X-Nico

93 unusual facts about Wiltshire


1938 in archaeology

The Iron Age farmstead site at Little Woodbury, Wiltshire, England, by Gerhard Bersu for the Prehistoric Society using open area excavation techniques (continues to 1939; published 1940).

Adam de Stratton

Adam Stratton was the son of Thomas de Argoges, or Arwillis, of Stratton St Margaret in Wiltshire.

Aden Flint

Ward also announced that Flint was scheduled to travel to Wiltshire the next day to discuss a possible move with Swindon Town with Danny Wilson.

Flint made his Swindon debut in the 1–1 draw with Rochdale and featured in the following fixture against Leyton Orient which resulted in a 3–0 loss for the Wiltshire club.

Alec Taylor, Jr.

From his Manton Stud at Manton, Wiltshire, Alec Taylor trained a large number of very successful horses.

Alec Taylor, Sr.

He first began working as a trainer for Sir Joseph Hawley in 1848 at Fyfield, Wiltshire.

Archibald Colquhoun

Colquhoun died on 8 December 1820, after an illness of a few days, at the house of his son-in-law, Walter Long, at Hartham, Wiltshire, and was buried in the parish churchyard of New Kilpatrick near Glasgow.

Archibald Seymour, 13th Duke of Somerset

Archibald died at the age of 80, unmarried and childless, was interred at Maiden Bradley, Warminster, Wiltshire, and his titles passed to his brother, Algernon St. Maur.

Ashcombe House

Ashcombe House, Wiltshire, occupied by Guy Ritchie, and previously by Sir Cecil Beaton, and Madonna.

Ashton Common

Ashton Common is a hamlet in Wiltshire, England, located on the Common Hill a little south of the A350 road.

Baron Waleran

The name of the barony, with its spelling being a variant of the family name, appears to have been chosen to suggest a possible ancestry from Waleran the Huntsman, feudal baron of West Dean, Wiltshire, at the time of the Domesday Book of 1086, which was held by the Waleran family until the death of Walter Walerand in 1200/1 leaving three daughters his co-heiresses.

BBC Points West

BBC Points West (known as News West from June 1991 until May 2000) is the BBC's regional TV news programme for the West of England, covering Bristol, the majority of Wiltshire, northern and eastern Somerset, the majority of Gloucestershire and northern Dorset.

Beornwulf of Mercia

It must have been with a high degree of confidence, therefore, that, in 825, Beornwulf marched against the West Saxon’s, but was badly defeated at the battle of Ellandun at the hands of their king Egbert, fought at present day Wroughton near Swindon, Wiltshire.

Bishop of Clifton

The bishop of Clifton has jurisdiction over the counties of Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire and the city of Bristol.

The Apostolic Vicariate of the Western District was created on 30 January 1688 and consisted of the counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Somerset and Wiltshire, together with all of the principality of Wales.

British NVC community OV16

It is found in southern and eastern England, from Dorset and Wiltshire to Lincolnshire.

Broadcloth

Around 1500, broadcloth was made in a number of districts of England, including Essex and Suffolk in southern East Anglia, the West Country Clothing District (Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, east Somerset - sometimes with adjacent areas), at Worcester, Coventry, Cranbrook in Kent and some other places.

Burbage, Wiltshire

Burbage stands on a watershed at the eastern end of the Vale of Pewsey, with streams to the east draining to the Thames via the Dun and Kennet; to the south draining to the Salisbury Avon via the River Bourne, and to the north and west into the Salisbury Avon itself.

Cardiff Gate services

The services featured frequently in the BBC1 television series Gavin and Stacey, masquerading as Leigh Delamere services, which is actually located further east along the M4 in Wiltshire.

Central Intelligence Organisation

Minetech has now transferred its Head Office to Wiltshire in the UK and has amalgamated with the British company Exploration Logistics.

Charles Hedges

He owned much property in Wiltshire and was buried at Wanborough.

