilton Abbey
Wilton Abbey was a Benedictine convent in Wiltshire, England, three miles from Salisbury, probably on the site now occupied by Wilton House. It was active from the early tenth century until 1539.
History Foundation
Wilton Abbey is first reco ...
.
Ugford House is dated 1636. Much of the housing in Burcombe village was built by the
Wilton estate,
including Burcombe Manor, a farmhouse dated 1865.
The ancient parish of Burcombe extended further west towards Ditchampton and
Wilton. In 1885 Wilton's boundaries were enlarged to include part of Burcombe, which was known for a short time as Burcombe Within; in 1934 a further small part of Burcombe was transferred to Wilton.
Until 1884, North Ugford (comprising the present-day hamlet and an area of farmland, all north of the river) was part of
South Newton parish. A church stood in the 13th century but there is no record of it after 1535. The 1934 enlargement of Wilton took some of the Ugford land, thus Wilton's western boundary is now just east of Ugford hamlet.
Church of St John the Baptist
![The Church of St John the Baptist, Burcombe - geograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/74/The_Church_of_St_John_the_Baptist%2C_Burcombe_-_geograph.org.uk_-_869239.jpg)
The
Church of England parish church of St John is built on higher ground near the A30 road, to the north of the village centre, it is assumed to protect it from the possibility of flooding from the river in the lower part of the valley. It was permitted by the Abbesses of
Wilton and has features in the corner work of the masonry which indicate strongly that it was originally of
Saxon construction, although it has undergone many changes, including
restoration
Restoration is the act of restoring something to its original state and may refer to:
* Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage
** Audio restoration
** Film restoration
** Image restoration
** Textile restoration
* Restoration ecology
...
in 1859 by
T.H. Wyatt.
The church is unusual in that it has a tower, rebuilt in 1667,
which is lower than the nave roof.
In 1960 the church was designated as a
Grade II* listed building. It was declared redundant in 2005 and its sale was proposed in 2007.
The Quaere placename
In the early 17th century, when
John Speed prepared a map of Wiltshire he copied a version by
Christopher Saxton
Christopher Saxton (c. 1540 – c. 1610) was an English cartographer who produced the first county maps of England and Wales.
Life and family
Saxton was probably born in Sowood, Ossett in the parish of Dewsbury, in the West Riding of Yorkshire ...
, which showed but did not name North Burcombe. On his own map, Speed labelled the village Quaere (Latin for ''query''), presumably because he intended to check the name later, but never did, and his engraver copied the annotation as if it were the village's name. Later map printers in turn copied Speed's map and 'Quaere' appeared on maps of Wiltshire for 145 years until
Emanuel Bowen
Emanuel Bowen (1694 – 8 May 1767) was a Welsh map engraver, who achieved the unique distinction of becoming Royal Mapmaker to both to King George II of Great Britain and Louis XV of France. Bowen was highly regarded by his contemporaries for p ...
corrected the mistake in his 1755 map of the county.
Amenities
The Ship Inn at Burcombe is a 17th-century village pub with whitewashed walls, low ceilings with oak beams and a large open fire. The village has a butcher's shop and a small suite of rented offices.
References
External links
*
{{authority control
Villages in Wiltshire