Ham | |
---|---|
Village green, Ham, with the Crown and Anchor (2009) | |
Location within Wiltshire | |
Population | 161 (in 2011) [1] |
OS grid reference | SU330629 |
Civil parish |
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Unitary authority | |
Ceremonial county | |
Region | |
Country | England |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | Marlborough |
Postcode district | SN8 |
Dialling code | 01488 |
Police | Wiltshire |
Fire | Dorset and Wiltshire |
Ambulance | South Western |
UK Parliament | |
Website | www |
Ham is a small village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England. The parish borders the county of Berkshire, and the village lies about 3+1⁄4 miles (5.2 km) south of the Berkshire town of Hungerford.
Ham Hill is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest.
Ham is first mentioned in a charter of 931, in which King Æthelstan granted land to his thegn Wulfgar. [2] The modern boundaries of Ham parish are little changed from those defined in clauses attached to the charter. [3] Wulfgar willed the estate to his wife and then to the Old Minster, Winchester. [2]
The Domesday book of 1086 recorded a settlement of twenty households at Hame, on land held by the Bishop of Winchester. [4] In the 13th century, Ham was considered to be part of Savernake Forest. By 1284 the estate was assigned to St. Swithun's Priory, Winchester, and continued to support the monks until the Dissolution. In 1541 it was granted to the chapter of Winchester Cathedral, who retained ownership until the manor and land were sold in the 19th and early 20th centuries. [2]
The Manor House, west of the church, is from the 17th century with changes and additions in the late 18th and 19th. It is a Grade II* listed building. [5] Dove's House, northwest of the village green, is early 18th and also Grade II* listed. [6] Ham Spray House, just east of Ham village at grid reference SU 343 630 is c. 1830. [7] An Ordnance Survey map published in 1961 shows the house and outbuildings standing in parkland; [8] today, large agricultural buildings are immediately north of the house.
A National School was built opposite the Crown and Anchor in 1874, replacing a small schoolroom which was attended by 61 pupils on return day in 1871. The number of children fell during the 20th century but increased on the closure of the Buttermere school in 1944. By 1980 there were only 17 pupils and the school was closed. [9]
A church at Ham was recorded in 1172. [2] The current All Saints' Church dates from the 13th century and has a 14th-century tower. Restoration during the 18th century saw the tower refaced and a north porch added; inside a west gallery was inserted, lit by a dormer window on each side. The interior is largely from the 18th century, the church having escaped Victorian restoration except for minor works in 1849. [10]
The building was designated as Grade I listed in 1986. [10] The benefice was united in 1933 with Buttermere, [11] and in 1956 with Shalbourne. [12] Today the parish forms part of the Savernake team ministry. [13]
Ham has an elected parish council. [14] It falls within the area of the Wiltshire Council unitary authority which is responsible for almost all aspects of local government.
Lytton Strachey and Ralph Partridge, members of the Bloomsbury Group, bought Ham Spray House for £2,300 and moved there in 1924. [15] Several of that group and other writers and artists spent time there until Ralph died in 1960, including: [16]
Ham has a village hall and a pub, the Crown and Anchor.
Giles Lytton Strachey was an English writer and critic. A founding member of the Bloomsbury Group and author of Eminent Victorians, he established a new form of biography in which psychological insight and sympathy are combined with irreverence and wit. His biography Queen Victoria (1921) was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize.
Hungerford is a historic market town and civil parish in Berkshire, England, 8 miles (13 km) west of Newbury, 9 miles (14 km) east of Marlborough, 27 miles (43 km) north-east of Salisbury and 60 miles (97 km) west of London. The Kennet and Avon Canal passes through the town alongside the River Dun, a major tributary of the River Kennet. The confluence with the Kennet is to the north of the centre whence canal and river both continue east. Amenities include schools, shops, cafés, restaurants, and facilities for the main national sports. Hungerford railway station is a minor stop on the Reading to Taunton Line.
Edington is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, about 4 miles (6 km) east-northeast of Westbury. The village lies under the north slope of Salisbury Plain and the parish extends south onto the Plain. Its Grade I listed parish church was built for Edington Priory in the 14th century.
Dora de Houghton Carrington, known generally as Carrington, was an English painter and decorative artist, remembered in part for her association with members of the Bloomsbury Group, especially the writer Lytton Strachey. From her time as an art student, she was known simply by her surname as she considered Dora to be "vulgar and sentimental". She was not well known as a painter during her lifetime, as she rarely exhibited and did not sign her work. She worked for a while at the Omega Workshops, and for the Hogarth Press, designing woodcuts.