Chilmark, Massachusetts

Chilmark was named for Chilmark in the English county of Wiltshire, the ancestral home of the family of Governor Thomas Mayhew of Tisbury, Wiltshire, England.

Cholderton

Cholderton, or more properly West Cholderton, is a village and civil parish in the Bourne Valley of Wiltshire, England.

Collingbourne Ducis

It is one of several villages on the River Bourne, which is a seasonal river usually dry in summer.

Corston

Corston, Wiltshire, village in the county of Wiltshire in the United Kingdom

Cynegils of Wessex

The later kingdom of Wessex was centred on the counties of Hampshire, Dorset, Somerset, and Wiltshire, but the evidence of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is that the kingdom of Cynegils was located on the upper River Thames, extending into northern Wiltshire and Somerset, southern Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire, and western Berkshire, with Dorchester-on-Thames as one the major royal sites.

Cyneheard the Atheling

The murder of Cynewulf is placed by modern historians, including the Rev G. H. Godwin, at Marten, a hamlet in the county of Wiltshire.

David Eccles, 1st Viscount Eccles

In 1962 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Eccles, of Chute in the County of Wiltshire, and in 1964 he was created Viscount Eccles, of Chute in the County of Wiltshire.

Denis Pitts

He continued to work in television making a film called ‘What the Hell Happens in Marlborough?’ which caused a stir locally.

Duncan Hames

He moved to Holt in Wiltshire, and from 2003 to 2007 served as a member of West Wiltshire District Council.

Easton Priory

The priory was built in 1234 A.D. on the southern end of a street village along the road between Marlborough and Salisbury.

Expositiones vocabulorum biblie

There is at least one known copy, now owned by the National Trust in Britain and as of April 2013 is on display at Lacock Abbey, Wiltshire.

Giles Fettiplace

Giles Fettiplace (died 1641), of Poulton, Wiltshire, was an English politician.

Gunjur

It is twinned with Marlborough in Wiltshire, United Kingdom Of Great Britain And Northern Ireland

Hannah Twynnoy

Twynnoy, by repute and according to a memorial plaque now lost, was an early 18th-century barmaid working in a pub in the centre of the English market town of Malmesbury in Wiltshire.

Henry Hyde, 2nd Earl of Clarendon

On 3 December he had an interview at Berwick, near Hindon, Wiltshire, and offered his support.

Henry Lawes

He was born at Dinton in Wiltshire, and received his musical education from John Cooper, better known under his Italian pseudonym Giovanni Coperario, a famous composer of the day.

Heywood, Victoria

The township was surveyed in 1852 by Lindsay Clarke who named it after Heywood, Wiltshire in England.

Huyshe Yeatman-Biggs

Yeatman was born at Manston House, Dorset, the younger son of Harry Farr Yeatman JP by his marriage to Emma, daughter and heiress of Harry Biggs, of Stockton House, Wiltshire.

Hyde Abbey

The Abbey owned land in Collingbourne Kingston in Wiltshire, which was originally called Collingbourne Abbots due to the link with Hyde Abbey.

Jack MacBryan

John "Jack" Crawford William MacBryan (22 July 1892, Box, Wiltshire – 14 July 1983, Cambridge) was an English cricketer who played for Cambridge University and Somerset and made one almost imperceptible appearance in a Test match for England.

James Scott, Earl of Dalkeith

On 2 January 1693/94 he married Lady Henrietta Hyde (born in Hindon, Wiltshire, c. 1677, died 30 May 1730), daughter of Laurence Hyde, 1st Earl of Rochester and Henrietta Hyde, Countess of Rochester.

James Sheridan Knowles

He served for some time in the Wiltshire and afterwards in the Tower Hamlets militia, leaving the service to become pupil of Dr Robert Willan (1757–1812).

James Stumpe

Sir James Stumpe (by 1519-63), of Malmesbury and Bromham, Wiltshire, was an English clothier and Member of Parliament.

