Upton Scudamore


Upton Scudamore is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England. The village lies about north of the town of Warminster and about the same distance south of Westbury. The parish includes the hamlet of Halfway.
The village occupies a ridge which is the watershed between tributaries of the Bristol Avon and those of the Hampshire Avon. Upton Cow Down rises above the village to the north-east, on the western edge of Salisbury Plain. Springs in the north of the parish are the source of the River Biss, known here as the Biss Brook.

History

Several bowl barrows are evidence of Bronze Age activity in the area.
Parks Court is Grade II* listed. A 15th-century house, it was altered and extended in the 17th, then restored in the 1980s.
In earlier centuries, the name of the village was often spelt Upton Skidmore. It appears on John Sexton's map of Wiltshire as simply Upton.
A church school was built in 1839, enlarged in 1871, and closed in 1925 owing to falling pupil numbers.
The village has a pub, the Angel Inn. An inn with the same name was operating in 1807, close to the site of the present establishment.

Religious sites

The parish church of St Mary the Virgin has 12th-century origins and stands on the site of a smaller Saxon church. A tower was added in 1750 and the church was largely rebuilt in 1855 by G.E. Street. In 1968 it was designated as Grade II* listed.
Notable rectors include Thomas Owen, translator of works on agriculture, from 1779 until his death in 1812.
There was a chapel at Norridge, in the southwest of the parish, in the late 13th century but its site is not known.
A Baptist chapel was built in the village by the Warminster congregation in 1850. It fell out of use in 1907 and became a private house.

Governance

Upton Scudamore elects a parish council every four years. Most local government services are provided by Wiltshire Council, which has its offices in Trowbridge. The village is represented in Parliament by the MP for South West Wiltshire, Andrew Murrison, and in Wiltshire Council by Fleur de Rhé-Philipe.
Until 1934, when the civil parish of Chapmanslade was created, Upton Scudamore parish extended west to include Thoulstone and the east side of Chapmanslade village.