Nettleton is a village and civil parish about northwest of

Chippenham Chippenham is a market town in northwest Wiltshire, England. It lies northeast of Bath, west of London, and is near the Cotswolds Area of Natural Beauty. The town was established on a crossing of the River Avon and some form of settlement i ...

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 villages of Burton and West Kington, and the hamlets of Horsedown, Nettleton Shrub and West Kington Wick. The northern section of Nettleton village is known as Nettleton Green. Until 1934, Burton and Nettleton were separate parishes.

Geography

The eastern limit of the parish is the boundary with the county of

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Glo ...

. The Burton Brook and Broadmead Brook flow through the north and south of the parish respectively, meeting to form the Bybrook River on the eastern boundary of the parish. Nettleton Mill, an ancient watermill which was part of the

Castle Combe Castle Combe is a village and civil parish within the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in Wiltshire, England. The village is around north-west of Chippenham. A castle once stood in the area, but was demolished centuries ago. The vi ...

estate, is on the Broadmead Brook at the southeastern boundary of the parish. The

Fosse Way The Fosse Way was a Roman road built in Britain during the first and second centuries AD that linked Isca Dumnoniorum (Exeter) in the southwest and Lindum Colonia ( Lincoln) to the northeast, via Lindinis (Ilchester), Aquae Sulis (Bath), Cori ...

runs through the parish, crossing both brooks.

History

Lugbury is a chambered

long barrow Long barrows are a style of monument constructed across Western Europe in the fifth and fourth millennia BCE, during the Neolithic Europe, Early Neolithic period. Typically constructed from earth and either timber or stone, those using the latt ...

about east of the village.Pevsner & Cherry, 1975, page356 Excavations in the 19th century found 28 human skeletons in its chambers. WP 20140413 17 26 59 Pro

Remains of a

Romano-British The Romano-British culture arose in Britain under the Roman Empire following the Roman conquest in AD 43 and the creation of the province of Britannia. It arose as a fusion of the imported Roman culture with that of the indigenous Britons, a ...

settlement of about 30 buildings have been found in the north-west of the parish, where the

crosses the Broadmead Brook, south-west of Brotton Hill wood. This was excavated between 1956 and 1971; it is now field and woodland again. It was interpreted as a religious site, including an octagonal shrine some 10 metres in diameter.

Apollo Cunomaglus Cunomaglus ("Hound Lord") is the epithet of a Celtic god identified with Apollo. A temple at Nettleton Shrub in Wiltshire was dedicated to Apollo Cunomaglus, existing shortly after 69 AD. In the 3rd Century BC it developed into a major cult centre ...

may have been its overall patron; dedications to other deities, probably including Diana, Mercury, and

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Roman god of war. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin atmosp ...

with his Gaulish consort

Rosmerta In Gallo-Roman religion, Rosmerta was a goddess of fertility and abundance, her attributes being those of plenty such as the cornucopia. Rosmerta is attested by statues and by inscriptions. In Gaul she was often depicted with the Roman god Merc ...

, were also found.

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 24 households in 1086.

Religion

Nettleton has had a

Baptist Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only ( believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul com ...

chapel since 1823. The

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities ...

is St Mary's at Burton; West Kington has a church of St Mary the Virgin. The benefice of Littleton Drew (in Grittleton civil parish) was united with Nettleton in 1960. Today the parish is served by the Bybrook Team Ministry.

References

Sources

* *

External links

Nettleton Parish Council
* {{authority control Villages in Wiltshire Civil parishes in Wiltshire Roman sites in England Archaeological sites in Wiltshire