John George Gough

John George Gough senior was christened in 1807 at West Lavington, Wiltshire, England, and English census returns of his twin brother William show that he was born at the nearby hamlet of Littleton-Pannell.

John Stanley Gardiner

They initially lived in Marshfield, Wiltshire, with Jephson having the position of Curate there.

Maddington

Maddington, Wiltshire, England, a former civil parish now part of the parish of Shrewton

Margery Wentworth

Margery's first cousins, courtiers Elizabeth and Edmund Howard, were parents to an earlier and later royal wife than her daughter: Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, respectively.

Mark Seddon

The son of a British army officer, Seddon went to Dauntsey's School, an independent co-educational boarding school in the village of West Lavington in Wiltshire.

MoD Corsham

MoD Corsham (formerly Basil Hill Barracks) is a Ministry of Defence establishment located between the towns of Corsham and Box in Wiltshire, England.

Nicholas Hyde

Hyde was born at Wardour, in Wiltshire, a son of Lawrence Hyde (d.1590) of West Hatch, Wiltshire, MP for Heytesbury in 1584, by his second wife Anne Sibell, daughter of Nicholas Sibell of Farningham, Kent, and widow of Matthew Colthurst of Claverton, Somerset.

Parajet Skycar

The team deemed the expedition successfully completed on 25 February 2009 despite flying only a tiny fraction of the 9000 km and returned the Skycar to Wiltshire, England.

Probe 16

The M-505 Adams Brothers Probe 16 was a car, designed by former Marcos cars designers Dennis and Peter Adams, (Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire England) in 1969 as 'an investigation into extremes of styling'.

Ralph Freke

He was the son and heir of Percy Freke, of Rathbarry, by Elizabeth, the daughter of Ralph Freke of Hannington, Wiltshire.

Raymond Bristow

Raymond Bristow (born 3 June, Wiltshire - died 25 July 2007 Staffordshire) was an English Anglican priest.

Redlands Airfield

Redlands Airfield (X2SN) is an unlicenced private airfield in Wanborough, East of Swindon, Wiltshire, a few miles from junction 15 of the M4.

Richard Angwin

This is the regional local news programme for Bristol, Somerset, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire which is on BBC ONE weekdays at 1330, 1830 and 2225.

Richard Southby

Southby married Katherine, daughter and co-heiress of Robert Strange of Somerford Keynes in Wiltshire and they had nine children.

River Cole

The River Cole, Wiltshire, England, which flows through Wiltshire and Oxfordshire, where it forms the border

Robert I, Count of Dreux

2.Hawise of Salisbury (1118–1152), daughter of Walter Fitz Edward of Salisbury, Sheriff of Wiltshire

Robert Jenkin

In 1700 he was created D.D. He was then or soon after residing in the family of Thomas Thynne, 1st Viscount Weymouth at Longleat, Wiltshire.

Rowland Vaughan

An account was also published describing a similar system in the Wylye Valley in Wiltshire, but the name of the author is lost to history.

Salisbury Playhouse

Salisbury Playhouse is a theatre in the English county of Wiltshire.

Salisbury Police

Salisbury City Police, a defunct city police force, operational between 1836 to 1943, covering the city of Salisbury, Wiltshire.

Semington Aqueduct

To the west of the village, the Semington Brook flows northwards and then turns to the west, to join the Avon at Whaddon.

Shreddies

Nestlé's site at Staverton started making Shreddies in 1998, and is where all production was moved to in 2007.

South West Trains

It operates passenger services, mostly out of London Waterloo station, to the South West of London and in the counties of Surrey, Hampshire, Dorset, Devon, Somerset, Berkshire, and Wiltshire and on the Isle of Wight.

St Alban's Church, Teddington

The finer grain material used internally in partitions is Corsham limestone from Wiltshire.

St Margaret's, Corsley

St Margaret's, Corsley, is the Parish Church of Corsley in Wiltshire.

