Purton is a large village and civil parish in north Wiltshire, England, about 4 miles (6 km) northwest of the centre of Swindon. The parish includes the village of Purton Stoke and the hamlets of Bentham, Hayes Knoll, Purton Common, Restrop, The Fox and Widham.
Ringsbury Camp has evidence of settlement during the Neolithic period but is considered to be an Iron Age hill fort dating from about 50 BC. There is a suggestion that the remains of a Roman villa lie under the soil at Pavenhill, on the Braydon side of Purton.[2] At The Fox on the east side of the village, grave goods and bodies from a pagan Saxon cemetery have been excavated.[3]
The earliest known written record of Purton dates from AD 796 when the Saxon King Ecgfrith of Mercia gave 35 hides from Purton to the BenedictineMalmesbury Abbey. The Abbot of Malmesbury continued to be the chief landlord of Purton throughout Saxon and Norman times, suggesting that an earlier church stood at Purton.[3]
It is thought a battle took place during the English Civil War in the Restrop area.[by whom?] A cannonball was discovered in the area and several place names refer to a battle, including the alternative name of Restrop Road, Red Street (which may signify the road was covered in blood) and Battlewell. A mile away are Battle Lake in Braydon Wood, and Battlelake Farm.
RAF Blakehill Farm, north of Purton Stoke, was a RAF Transport Command station that operated from 1944 until 1946; its site, mostly in Cricklade parish, has returned to farmland.[6] United States troops were stationed in Braydon Wood, and attended dances at the Angel Hotel. Anti-tank devices (chains across the road, set in concrete blocks) were installed on the parish boundary across Tadpole Bridge that spans the River Ray. The Cenotaph on Purton High Street is a memorial to those who died in both world wars.
Purton Parish Council is the first tier of local government and is responsible for public open spaces, footpaths, and the upkeep of the cemetery; the council is a consultee on planning applications within the parish.[7] All other local services are provided by the Wiltshire Councilunitary authority. For Westminster elections, the parish falls within the North Wiltshire constituency.[8]
The River Key, a tributary of the Thames, crosses the parish near Purton Stoke.
The village is a linear settlement along the old road between the historic market towns of Cricklade, 4 miles (6.4 km) to the north, and Royal Wootton Bassett, 3 miles (4.8 km) to the south. It is now on a minor road, 3 miles (4.8 km) from junction 16 of the M4 motorway. The village is on the brow of a hill, with views across to Cricklade and the Thames floodplain. Nearby, the area once covered by Braydon Forest stretches out to Minety in the west.
Ridgeway Farm, a 700-house development of the early 21st century which extends Swindon's western suburbs, is in the east of the parish.[8][10]
There was a Friends' meeting house at Purton Stoke during the late 17th century and early 18th century.[13]
There was a Congregational chapel, licensed in 1829, where the Scout Hut is now in Purton High Street. Congregational use ceased in the 1920s and it was demolished in 1969.[14]
There were two Methodist chapels in Purton village. The Primitive Methodist chapel was built at Upper Square in 1856 and enlarged in 1893;[15] the Wesleyan Methodist chapel at Play Close was built in 1882, replacing a smaller chapel from the 1870s.[16] By 1969, after declines in numbers, the two congregations united. The Play Close chapel was renovated and reopened in 1973 as Purton Methodist Church, then the Upper Square chapel was sold for residential use.
There was a Methodist church opposite Dairy Farm in 1832 at Purton Stoke. It was demolished in 1868 and rebuilt in Pond Lane. This building was sold in 2011 and converted for residential use.
Notable buildings
In addition to the Grade I listed parish church, the parish has four Grade II* listed houses, each built in limestone rubble.
In Purton village, College Farmhouse is from the early 17th century. It has two storeys with attic, and a five-window front. The parlour has 17th-century panelling, and the wooden overmantel is carved with the Hyde arms and the date 1626; the house belonged to the father of Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon.[17][18]
Pound Farmhouse is an L-shaped 17th-century farmhouse, north of Widham on the road to Purton Stoke.[19] Pond Farmhouse, south of Purton Stoke, is from the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries and is on an earlier moated site.[20] Restrop House is from the late 16th century or early 17th. Its five-bay front has a two-storey porch, with the end bays also brought forward, and mullion-and-transom windows.[21]
Education
Bradon Forest School is the area's secondary school. It was built in 1962 and caters for pupils from Purton parish, Lydiard Millicent, Cricklade, Ashton Keynes and West Swindon.[22] The school is in the centre of the village, south of the High Street.
