1.
Avon Water, Hampshire
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Avon Water is a small river in the south of England, flowing through the New Forest in Hampshire to the sea. It should not be confused with the larger River Avon, which flows through Hampshire. It rises in the part of the New Forest, near Holmsley. It flows into the Solent at Keyhaven, close to the bank that leads to Hurst Castle. The name Avon Water is considered modern, although it dates from at least the 18th century. It is labelled on Thomas Milnes map of Hampshire published by William Faden in 1791, carys New Itinerary of 1810 also refers to Avon Water but confounds it with a stream immediately to the west. Media related to Avon Water, Hampshire at Wikimedia Commons
2.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
3.
United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
4.
England
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England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west, the Irish Sea lies northwest of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east, the country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain in its centre and south, and includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly, and the Isle of Wight. England became a state in the 10th century, and since the Age of Discovery. The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the worlds first industrialised nation, Englands terrain mostly comprises low hills and plains, especially in central and southern England. However, there are uplands in the north and in the southwest, the capital is London, which is the largest metropolitan area in both the United Kingdom and the European Union. In 1801, Great Britain was united with the Kingdom of Ireland through another Act of Union to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922 the Irish Free State seceded from the United Kingdom, leading to the latter being renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain, the name England is derived from the Old English name Englaland, which means land of the Angles. The Angles were one of the Germanic tribes that settled in Great Britain during the Early Middle Ages, the Angles came from the Angeln peninsula in the Bay of Kiel area of the Baltic Sea. The earliest recorded use of the term, as Engla londe, is in the ninth century translation into Old English of Bedes Ecclesiastical History of the English People. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, its spelling was first used in 1538. The earliest attested reference to the Angles occurs in the 1st-century work by Tacitus, Germania, the etymology of the tribal name itself is disputed by scholars, it has been suggested that it derives from the shape of the Angeln peninsula, an angular shape. An alternative name for England is Albion, the name Albion originally referred to the entire island of Great Britain. The nominally earliest record of the name appears in the Aristotelian Corpus, specifically the 4th century BC De Mundo, in it are two very large islands called Britannia, these are Albion and Ierne. But modern scholarly consensus ascribes De Mundo not to Aristotle but to Pseudo-Aristotle, the word Albion or insula Albionum has two possible origins. Albion is now applied to England in a poetic capacity. Another romantic name for England is Loegria, related to the Welsh word for England, Lloegr, the earliest known evidence of human presence in the area now known as England was that of Homo antecessor, dating to approximately 780,000 years ago. The oldest proto-human bones discovered in England date from 500,000 years ago, Modern humans are known to have inhabited the area during the Upper Paleolithic period, though permanent settlements were only established within the last 6,000 years
5.
Wiltshire
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Wiltshire is a county in South West England with an area of 3,485 km2. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, the county town was originally Wilton, after which the county is named, but Wiltshire Council is now based in the new county town of Trowbridge. Wiltshire is characterised by its high downland and wide valleys, Salisbury Plain is noted for being the location of the Stonehenge and Avebury stone circles and other ancient landmarks, and as a training area for the British Army. The city of Salisbury is notable for its mediaeval cathedral, important country houses open to the public include Longleat, near Warminster, and the National Trusts Stourhead, near Mere. The county, in the 9th century written as Wiltunscir, later Wiltonshire, is named after the county town of Wilton. Wiltshire is notable for its pre-Roman archaeology, the Mesolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age people that occupied southern Britain built settlements on the hills and downland that cover Wiltshire. Stonehenge and Avebury are perhaps the most famous Neolithic sites in the UK, in the 6th and 7th centuries Wiltshire was at the western edge of Saxon Britain, as Cranborne Chase and the Somerset Levels prevented the advance to the west. The Battle of Bedwyn was fought in 675 between Escuin, a West Saxon nobleman who had seized the throne of Queen Saxburga, in 878 the Danes invaded the county. Following the Norman Conquest, large areas of the country came into the possession of the crown, at the time of the Domesday Survey the industry of Wiltshire was largely agricultural,390 mills are mentioned, and vineyards at Tollard and Lacock. In the 17th century English Civil War Wiltshire was largely Parliamentarian, the Battle of Roundway Down, a Royalist victory, was fought near Devizes. The Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry currently lives on as Y Squadron, based in Swindon, around 1800 the Kennet and Avon Canal was built through Wiltshire, providing a route for transporting cargoes from Bristol to London until the development of the Great Western Railway. Information on the 261 civil parishes of Wiltshire is available on the Wiltshire Community History website, run by the Libraries and this site includes maps, demographic data, historic and modern pictures and short histories. The local nickname for Wiltshire natives is moonrakers and this originated from a story of smugglers who managed to foil the local Excise men by hiding their alcohol, possibly French brandy in barrels or kegs, in a village pond. The officials took them for simple yokels or mad and left them alone, many villages claim the tale for their own village pond, but the story is most commonly linked with The Crammer in Devizes. Two-thirds of Wiltshire, a rural county, lies on chalk. This chalk is part of a system of chalk downlands throughout eastern and southern England formed by the rocks of the Chalk Group, the largest area of chalk in Wiltshire is Salisbury Plain, which is used mainly for arable agriculture and by the British Army as training ranges. The highest point in the county is the Tan Hill–Milk Hill ridge in the Pewsey Vale, just to the north of Salisbury Plain, the chalk uplands run northeast into West Berkshire in the Marlborough Downs ridge, and southwest into Dorset as Cranborne Chase. Cranborne Chase, which straddles the border, has, like Salisbury Plain, yielded much Stone Age, the Marlborough Downs are part of the North Wessex Downs AONB, a 1,730 km2 conservation area
6.
Hampshire
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Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, the capital city of England. The larger South Hampshire metropolitan area has a population of 1,547,000, Hampshire is notable for housing the birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force. It is bordered by Dorset to the west, Wiltshire to the north-west, Berkshire to the north, Surrey to the north-east, the southern boundary is the coastline of the English Channel and the Solent, facing the Isle of Wight. At its greatest size in 1890, Hampshire was the fifth largest county in England and it now has an overall area of 3,700 square kilometres, and measures about 86 kilometres east–west and 76 kilometres north–south. Hampshires tourist attractions include many seaside resorts and two parks, the New Forest and the South Downs. Hampshire has a maritime history and two of Europes largest ports, Portsmouth and Southampton, lie on its coast. The county is famed as home of writers Jane Austen and Charles Dickens, Hampshire takes its name from the settlement that is now the city of Southampton. Southampton was known in Old English as Hamtun, roughly meaning village-town, the old name was recorded in the Domesday book as Hantescire, and it is from this spelling that the modern abbreviation Hants derives. From 1889 until 1959, the county was named the County of Southampton and has also been known as Southamptonshire. The region is believed to have continuously occupied since the end of the last Ice Age about 12,000 BCE. At this time Britain was still attached to the European continent and was covered with deciduous woodland. The first inhabitants came overland from Europe, these were anatomically and behaviourally modern humans, notable sites from this period include Bouldnor Cliff. Agriculture had arrived in southern Britain by 4000 BCE, and with it a neolithic culture, some deforestation took place at that time, although it was during the Bronze Age, beginning in 2200 BCE, that this became more widespread and systematic. Hampshire has few monuments to show from early periods, although nearby Stonehenge was built in several phases at some time between 3100 BCE and 2200 BCE. It is maintained that by this period the people of Britain predominantly spoke a Celtic language, hillforts largely declined in importance in the second half of the second century BCE, with many being abandoned. Julius Caesar invaded southeastern England briefly in 55 and again in 54 BCE, notable sites from this period include Hengistbury Head, which was a major port. There is a Museum of the Iron Age in Andover, the Romans invaded Britain again in 43 CE, and Hampshire was incorporated into the Roman province of Britannia very quickly
7.
Dorset
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Dorset /ˈdɔːrsᵻt/ is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the county, which is governed by Dorset County Council. Covering an area of 2,653 square kilometres, Dorset borders Devon to the west, Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north-east, the county town is Dorchester which is in the south. After the reorganisation of government in 1974 the countys border was extended eastward to incorporate the Hampshire towns of Bournemouth. Around half of the lives in the South East Dorset conurbation. The county has a history of human settlement stretching back to the Neolithic era. The Romans conquered Dorsets indigenous Celtic tribe, and during the early Middle Ages, the first recorded Viking raid on the British Isles occurred in Dorset during the eighth century, and the Black Death entered England at Melcombe Regis in 1348. During the Second World War, Dorset was heavily involved in the preparations for the invasion of Normandy, the former was the sailing venue in the 2012 Summer Olympics, and both have clubs or hire venues for sailing, Cornish pilot gig rowing, sea kayaking and powerboating. Dorset has a varied landscape featuring broad elevated chalk downs, steep limestone ridges, over half the county is designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Three-quarters of its coastline is part of the Jurassic Coast Natural World Heritage Site due to its geological and it features notable landforms such as Lulworth Cove, the Isle of Portland, Chesil Beach and Durdle Door. Agriculture was traditionally the major industry of Dorset but is now in decline, there are no motorways in Dorset but a network of A roads cross the county and two railway main lines connect to London. Dorset has ports at Poole, Weymouth and Portland, and an international airport, the county has a variety of museums, theatres and festivals, and is host to one of Europes largest outdoor shows. It is the birthplace of Thomas Hardy, who used the county as the setting of his novels. Dorset derives its name from the county town of Dorchester, the Romans established the settlement in the 1st century and named it Durnovaria which was a Latinised version of a Common Brittonic word possibly meaning place with fist-sized pebbles. It is first mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in AD845 and in the 10th century the countys archaic name, the first human visitors to Dorset were Mesolithic hunters, from around 8000 BC. The first permanent Neolithic settlers appeared around 3000 BC and were responsible for the creation of the Dorset Cursus, from 2800 BC onwards Bronze Age farmers cleared Dorsets woodlands for agricultural use and Dorsets high chalk hills provided a location for numerous round barrows. During the Iron Age, the British tribe known as the Durotriges established a series of forts across the county—most notably Maiden Castle which is one of the largest in Europe. The Romans arrived in Dorset during their conquest of Britain in AD43, Maiden Castle was captured by a Roman legion under the command of Vespasian, and the Roman settlement of Durnovaria was established nearby
8.