Stationary steam engine

This series reproduces some 1,500 images from the Steam Engine Record made by George Watkins between 1930 and 1980, which is now in the Watkins Collection at English Heritage's National Monuments Record at Swindon, Wilts.

Stokeleigh Camp

It has been suggested that Stokeleigh was connected with the Wansdyke, a series of defensive linear earthworks, consisting of a ditch and an embankment running at least from Maes Knoll in Somerset, to the Savernake Forest near Marlborough in Wiltshire, however there is little evidence for this.

Terry Pratchett: Choosing to Die

The film was shot in several locations around the United Kingdom, including Terry Pratchett's manor house near Salisbury, Wiltshire.

The Ballad of the White Horse

He says that he has chosen to place the site of the Battle of Ethandune in the Vale of the White Horse, despite the lack of concrete evidence for this placement (many scholars now believe it was probably fought at Edington, Wiltshire).

The Bastard Fairies

Yellow Thunder Woman is a Native American ("Yellow Thunder Woman" being the English translation of her birth name, Wakinyan Zi Win), while her band mate Davey is a British expatriate from Great Cheverell, near Devizes, Wiltshire, formerly in The Davey Brothers with his brother Jesse.

The Corsham School

Students from the market town of Corsham and those of nearby villages, such as Colerne, Box, Wiltshire and Shaw, Wiltshire attend along with others from nearby towns such as Bath, Chippenham and Melksham.

The Courts Garden

The Courts Garden is an English country garden in Holt, near Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire, England.

The Floure and the Leafe

Longleat 258, a manuscript of Middle English poems held at Longleat House in Wiltshire, mentions in its contents list a poem whose title is given in the Latinised form "De folio et flore" (Of the Leaf and the Flower).

The Safety Dance

The Morris Dance side in the video was Chippenham Town Morris from Wiltshire, performing Monkton Park.

The Victorian Kitchen Garden

It recreated a kitchen garden of the Victorian era at Chilton Foliat in Wiltshire, although at the time the series was made Chilton Foliat was in the county of Berkshire.

Thomas Arundell of Wardour Castle

His widow, Margaret, died 10 October 1571, and was buried at Tisbury, Wiltshire.

Thomas Estcourt Cresswell

The son of Richard Cresswell and his wife Elizabeth Estcourt, daughter and heiress of Sir Thomas Estcourt Knt; of Pinkney Park; Cresswell gained a degree of notoriety as a bigamist after his marriage in February 1744 to a wealthy heiress, Miss Anne Warneford, granddaughter and eventual heir of Sir Edmund Warneford of Sevenhampton and Bibury, Gloucestershire.

Thomas Spert

He married thirdly Mary Fabian, the daughter of John Fabian (nephew of the chronicler, Robert Fabyan) and Anne Waldegrave, by whom he had a son, Richard Spert, who married Grissell Salkell of King's Wood,Wiltshire, and a daughter, Anne Spert, who married firstly Thomas Brook and secondly John Skott.

Thomas Villiers, 1st Earl of Clarendon

Villiers was raised to the peerage as Baron Hyde of Hindon in the County of Wiltshire.

Trafalgar Park

Trafalgar Park, Wiltshire, a park surrounding Trafalgar House, Wiltshire, England, UK

Tribal Gathering

The first Tribal Gathering took place Friday 30 April 1993 at Lower Pertwood Farm, Warminster, Wiltshire, England.

Trowbridge Museum

Trowbridge Museum and Art Gallery is in the town of Trowbridge, Wiltshire, England.

Tytherington

Tytherington, Wiltshire, a settlement on the boundary of the parishes of Heytesbury and Sutton Veny

Violet Millicent Pinckney

Pinckney was born at Alderbury, Wiltshire, in 1871 to Major William Pinckney and his wife Frances Charlotte Everett.

Viscount Eccles

Viscount Eccles, of Chute in the County of Wiltshire, England, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom.

