Latton is a village and
civil parish in
Wiltshire, England, north of
Cricklade, on the county border with Gloucestershire. The village is bypassed by the
A419 road from
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 ...
to
Cirencester. The parish includes the hamlet of Eysey, formerly a village with its own church and parish.
Watercourses form several of the parish boundaries. In the northeast (also the county boundary) the boundary is the Ampney Brook; in the south, the
Thames and its tributary the
River Ray; in the northwest the
River Churn, another tributary of the Thames.
History
Latton village lies near
Ermin Street, the
Roman road
Roman roads ( la, viae Romanae ; singular: ; meaning "Roman way") were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, and were built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Re ...
which ran southeast–northwest from
Silchester
Silchester is a village and civil parish about north of Basingstoke in Hampshire. It is adjacent to the county boundary with Berkshire and about south-west of Reading.
Silchester is most notable for the archaeological site and Roman town of ...
to the present-day Cirencester and Gloucester.
The Domesday Book of 1068 recorded a settlement of some 20 households at Latone, with two mills. Land at Latton and "Esi" was held by
Reinbald, as recorded in a 1067 writ of
William I. Latton and Eisey were granted in 1133 by Henry I to
Cirencester Abbey
Cirencester Abbey or St Mary's Abbey, Cirencester in Gloucestershire was founded as an Augustinian monastery in 1117 on the site of an earlier church, the oldest-known Saxon church in England, which had itself been built on the site of a Roman stru ...
on the abbey's foundation.
In 1896 the parish of Eisey (as it was then written) was added to Latton parish, extending it to the east and south and more than doubling its area.
In 1984, after the A419 had been straightened to bypass Cricklade, land on the town's side of the road was transferred to Cricklade parish.
Eysey
The ancient parish of Eisey or Eysey lay east of Latton. In the Middle Ages there were settlements at Eisey and Water Eaton, which have both dwindled to farms.
There was a small church at Eisey from the 12th century or earlier until its closure in 1948; the church of St Mary that was demolished in 1953 was a rebuilding of 1844. There had been a dependant chapel at Water Eaton, dedicated to St Laurence, from the 12th century or earlier until the 17th. In 1819 a united parish of Latton with Eisey was created.
Church
The present
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 ...
of St John dates from the 12th century. The lower part of the tower, the tower arch and chancel arch are from that century, and there is a late 12th century south door; the transepts are c. 1300. 19th-century
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
...
included partial rebuilding by
William Butterfield in 1858–63;
the nave was restored in 1992.
The tower has five bells, four of them dated 1709 and made by the elder
Abraham Rudhall. The church was designated as
Grade I 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 ...
in 1955.
In 1819, Latton was united with the neighbouring ecclesiastical parish of Eisey.
In 1952 Latton was united with two Cricklade parishes, and outlying parts of the former Eisey parish were transferred to its neighbours. Today the parish is part of the Upper Thames benefice.
Transport
The
Thames and Severn Canal
The Thames and Severn Canal is a canal in Gloucestershire in the south-west of England, which was completed in 1789. It was conceived as part of a cargo route from Bristol and the Midlands to London, linking England's two largest rivers for bett ...
, opened in 1789, passed through the parish, connecting
Stroud
Stroud is a market town and civil parish in Gloucestershire, England. It is the main town in Stroud District. The town's population was 13,500 in 2021.
Below the western escarpment of the Cotswold Hills, at the meeting point of the Five ...
with the Thames at
Lechlade until its closure in 1933. Near the village was a junction with the North Wilts Canal, a branch of the
Wilts & Berks Canal which provided a connection to Swindon from 1819 until 1914.
The road which followed the route of Ermin Street was designated the
A419
The A419 road is a primary route between Chiseldon near Swindon at junction 15 of the M4 with the A346 road, and Whitminster in Gloucestershire, England near the M5 motorway. The A419 is managed and maintained by a private company, Road Manag ...
in 1922 and became a trunk road in 1946.
In 1997, Latton village was bypassed to the west by a new section of the A419.
Economy
Gravel extraction began on a small scale in the 16th century, and extensive
extraction of sand and gravel from land south-west of Ermin Street was begun in the mid 1990s.
Two lakes from these workings form an extension of the
Cotswold Water Park.
The
Co-Operative Wholesale Society had a creamery near Latton from 1935, which employed some 139 people in 1956; it closed in around 1996.
References
External links
*
{{authority control
Villages in Wiltshire
Civil parishes in Wiltshire