River Ebble
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The River Ebble is one of the five rivers of the English city of Salisbury. Rising at Alvediston to the west of the city, it joins the River Avon at Bodenham, the Ebble rises at Alvediston,12 miles to the west of Salisbury, at 51. 0127°N2. 039°W /51.0127, -2.039. The River Chalke is the most significant tributary, rising in Bowerchalke, the Chalke also provides a steady, year round flow, so that the winterbourne section of the Ebble is only from Alvediston to Knapp. The flow of the Ebble is augmented at Little London by several pumped boreholes that feed the extensive commercial watercress farm at Knapp before the confluence with the Chalke. In the book Ebbesbourne Wake Through The Ages historian Peter Meers surmised that the land and he also identified that from Saxon times until 1166 there were two villages called Ebblesborne, one of which then became known as Bishopstone. Note that the word bourne is derived from the Old English brunna, howard Phipps, Ebble Valley Wiltshire. gov. uk - Chalk River Valleys Media related to River Ebble at Wikimedia Commons
9.
Pewsey
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Pewsey is a large village and civil parish at the centre of the Vale of Pewsey in Wiltshire, about 6 miles south of Marlborough and 80 miles west of London. It is within reach of the M4 motorway and the A303 and is served by Pewsey railway station on the London to Taunton line, in the Tudor era the Manor of Pewsey belonged to the Duchess of Somerset. Several of the houses were built in this era, the timber framed cruck house at Ball Corner, Bridge Cottage on the Avon. In 1764 the founder of the Methodist movement John Wesley preached at Pewseys Church of England parish church, the rector at that time, Joseph Townsend, was responsible for building of the first bridge over the River Avon. The Kennet and Avon Canal reached Pewsey in 1810, of more lasting effect for the village was the arrival of the Great Western Railway in 1862 which allowed fast travel to London and to the West Country. In 1898 Pewsey Carnival was first held, a tradition that flourishes today with a fortnight of events, including The Feaste, a prominent statue of King Alfred the Great, the former Anglo Saxon King of Wessex and a local landowner, stands in the middle of the village. The Pewsey White Horse hill figure is located on a slope of Pewsey Hill about a mile south of the village. It was cut in 1937 and is one of the smaller Wiltshire white horses and it replaces an earlier one which was possibly cut in 1785. An electoral ward in the name exists. The ward starts in the west at Pewsey and stretches east to Easton Royal, the total population of the ward at the 2011 census was 4,649. Pewsey has a secondary school, Pewsey Vale School, an Academy which is a specialist Arts College. It is adjacent to the leisure centre and indoor swimming pool. It has a state Primary Academy, Pewsey Primary School, the OFSTED of 2012 rated it as good with scope to use mathematics more across the school. It has achieved good Key Stage Two SATS results for Wiltshire and it appeared in the 100 Most Improved Schools table for its 2013 results and its 2014 results put it in the top 100 schools nationally. St. Francis School, an independent preparatory school, is just outside the village, the Anglican Church of St John the Baptist is Grade I listed. It was built in the 12th and 13th centuries with many later additions, a Methodist chapel was built in 1873 and became a church in 1932. The Roman Catholic Church of the Holy Family was built in 1964, Pewsey has a Post Office, a petrol station, and a Co-op supermarket. The village has one bar and five pubs
10.
English Channel
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The English Channel, also called simply the Channel, is the body of water that separates southern England from northern France, and links the southern part of the North Sea to the Atlantic Ocean. It is about 560 km long and varies in width from 240 km at its widest to 33.3 km in the Strait of Dover and it is the smallest of the shallow seas around the continental shelf of Europe, covering an area of some 75,000 km2. The International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the English Channel as follows, a line joining Isle Vierge to Lands End. The southwestern limit of the North Sea, the IHO defines the southwestern limit of the North Sea as a line joining the Walde Lighthouse and Leathercoat Point. The Walde Lighthouse is 6 km east of Calais, and Leathercoat Point is at the end of St Margarets Bay. The Strait of Dover, at the Channels eastern end, is its narrowest point and it is relatively shallow, with an average depth of about 120 m at its widest part, reducing to a depth of about 45 m between Dover and Calais. Eastwards from there the adjoining North Sea reduces to about 26 m in the Broad Fourteens where it lies over the watershed of the land bridge between East Anglia and the Low Countries. It reaches a depth of 180 m in the submerged valley of Hurds Deep,48 km west-northwest of Guernsey. The eastern region along the French coast between Cherbourg and the mouth of the Seine river at Le Havre is frequently referred to as the Bay of the Seine. There are several islands in the Channel, the most notable being the Isle of Wight off the English coast. The coastline, particularly on the French shore, is indented, several small islands close to the coastline, including Chausey. The Cotentin Peninsula in France juts out into the Channel, whilst on the English side there is a parallel channel known as the Solent between the Isle of Wight and the mainland. The Celtic Sea is to the west of the Channel, the time difference of about six hours between high water at the eastern and western limits of the Channel is indicative of the tidal range being amplified further by resonance. It was never defined as a border and the names were more or less descriptive. It was not considered as the property of a nation, strangely, before the development of the modern nations, British scholars very often referred to it as Gaulish and the French one as British or English. The name English Channel has been used since the early 18th century. In modern Dutch, however, it is known as Het Kanaal, later, it has also been known as the British Channel or the British Sea having been called the Oceanus Britannicus by the 2nd-century geographer Ptolemy. The same name is used on an Italian map of about 1450, the Anglo-Saxon texts often call it Sūð-sǣ as opposed to Norð-sǣ
11.
Mudeford
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Mudeford /ˈmʌdᵻfərd/ was originally a small fishing village in the borough of Christchurch, Dorset southern England, lying at the entrance to Christchurch Harbour. The River Mude and Bure Brook flow into the harbour there, in recent times the boundaries of Mudeford have expanded and include modern housing. Approximately 4000 people now live in the area giving a density of roughly 24 persons per hectare. Mudeford includes two areas, a recreation ground on the north side of Stanpit and All Saints Church. The village is home to both Mudeford Infants School and Mudeford Junior School, Mudeford Quay was constructed in the late 1940s. Prior to this, The Haven, as it was known was surrounded by sloping beaches. The Run then was much wider than it is now and the area was subject to terrible erosion, so much so that Christchurch Council purchased the whole area in 1945. Five years later the area had been raised and reinforced with steel piles, a RNLI inshore lifeboat station is located on the quay. In 1809, a troopship carrying 100 soldiers returning from the Peninsular War, the whole complement was saved by fishermen from the village. A specially built lifeboat was stationed at Mudeford from 1802, privately owned and manned by the local fisherman and it was subsumed by the RNLI in 1962 and in June 1963 a new inflatable boat was delivered. Between 1963 and 1995, the Mudeford Lifeboat was launched 766 times, the Mudeford ferry operates between the Quay and Mudeford Sandbank on Hengistbury Head. The ferry was until the 1960s operated by rowing boats with payment being at the discretion of the passenger, Mudeford Quay is at the entrance to the Harbour known as The Run. The area was much involved in smuggling and the site in 1784 of The Battle of Mudeford. George III is recorded as having visited Mudeford in 1801 and using a bathing machine, historically part of Christchurch, Mudeford Spit was sold to Bournemouth Borough Council in 1935. It is the larger of the two features, the other being the Haven, that almost encloses Christchurch Harbour, leaving the water within to exit through a channel known as The Run. Formed by sand and shingle brought around Hengistbury Head by longshore drift and pushed towards the shore by waves from the east, the spit is the most mobile of Dorsets geographical features. It has been breached a number of naturally,1883,1911,1924,1935. After the last breaching in 1935, the end of the spit broke off, the groyne built in 1938 to protect Hengistbury Head from erosion had an adverse effect on the spit as it prevented movement of material around it
12.
Salisbury
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Salisbury is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England, and the only city within the county. It is the third-largest settlement in the county, after Swindon and Chippenham, with a population of 40,302, the city is located in the southeast of Wiltshire, near the edge of Salisbury Plain. Its cathedral was located to the north at Old Sarum, following its relocation. The new town received its city charter in 1227 under the name New Sarum, which continued to be its name until 2009. It sits at the confluence of five rivers, the Nadder, Ebble, Wylye, and Bourne are tributary to the Hampshire Avon, which flows to the south coast and into the sea at Christchurch in Dorset. Salisbury railway station serves the city and is a regional interchange, Stonehenge, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is about 8 miles northwest of Salisbury and greatly aids the local economy. The city itself, Old Sarum, the present cathedral and the ruins of the one also attract visitors. The first part of the name is of obscure origin, the form Sarum is a Latinization of Sar, a medieval abbreviation for Sarisberie. Salisbury appeared in the Welsh Chronicle of the Britons as Caer-Caradog, Caer-Gradawc, cair-Caratauc, one of the 28 British cities listed in the History of the Britons, has also been identified with Salisbury. The hilltop at Old Sarum lies near the Neolithic sites of Stonehenge and Avebury and it commanded a salient between the River Bourne and the Hampshire Avon near a crossroads of several early trade routes. During the Iron Age, a hillfort was constructed around it sometime between 600 and 300 BC, the Romans may have occupied the site or left it in the hands of an allied tribe. Amid the Saxon invasions, Old Sarum fell to King Cynric of Wessex in 552, preferring settlements in bottomland like nearby Wilton, the Saxons largely ignored Old Sarum until the Viking invasions led King Alfred to restore its fortifications. Along with Wilton, however, it was abandoned by its residents to be sacked and burned by the Dano-Norwegian king Sweyn Forkbeard in 1003 and it subsequently became the site of Wiltons mint. Following the Norman invasion, a castle was constructed by 1070. The castle was directly by the Norman kings, its castellan was generally also the sheriff of Wiltshire. Hermann and his successor Saint Osmund began the construction of the first Salisbury cathedral, the cathedral was consecrated on 5 April 1092 but suffered extensive damage in a storm, traditionally said to have occurred only five days later. Bishop Roger was an ally of Henry I who served as his viceroy during the kings absence to Normandy and directed the royal administration. He refurbished and expanded Old Sarums cathedral in the 1110s and began work on a palace during the 1130s
13.
