Liddington
All Saints' churchyard
Liddington Location within Wiltshire
Population	593 (in 2021)[1]
OS grid reference	SU207815
Civil parish	Liddington
Unitary authority	Swindon
Ceremonial county	Wiltshire
Region	South West
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	Swindon
Postcode district	SN4
Dialling code	01793
Police	Wiltshire
Fire	Dorset and Wiltshire
Ambulance	South Western
UK Parliament	South Swindon
Website	Parish Council
List of places UK England Wiltshire 51°31′55″N 1°42′11″W / 51.532°N 1.703°W / 51.532; -1.703

Liddington is a village and civil parish near Swindon in Wiltshire, England. The settlement lies southeast of Swindon town, close to junction 15 of the M4 motorway, which is approximately 2 miles (3.2 km) away via the B4192.

History

The parish has been an area of settlement since the earliest times. The ancient Ridgeway traverses the parish just north of the village and the Iron Age hill-fort known as Liddington Castle, which is a scheduled monument, overlooks the present-day village.^[2] Liddington is recorded in the late Saxon period, around 940 AD. The Domesday Book of 1086 refers to the settlement as Ledentone.^[3] The population of the parish peaked at 454 in 1841 and then gradually declined.^[4]

'Starfish' decoy control bunker

Liddington Hill was the site of a control bunker for a World War II 'Starfish' bombing decoy site. This would have been used to control fires, which would have acted as a decoy to enemy planes targeting the town of Swindon to the north. The bunker had a hatch in its concrete roof and consisted of two rooms off a central passage; the room on the right housed generators, while the control room was on the left.^[5]

Economy

Just east of the village is the children's adventure centre PGL Liddington,^[6] based at the historic King Edward's Place. Whilst the centre takes its name from Liddington as the nearest village, the centre is in the neighbouring parish of Wanborough.