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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

immediately south and southeast of

Marlborough Marlborough or the Marlborough may refer to: Places Australia * Marlborough, Queensland * Principality of Marlborough, a short-lived micronation in 1993 * Marlborough Highway, Tasmania; Malborough was an historic name for the place at the sou ...

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. The settlements in the parish are the

hamlets A hamlet is a human settlement that is smaller than a town or village. This is often simply an informal description of a smaller settlement or possibly a subdivision or satellite entity to a larger settlement. Sometimes a hamlet is defined f ...

of Cadley, Clench Common and Forest Hill. Savernake Forest covers the eastern half of the parish.

History

Two

Roman roads Roman roads ( ; singular: ; meaning "Roman way") were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Republic and the Roman Em ...

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 to the 10th century. They marked the start of the Middle Ages of Europ ...

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 Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked with prot ...

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

Lidar Lidar (, also LIDAR, an acronym of "light detection and ranging" or "laser imaging, detection, and ranging") is a method for determining ranging, ranges by targeting an object or a surface with a laser and measuring the time for the reflected li ...

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 respons ...

. Many new archaeological sites were found, ranging from the

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

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, 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, Christchurch, was built by T.H. Wyatt in 1851 for the

Marquess of Ailesbury Marquess of Ailesbury (later styled Aylesbury), in the Buckinghamshire, County of Buckingham, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 17 July 1821 for Charles Brudenell-Bruce, 1st Marquess of Ailesbury, Charles Brudene ...

. 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 village and Civil parishes in England, civil parish at the centre of the Vale of Pewsey in Wiltshire, about south of Marlborough, Wiltshire, Marlborough and west of London. It is within reach of the M4 motorway and the A303 and i ...

. It is north of the hamlet of Clench which is in

Milton Lilbourne Milton Lilbourne is a village and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the county of Wiltshire, England, in the Vale of Pewsey between Pewsey and Burbage, Wiltshire, Burbage. It is largely a mixed residential area centred on the Manor. Th ...

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

Local government

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

Canal and railways

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 Navigability, navigable river linked by a canal. The name is used to refer to the entire length of the navigation rather than sol ...

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. The Berks and Hants line, part of a

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a History of rail transport in Great Britain, British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, ...

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'' (stylised in all caps) is a British magazine published by Condé Nast Publications. It focuses on fashion and lifestyle, as well as coverage of high society and politics. It is targeted towards the British upper and upper-middle c ...

'' 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 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 parish in east Wiltshire, England. The village is on the River Dun about southwest of Hungerford, southeast of Swindon and southeast of Marlborough. The Kennet and Avon Canal and the Reading to Taunt ...

parish).

References

External links

{{Commons category-inline
Savernake Parish Council
Civil parishes in Wiltshire