Lyneham, Wiltshire
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Lyneham is a large village in north
Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated to Wilts) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It borders Gloucestershire to the north, Oxfordshire to the north-east, Berkshire to the east, Hampshire to the south-east, Dorset to the south, and Somerset to ...
, England, within the
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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...
of Lyneham and Bradenstoke, and situated southwest of Royal Wootton Bassett, north of
Calne Calne () is a town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in Wiltshire, southwestern England,OS Explorer Map 156, Chippenham and Bradford-on-Avon Scale: 1:25 000.Publisher: Ordnance Survey A2 edition (2007). at the northwestern extremity ...
and southwest of
Swindon Swindon () is a town in Wiltshire, England. At the time of the 2021 Census the population of the built-up area was 183,638, making it the largest settlement in the county. Located at the northeastern edge of the South West England region, Swi ...
. The village is on the A3102 road between Calne and Wootton Bassett. The part of Lyneham village close to the parish church is known as Church End. The civil parish includes the village of Bradenstoke and the hamlets of Preston and The Banks.


History

In 1086, Domesday Book recorded 42 households at ''Stoche'' in the northwest of the modern parish. Earthworks in this area known as Clack Mount, including a mound 20 metres in diameter, could be from a Norman
motte-and-bailey castle A motte-and-bailey castle is a European fortification with a wooden or stone keep situated on a raised area of ground called a motte, accompanied by a walled courtyard, or bailey, surrounded by a protective ditch and palisade. Relatively easy ...
, although the early history is uncertain. Bradenstoke Priory was founded nearby in 1142, possibly on the site of an earlier chapel. The hamlet on both sides of the road leading to the priory was called Clack from the 14th century, as shown on Andrews' and Dury's map of 1773; in the 20th century the name Bradenstoke was applied to the whole of this area. Lyneham, about a mile east of Bradenstoke, was first mentioned in 1224. In the east of the parish there was a medieval settlement at Littlecott, on the border with Hilmarton; by 1773 this had shrunk to two farms. Preston hamlet, about a mile southeast of Lyneham, has two farmhouses from the 17th and 18th centuries. In 1940, much farmland became an RAF station, extending close to the western edge of Lyneham village. A National School was built opposite St Michael's church in 1861, replacing an earlier school; average attendance in 1902 was 103. A new primary school was built on adjoining land in 1953, and an infants' school nearby in 1965. The Victorian building continued in use for a while but by 2017 housed commercial offices. In 2018, Wiltshire Council proposed to enlarge Lyneham Primary School to have 630 places, to cater for Army relocations to MoD Lyneham and the leasing of surplus service family houses. The parish boundary in the northeast ran along the lane through Tockenham village, thus the manorial estates known as West Tockenham were within Lyneham parish. In 1969 the boundary was redrawn closer to Lyneham, uniting Tockenham Court Farm with the rest of Tockenham.


Churches

A church at Lyneham is first mentioned in 1182, belonging to Bradenstoke Priory. 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 ...
of St Michael and All Angels dates from the 14th century. Restoration by
William Butterfield William Butterfield (7 September 1814 – 23 February 1900) was a British Gothic Revival architect and associated with the Oxford Movement (or Tractarian Movement). He is noted for his use of polychromy. Biography William Butterfield was bo ...
in 1862–5 included the rebuilding of the chancel and the re-roofing of the nave. In the 14th-century tower are six bells: one dated c.1450 and two from the 17th century. Stained glass in the east window is by Alexander Gibbs. A 1990 window in the south aisle by Henry Haig commemorates the 50th anniversary of RAF Lyneham. As the settlement at Clack was distant from the parish church, a church dedicated to St Mary the Virgin was built there in 1866. In the same year an ecclesiastical parish called Bradenstoke-cum-Clack was created for it, from parts of the parishes of Lyneham and Christian Malford. In 1924 the
chapelry A chapelry was a subdivision of an ecclesiastical parish in England and parts of Lowland Scotland up to the mid 19th century. Status A chapelry had a similar status to a Township (England), township, but was so named as it had a chapel of ease ...
of Bradenstoke-cum-Clack, the vicarage of Lyneham, and the rectory of Tockenham were united to form one benefice, although the parishes remained separate. In 1954, Tockenham became a separate parish and the parish of Lyneham with Bradenstoke was created. A
Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...
church was built in 1934 at The Green, Lyneham.


RAF Lyneham

The former RAF Lyneham station, now MoD Lyneham, is adjacent to Lyneham village, to the south and east. The RAF's
C-130 Hercules The Lockheed C-130 Hercules is an American four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft designed and built by Lockheed Corporation, Lockheed (now Lockheed Martin). Capable of using unprepared runways for takeoffs and landings, the C-130 w ...
fleet was based here until June 2011 and C-17 Globemasters from
RAF Brize Norton Royal Air Force Brize Norton or RAF Brize Norton is the largest List of Royal Air Force stations, station of the Royal Air Force. Situated in Oxfordshire, about west north-west of London, it is close to the village of Brize Norton and the tow ...
made frequent visits. In 2012 all operations were transferred to Brize Norton in west Oxfordshire, to the north. The site is now home to the Defence Technical Training College, which became operational in September 2015.


Local government

The civil parish elects a parish council called Lyneham and Bradenstoke Parish Council. The parish is in the area of
Wiltshire Council Wiltshire Council, known between 1889 and 2009 as Wiltshire County Council, is the Local government in England, local authority for the non-metropolitan county of Wiltshire (district), Wiltshire in South West England, and has its headquarters a ...
unitary authority A unitary authority is a type of local government, local authority in New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Unitary authorities are responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are ...
, which is responsible for all significant local government functions. An
electoral division An electoral (congressional, legislative, etc.) district, sometimes called a constituency, riding, or ward, is a geographical portion of a political unit, such as a country, state or province, city, or administrative region, created to provid ...
of Wiltshire Council called Lyneham stretches south east from the Lyneham and Bradenstoke to take in
Clyffe Pypard Clyffe Pypard is a village and Civil parishes in England, civil parish about south of Royal Wootton Bassett in North Wiltshire, England. The parish includes the large Hamlet (place), hamlet of Bushton, Wiltshire, Bushton, the small hamlet of ...
parish. The total population at the time of the 2011 census was 5,460.


Climate


References


External links


Lyneham and Bradenstoke Parish Council
{{authority control Villages in Wiltshire