Porton is a village in the Bourne valley,

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, about northeast of

Salisbury Salisbury ( , ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parish in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers River Avon, Hampshire, Avon, River Nadder, Nadder and River Bourne, Wi ...

. It is the largest settlement in Idmiston

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 ...

. The village gives its name to the nearby

Porton Down Porton Down is a science and defence technology campus in Wiltshire, England, just north-east of the village of Porton, near Salisbury. It is home to two British government facilities: a site of the Ministry of Defence's Defence Science and ...

military science park, which is home to the

Defence Science and Technology Laboratory The Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) is an executive agency of the Ministry of Defence of the United Kingdom. Its stated purpose is "to maximise the impact of science and technology for the defence and security of the UK". The a ...

and related businesses.

Religious sites

The

Baptist Baptists are a Christian denomination, denomination within Protestant Christianity distinguished by baptizing only professing Christian believers (believer's baptism) and doing so by complete Immersion baptism, immersion. Baptist churches ge ...

faith flourished in this part of Wiltshire in the 17th century, then declined in the 18th. A chapel was built to the south of Porton village in 1865 and enlarged in the 1920s; it was still in use in 2022. The chapel closed in 2024. The

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

Church of St Nicholas was built in 1877 to designs by

J. L. Pearson John Loughborough Pearson (5 July 1817 – 11 December 1897) was a British Gothic Revival architect renowned for his work on churches and cathedrals. Pearson revived and practised largely the art of vaulting, and acquired in it a proficie ...

, replacing a building from the 16th century or earlier. Built in flint with brick dressings under a tiled roof, the church has a nave with a south porch and bellcote, and a chancel with a vestry. The octagonal font is from the 14th or 15th century, and there is stained glass by

Clayton and Bell Clayton and Bell was one of the most prolific and proficient British workshops of stained-glass windows during the latter half of the 19th century and early 20th century. The partners were John Richard Clayton (1827–1913) and Alfred Bell (1832� ...

. St Nicholas became the

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), 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 com ...

in 1977, when the older All Saints Church at Idmiston was declared redundant.

Railways

In 1857 the

London and South Western Railway The London and South Western Railway (LSWR, sometimes written L&SWR) was a railway company in England from 1838 to 1922. Originating as the London and Southampton Railway, its network extended to Dorchester and Weymouth, to Salisbury, Exete ...

company opened its line from

Andover Andover may refer to: Places Australia *Andover, Tasmania Canada * Andover Parish, New Brunswick * Perth-Andover, New Brunswick United Kingdom * Andover, Hampshire, England ** RAF Andover, a former Royal Air Force station United States * Andov ...

to Milford station at Salisbury, following the Bourne valley and passing southeast of Porton. There was a

station Station may refer to: Agriculture * Station (Australian agriculture), a large Australian landholding used for livestock production * Station (New Zealand agriculture), a large New Zealand farm used for grazing by sheep and cattle ** Cattle statio ...

at Porton from the opening of the line until 1968, with a goods yard until 1962. The railway remains in use as part of the

West of England line The West of England line (also known as the West of England Main Line) is a British railway line from , Hampshire, to in Devon, England. Passenger services run between London Waterloo station and Exeter; the line intersects with the Wessex Ma ...

but there are no local stations. Between 1916 and 1946, the Porton Down Camp Military Railway ( 2 foot gauge) ran between the goods yard at Porton station and the Camp, almost a mile to the northeast.

Amenities

The local school is St Nicholas' CE ( VA) Primary School, built in 1972 to replace a school built at Idmiston in 1869. The former Railway Hotel, near the site of the station, is now the Porton Hotel and Restaurant.

Protected areas

There are two Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) in the area. Porton Meadows is of botanically rich unimproved neutral grassland in the floodplain of the River Bourne, which has largely escaped intensive agriculture. A much larger area, extending into Hampshire and known as Porton Down SSSI, includes grassland, scrub and woodland; it constitutes the largest uninterrupted tract of semi-natural chalk grassland in Britain.

References

External links

* {{authority control Villages in Wiltshire