Maud Heath's Causeway is a pathway dating from the 15th century in rural Wiltshire, England. On both sides of its crossing of the River Avon, just west of Kellaways, the path rises above the floodplain on sixty-four brick arches (built 1812, largely reconstructed in the 20th century) [1] alongside an undistinguished country road between Bremhill and Langley Burrell.
The causeway is the gift of the eponymous Maud Heath, who made her living carrying eggs to market at Chippenham. She was a widow and childless, and when she died she left money to improve and maintain the path along which she had tramped to market several times a week for most of her life. Over five hundred years later, the charity still maintains the path out of her bequest.
Since 1960, the raised section has been listed Grade II* on the National Heritage List for England. [1]
A brief guide to the causeway was written by K.R. Clew in 1982. [2]
Near the east bank of the Avon at grid reference ST 9469 7580 , a three-metre high carved stone pillar with sundials, dated 1698, is inscribed "To the memory of the worthy Maud Heath of Langly Burrell Widow who in the year of Grace 1474 for the good of travellers did in Charity bestow in Lands and houses about Eight pounds a year for ever to be laid out on the Highways and Causey leading from Wick Hill to Chippenham Clift". [3]
A roadside marker stone near the eastern terminus at Wick Hill near Bremhill, at ST 9730 7386 about 2.1 miles (3.4 km) southeast of the Avon crossing, carries an iron plate inscribed "From this Wick-Hill/begins the praise/Of Maud Heath's gift/To these highways". [4] Further up the hill stands Maud Heath's Monument, a statue of the eponymous lady, erected on a high column in 1838 and looking out over the river and its floodplain. [2] The statue, in a bonnet and authentic plebeian clothes from the reign of Edward IV, was erected by Lord Lansdowne, and features a poem by the critic William Lisle Bowles, who was vicar of Bremhill at the time, which reads:
'Thou who dost pause on this aerial height/ Where Maud Heath's Pathway winds in shade and light/ Christian wayfarer in a world of strife/ Be still and consider the Path of Life.' [2]
Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It borders Gloucestershire to the north, Oxfordshire and Berkshire to the east, Hampshire to the south-east, Dorset to the south, and Somerset to the west. The largest settlement is Swindon.
North Wiltshire is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 1997 by James Gray, a Conservative. In the period 1832–1983, this was an alternative name for Chippenham or the Northern Division of Wiltshire and as Chippenham dates to the original countrywide Parliament, the Model Parliament, this period is covered in more detail in that article. In 2016 it was announced that the North Wiltshire constituency would be scrapped as part of the planned 2018 Constituency Reforms.
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Langley Burrell is a village just north of Chippenham, Wiltshire, England. It is the largest settlement in the civil parish of Langley Burrell Without which includes the hamlets of Peckingell and Kellaways.
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The Wiltshire Victoria County History, properly called The Victoria History of the County of Wiltshire but commonly referred to as VCH Wiltshire, is an encyclopaedic history of the county of Wiltshire in England. It forms part of the overall Victoria County History of England founded in 1899 in honour of Queen Victoria. With eighteen volumes published in the series, it is now the most substantial of the Victoria County Histories.
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Wick House is a Grade II listed house in Richmond, Greater London, located near the corner of Nightingale Lane and Richmond Hill in Surrey. The painter Sir Joshua Reynolds commissioned the house from Sir William Chambers and it was completed in 1772.
Kellaways, also known as Tytherton Kellaways, is a village and former ecclesiastical parish in the present-day civil parish of Langley Burrell Without and ceremonial county of Wiltshire, England. Its nearest town is Chippenham, which lies 2.5 miles (4.0 km) southwest from the hamlet. Historically, the name was sometimes given as Gallows.
Tytherton Lucas is a hamlet in the civil parish of Bremhill in the ceremonial county of Wiltshire, England. Its nearest town is Chippenham, which lies approximately 2 miles (3.2 km) south-west from the hamlet. The River Avon passes to the west, and the Cat Brook and Cade Burma streams flow just to the north.
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