Christchurch Harbour
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Christchurch Harbour is a natural harbour in the county of Dorset, on the south coast of England named after the nearby town of Christchurch. Two Rivers the Avon and the Stour flow into the Harbour at its northwest corner, the harbour is generally shallow and due to the tidal harmonics in the English Channel has a double high water on each tide. On the north side of the harbour, east of the River Avon are Priory Marsh, and to the east of this Stanpit Marsh, a Local Nature Reserve. To the west side of the harbour are Wick Fields, the flank of the harbour being bounded by Hengistbury Head. The harbour flows into the Christchurch Bay and the English Channel through a channel known locally as The Run which rests between Mudeford Quay and Mudeford Spit. Christchurch Harbour Site of Special Scientific Interest is a 352 hectare site designated both for its biological and geological interest and it comprises the estuary of the Stour and Avon and the Hengistbury Head peninsula. The varied habitats include saltmarsh, wet meadows, grassland, heath, sand dune, woodland, the site is of great ornithological interest. The harbour was formed around 7000 years ago when the sea rose at the end of the last Ice Age. Previously the area which was miles from the open sea was inhabited by Stone Age hunters. Archaeological finds dating from 12,500 year BP have been made on Hengistbury Head, the Bluestones used at Stonehenge may have been transported via the harbour and the River Avon. It is suggested there may have been an ancient causeway usable at low water running from Double Dykes on the south shore to Tuttons Well located on the north shore near Stanpit village. The Harbour became a trading port around 100BCE, exports included copper, gold, silver and iron and importing luxury goods including wine. It is likely that slaves were exported through the harbour. The boats used at this time were shallow draft, oak-planked with square sails for propulsion. It would have been a passage across the channel to Cherbourg. Despite this there was considerable two way trade with both British and Foreign Ports, it declined as a result of the Roman invasion of France in 56 BCE. The remains of a Roman ship were discovered in the harbour in 1910, trade continued until the Roman Invasion of Britain in AD43. The route was abandoned in 1730
14.
British Isles
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The British Isles are a group of islands off the north-western coast of continental Europe that consist of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland and over six thousand smaller isles. Situated in the North Atlantic, the islands have an area of approximately 315,159 km2. Two sovereign states are located on the islands, Ireland and the United Kingdom of Great Britain, the oldest rocks in the group are in the north west of Scotland, Ireland and North Wales and are 2,700 million years old. During the Silurian period the north-western regions collided with the south-east, the topography of the islands is modest in scale by global standards. Ben Nevis rises to an elevation of only 1,344 metres, and Lough Neagh, the climate is temperate marine, with mild winters and warm summers. The North Atlantic Drift brings significant moisture and raises temperatures 11 °C above the average for the latitude. This led to a landscape which was dominated by temperate rainforest. The region was re-inhabited after the last glacial period of Quaternary glaciation, Ireland, which became an island by 12,000 BC, was not inhabited until after 8000 BC. Great Britain became an island by 5600 BC, Hiberni, Pictish and Britons tribes, all speaking Insular Celtic, inhabited the islands at the beginning of the 1st millennium AD. Much of Brittonic-controlled Britain was conquered by the Roman Empire from AD43, the first Anglo-Saxons arrived as Roman power waned in the 5th century and eventually dominated the bulk of what is now England. Viking invasions began in the 9th century, followed by permanent settlements. Most of Ireland seceded from the United Kingdom after the Irish War of Independence, the term British Isles is controversial in Ireland, where there are objections to its usage due to the association of the word British with Ireland. The Government of Ireland does not recognise or use the term, as a result, Britain and Ireland is used as an alternative description, and Atlantic Archipelago has had limited use among a minority in academia, while British Isles is still commonly employed. Within them, they are sometimes referred to as these islands. The earliest known references to the islands as a group appeared in the writings of sea-farers from the ancient Greek colony of Massalia. The original records have been lost, however, later writings, e. g. Avienuss Ora maritima, in the 1st century BC, Diodorus Siculus has Prettanikē nēsos, the British Island, and Prettanoi, the Britons. Strabo used Βρεττανική, and Marcian of Heraclea, in his Periplus maris exteri, historians today, though not in absolute agreement, largely agree that these Greek and Latin names were probably drawn from native Celtic-language names for the archipelago. Along these lines, the inhabitants of the islands were called the Πρεττανοί, the shift from the P of Pretannia to the B of Britannia by the Romans occurred during the time of Julius Caesar
15.
Anchor ice
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Anchor ice is defined by the World Meteorological Organization as submerged ice attached or anchored to the bottom, irrespective of the nature of its formation. It may also be called bottom-fast ice, Anchor ice will generally form in fast-flowing rivers during periods of extreme cold. Due to the motion of the water, ice cover may not form consistently, ice platelets generally form very quickly in the water column and on submerged objects once conditions are optimal for anchor ice formation. Anchor ice in rivers tends to be composed of small crystals adhering to each other in small flocculent masses. Anchor ice in rivers can seriously disrupt hydro-electric power plants by reducing flow or stopping turbines completely. Another form of ice may be observed at the mouths of Arctic rivers where fresh water seeps out of the river bed into the ocean up through the sediment. Anchor ice forms if the seawater is below the point of the river water. Shallow tundra lakes may feature anchor ice with a specific behavior, lakes in the southwestern part of Nunavut, Canada typically freeze down to the bottom when the water level is low. On some cases spring meltwater flows into the lake under the ice cover, the ice cover remains bottom-fast until the buoyancy force exceeds the freezing bond. At the latter moment the ice cover abruptly breaks off the bottom to form a flat sheet, in other cases the anchor ice becomes completely submerged into the meltwater and holes may be melted throughout the ice sheet. When the sheet finally lifts off the bottom, the meltwater accumulated at the surface is jetted through these holes with enough force to create small craters in the bottom where it is soft. This downward jet phenomenon was described for deltas into the Beaufort Sea. Anchor ice may be formed in the intertidal or subtidal during storms in cold weather. Antarctic anchor ice is one of the most interesting phenomena of ice formation in the marine environment. The surface water melts the underside of the mass of ice, the water, at its freezing point at depth, is advected from under the floating mass of ice and may rise towards the surface due to a variety of factors. As the water rises the in-situ freezing point increases, leaving the water slightly supercooled, supercooling is relieved by the formation of microscopic ice crystals in the water column. Anchor ice crystals in the Antarctic are generally in the form of thin, large masses of irregularly-oriented crystals form anchor ice formations, which may be as large as 4m in diameter when attached to large immovable objects on the sea floor. Anchor ice is thought to be common in the Antarctic
16.
River source
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The source or headwaters of a river or stream is the furthest place in that river or stream from its estuary or confluence with another river, as measured along the course of the river. As an example of the definition above, the USGS at times considers the Missouri River as a tributary of the Mississippi River. But it also follows the first definition above in using the combined Missouri - lower Mississippi length figure in lists of lengths of rivers around the world. This definition, from geographer Andrew Johnston of the Smithsonian Institution, is used by the National Geographic Society when pinpointing the source of rivers such as the Amazon or Nile. A definition given by the state of Montana agrees, stating that a source is never a confluence but is in a location that is the farthest, along water miles. Under this definition neither a lake nor a confluence of tributaries can be a river source. Likewise, the source of the Amazon River has been determined this way, when not listing river lengths, however, alternative definitions may be used. In the case of the Missouri River, Lewis and Clark would have had to travel to the east. to reach the source. Sometimes the source of the most remote tributary may be in an area that is more marsh-like, for example, the source of the River Tees is marshland. The furthest stream is often called the headstream. Headwaters are often small streams with cool waters because of shade and they may also be glacial headwaters, waters formed by the melting of glacial ice. Headwater areas are the areas of a watershed, as opposed to the outflow or discharge of a watershed. The river source is often but not always on or quite near the edge of the watershed, for example, the source of the Colorado River is at the Continental Divide separating the Atlantic Ocean and Pacific Ocean watersheds of North America. A river is considered a geographic feature, with only one mouth. For an example, note how the Mississippi River and Missouri River sources are officially defined, U. S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System, Mississippi River, Length,2,340 miles, Source, 47°14′22″N 95°12′29″W U. S. For example, The River Thames rises in Gloucestershire, the White Nile rises in the Great Lakes region of central Africa. The word source, when applied to lakes rather than rivers or streams, refers to the lakes inflow
17.
Devizes
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Devizes /dᵻˈvaɪzᵻz/ is a market town and civil parish in the heart of Wiltshire, England. Standing on a hill at the east edge of the Vale of Pewsey, Devizes serves as a centre for banks, solicitors and shops and has an open market place where a market is held once a week. It has nearly five hundred listed buildings, some churches, a Town Hall. Its development has grown around the 11th century Norman castle, Devizes Castle was built by Osmund, Bishop of Salisbury in 1080, but the town is not mentioned in the Domesday Book. Because the castle was on the boundaries of the manors of Rowde, Bishops Cannings and Potterne it became known as the castrum ad divisas, on John Speeds map of Wiltshire, the towns name is recorded as The Devyses. The first castle on the site was of the motte and bailey form and was made of wood and earth. A new castle was built in stone by Roger of Salisbury, Devizes received its first charter in 1141 permitting regular markets. The castle changed several times during the civil war between Stephen of Blois and Matilda in the 12th century. The castle held important prisoners, including Robert Curthose, eldest son of William the Conqueror, the town has had churches since the 12th century and today has four Church of England parish churches. During the 12th and 13th centuries, the town of Devizes developed outside the castle with craftsmen, the first known market in Devizes was in 1228. The original market was in the space outside St Mary’s Church, rather than in the current Market Place. The chief products in the 16th and early 17th centuries were wheat, wool and yarn, with cheese, bacon, in 1643, during the English Civil War, Parliamentary forces under Sir William Waller besieged Royalist forces under Sir Ralph Hopton in Devizes. However the siege was lifted by a force from Oxford under Henry Wilmot, 1st Earl of Rochester. Devizes remained under Royalist control until 1645, when Oliver Cromwell attacked and forced the Royalists to surrender, the castle was destroyed in 1648 on the orders of Parliament, a process known as slighting, and today little remains of it. From the 16th century Devizes became known for its textiles, initially white woollen broadcloth but later the manufacture of serge, drugget, felt and cassimere or Zephyr cloth. In the early 18th century Devizes held the largest corn market in the West Country of England and also traded hops, cattle, horses and various types of cloth. Before the Corn Exchange was built in 1857, the trade in wheat and barley was conducted in the open, with sacks piled around the market cross. Todays cross displays the salutary tale of Ruth Pierce, accused of cheating some buyers at the market, The coroner, John Clare, wool merchants were able to build prosperous town houses in St. Johns and Long Street and around the market place
18.