On an adjacent site, St Mary's Church of England Primary School was opened in 2012, funded by the government's Primary Capital Programme and built on the site of the former junior school.[23] Previously the school was split between two sites, with infants taught in the original Victorian building which opened in 1861 while juniors were in nearby buildings which opened in the early 1970s, along with the school's swimming pool.[24]
In the east of the parish, Ridgeway Farm CE Academy (a primary school) was built in 2016 to serve the newly developed housing area.[10]
Until 1978, Purton Stoke had its own primary school, on the Purton to Cricklade road, which opened in 1894 and at its peak had 100 pupils. However, numbers dropped continually from the 1930s when older pupils were educated in Purton, until there were only around 30 pupils left in the 1970s. The school closed in 1978. The building is now used by the Jubilee Gardens Project, a charity which provides education and training for adults with learning difficulties.[25]
Amenities
Village amenities include several shops, a sub-post office, a farm shop, a cafe, a dairy farm stand selling milk, meat and other local produce, a library with a small museum above, one Hair salon, public houses and takeaways, a GP's practice, dentist and veterinary surgery. The village has grown such that its retailers are not all concentrated in one centre. A few shops are on the main road at the junction with Pavenhill, called the Upper Square, and a few are around the bend in the road near the village hall called the Lower Square.
Blakehill Farm, partly in Purton parish, is the former RAF Blakehill Farm airfield from the Second World War. Its grasslands are habitat for mammals including roe deer and brown hare, birds including kestrel, skylark, wheatear, whinchat and stonechat and butterflies include small copper and brown hairstreak. The trust bought the site from the Ministry of Defence to form a large meadow of about 600 acres (240 ha), and opened it to the public in 2005. It rears a small quantity of organic grade beef, usually rare breeds such as longhorn cattle. These cattle ensure grasses and other common plants do not begin to dominate over the other rarer plants. grid referenceSU073923.
There is one members club: The working men's club, now Purton Club, on Station Road.
Several former pubs in Purton have closed:
Blue Pig was on Purton's boundary at the Brinkworth to Minety and Purton to Garsdon crossroads near to Ravensroost Wood. It closed in the late 20th century.
Forester's Arms was next door to the Royal George in Pavenhill. It closed in 1904.
Another pub called the Forester's Arms was situated on the parish boundary at Common Platt. It closed in 2010.
Purton has a tennis club, based in the centre of the village.[29] The cricket club, founded in 1820, claims to be the oldest in Wiltshire;[30] their first team play in Division 1 of the Wiltshire County Cricket League.[31] A bowls club has also existed in the village since 1970.[32]
Notable people
People connected with Purton include:
Samuel Glasse (1735–1812), cleric and supporter of the Sunday school movement, born at Purton, son of Richard Glass, vicar of the parish[5]
James Kibblewhite, national running champion of the 1880s and 1890s, born in Purton in 1866[33]
The Reverend John Papworth (1921–2020), clergyman, writer and activist, lived at Purton in later life
Dr Desmond Morris (born 1928), zoologist, lived at Purton as an infant
Dave Gregory, long-time guitarist and keyboard player in the English rock band XTC, spent his childhood in the village
Billie Piper (born 1982), singer and actress, attended Bradon Forest School
Local families
Maskelyne
In the Tudor period the Maskelyne family were significant landlords and landowners in Purton,[3] having inherited rights granted by the last abbot of Malmesbury Abbey to the Pulley or Pulleyne family, from whom they descended on the distaff side. By 1679, the Maskelyne family had the right to be buried in the south transept of the church, and there are several memorials there.[5] The Reverend Dr Nevil Maskelyne (1732–1811) was appointed Astronomer Royal in 1765, a position he held until death; his tomb is in the churchyard.
By the late 19th century and into the early part of the 20th century, other local families had risen to the gentry level after becoming significant landowners in the parish. Among these was James Henry Sadler, Esq., D.L., J.P., (1843–1929) who, though a Purton native, lived in nearby Lydiard House until his death. A strict but generous benefactor, Sadler gave the cricket ground and Working Men's Institute to the village.[3] Described as the last unofficial "Squire of Purton", his father was Dr Samuel Champernowne Sadler, F.R.C.S., of Purton. In 1859 or 1860[35] Dr Sadler had the Pump House built at Salt's Hole,[36] a natural mineral water spring near Purton Stoke, used for medicinal purposes since the Middle Ages and possibly earlier. Under Dr Sadler and subsequent owners, attempts were made to develop this natural attraction as Purton Spa, and to market the spring waters for their healing qualities.[3]
Kelly, Edward Robert, ed. (2009). Wiltshire. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars' Publishing. p. 263. ISBN978-1-150-19690-4. (on Purton Spa)
Kelly, Susan E (2005). Charters of Malmesbury Abbey. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 279–281. ISBN0-19-726317-8. (on the ancient parish boundaries of Purton)
Richardson, Ethel M (2009) [1919]. The Story of Purton; A Collection of Notes and Hearsay. Pranava Books. ISBN978-1-152-48914-1.
Robbins, A (1991). Purton's Past. Purton: Purton Historical Society. ISBN0-9517142-0-1.
