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Westwood is a large village and a
civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of Parish (administrative division), administrative parish used for Local government in England, local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below district ...
in west
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, Gloucestershir ...
, England. The village is about southwest of the town of Bradford-on-Avon. Upper Westwood, on a ridge crest to the north, was a distinct settlement from Lower Westwood but 20th-century housing filled the gap. The parish includes most of the village of Avoncliff, namely the portion south of the
Avon Avon may refer to: * River Avon (disambiguation), several rivers Organisations *Avon Buses, a bus operating company in Wirral, England *Avon Coachworks, a car body builder established in 1919 at Warwick, England, relaunched in 1922, following ...
, and the hamlet of Lye Green.


Location

The Avon forms most of the northern boundary of the parish; Avoncliff railway station is just over the boundary. 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 c ...
crosses the parish to the north, as far as the Avoncliff Aqueduct. To the northeast lies Bradford on Avon parish, and to the west is the county boundary with
Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lor ...
which follows the valley of the River Frome. Neighbouring villages are Winsley and Turleigh to the north, and Freshford to the west.


History

Westwood's recorded history begins in 983 AD, when King Ethelred's charters granted various pieces of land to his servant Aelfnoth, and four years later to his huntsman Leofwine. In Norman times, Westwood was one of the estates assigned for the support of the monks at
Winchester Cathedral The Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity,Historic England. "Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity (1095509)". '' National Heritage List for England''. Retrieved 8 September 2014. Saint Peter, Saint Paul and Saint Swithun, commonly known as Winche ...
, and the residents of the manor continued to be tenants of Winchester until it was dissolved by
Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disagr ...
. The medieval population of Westwood, as recorded in
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 ...
of 1086, consisted of just 13 households, growing to 45 recorded taxpayers in the late 14th century. Mills were built on the Avon at Avoncliff, and on the Frome at Iford, and were most active in cloth-making and
fulling Fulling, also known as felting, tucking or walking (Scots: ''waukin'', hence often spelled waulking in Scottish English), is a step in woollen clothmaking which involves the cleansing of woven or knitted cloth (particularly wool) to elimin ...
from the 16th century. The parish gained 116 acres on the break-up and abolition of Bradford Without civil parish in 1934.


Quarries

The earliest records of a substantial quarrying industry at Westwood are in 1649. By the mid-19th century, the quality of Westwood stone had earned a good reputation, and over the next half-century, output increased at a great rate. Westwood stone went to build many houses in
Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...
, as well as Holy Trinity church in Trowbridge (1838). A
narrow-gauge railway A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structur ...
was constructed to transport the huge blocks of rough cut stone from the quarry to the cutting-yard at Avoncliff railway station. Nowadays, all that remains from the centuries of intensive quarrying is the labyrinth of tunnels, eight feet high and twelve feet wide. They have been put to a number of imaginative uses, especially after they were taken over by the Ministry of Supply in 1939. For example, the eastern part of the quarry tunnels had since 1928 been used for growing mushrooms, as the relatively stable ambient temperatures and the high humidity of the underground were found perfectly suitable. From 1941, about six hundred workers manufactured gun-control equipment at an underground factory which had been located in the tunnels to defend against
Luftwaffe The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German '' Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the '' Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabt ...
raids. Additionally, by the end of 1942 the Westwood tunnels had "probably housed the greatest and most valuable collection of cultural and artistic artifacts assembled in one location anywhere in the world", including exhibits from the
British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docume ...
, pictures from the
National Portrait Gallery National Portrait Gallery may refer to: *National Portrait Gallery (Australia), in Canberra *National Portrait Gallery (Sweden), in Mariefred *National Portrait Gallery (United States), in Washington, D.C. *National Portrait Gallery, London, with s ...
, tapestries from the
Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and ...
, the
Elgin Marbles The Elgin Marbles (), also known as the Parthenon Marbles ( el, Γλυπτά του Παρθενώνα, lit. "sculptures of the Parthenon"), are a collection of Classical Greece, Classical Greek marble sculptures made under the supervision of th ...
, and the Wright brothers' aeroplane. An air conditioning plant had to be installed to control the humidity underground.