Vale of Pewsey
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The Vale of Pewsey or Pewsey Vale is an area of Wiltshire, England to the east of Devizes and south of Marlborough, centred on the town of Pewsey. The vale is an extent of lower lying ground separating the chalk downs of Salisbury Plain to the south from the Marlborough Downs to the north and it is around 30 kilometres long and around 5 kilometres wide. At the western end is the town of Devizes, although not itself part of the downs, the vale is included as part of the North Wessex Downs AONB. The vale is a major east-west feature opening to the west towards the Bristol Channel, the river cuts through the chalk scarp to the south at Upavon and crosses Salisbury Plain towards the south coast. The higher part of the eastern vale south of Burbage is drained by the River Bourne, since the area is not believed to have been glaciated, this probably indicates that the course of the rivers pre-dates the modern topography. The highest point is Milk Hill at 295m /968 ft above sea level, the vale is not used by any major roads, but is followed by a railway and canal as a route between the London Basin and the west. To the north of Burbage the head of the Avon valley, draining west into the vale, meets the head of the River Dun, draining east to the Kennet and the Thames. The valley floor at around 150 metres above sea level provides a route through the downs which locally reach 200 to 300 metres, the Kennet and Avon Canal and the main line railway from London to the south-west make use of this route, the canal using the Bruce Tunnel. Formerly another rail route between Andover and Marlborough also followed this gap, another line formerly branched off towards Bath via Devizes at the western end of the vale. The floor of the vale is floored by Albian beds of the Upper Greensand and it is surrounded to the north and south by chalk scarps which close to the east near Burbage. There is also a small inlier of Greensand to the east at Shalbourne, in 2000, near the village of Wilcot, a schoolboy found a hoard of Roman coins which became known as the Stanchester Hoard. The find is now kept at the Wiltshire Heritage Museum in Devizes, Pewsey is the centre of activity for many of the smaller villages in and around the Vale of Pewsey and, as such, offers a wide range of activities for its small size. Avebury, West Kennet Long Barrow, Savernake Forest, Crofton Pumping Station, Silbury Hill, Wilton Windmill, Alton Barnes, Marlborough, Kennet and Avon Canal, Bruce Tunnel
19.
Kennet and Avon Canal
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The Kennet and Avon Canal is a waterway in southern England with an overall length of 87 miles, 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 central canal section. From Bristol to Bath the waterway follows the course of the River Avon before the canal links it to the River Kennet at Newbury. In all, the waterway incorporates 105 locks, the two river stretches were made navigable in the early 18th century, and the 57-mile canal section was constructed between 1794 and 1810. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the canal fell into disuse after the opening of the Great Western Railway. In the latter half of the 20th century the canal was restored in stages, after decades of dereliction and much restoration work, it was fully reopened in 1990. The Kennet and Avon Canal has been developed as a heritage tourism destination for boating, canoeing, fishing, walking and cycling. Later, around 1626, Henry Briggs made a survey of the two rivers and noted that the land between them was level and easy to dig and he proposed a canal to connect them, but following his death in 1630 the plan was dropped. The main alternative to transport for the carriage of goods between Bristol and London was a hazardous sea route through the English Channel. The small coastal sailing ships of the day were often damaged by Atlantic storms, plans for a waterway were shelved until the early 18th century. However, in 1715, work was authorised to make the River Kennet navigable from Reading to Newbury, work commenced in 1718, under the supervision of surveyor and engineer John Hore of Newbury. In 1723, despite local opposition, the Kennet Navigation opened. The River Avon had historically been navigable from Bristol to Bath, in 1727, navigation was restored, with the construction of six locks, again under the supervision of John Hore. The first cargo of Deal boards, Pig-Lead and Meal reached Bath in December, the two river navigations were built independently of one another, in order to meet local needs, but they eventually led to plans to connect them and form a through route. In 1788 a Western Canal was proposed to trade and communication links to towns such as Hungerford, Marlborough, Calne. The following year the engineers Barns, Simcock and Weston submitted a proposed route for this canal, the name was changed from Western Canal to Kennet and Avon Canal to avoid confusion with the Grand Western Canal, which was being proposed at the same time. In 1793 a further survey was conducted by John Rennie, the proposed route was accepted by the Kennet and Avon Canal Company, chaired by Charles Dundas, and the company started to take subscriptions from prospective shareholders. In July 1793 Rennie suggested further alterations to the route, including the construction of a tunnel in the Savernake Forest, on 17 April 1794 the Kennet and Avon Canal Act received the Royal Assent and construction began
20.
Upavon
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Upavon is a rural village and civil parish in the English County of Wiltshire, England. As its name suggests, it is on the portion of the River Avon which runs from north to south through the village. It is on the edge of Salisbury Plain about 4 miles south of Pewsey,10 miles southeast of the market town of Devizes. The A345 and A342 roads run through the village, most of Upavon is between 90 and 100 metres above sea level. The occupation of Upavon dates back to the Iron Age settlement at Casterley Camp which lies approximately 1.5 miles west of the current village, the village prospered during the 12th and 13th centuries and started to develop features that are recognisable today. Its Member of Parliament is Claire Perry, Member for Devizes, the village falls in the Pewsey Vale electoral ward. Upavon, the most populous area, lies at the southeast of the ward stretches north to Wilcot. The total population of the ward taken at the 2011 census was 4,461, Upavon airfield, now called Trenchard Lines, and previously RAF Upavon, is situated about 1.5 miles east of Upavon village. Upavon is referred to as the birthplace where the Royal Air Force was formed, since 1993 the main function of the military base has changed, and it is now largely an MoD administrative centre, and home to administrative headquarters of the British Army. The Army Gliding Club also uses the airfield in co-operation with 622 VGS, the Anglican Church of St Mary is Grade I listed. It has a 13th-century tower and was restored in 1875 by T. H, Upavon Baptist Chapel, named for the Cave of Adullam, was built in 1838. A Methodist church was built in 1966, replacing an earlier tin chapel, the village has two public houses, a corner shop, a petrol station and garage, a doctors surgery, a small Hairdressers salon, and a village hall. The nearest primary school is at Rushall, a school was built at Upavon in 1957, replacing a 19th-century building, to cater for children of RAF personnel, up to 200 pupils could be accommodated. Pupil numbers declined as RAF activity reduced and fell further after 1993 when the station was transferred to the Army, service Childrens Education has its headquarters in Trenchard Lines in Upavon. Crittall, Elizabeth, Baggs, A. P. Crowley, D. A. Pugh, victoria County History, A History of the County of Wiltshire, Volume 10, Swanborough hundred, the borough of Devizes. Media related to Upavon at Wikimedia Commons Upavon Parish Council website Upavon
21.
Salisbury Plain
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Salisbury Plain is a chalk plateau in central southern England covering 300 square miles. It is part of a system of chalk downlands throughout eastern and southern England formed by the rocks of the Chalk Group and largely lies within the county of Wiltshire, the plain is famous for its rich archaeology, including Stonehenge, one of Englands best known landmarks. Additionally the plain has arable land, and a few areas of beech trees. Its highest point is Easton Hill, the boundaries of Salisbury Plain have never been truly defined, and there is some difference of opinion as to its exact area. The river valleys surrounding it, and other downs and plains beyond them loosely define its boundaries, to the north the scarp of the downs overlooks the Vale of Pewsey, and to the north west the Bristol Avon. The River Wylye runs along the south west, and the Bourne runs to the east, the Hampshire Avon runs through the eastern half of the plain and to the south the plain peters out as the river valleys close together before meeting at Salisbury. From here the Avon continues south to the English Channel at Christchurch, the Hampshire Downs and the Berkshire Downs are chalk downland to the east and north of Salisbury Plain, and the Dorset Downs is to the south west. In the west and north west the geology is mainly of the clays and limestones of the Blackmore Vale, the A303 road runs along the southern area of the plain, while the A345 and the A360 cut across the centre. Salisbury Plain is famous for its history and archaeology, in the Neolithic period Stone Age man began to settle on the plain, most likely centred around the causewayed enclosure of Robin Hoods Ball. Large long barrows like White Barrow and other earthworks were built across the plain, by 2500 BC areas around Durrington Walls and Stonehenge had become a focus for building, and the southern part of the plain continued to be settled into the Bronze Age. Roman roads are visible features, probably serving a settlement near Old Sarum, villas are sparse, however, and Anglo-Saxon place names suggest that the plain was mostly a grain-producing imperial estate. In the 6th century Anglo-Saxon incomers built planned settlements in the valleys surrounded by strip lynchets, the cathedral is evidence of the prosperity the wool and cloth trade brought to the area. In the mid-19th century the wool and cloth industry began to decline, leading to a decline in the population and change in use from sheep farming to agriculture. Wiltshire became one of the poorest counties in England during this period of decline, there are a number of chalk carvings on the plain, of which the most famous is the Westbury White Horse. The Kennet and Avon Canal was constructed to the north of the plain, in 1896, George Kemp and Guglielmo Marconi experimented with wireless telegraphy on Salisbury Plain, and achieved good results over a distance of 1.75 miles. Media related to Army Training Estate Salisbury Plain at Wikimedia Commons The military training area covers roughly half of the plain, the army first conducted exercises on the plain in 1898. From that time, the Ministry of Defence bought up large areas of land until the Second World War, the MoD now own 150 square miles of land, making it the largest military training area in the United Kingdom. Of this, around 39 square miles are permanently closed to the public, as of 2016, the largest camps and barracks are at Larkhill, Bulford, Tidworth, Trenchard Lines and Warminster
22.
Durrington, Wiltshire
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Durrington is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England. The village lies about 2 miles north of the town of Amesbury,10 miles north of the city of Salisbury and it is on the eastern part of Salisbury Plain, the largest remaining area of chalk grassland in northwest Europe. The parish includes the hamlet of Hackthorn, on the outskirts of Durrington. Durrington has a history, dating back to the Neolithic era. Two ancient sites lie in the parish, Durrington Walls and Woodhenge, the parish is in the Upper Avon valley, with the River Avon forming its eastern boundary, Durrington village is close to the river. The toponym is derived from the Old English Deor ingtūn, meaning farm or settlement connected with Deor, Deor being a personal name. The villages population of about 5,000 is served by several shops, the area had been occupied since Neolithic times but not necessarily continuously. The parish contains two important Neolithic sites, Durrington Walls and Woodhenge, recent archaeological excavations indicate that the Neolithic inhabitants of the village kept a large number of pigs, with bone evidence suggesting that the pigs were unusually large for the time. This may be because inhabitants fattened them up to them to visitors to nearby Stonehenge. There is little evidence of Saxon occupation, but this may be because buildings and utensils of that time were made of wood, the Domesday Book recorded two estates in 1086, having land for one plough team and with 5 acres of meadow. These two estates may represent the two manors. West End manor was part of the estate of Amesbury until 1120 but East End manor had different origins. At this time each manor was using the field system. The population also increasing and in 1377 there were 139 poll tax payers making Durrington one of the most populous villages in the hundred of Amesbury. In 1390, Durringtons manors had an income of £40 which gradually decreased to £29 8s 6d in 1521. In 1399 the West End manor was given as an endowment of the newly created Winchester College, and they have also provided the name for College Road. In 1405 the Durrington Fire occurred, the cause of which is unknown and it is widely theorised that a lamp falling onto a bale of hay caused it to ignite, or possibly that a house fire got out of control. Whatever the cause, the resulted in the destruction of most of the West End because most of the houses were built in an unusually close proximity to one another
23.
