Savernake is a

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 ...

immediately south and southeast 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 ...

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 settlements in the parish are the

hamlets A hamlet is a human settlement that is smaller than a town or village. Its size relative to a parish can depend on the administration and region. A hamlet may be considered to be a smaller settlement or subdivision or satellite entity to a lar ...

of Cadley, Clench Common and Forest Hill.

Savernake Forest Savernake Forest stands on a Cretaceous chalk plateau between Marlborough and Great Bedwyn in Wiltshire, England. Its area is approximately . Most of the forest lies within the civil parish of Savernake. It is privately owned by the Earl of Ca ...

covers the eastern half of the parish.

History

Two

Roman roads 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 ...

cross the parish, one from Mildenhall to Old Salisbury and the other between Cirencester and Winchester. There is a Romano-British kiln site in the forest. The eastern end of Wansdyke, an

early medieval The Early Middle Ages (or early medieval period), sometimes controversially referred to as the Dark Ages, is typically regarded by historians as lasting from the late 5th or early 6th century to the 10th century. They marked the start of the Mi ...

defensive earthwork, is in the northeast of the parish. A 2009 study by English Heritage (now

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked wit ...

) examined aerial photographs of Savernake Forest together with data from a 2007

Lidar Lidar (, also LIDAR, or LiDAR; sometimes LADAR) is a method for determining ranges (variable distance) by targeting an object or a surface with a laser and measuring the time for the reflected light to return to the receiver. It can also be ...

survey carried out for the

Forestry Commission The Forestry Commission is a non-ministerial government department responsible for the management of publicly owned forests and the regulation of both public and private forestry in England. The Forestry Commission was previously also respon ...

. Many new archaeological sites were found, ranging from the

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 parts ...

to the Second World War.

Cadley

The hamlet of Cadley () is at the edge of Savernake Forest, on the A346 between Marlborough and Burbage. An

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

church, Christchurch, was built by

T.H. Wyatt Thomas Henry Wyatt (9 May 1807 – 5 August 1880) was an Anglo-Irish architect. He had a prolific and distinguished career, being elected President of the Royal Institute of British Architects 1870–73 and being awarded its Royal Gold Medal for A ...

in 1851 for the

Marquess of Ailesbury Marquess of Ailesbury (later styled Aylesbury), in the County of Buckingham, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 17 July 1821 for Charles Brudenell-Bruce, 2nd Earl of Ailesbury. On 18 March 1664, Robert Bruce, 2 ...

. It was closed in 1975 and declared redundant in 1979, then sold for residential use.

Clench Common

The hamlet of Clench Common () is a small agricultural community in the northwest of the parish, on the A345 between Marlborough and

Pewsey Pewsey is a large village and civil parish at the centre of the Vale of Pewsey in Wiltshire, about south of Marlborough and west of London. It is within reach of the M4 motorway and the A303 and is served by Pewsey railway station on the Rea ...

. It is north of the hamlet of

Clench Clench may refer to: People * Clench (surname) Places in England * Clench, Wiltshire, in the parish of Milton Lilbourne ** Clench Mill, a windmill in Wiltshire * Clench Common, a hamlet in the parish of Savernake, Wiltshire In fiction * C ...

which is in

Milton Lilbourne Milton Lilbourne is a village and civil parish in the county of Wiltshire, England, in the Vale of Pewsey between Pewsey and Burbage. It is largely a mixed residential area centred on the Manor. The nearest town is Marlborough, to the north. ...

parish. Clench Common Airfield is a grass strip about east of the hamlet, used by

microlight Ultralight aviation (called microlight aviation in some countries) is the flying of lightweight, 1- or 2-seat fixed-wing aircraft. Some countries differentiate between weight-shift control and conventional three-axis control aircraft with ailer ...

aircraft.

Local government

The parish elects a parish council. It 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 functions. Savernake parish was created in 1934, with boundary changes in 1987; predecessor parishes were North Savernake and South Savernake (with Brimslade and Cadley).

Canal

When the

Kennet and Avon Canal The Kennet and Avon Canal is a waterway in southern England with an overall length of , made up of two lengths of navigable river linked by a canal. The name is used to refer to the entire length of the navigation rather than solely to the cent ...

was opened in 1810 it crossed the parish, which extended further south than the present-day parish. Wootton Top Lock was formerly known as Cadley Lock.

Railways

The Berks and Hants line, part of a

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...

route from London to Devon and Cornwall, was built close to the canal in 1862. '' Savernake'' station (later ''Savernake Low Level'') was beyond the southeast border of the parish, towards Burbage. On 14 November 1941 the station was the scene of the tragic death of Edward Huskinson, who had been the editor of the

Tatler ''Tatler'' is a British magazine published by Condé Nast Publications focusing on fashion and lifestyle, as well as coverage of high society and politics. It is targeted towards the British upper-middle class and upper class, and those interes ...

magazine for 32 years, after he became stuck between a train and the platform edge. The station closed in 1966 but the line remains open; the nearest stations are at Bedwyn and

. A branch – the Marlborough Railway – between Savernake Low Level and Marlborough was built through the parish in 1864. In 1896 the

Swindon, Marlborough and Andover Railway The Midland and South Western Junction Railway (M&SWJR) was an independent railway built to form a north–south link between the Midland Railway and the London and South Western Railway in England, allowing the Midland and other companies' tr ...

built another line between a second Marlborough station and a second Savernake station, ''Savernake High Level'', near to the first. The original branch line closed in 1933, the High Level station closed in 1961 and Low Level (by then renamed ''Savernake for Marlborough'') in 1966; the line was later removed. During World War II a large ammunition store was established north of Savernake station, with sidings for rail to road transfer.

Schools

A National School was opened at Cadley in 1850. It closed owing to low numbers of pupils in 1939. Today the local schools are at Marlborough, Burbage and St Katharines (near Tottenham House, just over the boundary with

Great Bedwyn Great Bedwyn is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in east Wiltshire, England. The village is on the River Dun (River Kennet), River Dun about southwest of Hungerford, southeast of Swindon and southeast of Marlborough, Wilt ...

parish).

References

External links

{{Commons category-inline, Cadley, Wiltshire Civil parishes in Wiltshire