Walter Grubbe

Walter Grubbe (1655-1715), of Eastwell House, Potterne, Wiltshire, was an English politician.

Wiltshire County Cricket Club

He mentions a match at Stockton, Wiltshire in 1799 which was reported as "an event so novel in the county of Wiltshire".

WOMAD Charlton Park

WOMAD Charlton Park is the name given to the World of Music Arts and Dance (WOMAD) festival held in Charlton Park in Malmesbury, Wiltshire, England, since 2007.

Wyvern College

Wyvern College, Wiltshire, a secondary school near Salisbury, Wiltshire, England


2011 Helmand Province incident

The verdict (8 November 2013) and sentence (6 December 2013) were both delivered at the Military Court Centre in Bulford, Wiltshire.

Albert Music

In 2007 Albert Music acquired the Origin Network Company which manage the copyrighted work and music catalogues of the Australian recording artists Lee Kernaghan, Richard Clapton, Rogue Traders, Mike Brady, Paul Grabowsky, Joe Dolce, Chris Neal, Cezary Skubiszewski, Parrish Muhoberac, and Paul Wiltshire.

Almonry

At Bishopstone church, Wiltshire, it is a sort of covered porch attached to the south transept, but not communicating with the interior of the church.

Anthony James Keck

Elizabeth Legh re-married after the death of Anthony James Keck to William Bathurst Pye-Bennet and inherited the Broad Hinton estate (from the new marriage) and Salthrop estate (from her mother Martha Legh (née Bennet)) as well as the estates belonging to Norborne Family of Bremhill, Wiltshire.

Battle of Marton

The Battle of Marton or Meretum took place on 22 March 871 at a place recorded as Marton, perhaps in Wiltshire or Dorset, after Æthelred of Wessex, forced (along with his brother Alfred) into flight following their costly victory against an army of Danish invaders at the Battle of Ashdown, had retreated to Basing (in Hampshire), where he was again defeated by the forces of Ivar the Boneless.

Castle Eaton Bridge

Castle Eaton Bridge is a road bridge across the River Thames in England at Castle Eaton in Wiltshire.

Charles Danvers

He was born the eldest son of Sir John Danvers of Dauntsey, Wiltshire and Elizabeth, fourth daughter and coheiress of John Neville, Baron Latimer.

Cherhill White Horse

Plenderleath, Rev. W. C., On the White Horses of Wiltshire and Its Neighbourhood (Wilts Archaeological Magazine, vol. 14 for the year 1872, pp. 12–30)

Conolly Abel Smith

On 16 June 1924 Abel Smith was attached to the Royal Air Force, who were in control of all naval aviation at that time, with the rank of flying officer, to attend No. 1 Flying Training School at Netheravon, Wiltshire.

Emsley

Paul Emsley (born 1947), South African painter now resident in Bradford-upon-Avon, Wiltshire, England

Evans v United Kingdom

In June 2000, Natallie Evans (born October 1971) and Howard Johnston (born November 1976) who had met while working at Virgin Mobile in Wiltshire became engaged.

Fisherton Delamere

Fisherton Delamere, also spelt Fisherton de la Mere and Fisherton Delamare, is a small village and former civil parish on the River Wylye, Wiltshire, England.

Iford Arts Festival

Iford Arts Festival is an annual summer festival of opera and jazz, which takes place at Iford Manor near Bradford on Avon in Wiltshire, England.

John Alfred Lush

Lush was the son of John Lush of Berwick St John, Wiltshire and his wife Martha Kelleway daughter of James Kelleway of Donhead, Wiltshire.

John Eedes

On his release he took the curacy of Broad Chalk, Wiltshire, which he held 'with much ado' for about two years, and was then made vicar of Hale, Hampshire.

Johnsontown, Jefferson County, West Virginia

It lies between the communities of Browns Corner and Bardane on Wiltshire Road at its junction with County Route 14.

Josce de Dinan

These holdings included the manor of Lambourn, worth £76 in income per year, as well as the manor of Stanton (now known as Stanton Fitzwarren in Wiltshire) in addition to the lands scattered in other counties.