Amesbury
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Amesbury /ˈeɪmzbəri/ is a town and civil parish in Wiltshire, England. It is most famous for the monument of Stonehenge which is in its parish. It has been confirmed by archaeologists that it is the oldest continuously occupied settlement in the United Kingdom, King Alfred the Great left it in his will, a copy of which is in the British Library, to his youngest son Aethelweard. Eleanor of Provence, queen of England, died in Amesbury on 24 or 25 June 1291, the parish includes the hamlets of Ratfyn and West Amesbury, and most of Boscombe Down military airfield. Amesbury is located in southern Wiltshire,7 miles north of Salisbury on the A345 and it sits in the River Avon valley on the southern fringes of Salisbury Plain and has historically been considered an important river crossing area on the road from London to Warminster and Exeter. This has continued into the present with the building of the A303 across the Avon next to the town, the nearest railway station is located at nearby Grateley, on the London to Salisbury line. The land around Amesbury has been settled since prehistoric times, evidenced by the monument of Stonehenge and they are now on display at Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum. Amesbury is recognized as the oldest continuously occupied UK settlement, during the Iron Age a large hill fort now known as Vespasians Camp was built alongside the Avenue and overlooking the River Avon. The fort could easily have catered for up to 1000 people and it is likely that there was a large Romano-British settlement overlooking the River Avon at this point. It has been suggested that the name of Amesbury is derived from Ambrosius Aurelianus, if this is the case he is likely to have used the hill fort as a stronghold. It is possible that an order of monks established a monastery in the area that was destroyed by the Saxons before they settled the area in the 7th century. Amesbury is also associated with the Arthurian legend, the convent to which Guinevere retired was said to have been the one at Amesbury. In 979 AD a Benedictine abbey, the Abbey of St Mary, in 1177 the abbey was dissolved by Henry II and replaced with a double priory of the Fontevrault order. Eleanor of Provence was buried in the abbey on 11 September 1291, Amesbury became an estate and was given to Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford by the crown. On John Speeds map of Wiltshire, the name is spelt both Amesbury and Ambersbury. The Seymour family held Amesbury estate until 1675 and had several homes built, including Kent and Diana houses. The estate subsequently passed to the Bruce family, and then to Lord Carleton and it remained in the Queensberry family until 1824. The mansion remained in their hands until 1979, by a decree in Chancery of 1831, the freedom of the grammar school was extended to children of mechanics, artisans, and small tradesmen
24.
Hampshire Basin
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The Hampshire Basin is a geological basin of Palaeogene age in southern England, underlying parts of Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Dorset, and Sussex. Like the London Basin to the northeast, it is filled with sands and clays of Paleocene and younger ages and it stretches a little over 100 miles from the Dorchester area in the west to Beachy Head in the east. The northern limit is the chalk of the South Downs, Salisbury Plain, the basin at its widest is around 30 miles from north to south between Salisbury and Newport. The area west of the River Avon is usually known as the Poole Basin, the basin includes areas of forest and heath including Wareham Forest, Arne and the New Forest and the large south coast settlements of Bournemouth, Southampton and Portsmouth. The coast has many drowned valleys including The Solent, Poole Harbour, Southampton Water, Portsmouth Harbour, Chichester Harbour, Langstone Harbour, Pagham Harbour, Yarmouth, Cowes and Bembridge. In addition to the half of the Isle of Wight which lies within the basin. The Hampshire Basin has no dominant river. In former times the Frome and Solent rivers would have drained much of the basin from west to east, at the end of the last ice age this system was disrupted by rising sea levels, which separated the Isle of Wight from the mainland. Today the western part of the basin drains via the rivers Frome and Piddle into Poole Harbour, the central part drains into the Solent, through the Lymington River, Test, Itchen, Meon, Hamble, Western Yar, Medina and Eastern Yar. The eastern part of the basin is a coastal plain draining into the many harbours via small streams. The main basin consists of a syncline in the Cretaceous chalk. The chalk can be visualised as a thin layer draped over rigid blocks of rocks at depth. Beneath the chalk the geology is complex, rocks of Lower Greensand age were deposited over an eroded surface, which ranges from Great Oolite to Weald Clay in age. The chalk itself varies considerably in thickness, with the results of a marine trangression progressing across into Dorset from the east, there is evidence that the top of the Upper Greensand to the west is the same age as the oldest chalk in the Isle of Wight. Above the chalk the basin contains Palaeogene sediments ranging from Thanetian age to Rupelian age, within this rim, over the greater part of the basin is an outcrop of younger Eocene deposits, the Bagshot, Bracklesham and Barton beds. The youngest, Oligocene beds only occur on the northern Isle of Wight, the simple basin structure is complicated by localised folding. A smaller outcrop of Palaeocene and Eocene deposits occurs in a small syncline to the south-east of Salisbury, an anticline to the north of Portsmouth results in the significant chalk ridge of Portsdown Hill within the younger sediments, the London Clay to the north contains the Forest of Bere. It is likely that the London and Hampshire basins were initially part of a larger area of deposition covering the whole of southeast England during the Palaeocene
25.
New Forest
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The New Forest is an area of southern England which includes one of the largest remaining tracts of unenclosed pasture land, heathland and forest in the heavily populated south east of England. It covers southwest Hampshire and extends into southeast Wiltshire and towards east Dorset, the name also refers to the New Forest National Park which has similar boundaries. There are many dotted around the area, and several small towns in the Forest. There are around 250 round barrows within its boundaries, and scattered boiling mounds, the Jutes were one of the early Anglo-Saxon tribal groups who colonised this area of southern Hampshire. The word ytene is also found locally as a synonym for giant, following the Norman Conquest, the New Forest was proclaimed a royal forest, in about 1079, by William the Conqueror. It was used for royal hunts, mainly of deer and it was created at the expense of more than 20 small hamlets and isolated farmsteads, hence it was then new as a single compact area. Two of Williams sons died in the forest, Prince Richard in 1081 and this Forest at present affordeth great variety of Game, where his Majesty oft-times withdraws himself for his divertisement. The reputed spot of Rufuss death is marked with a known as the Rufus Stone. Tirrell him seing not, Unwares him flew with dint of arrow shot, the common rights were confirmed by statute in 1698. The New Forest became a source of timber for the Royal Navy, in the Great Storm of 1703, about 4000 oak trees were lost. It also reconstituted the Court of Verderers as representatives of the Commoners, as of 2005, roughly 90% of the New Forest is still owned by the Crown. The Crown lands have been managed by the Forestry Commission since 1923, felling of broadleaved trees, and their replacement by conifers, began during the First World War to meet the wartime demand for wood. Further encroachments were made during the Second World War and this process is today being reversed in places, with some plantations being returned to heathland or broadleaved woodland. During the Second World War, an area of the forest, further New Forest Acts followed in 1949,1964 and 1970. The New Forest became a Site of Special Scientific Interest in 1971, the New Forest was proposed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in June 1999, and it became a National Park in 2005. Forest laws were enacted to preserve the New Forest as a location for royal deer hunting, there were also licences granted to gather bracken after Michaelmas Day as litter for animals. Along with grazing, pannage is still an important part of the Forests ecology, pigs can eat acorns without a problem, but for ponies and cattle large quantities of acorns can be poisonous. Pannage always lasts 60 days, but the date varies according to the weather –
26.
Fordingbridge
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It is 81 miles southwest of London, and 10 miles south of the city of Salisbury. Fordingbridge is a market town. The Avon Valley Path passes through the town, Fordingbridge is a town and civil parish in Hampshire on the banks of the River Avon. The first Great Bridge, from which the received its present name, was built in mediaeval times. Close by is a play area, secluded memorial gardens, parks. A bronze statue of the painter Augustus John stands on the banks of the Avon near the Great Bridge, not far from the High Street is the parish church of St. Mary the Virgin which has some typical Norman characteristics. Lands in Fordingbridge and the advowson of the church were granted to Kings College, Cambridge in 1447 by Henry VI, after being given to the Crown by Humphrey, the Fordingbridge Museum, which houses local history exhibits, and the Visitor Information Centre are located in Kings Yard. There is also a Roman villa in the village of Rockbourne. The local comprehensive school is The Burgate School And Sixth Form Centre, which is situated in Burgate, Fordingbridge Hospital is a small community hospital on the site of a Victorian workhouse. Most of the old buildings remain but the inpatient ward is a recent addition. The towns medical centre is on the site in Bartons Road Since 1982 Fordingbridge has been twinned with Vimoutiers in Normandy. Fordingbridge is also home to Fordingbridge Turks FC, one of the 50 oldest football clubs in England, the Turks name seems to derive from wishing to emulate the determination shown by Ottoman forces at Siege of Plevna. The recreation ground is home to Fordingbridge Rugby Club, who have been one of the more successful Hampshire clubs in recent years. The parish of Fordingbridge contains the hamlets of Burgate to the north, Criddlestyle to the east, Bickton to the south, Burgate and Bickton are settlements dating back to the time of the Domesday Book, and in fact Bickton was a larger settlement than Fordingbridge in 1086. Criddlestyle is an ancient manor, also known as East Mill, the largest hamlet today is Ashford, which was the location of an ancient watermill, and was the location of Fordingbridge railway station until it was closed in 1964. Fordingbridge is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 under the name Forde, the manor was held by a certain Robert from Robert the son of Gerald. Prior to 1066 it had held by Alwy from King Edward. At the beginning of the 13th century Fordingbridge was held by Hugh de Linguire, from that date Fordingbridge followed the same descent as Rowner
27.
