Alton, Wiltshire

History

The area has prehistoric sites including the Knap Hill earthwork and Adam's Grave, a Neolithic long barrow. A hoard of Roman coins was discovered at Alton Barnes.

The boundaries of Alton Barnes parish were established in the early 10th century. Alton Priors was a chapelry of Overton parish, now West Overton; in 1934 Alton Barnes and Alton Priors were merged to form the parish of Alton.

In 1086 the Domesday Book records Edward of Salisbury as holder of the manor of Alton Barnes.

The Ridgeway, an ancient trackway, passes through Alton Barnes (although this section is not part of the Ridgeway National Trail, which begins further north). The Wansdyke, an early medieval earthwork, crosses the north of the parish on the Marlborough Downs.

Alton Barnes Manor Farmhouse (18th century) and the Manor House at Alton Priors (c. 1830) are Grade II listed.

Local government

Alton is a civil parish with an elected parish council. It is in the area of the Wiltshire Council unitary authority, which is responsible for all significant local government functions, and is represented in the council by Paul Oatway, who succeeded Brigadier Robert Hall in 2013.

Parish churches

Each of the two villages has a Church of England parish church. The Church of Saint Mary the Virgin in Alton Barnes is partly Saxon, built in the 10th and 11th centuries. The nave has characteristic Anglo-Saxon features: typically tall, narrow proportions and (visible at the west end) long-and-short quoins. The south door was added in the 14th century. The original chancel was as wide as the nave, but it demolished and replaced with a brick one in 1748. There was a Saxon chancel arch but this was removed in 1832. There was a Victorian restoration in 1875 and a further restoration in 1904 directed by the local architect Charles Ponting. What survives is a Grade I listed building.

All Saints at Alton Priors was built in the 12th century and retains its original Norman chancel arch. The nave has two 14th-century ogee-headed windows and the west window is 15th-century. As at Alton Priors, the original chancel has been demolished and replaced with one built of brick. There is also a distinctive brass plaque to local landowner William Button (1526-1591), with complex artwork and inscription. All Saints is a redundant church in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust and is a Grade II* listed building.

Canal

The Kennet and Avon Canal, opened in 1810, crosses the parish. A wharf at Honeystreet served the local area and a rural industrial area developed around it, including a firm of barge builders - Robbins, Lane, and Pinniger - who continued until the 1950s.

The Barge Inn was built at Honeystreet in 1858, replacing an earlier building, to cater for those living and working on the canal. It was designated as Grade II listed in 1987. In 2010, following the closure of the business, local volunteers successfully applied for funding to aid its reopening from the Village SOS lottery fund. In 2011 the project was the subject of episode 2 of Village SOS on BBC One. The group ceased to run the pub in October 2012.

Notable people

William Button (by 1503-1547, politician) is buried in Alton Priors church.

Distinguished rectors of Alton Barnes include Richard Steward (c. 1593-1651, royalist churchman), rector from 1630; William Crowe (1745-1829, poet) from 1787; and Augustus William Hare (1792-1834, writer) from 1831.

In popular culture

The Barge Inn at Honeystreet was a filming location for a 1998 episode of Inspector Morse, an adaptation of The Wench Is Dead. In 2013 the white horse, Adam's Grave and the Barge Inn featured in an episode of Walking Through History, presented by Tony Robinson on Channel 4.

Amenities

The Barge Inn at Honeystreet is the sole pub in the parish. Alton Barnes has a village hall.

The nearest primary school is at Woodborough. A Parochial school was opened at Alton Barnes in 1837 and closed in 1976 owing to falling pupil numbers.

Alton Barnes white horse

There is a chalk hill figure of a horse dating from 1812, a little more than 1000 m north of Alton. It is based on another white horse hill figure in Wiltshire, the Cherhill White Horse.

The figure is the third largest white horse in Wiltshire. The Pewsey White Horse can be seen from Milk Hill (the location of the horse). The figure is featured in Staying Out for the Summer, a music video for a song of the same name by Dodgy.

For April Fool's Day in 2003 and 2014, the horse was temporarily transformed into a zebra, which in the latter case was created by applying black stripes, made from plastic sheeting, across the horse.

Crop circles

Since the late 1970s Wiltshire has become known for crop circles (patterns created by flattening a crop, usually of cereal). In 1990 a pattern at Alton was used on the cover of the Box Set compilation by rock band Led Zeppelin.