Aldbourne


Aldbourne is a village and civil parish about north-east of Marlborough, Wiltshire, England, in a valley on the south slope of the Lambourn Downs – part of the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. From here an unnamed winterbourne flows south to join the River Kennet near Ramsbury. The 2011 Census recorded the parish population as 1,833. It includes the hamlets of Upper Upham and Woodsend and part of the hamlet of Preston, which straddles the boundary with Ramsbury. The village of Snap became deserted in the early 20th century.

History

Lewisham Castle is a small medieval ringwork about a mile and a half south-west of the village. It is not certain whether it was in fact a castle.
In the English Civil War a Royalist force led by Prince Rupert fought a Parliamentarian force in a skirmish at Aldbourne Chase on 18 September 1643, two days before the First Battle of Newbury.
A Baptist chapel opened in 1841 in Back Lane and was rebuilt as New Zoar Chapel in 1868. It was sold in 1914 and demolished some time after 1931; its burial ground survives.
A Primitive Methodist chapel opened in West Street in about 1840 and a new chapel was built on the same site in 1906. Wesleyan Methodists built a chapel in Lottage Road in 1807, which was rebuilt in 1844. In 1968 the two congregations combined to build Aldbourne Methodist Church in Lottage Road. The old chapel in West Street was demolished in 1982.
During the Second World War, U.S. Army paratroopers of Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division were based at Aldbourne from late 1943 to mid-1944, in preparation for the Normandy landings in June 1944 and Operation Market Garden in September. Both Easy Company and the village featured in a 2001 HBO miniseries, Band of Brothers.
Two disused village pumps survive in the village.

Parish church

The medieval Church of England parish church of St Michael, overlooking the village green, is a Grade I listed building. The nave and aisles were built around 1200, although some earlier Norman arches and other traces remain. There are four arches on the north arcade and three on the south. The chancel is Early English, with north and south chapels, and a sanctuary with lancet windows.
The Perpendicular Gothic three-stage tower was added in 1460. It is ashlar, has angled buttresses and transomed three-light bell openings, with gargoyles above. There are transepts with three-light windows, a tall south porch – originally two-storey – and a bay between the porch and south transept. There was also a north porch until the building was restored by William Butterfield in 1863–1867. The outside walls are of flint and limestone with some chequer work and sarsen, and are crenellated. The roofs are lead and slate. Inside are a number of monuments and monumental brasses.

Bell foundry

For at least 130 years Aldbourne had a bell foundry. Master-founders at Aldbourne included Robert Cor, William Cor, Oliver Cor, John Cor, John Stares, Edward Read, Edne Witts, Robert I Wells, Robert II Wells and James Wells. Bells cast by the Cor and Wells families survive at parish churches including Alvescot, Ashbury, Berwick St John, Blewbury, Church Hanborough, East Challow, Drayton, East Lockinge, Faringdon, Farnborough, Great Coxwell, Horspath, Longworth, Marcham, Marsh Baldon, Northleach, Uffington, Seend, Sutton Courtenay, West Hanney and others.

Governance

The civil parish elects a parish council. It is in the area of Wiltshire Council unitary authority, which is responsible for all significant local-government functions. The parish is in the Aldbourne and Ramsbury electoral ward, which includes Baydon in the north, Froxfield in the south and Ramsbury to the south-west of Aldbourne. The 2011 Census recorded the ward's population as 5,231.

Amenities

Aldbourne has two public houses, the Blue Boar and the Crown, and a volunteer-run sports and social club.
There is a Co-op supermarket, and a village shop which includes a post office and a cafe. Aldbourne has had a village library since the 1930s, located for the last few decades in South Street.
The village primary school, St Michael's C of E School. was built in 1963 on the site of a national school that opened in 1858.
Aldbourne Heritage Centre, next to the Crown Inn, is a museum run by the Aldbourne Community Heritage Group. It displays a changing array of exhibits from Aldbourne's history, ranging from Stone Age flints, through copies of medieval documents, to 19th and 20th-century photographs.

People

People from Aldbourne are nicknamed "Dabchicks", after the little grebe.
Aldbourne Band is an award-winning brass band that has won numerous national competitions.
Aldbourne was the home of the novelist Mavis Cheek from 2003 until 2015. Earlier residents included Hilda Beatrice Currie, a Liberal politician; Jankel Adler, a Jewish Polish painter and printmaker, who lived and died at Whitley Cottage, where he created a studio; Ruth Dalton, a Labour politician; Gerald Brenan, an author and historian; and Anthony Marreco, a barrister and founding director of Amnesty International.

Television

In 1971, Aldbourne was the location for the filming by BBC Television of the Doctor Who story The Dæmons, starring Jon Pertwee. The village in the story was called Devil's End. In 1992, Reeltime Pictures filmed a direct-to-video documentary called Return to Devil's End in Aldbourne, featuring Christopher Barry, Jon Pertwee, Nicholas Courtney, Richard Franklin and John Levene.
Aldbourne was the location for the filming of the 2014 E4 television drama Glue, portraying the village of Overton. The village was also used as the filming location for Vodafone's Christmas advertisements in 2018 and 2019.