Ringwood
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Ringwood is an historic market town and civil parish in Hampshire, England, located on the River Avon, close to the New Forest and northeast of Bournemouth. It has a history dating back to Anglo-Saxon times, and has held a market since the Middle Ages. The town is situated in the southwest of Hampshire, on the border with Dorset, Ringwood is recorded in a charter of 961, in which King Edgar gave 22 hides of land in Rimecuda to Abingdon Abbey. The name is recorded in the 10th century as Runcwuda and Rimucwuda. The second element Wuda means a wood, Rimuc may be derived from Rima meaning border, the name may refer to Ringwoods position on the fringe of the New Forest, or on the border of Hampshire. William Camden in 1607 gave a more fanciful derivation, claiming that the original name was Regne-wood. In the Domesday Book of 1086, Ringwood had been appropriated by the Crown and all, prior to 1066 Ringwood had been held by Earl Tostig. During the 12th and early 13th centuries Ringwood, like other manors of which John and Henry III had the immediate overlordship and it was held by Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset until his execution in 1552, and then briefly by John Gates who was executed in 1553. His grandson, the eighth Baron, sold it in 1794 to John Morant of Brockenhurst, a mill in Ringwood is mentioned in the Domesday Book and later there were two. In March 1226 Henry III granted a market in Ringwood on Wednesdays to Richard Marshal, 3rd Earl of Pembroke. In 1337 the Earl of Salisbury, as lord of Ringwood Manor, was granted a fair on the feast-day of Saint Andrew. There was also another fair held on the feast of Saint Peter in the 16th century, after the Battle of Sedgemoor on 6 July 1685, James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth was arrested near Horton, Dorset. Monmouth is believed to have hidden in a ditch under an ash tree disguised as a shepherd, Monmouth was then taken to the house now named Monmouth House in West Street. It was there that he wrote a letter to James II begging forgiveness and this was not granted, and he was brought to trial in the Tower of London by the infamous Hanging Judge Jefferies. Also after the Battle of Sedgemoor, a local lady, Alice Lisle. When her home, Moyles Court, was raided, the men were found and she was sentenced by the same Judge Jefferies to be burned at the stake, she received a late reprieve, and the sentence was reduced to beheading. She is buried at St Marys Church, Ellingham, one mile from her Moyles Court home and her tomb can be found to the right of the church entrance, it is easily spotted as the lid has been left unfinished with rough edges. There is now a pub called the Alice Lisle near Moyles Court, the Town Hall was erected by John Morant in 1868
28.
River Stour, Dorset
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The River Stour is a 61 mi river which flows through Wiltshire and Dorset in southern England, and drains into the English Channel. The catchment area for the river and its tributaries is listed as being 480 square miles and it is sometimes called the Dorset Stour to distinguish it from other rivers of the same name in Kent, Suffolk and the Midlands. According to Brewers Dictionary of Britain & Ireland, the name Stour rhymes with hour and derives from Old English meaning violent, fierce or the fierce one. The source of the river is fed from springs at Stourhead, in Wiltshire. It flows south into Dorset through the Blackmore Vale and the towns of Gillingham, at Marnhull the Stour is joined by the River Cale and then by the River Lydden. At Blandford Forum the river breaks through the ridge of the Dorset Downs. At Wimborne Minster it is joined by the River Allen, from source to estuary, the river falls approximately 750 feet over its 60 mi length. Because much of the course is across clay soil, the rivers waterlevel varies greatly. In summer, low water makes the river a diverse and important habitat. In winter, the river floods, and is therefore bordered by wide. Sturminster Marshall is famous for its mill and town bridge. There are many fish that live and use the river, which include, barbel, bream, chub, dace, grayling, perch, pike, roach, rudd, salmon, tench & trout. The harbour at Christchurch has also used to land oysters, crab, lobster and cuttlefish. Bass and mullet are known to use the estuary for feeding, downstream of Blandford Forum, the Stour is host to an insect known as the Blandford Fly which is known for leaving painful bites on humans. Attempts have been made to rid the fly from the area with a special spray used on the habitats of the fly. The harbour at Christchurch and the reaches of the Stour. The River Stour is navigable as far upstream as Tuckton and whilst there is a low bridge at Iford, spring tides have been known to penetrate a further 0.93 miles upstream as far as Blackwater Bridge. Boats can be hired from several yards and landings in the harbour, the Stour Valley Way is a designated long distance footpath that follows almost all of the course of the river
29.
Christchurch, Dorset
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Christchurch /ˈkraɪst. tʃɜːrtʃ/ is a borough and town on the south coast of England. The town adjoins Bournemouth in the west and the New Forest lies to the east, historically in the county of Hampshire, it became part of the administrative county of Dorset in the 1974 reorganisation of local government. Covering an area of 19.5 square miles, Christchurch had a 2013 population of 48,368, making it the fourth most populous town in Dorset, the town developed into an important trading port and was fortified in the 9th century. Further defences were added in the 12th century with the construction of a castle which was destroyed by the Parliamentarian Army during the English Civil War, during the 18th and 19th centuries smuggling flourished in Christchurch and became one of the towns most lucrative industries. The towns harbour, beaches, nature reserves and historically important buildings have made Christchurch a popular tourist destination attracting some 1.5 million visitors a year. Bournemouth Airport, an airport which handles approximately 800,000 passengers a year, is located within the borough boundary at Hurn. The airports industrial park contains a number of aerospace and engineering businesses and is one of the largest employment sites in Dorset, Christchurch is a popular destination for retirees and has one of the oldest populations in the country with 30 per cent of residents aged over 65. Christchurch was founded in approximately 650 AD by missionaries sent to Wessex by St Birinus and they settled on a stretch of raised land between the rivers Avon and Stour which carried people and their wares to and from settlements such as Blandford and Old Sarum. The harbour became one of the most important in Saxon England as it was reached from the continent. The town appears in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle entry of 901 as Tweoxneam from Old English betweoxn, in 1094 a chief minister of King William II, Ranulf Flambard, then Dean of Twynham, began the building of a priory on the site of the original mission church. Soon after the construction of the priory the town known as Christchurch. Some time in the early 12th century, a castle was built within the town. Originally a wooden fort built by Richard de Redvers, first cousin to King Henry I, the castle again saw action during the Civil War of 1642–1651 when occupied by the Parliamentarians. Christchurch changed hands a number of times, originally under Royalist control, Lord Goring briefly retook the town in 1645 but was obliged to withdraw and returned with a larger force days later and laid siege to the castle. However, the Parliamentarians withstood the siege and maintained their hold on the town, fearing such a powerful stronghold might once again fall into Royalist hands, Cromwell ordered the castle to be destroyed in 1652. Although the fishing industry thrived in Christchurch, the importance of the harbour declined as it became inaccessible to vessels of a large draught, the harbour entrance was particularly troublesome with constantly shifting sandbars. In 1665 Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, bought the Lordship of the Manor of Christchurch. As part of his plans to trade in the town
30.
River Wylye
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The River Wylye is a southern England chalk stream, with clear water flowing over gravel. It is popular with anglers for fly fishing, a half-mile stretch of the river and three lakes in Warminster are a local nature reserve. The Wylye rises below the White Sheet Downs just south of Maiden Bradley in Wiltshire and it then heads generally east south east, forming the Wylye Valley, into which the A36 road and the Wessex Main Line are also squeezed. The river forms part of the River Avon catchment, at Wilton it joins the River Nadder and eventually drains to the sea at Christchurch as part of the Avon. In parts the river flows through various SSSI, Steeple Langford Down Wylye, the Wylye valley is dotted with small chocolate box villages composed of thatched cottages and stone-built pubs. Both Wilton and Wiltshire are named after the river, there is also a village of Wylye. The River Wylye forms one of the five rivers referred to in the novel Sarum. gov. uk - Chalk River Valleys
31.
Local Government Act 1972
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The Local Government Act 1972 is an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales on 1 April 1974. In Wales, too, the Act established a pattern of counties and districts. Elections were held to the new authorities in 1973, and they acted as shadow authorities until the handover date, elections to county councils were held on 12 April, for metropolitan and Welsh districts on 10 May, and for non-metropolitan district councils on 7 June. Elected county councils had established in England and Wales for the first time in 1888. Some large towns, known as county boroughs, were independent from the counties in which they were physically situated. The county areas were two-tier, with many municipal borough, urban district and rural districts within them, however, most of the Commissions recommendations, such as its proposals to abolish Rutland or to reorganise Tyneside, were ignored in favour of the status quo. It was generally agreed that there were significant problems with the structure of local government, the Local Government Commission was wound up in 1966, and replaced with a Royal Commission. The new government made Peter Walker and Graham Page the ministers and they invited comments from interested parties regarding the previous governments proposals. The Association of Municipal Corporations put forward a scheme with 13 provincial councils and 132 main councils, the incoming governments proposals for England were presented in a White Paper published in February 1971. The White Paper substantially trimmed the metropolitan areas, and proposed a structure for the rest of the country. Many of the new boundaries proposed by the Redcliffe-Maud report were retained in the White Paper, the proposals were in large part based on ideas of the County Councils Association, the Urban District Councils Association and the Rural District Councils Association. The White Paper set out the division of functions between districts and counties, and also suggested a minimum population of 40,000 for districts. The government aimed to introduce a Bill in the 1971/72 session of Parliament for elections in 1973, the White Paper made no commitments on regional or provincial government, since the Conservative government preferred to wait for the Crowther Commission to report. The proposals were substantially changed with the introduction of the Bill into Parliament in November 1971, Area 4 would have had a border with area 2, seaham and Easington were to be part of the Sunderland district. Humberside did not exist in the White Paper, the East Riding was split between area 5 and an area 8. Area 33 to include Brackley and Brackley Rural District from Northamptonshire, Area 39 to include Henley-on-Thames and Henley Rural District from Oxfordshire Area 40 to include Aldershot, Farnborough, Fleet and area from Hampshire. The latter was removed from the Bill before it became law, proposals from Plymouth for a Tamarside county were rejected. The Bill also provided names for the new counties for the first time, on 6 July 1972, a government amendment added Lymington to Dorset, which would have had the effect of having the entire Bournemouth conurbation in one county
32.
Avon Valley Path
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The Avon Valley Path is a long-distance path in the English counties of Wiltshire, Hampshire and Dorset. The path takes its name from the River Avon and it ends near the coast at Christchurch Priory, Dorset. The path is waymarked and can be walked in either direction, the path crosses the Clarendon Way and Castleman Trailway, and passes through the western edge of the New Forest. This route is shown as a series of coloured diamonds on Ordnance Survey 1,25,000 and 1,50,000 maps, Hampshire County Council - The Avon Valley Path Avon Valley Path Long-distance footpaths in the UK Media related to Avon Valley Path at Wikimedia Commons
33.