Lansdowne Monument

The Lansdowne Monument, also known as Cherhill Monument, near Cherhill in Wiltshire is a 38 metre (125 foot) stone obelisk erected by Third Marquis of Lansdowne to the designs of Sir Charles Barry to commemorate his ancestor, Sir William Petty in 1845.

Leonard Webb

In 1924 his father's regiment moved back to Tidworth, Wiltshire until he was demobbed in 1927, and the Webb family moved to William Webb's native Long Crendon, Buckinghamshire.

Liber Exoniensis

It contains a variety of administrative materials concerning the counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire.

Louis Wiltshire

Wiltshire began his career by setting up his own Art Studio in 1988, employing a team of artists to create unique figurative works, including fine figurative work for Wedgwood potteries, figurative work for BBC Television portraying the work of artist Quentin Blake and Roald Dahl, and head portrait work for Spitting Image.

Matthew Hopkins in popular culture

Sarum, the 1987 novel by Edward Rutherfurd, features Hopkins making a brief appearance in Wiltshire, where he becomes involved in a family quarrel and in an apparent attempt to frame Margaret Shockley as a witch.

Moonraker

Moonrakers, a colloquial name for people from Wiltshire, England

Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council

Its head office was at Polaris House in Swindon, Wiltshire, but it also operated three scientific sites: the UK Astronomy Technology Centre (UK ATC) in Edinburgh, the Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes (ING) in La Palma and the Joint Astronomy Centre (JAC) in Hawaii.

Reading to Taunton line

The line crosses into Wiltshire and the canal crosses back to the left to run close beside the line through Little Bedwyn to reach Bedwyn railway station which is actually in Great Bedwyn.

Sarah Tullamore

In 2009 the English version of the show premiered at the Mill Studio, Guildford, UK with additional performances in November 2009 at the Playhouse in Salisbury, Wiltshire.

St Martin's Chapel, Chisbury

St Martin's Chapel, Chisbury is a Mediaeval former chapel next to the manor house in the hamlet of Chisbury, Wiltshire.

Stancliffe

David Stancliffe (born 1942), Anglican bishop of Salisbury, Wiltshire, UK

Swanborough Hundred

Swanborough was a hundred of the English county of Wiltshire, mostly lying in the centre of the county to the south of the town of Devizes.

The Johnson Gang

On 1 February 2006 the gang perpetrated their biggest theft when they burgled Ramsbury Manor, the home of Harry Hyams, near Marlborough in Wiltshire.

The Old Ride School

The Old Ride School (previously called The Old Ride Preparatory School) was an independent school, at Little Horwood, Buckinghamshire, later at Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire.

Tobias Crisp

Later in the same year he was presented to the rectory of Brinkworth in Wiltshire, where he became popular as preacher and host.

Vere Temple

Vere Temple was born at Boreham Manor, two miles east of Warminster, Wiltshire to parents Grenville and Katherine Temple.

Wessex Brigade

Accordingly, on May 17, 1958 the Devonshire Regiment and Dorset Regiment were amalgamated into the Devonshire and Dorset Regiment, while on June 9, 1959 the Royal Berkshire Regiment and the Wiltshire Regiment were merged into the Duke of Edinburgh's Royal Regiment (Berkshire and Wiltshire).

Wiltshire Wildlife Trust

The Source to Sea and Wiltshire Invasive Species projects proactively seek out areas affected by invasive species, such as Himalayan balsam and Japanese knotweed, removing and disposing of these damaging non-native plants.

Wishford railway station

Wishford railway station is a former railway station in Great Wishford, Wiltshire, UK.

Wynn Normington Hugh-Jones

After retirement Sir Hugh, as a resident of Avebury in Wiltshire became chairman of the Avebury in Danger campaign (now the Avebury Society) which fought to preserve Avebury as a World Heritage site and living village.