Baydon


Baydon is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England about south-east of Swindon. The eastern boundary of the parish forms part of the county boundary with Berkshire and the village is about north-west of the West Berkshire market town of Hungerford.

History

Baydon is close to the Ridgeway, a pre-Roman road. The settlement is on the course of Ermin Way, a Roman Road between Corinium Dobunnorum and Calleva Atrebatum. The earliest reference to Baydon as a place name is in 1196.
Sir Isaac Newton bought an estate in Baydon which he settled on three of his grand-nephews and nieces days before his death in 1727. He later admitted that he had overpaid for it.
Until the 1790s, when it became an independent ecclesiastical parish, Baydon was a chapelry of Ramsbury parish.
The M4 motorway which passes just north of the village was opened on 22 December 1971.

Religious sites

The Church of England parish church of Saint Nicholas has a Norman nave and two-bay north arcade. The south aisle and northern clerestory are Early English Gothic. The north aisle was rebuilt in 1857-58 by the Gothic Revival architect G.E. Street. The south clerestory is Perpendicular Gothic. The west window, dated 1928, is by Edward Woore and is a memorial to the Rev. Augustus Gibson. The church is Grade II* listed.
A Particular Baptist chapel named Providence Chapel was built in 1806; it closed between 1885 and 1922, then was demolished. A Wesleyan Methodist chapel was built in 1823; by 1939 it was a private house.

Amenities

The village school, near the church, has stood since 1843 and is now Baydon St Nicholas Church of England Voluntary Aided Primary School.
The village has a pub, the Red Lion, and a shop with a post office.

Notable residents

farmed near Baydon. Kevin Wilkinson lived at Baydon.