Badbury is a

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...

of the

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

Chiseldon Chiseldon is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Swindon, Wiltshire, England. The village lies on the edge of the Marlborough Downs, a mile south of junction 15 of the M4 motorway, on the A346 between Swindon and Marlborough. The larg ...

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated to Wilts) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It borders Gloucestershire to the north, Oxfordshire to the north-east, Berkshire to the east, Hampshire to the south-east, Dorset to the south, and Somerset to ...

, England. It lies approximately to the south of

Swindon Swindon () is a town in Wiltshire, England. At the time of the 2021 Census the population of the built-up area was 183,638, making it the largest settlement in the county. Located at the northeastern edge of the South West England region, Swi ...

, close to the

M4 motorway The M4, originally the London-South Wales Motorway, is the third longest motorway in the United Kingdom, running from west London to southwest Wales. The English section to the Severn Bridge was constructed between 1961 and 1971; the Welsh ele ...

History

There is evidence that in 955

King Eadred Eadred (also Edred, – 23 November 955) was King of the English from 26 May 946 until his death in 955. He was the younger son of Edward the Elder and his third wife Eadgifu of Kent, Eadgifu, and a grandson of Alfred the Great. His elder b ...

granted Badbury, then containing twenty-five hides, to

Saint Dunstan Dunstan ( – 19 May 988), was an English bishop and Benedictine monk. He was successively Abbot of Glastonbury Abbey, Bishop of Worcester, Bishop of London and Archbishop of Canterbury, later canonised. His work restored monastic life in En ...

, Abbot of

Glastonbury Abbey Glastonbury Abbey was a monastery in Glastonbury, Somerset, England. Its ruins, a grade I listed building and scheduled ancient monument, are open as a visitor attraction. The abbey was founded in the 8th century and enlarged in the 10th. It wa ...

. The manor of Badbury was held by the Abbey at the time of the

Domesday Book Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

, when it was counted as twenty hides. In 1203, Badbury was passed to the

Bishop of Bath The Bishop of Bath and Wells heads the Church of England Diocese of Bath and Wells in the Province of Canterbury in England. The present diocese covers the overwhelmingly greater part of the (ceremonial) county of Somerset and a small area of Do ...

but it was returned to the monks of Glastonbury in 1219, where it remained until 1539. In 1348 a group of

villein A villein is a class of serfdom, serf tied to the land under the feudal system. As part of the contract with the lord of the manor, they were expected to spend some of their time working on the lord's fields in return for land. Villeins existe ...

tenants of the manor of Badbury led a revolt against their lord and unsuccessfully claimed that they should have the right to hold their land according to the customs of ancient demesne. In 1543, the manor passed to

William Essex Sir William Essex (c. 1477–1548) of Lambourn, Berkshire was an English soldier and courtier who served as High Sheriff and Member of Parliament. Origins He was the son of Thomas Essex of Lambourn in Berkshire by his wife, Elizabeth Babt ...

and over the following two hundred years it passed to the Kibblewhite family, the Redferne family, the Norden family and the Mellish family before eventually being bought by the Stone family in 1718. The Stone family remained at the house until at least the late 20th century. By 1773, the hamlet largely existed along a road between west from Liddington to Chiseldon. The population recorded at 1841 was 395 people.

Conservation area

Badbury is at the centre of the Badbury Conservation Area, the boundaries of which are drawn to match the historical settlement, totalling about 30 residential homes. Historically, residents of the hamlet would have been farmers, but the hamlet is now centred around a pub, a care home and offices. There is no church, post office or school in the hamlet. In keeping with the historic feel of the village the two modern buildings have been thatched and were designed to match the older buildings.

References

{{authority control Villages in Wiltshire