Canoe
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A canoe is a lightweight narrow boat, typically pointed at both ends and open on top, propelled by one or more seated or kneeling paddlers facing the direction of travel using a single-bladed paddle. In International Canoe Federation nomenclature used in some European countries such as the United Kingdom the term refers to kayaks. Canoes are used for racing, whitewater canoeing, touring and camping, freestyle, the intended use of the canoe dictates its hull shape and length and construction material. Historically, canoes were dugouts or made of bark on a wood frame, most modern canoes are made of molded plastic or composites such as fiberglass. Until the mid-1800s the canoe was an important means of transport for exploration and trade, canoeing has been part of the Olympics since 1936. In places where the played a key role in history, such as the northern United States, Canada, and New Zealand. Canoes can be adapted to many purposes, for example with the addition of sails, outboard motors, the word canoe comes from the Carib kenu, via the Spanish canoa. Constructed between 8200 and 7600 BC, and found in the Netherlands, the Pesse canoe may be the oldest known canoe, excavations in Denmark reveal the use of dugouts and paddles during the Ertebølle period. Australian Aboriginal people made canoes using a variety of materials, including bark, the indigenous people of the Amazon commonly used Hymenaea trees. Many indigenous peoples of the Americas built bark canoes and they were usually skinned with birch bark over a light wooden frame, but other types could be used if birch was scarce. At a typical length of 4.3 m and weight of 23 kg, although susceptible to damage from rocks, they are easily repaired. When you reach them you load canoe and baggage upon your shoulders and go overland until the navigation is good, and then you put your canoe back into the water, and embark again. American painter, author and traveler George Catlin wrote that the canoe was the most beautiful. Native American groups of the north Pacific coast made dugout canoes in a number of styles for different purposes, from western red-cedar or yellow-cedar, different styles were required for ocean-going vessels versus river boats, and for whale-hunting versus seal-hunting versus salmon-fishing. The Quinault of Washington State built shovel-nose canoes, with double bows, the Kootenai of British Columbia province made sturgeon-nosed canoes from pine bark, designed to be stable in windy conditions on Kootenay Lake. The first explorer to cross the North American continent, Alexander Mackenzie, used extensively, as did David Thompson. Its dimensions were, length approximately 11 m, beam 1.2 to 1.8 m and it could carry 60 packs weighing 41 kg, and 910 kg of provisions. With a crew of eight or ten, they could make three knots over calm waters, four to six men could portage it, bottom up
34.
Charles II of England
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Charles II was king of England, Scotland and Ireland. He was king of Scotland from 1649 until his deposition in 1651, Charles IIs father, Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War. Cromwell defeated Charles II at the Battle of Worcester on 3 September 1651, Cromwell became virtual dictator of England, Scotland and Ireland, and Charles spent the next nine years in exile in France, the Dutch Republic and the Spanish Netherlands. A political crisis followed the death of Cromwell in 1658 resulted in the restoration of the monarchy. On 29 May 1660, his 30th birthday, he was received in London to public acclaim, after 1660, all legal documents were dated as if he had succeeded his father as king in 1649. Charless English parliament enacted laws known as the Clarendon Code, designed to shore up the position of the re-established Church of England, Charles acquiesced to the Clarendon Code even though he favoured a policy of religious tolerance. The major foreign policy issue of his reign was the Second Anglo-Dutch War. In 1670, he entered into the treaty of Dover. Louis agreed to aid him in the Third Anglo-Dutch War and pay him a pension, Charles attempted to introduce religious freedom for Catholics and Protestant dissenters with his 1672 Royal Declaration of Indulgence, but the English Parliament forced him to withdraw it. In 1679, Titus Oatess revelations of a supposed Popish Plot sparked the Exclusion Crisis when it was revealed that Charless brother, the crisis saw the birth of the pro-exclusion Whig and anti-exclusion Tory parties. Charles sided with the Tories, and, following the discovery of the Rye House Plot to murder Charles and James in 1683, Charles dissolved the English Parliament in 1681, and ruled alone until his death on 6 February 1685. He was received into the Roman Catholic Church on his deathbed, Charless wife, Catherine of Braganza, bore no live children, but Charles acknowledged at least twelve illegitimate children by various mistresses. He was succeeded by his brother James, Charles II was born in St Jamess Palace on 29 May 1630. His parents were Charles I and Henrietta Maria, Charles was their second son and child. Their first son was born about a year before Charles but died within a day, England, Scotland and Ireland were respectively predominantly Anglican, Presbyterian and Roman Catholic. At birth, Charles automatically became Duke of Cornwall and Duke of Rothesay, at or around his eighth birthday, he was designated Prince of Wales, though he was never formally invested. During the 1640s, when Charles was still young, his father fought Parliamentary, by spring 1646, his father was losing the war, and Charles left England due to fears for his safety. Charles I surrendered into captivity in May 1646, at The Hague, Charles had a brief affair with Lucy Walter, who later falsely claimed that they had secretly married
35.
Enford
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Enford is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, in the northeast of Salisbury Plain. The village lies 10 miles southeast of Devizes and 14 miles north of Salisbury, the parish includes nine small settlements along both banks of the headwaters of the River Avon. Besides Enford, these are Compton, Coombe, East Chisenbury, Fifield, Littlecott, Longstreet, New Town, the name is derived from the Old English Enedford meaning duck ford. The parish carries much evidence of activity, including bowl barrows. Lidbury Camp, on Littlecott Down, was occupied in the Iron Age and in the Romano-British period, a site on the west bank of the Avon near Compton is possibly that of a Roman villa. The Domesday Book of 1086 recorded 34 households at Enford and a settlement at Compton. Medieval strip lynchets are visible north of East Chisenbury, Enford manor was held by St Swithuns priory, Winchester until the Dissolution. Later owners included Thomas Culpeper, and Sir Edmund Antrobus who in 1899 sold the manor to the War Office, the parish population in 1676 has been calculated as 616. At the first census in 1841 there were 814, the peaked at 911 in 1851. Chisenbury Priory is a house, approached by a tree-lined drive from the road between Littecott and East Chisenbury. The house was built in the later 17th century, with a brick front added in the 18th, a school was provided at Enford c.1845 by Sir Edmund Antrobus, and supported partly by Sir Edmund and partly by a fund organised by John Prince, former vicar. By 1871 it had become a National School with some 61 pupils, the school moved to new buildings at Longstreet in 1966, next to the newly built village hall, it closed in 1989. The parish gained an area in 1885, West Chisenbury. The East Chisenbury midden is an example of a large dump of archaeological material. Now within a training area, the midden mound contains discrete layers of flint, charcoal, bones, pottery. It survives to a height of 8 feet and is 460 feet wide despite 2,500 years of weathering, the accumulation is believed by some archaeologists to have a ritual basis, with organised deposition of produce and waste being suggested as an explanation for its size and longevity. All Cannings Cross,8 miles to the north, is a similar site, the Church of England parish church, All Saints, was described by Pevsner as Quite a large and a very interesting church. The Domesday Book of 1086 recorded a priest at Enford, there may have been a church here at that time, as 12th-century arches are cut into earlier walls
36.
Coombe, Enford, Wiltshire
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Coombe is a hamlet of the civil parish of Enford, Wiltshire, England, about 13 miles north of the cathedral city of Salisbury. It lies on the River Avon between the villages of Enford and Netheravon, with nearly half of its houses on the road connecting the two and the remainder in Coombe Lane. Coombe was part of the Bishop of Winchesters hundred of Elstub, together with the settlements of Enford. It is thought that since the name of the hamlet of Fifield translates as five hides, Coombe, of similar size. Since its foundation, Coombe has probably never grown much beyond the hamlet that it is today. Notably however, the foundations of a small chapel-of-ease dating from the Middle Ages are still said to be visible, Coombe has few amenities, but these include a postbox and some street lights. The dog-walking facilities are held in esteem by many of the residents. The parish church and the nearest pub, The Swan, are at Enford, while the local shop, situated between Stonehenge and Avebury, Coombe has several tourist attractions. The east end of Coombe Lane is the site of two tumuli, which could be anywhere up to 5,000 years old. Nearby fields have been the site of a number of archeological digs, the River Avon bridge crossing is also a popular site for families on hot summer days due to its easy bathing access. Local events, village politics and sports are covered by the Enford Newsletter, based in Coombe Lane
37.
Netheravon
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Netheravon is a village and civil parish on the River Avon and A345 road, about 4 miles north of the town of Amesbury in Wiltshire, South West England. The village is the most populous part of The Collingbournes and Netheravon electoral ward and this ward starts in the west at Netheravon, stretches east to Collingbourne Ducis and ends in the east at Chute Forest. The population of this ward at the 2011 census was 4,186, the writer Frank Sawyer, although born in Bulford, spent most of his life in Netheravon as a river keeper on the Avon and died on the banks of the river near the parish church. He developed the Pheasant Tail Nymph for fly fishing and wrote the books Keeper of the Stream and Nymphs, the Anglican Church of All Saints dates from the 11th century and is Grade I listed. Netheravon House, built in the 18th century for the Beech family, evidence of a Roman villa has been found on part of its site. An 18th-century dovecote stands in the grounds to the north of the house, in 1898 Michael Hicks Beach sold the house and estate to the War Office. Military activity was first established at Netheravon in 1904 with the creation of a school under the sponsorship of Major General Robert Baden-Powell as the Inspector General of Cavalry. Baden-Powell envisioned developments in the use of Cavalry following his experiences in Southern Africa and India, the school emphasised the use of cavalry for scouting and reconnaissance, recognising that the traditional effects of mass of cavalry had been diminished by the availability of modern weapons. The Officers Mess was established at Netheravon House, Netheravon Airfield is outside the parish, on the other bank of the Avon in Fittleton and Figheldean parishes. A grass strip airfield was created for the Royal Flying Corps northeast of Coulston Camp in 1913 and later became RAF Netheravon, in 1963 the airfield and camp were transferred to the Army, and became AAC Netheravon from 1966 until 2012. With the establishment of the Airfield in 1912 the Cavalry School continued to operate in the training areas until the beginning of the war. In 1922 the school amalgamated with the Royal Artillery Riding Establishment in Northamptonshire, the Machine Gun School was absorbed as an element of the Small Arms School Corps in 1926. Over time the school expanded to support weapons in general. Support Weapons Wing remained at Netheravon until 1995 when Avon Camp was closed, courses at Avon Camp included the use of, Mortar Heavy Machine Gun General Purpose Machine Gun – Sustained Fire Man Portable Anti-Tank Surveillance Media related to Netheravon at Wikimedia Commons
38.