Local government

The civil 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 authorities of England, unitary authority of Borough of Swindon, Swindon) in South West England, created in 2009. It is the successor authorit ...
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 governme ...
, which is responsible for all significant local government functions; the parish forms part of the council's Winsley and Westwood electoral division.


Religious sites


Parish church

A
chapelry A chapelry was a subdivision of an ecclesiastical parish in England and parts of Lowland Scotland up to the mid 19th century. Status It had a similar status to a township but was so named as it had a chapel of ease (chapel) which was the com ...
of Bradford-on-Avon at Westwood was mentioned in 1299. The present church, now dedicated to St Mary the Virgin, was built in ashlar rubble in the 15th century; restoration in 1840 included rebuilding the south side of the chancel. A reused stone over a door in the north wall of the chancel may be from the late 12th or early 13th century. There is 15th-century stained glass in the chancel. 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 Ire ...
in 1962. Pevsner describes the elaborately decorated 16th-century west tower as "splendid"; at its southeast corner is a prominent octagonal stair turret with a domed top. In 1876, Westwood was constituted as a parish and separated from Bradford. In 1975 a group ministry centred on Holy Trinity at Bradford was formed, which continues today as the benefice of Bradford on Avon Holy Trinity, Westwood and Wingfield.


Former chapels

The stone-quarrying community at Upper Westwood was largely Methodist. A Wesleyan Methodist chapel was opened there in 1862 and closed circa 1960. A
Baptist Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christianity, Christian believers only (believer's baptism), and doing so by complete Immersion baptism, immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe ...
chapel was opened at Lower Westwood in 1865 and extended with a schoolroom, with capacity for 200 children, in 1885. At first a
Sunday school A Sunday school is an educational institution, usually (but not always) Christian in character. Other religions including Buddhism, Islam, and Judaism have also organised Sunday schools in their temples and mosques, particularly in the West. S ...
, the room later became the infant school for the village, continuing until 1976 when a new school was built on a different site.


Notable buildings

Westwood Manor, in Lower Westwood next to the church, is a Grade I listed 15th-century
manor house A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were held the lord's manorial courts, communal meals with ...
owned by the
National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...
. Greenhill House in Upper Westwood is from the 18th century and is Grade II* listed. Iford Manor, in the Frome valley, is a Grade II* listed manor house from the 15th or 16th century; its gardens by
Harold Peto Harold Ainsworth Peto FRIBA (11 July 1854 – 16 April 1933) was a British architect, landscape architect and garden designer, who worked in Britain and in Provence, France. Among his best-known gardens are Iford Manor, Wiltshire; Busc ...
, who lived there from 1899, are Grade I listed. The gardens were the setting for an annual summer music festival, the Iford Arts Festival, until 2019 when the festival moved to a higher-capacity venue at Bradford-on-Avon. A group of 1790s three-storey weavers' houses next to the canal at Avoncliffe was bought in 1835 by the guardians of the Bradford Poor Law Union, and converted into a
workhouse In Britain, a workhouse () was an institution where those unable to support themselves financially were offered accommodation and employment. (In Scotland, they were usually known as poorhouses.) The earliest known use of the term ''workhouse' ...
with capacity for 250; a chapel was added and later a schoolroom. The building was sold in 1923, used for a time as a hotel, and converted into houses in the 1980s.


Amenities

The Parish Rooms, next to the Church of St Mary the Virgin, is used by the church after services and is available for private hire. The Social Club, between Lower and Upper Westwood, is a paid members club and is home to a local skittles league.


References


External links


Westwood Parish Council
{{authority control Villages in Wiltshire Civil parishes in Wiltshire