Latton is a 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 ...
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, north of
Cricklade
Cricklade is a town and civil parish on the River Thames in north Wiltshire, England, midway between Swindon and Cirencester. It is the first downstream town on the Thames. The parish population at the 2011 census was 4,227.
History
Cricklade ...
, on the county border with Gloucestershire. The village is bypassed by the
A419 road
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 Manage ...
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
Cirencester (, ; see below for more variations) is a market town in Gloucestershire, England, west of London. Cirencester lies on the River Churn, a tributary of the River Thames, and is the largest town in the Cotswolds. It is the home of ...
. 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
The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...
and its tributary the
River Ray
The River Ray is a tributary of the River Cherwell in south east England. It rises at Quainton Hill, Buckinghamshire and flows west through flat countryside for around to meet the Cherwell at Islip in Oxfordshire.
The Ray's catchment area i ...
; in the northwest the
River Churn
The River Churn is a tributary of the River Thames in central England. It rises at Seven Springs in Gloucestershire and flows south for approximately to meet the Thames at Cricklade in Wiltshire. Its length from its source to the confluence wi ...
, another tributary of the Thames.
History
Latton village lies near
Ermin Street
Ermin Street or Ermin Way was a Roman road in Britain. It linked Glevum (Gloucester) and Corinium (Cirencester) to Calleva (Silchester).
At Glevum, it connected to the road to Isca (Caerleon), the legionary base in southeast Wales. At Corinium ...
, 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
William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England, reigning from 1066 until his death in 1087 ...
. 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
![St John the Baptist church, Latton - geograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3c/St_John_the_Baptist_church%2C_Latton_-_geograph.org.uk_-_714213.jpg)
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
William Butterfield (7 September 1814 – 23 February 1900) was a Gothic Revival architect and associated with the Oxford Movement (or Tractarian Movement). He is noted for his use of polychromy.
Biography
William Butterfield was born in Lon ...
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
Lechlade () is a town at the southern edge of the Cotswolds in Gloucestershire, England, south of Birmingham and west of London. It is the highest point at which the River Thames is navigable, although there is a right of navigation that contin ...
until its closure in 1933. Near the village was a junction with the North Wilts Canal, a branch of the
Wilts & Berks Canal
The Wilts & Berks Canal is a canal in the Historic counties of England, historic counties of Wiltshire and Berkshire, England, linking the Kennet and Avon Canal at Semington near Melksham, to the River Thames at Abingdon, Oxfordshire, Abingdon. ...
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
Sand mining is the extraction of sand, mainly through an open pit (or sand pit) but sometimes mined from beaches and inland dunes or dredged from ocean and river beds. Sand is often used in manufacturing, for example as an abrasive or in concret ...
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 Cotswold Water Park is the United Kingdom's largest marl lake system, straddling the Wiltshire–Gloucestershire border, northwest of Cricklade and south of Cirencester. There are 180 lakes, spread over .
The park is a mix of nature con ...
.
The
Co-Operative Wholesale Society
A co-operative wholesale society, or CWS, is a form of co-operative federation (that is, a co-operative in which all the members are co-operatives), in this case, the members are usually consumer cooperatives. According to co-operative economi ...
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