Great Bedwyn is a village and civil parish in east Wiltshire, England. The village is on the River Dun about 4.5 miles (7.2 km) southwest of Hungerford, 14 miles (23 km) southeast of Swindon and 6 miles (9.7 km) southeast of Marlborough.
Burbage is a village and civil parish in the Vale of Pewsey, Wiltshire, England. It is about 6 miles (9.7 km) south of Marlborough and 20 miles (32 km) west of Newbury.
Buttermere is a small village and civil parish on the eastern boundary of Wiltshire, England, about 4.5 miles (7 km) south of Hungerford and 10 miles (16 km) southeast of Marlborough. The village stands above the steep escarpment of Ham Hill, and at 257 metres (843 ft) above sea level it is the highest village in Wiltshire and probably the highest in Wessex.
Shalbourne is a village and civil parish in the English county of Wiltshire, about 3 miles (4.8 km) southwest of Hungerford, Berkshire. The parish has a number of widely spaced small settlements including Bagshot and Stype, to the north, and Rivar and Oxenwood to the south. Before 1895, about half of the parish of Shalbourne lay in Berkshire.
Grafton is a civil parish in Wiltshire, England, in the Vale of Pewsey about 7 miles (11 km) southeast of Marlborough. Its main settlement is the village of East Grafton, on the A338 Burbage - Hungerford road; the parish includes the village of Wilton and the hamlets of West Grafton, Marten and Wexcombe.
West Overton is a village and civil parish in the English county of Wiltshire, about 3.5 miles (5.6 km) west of Marlborough. The river Kennet runs immediately north of the village, separating it from the A4 road. The parish includes the village of Lockeridge, also near the river, further east (downstream).
Tidmarsh is a village in West Berkshire, England. Its development is mainly residential and agricultural, and is centred on the A340 road between Pangbourne and Theale. The rural area is bounded by the M4 motorway to the south. It is centred 1.5 miles (2.4 km) south of Pangbourne, 5.5 miles (8.9 km) west of Reading and 40 miles (64 km) west of London.
Inkpen is a village and civil parish in West Berkshire, 3.5 miles (5.6 km) southeast of Hungerford, most of the land of which is cultivated fields with scattered woodland once part of a former forest of Savernake. Inkpen has boundaries with Wiltshire and Hampshire, including parts of Walbury Hill, the highest point in South East England, and Inkpen Hill.
Heytesbury is a village and a civil parish in Wiltshire, England. The village lies on the north bank of the Wylye, about 3+1⁄2 miles (5.6 km) southeast of the town of Warminster.
Carrington is a 1995 British biographical film written and directed by Christopher Hampton about the life of the English painter Dora Carrington (1893–1932), who was known simply as "Carrington". The screenplay is based on Lytton Strachey: A Critical Biography, the 1967-68 two-volume biography of writer and critic Lytton Strachey (1880–1932) by Michael Holroyd.
Wootton Rivers is a small village and civil parish in the Vale of Pewsey, Wiltshire, England. The village lies about 3 miles (5 km) northeast of Pewsey and 4 miles (6 km) south of Marlborough. During the 20th century its population halved and most of its facilities closed.
Wingfield is a small village and civil parish in the county of Wiltshire, England, about 2.5 miles (4.0 km) south of Bradford-on-Avon and 2.2 miles (3.5 km) west of Trowbridge.
Frances Catherine Partridge CBE was an English writer. Closely connected to the Bloomsbury Group, she is probably best known for the publication of her diaries. She married Ralph Partridge in 1933. The couple had one son, (Lytton) Burgo Partridge (1935–1963).
Reginald Sherring Partridge,, generally known as Ralph Partridge, was a member of the Bloomsbury Group. He worked for Leonard Woolf and Virginia Woolf, married Dora Carrington and then Frances Marshall, and was the unrequited love of Lytton Strachey.
Tidcombe is a small village in Wiltshire, England, on the eastern edge of the county, near Hampshire, about 9 miles (14 km) southeast of Marlborough and 7 miles (11 km) southwest of Hungerford. With few inhabitants, it forms part of the civil parish of Tidcombe and Fosbury, which has a parish meeting.
Media related to Ham, Wiltshire at Wikimedia Commons