Collingbourne Ducis is a village and

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 below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

on Salisbury Plain in

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

, England, about south of Marlborough. It is one of several villages on the River Bourne which is a seasonal river, usually dry in summer. The parish includes the hamlets of Cadley and Sunton.

History

From 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 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manus ...

we know Earl Harold held the manor, and in 1086 a large settlement of 87 households was recorded. In 1256 the village was named Collingbourne Earls after the

Lord of the Manor Lord of the Manor is a title that, in Anglo-Saxon England, referred to the landholder of a rural estate. The lord enjoyed manorial rights (the rights to establish and occupy a residence, known as the manor house and demesne) as well as seig ...

, the

Earl of Leicester Earl of Leicester is a title that has been created seven times. The first title was granted during the 12th century in the Peerage of England. The current title is in the Peerage of the United Kingdom and was created in 1837. Early creatio ...

, who also held neighbouring Everleigh. John of Gaunt inherited the manor, became the

Duke of Lancaster The Dukedom of Lancaster is an English peerage merged into the crown. It was created three times in the Middle Ages, but finally merged in the Crown when Henry V succeeded to the throne in 1413. Despite the extinction of the dukedom the title ...

, and the village was thus known as Collingbourne Ducis or Dukes. Sunton House is a Grade II* listed seven-bay house from c. 1710. The architect C.E. Ponting was born in Collingbourne Ducis in 1850. The restoration of St. Andrew's parish church in 1856 by

G.E. Street George Edmund Street (20 June 1824 – 18 December 1881), also known as G. E. Street, was an English architect, born at Woodford, London, Woodford in Essex. Stylistically, Street was a leading practitioner of the Gothic Revival architecture, Vi ...

made a lasting impression on him. The Bourne Iron Works in the village was established by James Rawlings in the 1860s and made agricultural implements until the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. The

Swindon, Marlborough and Andover Railway The Midland and South Western Junction Railway (M&SWJR) was an independent railway built to form a north–south link between the Midland Railway and the London and South Western Railway in England, allowing the Midland and other companies' tr ...

was opened through the Bourne valley in 1882, becoming the Midland and South Western Junction Railway in 1884 and part of the Great Western Railway in 1923. The line passed close to the east of Collingbourne Ducis and Collingbourne station was close to the village centre, south of the Cadley road. The station closed when the line was closed to passengers in 1961, and subsequently the track was removed. Sunton, and the northern part of Cadley, were transferred to the parish from

Collingbourne Kingston Collingbourne Kingston is a village and civil parish about south of the market town of Marlborough in Wiltshire, England. The village, which is on the A338 primary route between Andover and Marlborough, is one of several on the River Bourn ...

in 1934. In 1974 a Saxon cemetery of archaeological significance was discovered in Cadley, including one

bed burial A bed is an item of furniture that is used as a place to sleep, rest, and relax. Most modern beds consist of a soft, cushioned mattress on a bed frame. The mattress rests either on a solid base, often wood slats, or a sprung base. Many beds ...

. In 1998 a Saxon settlement was found in Saunders Meadow during the construction of a housing estate. The Post Office at Collingbourne Ducis was mentioned by Sir

Anthony Hopkins Sir Philip Anthony Hopkins (born 31 December 1937) is a Welsh actor, director, and producer. One of Britain's most recognisable and prolific actors, he is known for his performances on the screen and stage. Hopkins has received many accolad ...

' character, Mr. Stevens, in the 1993 film ''

The Remains of the Day ''The Remains of the Day'' is a 1989 novel by the Nobel Prize in Literature, Nobel Prize-winning British author Kazuo Ishiguro. The protagonist, Stevens, is a butler with a long record of service at Darlington Hall, a stately home near Oxford, ...

''. The village has one of the few surviving original Victorian

post box A post box (British English; also written postbox; also known as pillar box), also known as a collection box, mailbox, letter box or drop box (American English) is a physical box into which members of the public can deposit outgoing mail inten ...

es inset to a

flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and sta ...

cobble wall at ''Sally Lunn's'' Cottage.

Religious sites

The

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britai ...

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...

of St Andrew (St Mary's until some time before 1786) is from the early 13th century. Alterations in the 14th century included the addition of the tower, which was rebuilt in the 15th. In 1856 the chancel was narrowed and a vestry added, to designs of

; further restoration in 1877 was by Sir Arthur Blomfield. The church is a Grade II* listed building. The parish was united with Everleigh in 1977 after the closure of St Peter's, Everleigh. It forms part of the Savernake team ministry. A Primitive Methodist chapel was built at Cadley in 1880. The building was sold for residential use in 1988.

Local government

Collingbourne Ducis is a civil parish with an elected parish council. It is in the area of

Wiltshire Council Wiltshire Council is a council for the unitary authority of Wiltshire (excluding the separate unitary authority of Swindon) in South West England, created in 2009. It is the successor authority to Wiltshire County Council (1889–2009) and the ...

unitary authority A unitary authority is a local authority responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are usually performed by a higher level of sub-national government or the national governmen ...

, which is responsible for all significant

local government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-l ...

functions.

Amenities

Collingbourne Church of England Primary School serves the parish and surrounding area, including Collingbourne Kingston. Its building opened in 2004 at a new site on the northwest outskirts of the village; until then it occupied a National School building dating from 1859, close to the church. Near the school is a village hall with playing fields. The village has two

pub A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...

s: The ''Tipple Inn'', an 18th-century building (formerly the ''Railway Hotel'' and the ''Blue Lion'') on the A4 road, and ''The Shears Inn'' at the far end of Cadley Road.

Twinning Association

Collingbourne and District is twinned with Le Merlerault in Normandy, France. The twinning agreement was made on 18 April 1992.

History

Religious sites

Local government

Amenities

Twinning Association

References

External links

Sources