Cherhill | |
---|---|
The Street, Cherhill | |
Location within Wiltshire | |
Population | 727 (in 2011) [1] |
OS grid reference | SU038701 |
Civil parish |
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Unitary authority | |
Ceremonial county | |
Region | |
Country | England |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | Calne |
Postcode district | SN11 |
Dialling code | 01249 |
Police | Wiltshire |
Fire | Dorset and Wiltshire |
Ambulance | South Western |
UK Parliament | |
Website | Parish Council |
Cherhill is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England. The village is about 2+1⁄2 miles (4 km) east of the town of Calne, on the A4 road towards Marlborough. The parish includes the village of Yatesbury.
Cherhill has a population of around 700 with a mixture of housing ranging from thatched cottages (some dating to the 14th century) to newly built detached houses. The River's Brook rises in the northeast of the village and flows west towards Quemerford, where it joins the River Marden.
Cherhill is located in the western foothills of the North Wessex Downs National Landscape. Cherhill Down, a hill to the southeast of the village, is known for the Cherhill White Horse cut into the chalk hillside in 1780, the Lansdowne Monument obelisk, and the crop circles that appeared in the fields at the bottom of the hill. The area around the horse and obelisk is owned by the National Trust. [2] On a clear day, the 840 ft (260 m) summit offers fine views, up to 25 miles, with the water tower at Tetbury in Gloucestershire visible.[ citation needed ] Atop the tall hill to the north of the village, opposite to Cherhill Downs, it is said to be possible to see the Severn crossings to South Wales, 38 miles (61 km) to the west.[ citation needed ]
Cherhill lies on an old coaching road, now the A4, which runs from central London to Bristol. Its nearest railway station is Chippenham on the Great Western Main Line, which is a stop for services between London Paddington and Bristol Temple Meads. The nearest motorway junction is junction 17 of the M4 north of Chippenham, 15 miles (24 km) from Cherhill. The village is served by the Wigglybus scheme, which runs from Cherhill and other surrounding villages into nearby Calne and connects to further transport links.[ citation needed ]
John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870–1872) says of Cherhill: [3]
CHERHILL, a parish in Calne district, Wilts; near Wans Dyke, 2½ miles E by S of Calne r. station, and 7 NNE of Devizes. It has a post office under Chippenham. Acres, 1, 817. Real property, £2, 574. Pop., 364. Houses, 88. The property is all in one estate. An ancient square camp with double works, called Oldbury, is on the summit of a chalk hill; and the figure of a horse, 157 feet long, cut out of the turf about 1780, and visible for many miles, is on the side of the same hill. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Salisbury. Value, £300. Patron, the Bishop of Salisbury. The church is old but very good; and there is a Primitive Methodist chapel.
The Lansdowne Monument, or Cherhill Monument, is a 125-foot stone obelisk erected in 1845 by the Third Marquis of Lansdowne on Cherhill Down in honour of his ancestor Sir William Petty. [4]
The civil parish increased in size in 1934, when Cherhill gained some land from Calne Without and absorbed the whole of Yatesbury parish.
Near the top of Cherhill Down stands Oldbury Camp or Oldbury Castle (not to be confused with sites having similar names in Somerset and Kent), which began as a Bronze Age enclosure and was enlarged in the Iron Age to become a hillfort. [5]
The Cherhill White Horse was cut out of the hillside in 1780. It has been restored several times due to chalk being washed away and weeds growing on it. The horse is visible from miles around and has become a landmark synonymous with the village and local area.
From here it is possible to see the route of a Roman road heading toward the nearby Wansdyke trade route. The top of the hill is popular with ramblers, dog walkers and power kiters, owing to the powerful winds in action.
The Cherhill Gang was a notorious group of highway men who operated in the 18th century on the London to Bath main road (A4) which passes through the village – they were noted for their robbery technique of attacking the carriages of rich Londoners while completely naked, thus shocking passengers into handing over their money and also making it harder to identify them. A painting depicting one such attack can be seen in the Black Horse pub, on the A4 main road in the village.
At one of the village's bus shelters is a millennium project of a sundial. Consisting of a vertical sarsen stone inside a face of Roman numerals, it symbolises the passage of time. [6]
The Church of England parish church of St James has 12th-century origins. Most of the building, including the tower, is from the 15th century. A west gallery in Gothic style was added in 1840, and restoration in 1863 was by S.B. Gabriel. The church was designated as Grade II* listed in 1960. [7]
Cherhill was a dependent church of St Mary's, Calne until 1842. [8] The ecclesiastical parish was enlarged in 1879 when 204 acres were transferred from Calne. [8] [9] Since 1973 the parish has been part of the Oldbury Benefice. [10]
The Parish Council has a mostly consultative role, while the Wiltshire Council unitary authority is responsible for all significant local government functions. The parish forms part of the Chippenham parliamentary constituency.
Cherhill has a primary school, built at Middle Lane in 1961 to replace a small school on The Street which was built in 1846 or 1847. [11]
The village hall was built in 1977, next to the old school. [12] In 2015 a new building was proposed, on a larger site immediately east of the village boundary. [13]
Cherhill Cricket Club play in the Wiltshire League. The village has a pub, the Black Horse.
Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It borders Gloucestershire to the north, Oxfordshire to the north-east, Berkshire to the east, Hampshire to the south-east, Dorset to the south, and Somerset to the west. The largest settlement is Swindon, and Trowbridge is the county town.
Westbury White Horse or Bratton White Horse is a hill figure on the escarpment of Salisbury Plain, approximately 1.5 mi (2.4 km) east of Westbury in Wiltshire, England. Located on the edge of Bratton Downs and lying just below an Iron Age hill fort, it is the oldest of several white horses carved in Wiltshire. It was restored in 1778, an action which may have obliterated another horse that had occupied the same slope. A contemporary engraving from around 1772 appears to show a horse facing in the opposite direction that was rather smaller than the present figure. There is, however, no documentation or other evidence for the existence of a chalk horse at Westbury before 1772.
Calne is a town and civil parish in Wiltshire, southwestern England, at the northwestern extremity of the North Wessex Downs hill range, a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
Fyfield is a village and civil parish in the English county of Wiltshire, in the Kennet Valley about 2.5 miles (4.0 km) west of Marlborough. The village is on the A4 road which was historically the main route from London to the west of England.
Yatesbury is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Cherhill, in Wiltshire, England. It is in the northeast of Cherhill parish, 1 mile (1.6 km) north of the A4 road between Calne – about 4 miles (6 km) away – and Marlborough.
Compton Bassett is a village and rural civil parish in Wiltshire, England, with a population of approximately 250. The village lies about 1 mile (1.6 km) north of Cherhill and 2+1⁄2 miles (4.0 km) east of the town of Calne.
Derry Hill is a village in the English county of Wiltshire, in the civil parish of Calne Without. It has an elevated position at the northern edge of the Bowood House estate, about 3 miles (5 km) south-east of the centre of the town of Chippenham.
Stockley is a small village 4 km (2 mi) south of Calne in Wiltshire, England. It lies about 3⁄4 mile (1.2 km) north of the larger village of Heddington, at the foot of the western extremity of the North Wessex Downs.
Bremhill is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England. The village is about 1.6 miles (2.6 km) northwest of Calne and 4 miles (6.4 km) east of Chippenham. The name originates from 'Bramble hill'.
Sandy Lane is a small village in Wiltshire, England, about 4.5 miles (7 km) south-east of Chippenham and 3 miles (5 km) south-west of Calne. It lies on the A342 Chippenham-Devizes road, just north of its junction with the A3102 to Calne.
RAF Yatesbury is a former Royal Air Force airfield near the village of Yatesbury, Wiltshire, England, about 4 miles (6 km) east of the town of Calne. It was an important training establishment in the First and Second World Wars and until its closure in 1965. For a time in the 1950s, part of the site became RAF Cherhill.
Studley is a small village in the county of Wiltshire, England, belonging to the civil parish of Calne Without.
Pewsham is a small village and former civil parish just south-east of the town of Chippenham on the A4 national route towards Calne in Wiltshire, England.
Cherhill White Horse is a hill figure on Cherhill Down, 3.5 miles east of Calne in Wiltshire, England. Dating from the late 18th century, it is the third oldest of several such white horses in Great Britain, with only the Uffington White Horse and the Westbury White Horse being older. The figure is also sometimes called the Oldbury White Horse.
William Charles Plenderleath was an English Anglican clergyman, author and antiquarian, best remembered for his White Horses of the West of England.
Calstone Wellington is a small village and former parish in Wiltshire, England, about 2.5 miles (4 km) south-east of Calne and now part of the civil parish of Calne Without. The village has a 15th-century church.
Marlborough White Horse, also called the Preshute White Horse, is a hill figure on Granham Hill, a fairly shallow slope of the downland above the hamlet of Preshute, southwest of Marlborough in the county of Wiltshire, England. Dating from 1804, it is one of several such white horses to be seen around Great Britain, and one of nine in Wiltshire.
Calne Without is a civil parish in Wiltshire, England. It is a rural parish surrounding the town of Calne, extending west to the Avon and south to the Roman road from London to Bath. Settlements in the parish are the village of Derry Hill; the small villages of Calstone Wellington, Sandy Lane, Stockley and Studley; the dispersed settlement of Stock; the hamlets of Blackland, Broad's Green, Buck Hill, Mile Elm, Pewsham and Theobald's Green; and part of the hamlet of Ratford. The parish also encompasses the former tithing of Calstone, and the country house estates of Bowood and Whetham.
Pewsey White Horse is a hill figure of a white horse near the village of Pewsey, Wiltshire, England. Cut of chalk in 1937, it replaces an earlier horse that had disappeared under the grass and is one of eight remaining white horses in Wiltshire. It measures 66’ by 45’, making it the smallest of the eight canonical white horses in Wiltshire.
Broad Town White Horse is a hill figure of a white horse located in the village of Broad Town, Wiltshire, England. One of eight canonical hill figures in Wiltshire depicting a white horse, it is carved into a 45° slope above Little Town Farmhouse and is visible for 20 miles. The horse is 80 by 60 feet in size and composed of fine compacted chalk with well defined edges. Although its origin is uncertain, according to William Plenderleath, writing in 1885, it was cut in 1864 by a William Simmonds, who held the farm then. Simmonds claimed later that it had been his intention to enlarge the horse gradually over the years, but he had to give up the farm and so did not have the opportunity.
Media related to Cherhill at Wikimedia Commons