Aldbourne

Village cross and St Michael's Church

The medieval Church of England parish church of St Michael, overlooking the village green, is a Grade I listed building[22] described by Nikolaus Pevsner as "large and interesting".[23] The nave and aisles were rebuilt in the first half of the 13th century, reusing fragments from a Norman church: one scalloped capital in the north arcade, and voussoirs in three of the arches in the south arcade.[24] The south doorway of the nave is also from the 12th century, although parts of its stonework were replaced in the 19th.[24] 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 at the expense of Richard Goddard of Upham House.[22] Until then the church probably had a central tower.[6] 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 work included new roofs for the nave and chancel, with the 15th-century roofs kept as a ceilings.[25] The outside walls are of flint and limestone with some chequer-work and sarsen. They are crenellated. The roofs are lead and slate.

The font is probably from the 15th century, and the hexagonal carved wooden pulpit from about 1600.[22] There are eight bells: two from the early 15th century, two from the 17th, and four cast locally in the 18th,[26] one of them recast in 1915.[6] Details of the gravestones and burial plots in the churchyard were recorded digitally in 2017–2018.[27]

In 1956 the incumbent was authorised to hold both Aldbourne and Baydon,[28] and the two benefices were united in 1965.[29] Ramsbury was added in 1973,[30] and today the church is one of six in the Whitton grouping.[31]

The Old Manor

Court House, in its own grounds north of the church, has at its core a 16th-century farmhouse in flint and chalkstone; additions were made in brick in the 18th century and later.[32] North of the house is an 18th-century carriage house and stables, with a small central clock-tower.[33] A bell foundry was established in the grounds, probably in 1694, and continued to operate there until the 1760s. From 1809 to 1956 the house was used as the vicarage.[6]

The Old Manor (formerly the Old Rectory), set behind brick walls on the south side of The Square, is a five-bay brick house from about 1740, with two further bays added on each side in the early 19th century.[34]

Upham House, in the hamlet north-west of Aldbourne village, was built in 1599 for the Goddard family. The main part of the house, built in gritstone and flint, has a five-bay south-east front. It was Grade II* listed in 1966 and is now three dwellings.[35][36]

West Leaze, on Ogbourne Road was built for Labour Party politicians Hugh and Ruth Dalton in 1929 as one of the most radical 20th century concrete houses to be built. It was designed by Irish born architect Frederick Edward Bradshaw MacManus who was working in the office of Sir John Burnet.[37]

Part of the village pond, with The Crown behind

The village has an elected civil parish parish council. It belongs to Wiltshire Council unitary authority, which performs the major local-government functions, and the Aldbourne and Ramsbury electoral ward, which includes the adjacent parishes of Baydon, Froxfield and Ramsbury. The 2011 Census gave a ward population of 5,231.[38]

An open space in the centre of the village known as The Square has had a pond since at least the 18th century.[6] Aldbourne has two public houses, the Blue Boar[39] and the Crown,[40] and a volunteer-run sports and social club.[41] There is a Co-op supermarket and a village shop that includes a post office and a cafe. Aldbourne has had a village library since the 1930s, housed for the last few decades in South Street.

The village primary school, St Michael's C of E (Aided) School, was built in 1963 on the site of a national school that opened in 1858.[42][43]

Aldbourne Heritage Centre

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 and medieval documents to 19th and 20th-century photographs.

Aldbourne Band is a brass band that has won numerous national competitions.[44]

Aldbourne people are nicknamed "Dabchicks" after the little grebe.[45]

Johnny Morris (1916–1999), narrator and TV presenter known for the Animal Magic children's programmes, was employed as a manager at an Aldbourne farm in the 1940s before becoming a full-time freelance broadcaster in the 1950s; he lived in Aldbourne until late in life.[46]

Margaret Longhurst (1882–1958), the first female keeper in a major British museum, retired here and is remembered in the village's heritage centre.[47] Aldbourne was the home of the novelist Mavis Cheek in 2003–2015.[48] Earlier residents included Jankel Adler (1895–1949), a Jewish Polish painter and printmaker who lived his last few years at Whitley Cottage, where he had a studio; Ruth Dalton (1890–1966), a Labour politician; and Anthony Marreco (1915–2006), a barrister and founding director of Amnesty International.

The author and historian Gerald Brenan and his American wife, the poet and novelist Gamel Woolsey, lived in Aldbourne from the late 1930s to 1953.[49] Gerald's long-time friend John Hope-Johnstone, a photographer with links to the Bloomsbury Group, lived in a cottage attached to their house until his death in 1970.[50]

Hilda Hanbury (1872–1939), known for voluntary work, bought Upham House at Upper Upham in 1909 and restored and enlarged the house and its gardens.[6] She became Lady Currie when her husband James Currie was knighted in 1920,[51] and stood unsuccessfully for the Liberals at Devizes in the 1922 general election.

Composer David Gow and his wife Margaret lived in Aldbourne, having moved from Axford.

In 1971, Aldbourne was the filming location for the Doctor Who story The Dæmons, starring Jon Pertwee. The village in the story was called Devil's End.[52] In 1992, Reeltime Pictures filmed a direct-to-video documentary called Return to Devil's End in Aldbourne, featuring Christopher Barry (director of the 1971 story) with cast members Jon Pertwee, Nicholas Courtney, Richard Franklin and John Levene.[53]

Aldbourne was the filming location of the 2014 E4 television drama Glue, portraying the village of Overton.[54] The village was also used as the filming location for Vodafone's Christmas advertisement in 2018.[55]

• Pevsner, Nikolaus; Cherry, Bridget (revision) (1975) [1963]. Wiltshire. The Buildings of England. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. pp. 81–82. ISBN 0-14-0710-26-4.
• Gandy, Ida (1975). The heart of a village: An intimate history of Aldbourne. Moonraker Press. ISBN 978-0239001481.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Aldbourne.

• Aldbourne.net – community website
• Aldbourne Parish Council
• The Aldbourne Youth Council
• Aldbourne Heritage Centre