Figheldean
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Figheldean /faɪlˈdiːn/ is a village and civil parish on the River Avon,3 1⁄2 miles north of Amesbury in Wiltshire, England. Figheldean parish extends 3 miles east of the village towards Tidworth as far as Devils Ditch and 3 miles westwards beyond Larkhill towards Shrewton as far as Robin Hoods Ball, the parish includes the hamlets of Ablington and Alton. Approximately 1 mile to the north is Netheravon and 1.5 miles to the south is Durrington, the A345 main road between Salisbury and Marlborough passes through the parish to the west of the village. Figheldean is situated on Salisbury Plain, which supports nationally rare species and is the largest area of unimproved chalk grassland in northern Europe. Prehistoric sites in the parish include Robin Hoods Ball, a Neolithic causewayed enclosure in the far west of the parish, and Barrow Clump, several other barrows survive on the downs. There were six settlements near the river, whose names imply Saxon origins, Choulston, Figheldean, Ablington and Syrencot east of the river, the Domesday Book of 1086 recorded a settlement of 21 households at Fisgledene, and smaller settlements at Choulston, Alton and Ablington. The church at Figheldean is first mentioned in Henry Is 1115 charter granting its lands, a church, possibly a parish church, was recorded at Alton from the mid 12th century until the late 16th. By 1377 there were approximately 160 poll-tax payers in the parish, in the 19th century the population peaked at 531 according to the 1831 census. A National School was built in Figheldean in 1859, with land, from 1898, downland on both sides of the river valley was bought for military use, and remains in Ministry of Defence ownership as part of the Salisbury Plain Training Area. The Church of England parish church of St Michael and All Angels dates from the 12th century, when it had a nave and a west tower. The surviving feature from that period is the arch, following rebuilding. The chancel was restored in 1858-9 by Ewan Christian, and the rest of the church was restored in 1859-60 by J. W. Hughall, whose work included heightening the tower, the tower has two bells from the 16th century and one from the 18th. The church was designated as Grade II* listed in 1958, today Figheldean is part of the Avon River Team of parishes. Primitive Methodists were active by 1838 and built a chapel, of brick and flint. The chapel closed sometime before 1971 and became a private house, there was a Catholic church near the airfield, mainly for military personnel, from c.1934 until 1985 or 1986. Syrencot House is a house in riverside grounds south of Ablington. The three-storey house was built in brick and limestone on the site of a house in 1738. The estate was bought by the War Office in 1898, after the war, the house was used for a time as offices, until it was sold in 2000 to Major-General Patrick Sanders
39.
Milston
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Milston is a hamlet and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, approximately 10 miles north of Salisbury and separated from neighbouring Durrington by the River Avon. The parish consists of two hamlets, Milston and Brigmerston, along with buildings on Salisbury Plain. The population in 2011 was 130 – the same as in 1861, Milston Down Wood has earthworks including bowl barrows. The Nine Mile River rises on Brigmerston Down and is joined by the Damson Brook, the name is derived from the Old English midlest tūn, meaning middlemost farm/settlement. Milston hamlet contains a small Grade II* listed church dedicated to St Mary, erected in the 13th and 14th centuries, the single bell in the bellcote dates from about 1209 and the font is probably from the 13th century. It is one of seven Church of England parishes covered by the Avon River Team ministry, the Old Manor House at Milston,1613, is a Grade II* listed building. Milston was the birthplace of the writer and politician Joseph Addison, whose father Lancelot Addison, writer and cleric, was rector of Milston from 1670 to 1681, victoria County History - Wiltshire - Vol15 pp136-143 - Parishes, Milston. Media related to Milston at Wikimedia Commons
40.
Bulford
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Bulford is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, close to Salisbury Plain. The village is close to Durrington and about 1.5 miles north of the town of Amesbury, the Bulford Camp army base is separate from the village but within the parish. The Salisbury Avon forms the boundary of the parish. The Bulford Kiwi a large representation of a kiwi on the hill above the village. Evidence of occupation of the area in the late Neolithic era is provided by many round barrows on the downs, a Bronze Age boundary ditch is in the northeast of the parish. The 1086 Domesday Book recorded 39 households at Bulford, within an estate of Amesbury Abbey, the name is derived from the Old English bulut ieg ford meaning ragged robin island ford. It is recorded in the Wiltshire Charter Rolls of 1199 as Bultiford and it is then recorded as Bulteforde in the Ecclesiastical Tax Records of 1291. From 1897, land east of Bulford began to be used by the Army as Bulford Camp, the line closed to passengers in 1952 but goods services continued until 1963. The civil parish elects a parish council and it is in the area of Wiltshire Council, a unitary authority which is responsible for most local government functions. The parish is part of Bulford, Allington and Figheldean electoral ward, the ward starts in the north at Figheldean, stretches south through Bulford and ends in the south at Allington. The population of the ward at the 2011 census was 6,018, the Church of England parish church of St Leonard, to the west of the village near the Avon, is from the late 12th century and is a Grade I listed building. Alterations were made in the 13th century, and again in the 14th and 16th, the foundations of the tower proved to be inadequate and its height was reduced, probably in the 16th century. In the 19th century a north transept was added, restoration in 1902–11 was directed by C. E. Ponting. Today the church is part of the Avon River team ministry, Bulford Independent Congregational Chapel was built towards the south of the village in 1828 to replace an earlier meeting house. As of 2016 the chapel is still in use and the congregation is associated with the Evangelical Fellowship of Congregational Churches, the Camp has an Anglican church, St Georges and a Catholic church, Our Lady Queen of Peace. Bulford St Leonards CE Primary School serves the village, an elementary school was built on the High Street in 1874, replacing a school founded in 1758 which was housed in a cottage near the church. Following the expansion of the village in the 1960s, the present building was opened in 1971 on a new site towards the northeast of the village, avondale School is an independent preparatory school for children aged 2–11. The school was founded in Amesbury and has been on Bulfords High Street since 1957, Bulford Camp has a primary school called Kiwi Primary School
41.
Woodford, Wiltshire
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Woodford is a civil parish in southern-central Wiltshire, England, on the west bank of the Salisbury Avon, about 4 miles north of Salisbury. Its settlements are the villages of Lower Woodford, Middle Woodford and Upper Woodford, in 1871, the population was 523, in 1951, this had decreased to 405 people. In 972, the name was recorded as Wuduforda, which in Old English means ford in or by a wood, in the nineteenth century it was pronounced oodford. Woodford is mentioned in the days of Henry III, namely there being a knight, the buildings of Druids Lodge, in the north-west of the parish, were used as a prisoner-of-war camp during the Second World War, but they no longer exist. Nearby there is a stone shelter, erected as a memorial to Lieutenant Colonel F. G. G. Bailey. Woodford Church of England Primary School was erected between 1833 and 1836, and increased in size in 1854, in 1880 the chief landowners were Ecclesiastical Commissioners, and Robert Loder. Woodford is approximately 2,780 acres in size, on a hill slope southwest of Druids Head, there is a large and old enclosure that was formed by a bank. Lower Woodford Water Meadows is a 23.9 hectares biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Lower Woodford, of the working water-meadows in southern England that are associated with chalk streams, the best is situated at Lower Woodford. Heale House, near Middle Woodford, is Grade I listed and is an example of Georgian architecture that dates to around 1730, additions were made to the house in 1894 by Detmar Blow. The Church of England parish church of All Saints at Middle Woodford is Grade II listed and it has 12th-century origins but was much restored in 1845 by T. H. A monument to Gerard Erington of Heale is dated 1596, at Lower Woodford, the 17th-century Manor House is Grade II listed. Avon Cottage, a house originally built in the 15th century, was recased in red brick in the late 18th or early 19th century, with 20th-century additions to the south. Primary Academy serves the villages and surrounding parishes, the site began as a National school in 1872. There are two pubs, the Bridge Inn at Upper Woodford and the Wheatsheaf Inn at Lower Woodford, the Monarchs Way long-distance footpath passes through Lower and Middle Woodford
42.
Britford
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Britford is a village and civil parish beside the River Avon about 1.5 miles southeast of Salisbury in Wiltshire, England. The village is just off the A338 road, the 2011 Census recorded a parish population of 592. The place-name Britford is first attested in a Saxon charter of circa 670 and it appears as Bretford and Bredford in the Domesday Book of 1086, and as Brideford in the Curia Regis Rolls of 1203. The name means ford, and has the same etymology as Bridford in Devon. Little Woodbury,0.5 miles southwest of the village, is the site of an Iron Age settlement, excavations in 1938–39 revealed the sites of granaries, storage pits and a circular house nearly 50 feet in diameter. Great Woodbury,1 mile from the village, is the remains of an Iron Age hill fort, the nave of the Church of England parish church of Saint Peter is Saxon, built probably in the 9th century. On each side of the nave there is a round-headed Saxon arch into a porticus, the arch to the south porticus is plain, but that to the north porticus is supported by decorated stone slabs. The carving on one slab seems to be developed from the style of decoration of the Bewcastle and Ruthwell crosses at the beginning of the 8th century, in the 14th century the north and south transepts were added, making the church the cruciform building it is today. Each transept is next to the Saxon porticus on its corresponding side, the arches where the transepts meet the nave are Decorated Gothic, as is the east window of the chancel. A 15th-century tomb chest monument in the church is supposed to be that of Henry Stafford, also 15th-century is a small, iron-bound wooden chest in the north transept. The finely-carved pulpit is late 17th century, the west wall of the nave was rebuilt in 1764. Over the crossing is a tower, which was rebuilt in 1764 or 1767. John Robartes, 1st Earl of Radnor had a mausoleum added to the northwest corner of the transept in 1764 or 1777. The building was restored in 1873 to the designs of George Edmund Street, the west window of the nave has stained glass made by Ward and Hughes of London in 1882. St Peters is a Grade I listed building, in the second quarter of the 13th century Britford had an anchoress called Joan. In 1215 King John granted her an income of one penny per day and she received royal gifts of oaks in 1226,1231 and 1245. In 1237 the sheriff of Salisbury was ordered to ensure that the courtyard around her house was enclosed with a wall. St Peters has a ring of six bells, five including the tenor bell were cast in 1765 by Robert Wells I of Aldbourne
