Burcombe is a village in 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 ...

of Burcombe Without, in

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. The village is about west of

Salisbury Salisbury ( , ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parish in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers River Avon, Hampshire, Avon, River Nadder, Nadder and River Bourne, Wi ...

city centre and lies each side of an unclassified road. Burcombe is an unspoiled village with many of the houses' gardens leading down to the

River Nadder The River Nadder is a tributary of the River Avon, Hampshire, River Avon, flowing in south Wiltshire, England. Course The river flows north from Ludwell, Wiltshire, Ludwell to West End where it is joined by the Ferne Brook, close to the Lower Co ...

. The parish includes the hamlet of Ugford which is on the

A30 road The A30 is a major road in England, running WSW from London to Land's End. The road has been a principal axis in Britain from the 17th century to early 19th century, as a major coaching route and post road. It used to provide the fastest r ...

near the boundary with Wilton parish.

History

The name is thought to derive from the Saxon name of Brydancumb or Bryda's Valley. At one time in antiquity the village was called South Burcombe and had a twin, North Burcombe, which stood on the north side of what is now the A30 road. Nothing remains of North Burcombe but the church. Evidence of

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

activity in the area includes, in the south of the parish, a

round barrow A round barrow is a type of tumulus and is one of the most common types of archaeological monuments. Although concentrated in Europe, they are found in many parts of the world, probably because of their simple construction and universal purpose. ...

at the top of a steep slope overlooking Punch Bowl Bottom, a deep valley in the downland with a semicircular head. Part of the northern boundary of Burcombe parish follows Grovely Ditch or

Grim's Ditch Grim's Ditch, Grim's Dyke (also Grimsdyke or Grimes Dike in derivative names) or Grim's Bank is a name shared by a number of prehistoric bank and ditch linear earthworks across England. They are of different dates and may have had different funct ...

, an

Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

earthwork. Small settlements at ''Bredecube'' (Burcombe) and ''Ocheforde'' (Ugford) were recorded in the 1086

Domesday 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 ...

survey, when some of the land was held by

Wilton Abbey Wilton Abbey was a Benedictine convent in Wiltshire, England, three miles west of Salisbury, probably on the site now occupied by Wilton House. It was active from the early tenth century until 1539. History Foundation Wilton Abbey is first re ...

. Ugford House is dated 1636. Much of the housing in Burcombe village was built by the Wilton estate, including Burcombe Manor, a farmhouse dated 1865. The ancient parish of Burcombe extended further west towards Ditchampton and Wilton. In 1891 the parish of "Burcombe" had a population of 330. On 30 September 1894 the parish was abolished and split with the

rural In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry are typically desc ...

part going to form "Burcombe Without" and the rest going to Wilton. In 1885 Wilton's boundaries were enlarged to include part of Burcombe, which was known for a short time as Burcombe Within; in 1934 a further small part of Burcombe was transferred to Wilton. Until 1884, North Ugford (comprising the present-day hamlet and an area of farmland, all north of the river) was part of South Newton parish. A church stood in the 13th century but there is no record of it after 1535. The 1934 enlargement of Wilton took some of the Ugford land, thus Wilton's western boundary is now just east of Ugford hamlet.

Church of St John the Baptist

The

Church of England parish church A parish church in the Church of England is the church which acts as the religious centre for the people within each Church of England parish (the smallest and most basic Church of England administrative unit; since the 19th century sometimes ...

of St John is built on higher ground near the A30 road, to the north of the village centre, it is assumed to protect it from the possibility of flooding from the river in the lower part of the valley. It was permitted by the Abbesses of Wilton and has features in the corner work of the masonry which indicate strongly that it was originally of

Saxon The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...

construction, although it has undergone many changes, including restoration in 1859 by T.H. Wyatt. The church is unusual in that it has a tower, rebuilt in 1667, which is lower than the nave roof. In 1960 the church was designated as a

Grade II* listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

building. It was declared redundant in 2005 and its sale was proposed in 2007.

The Quaere placename

In the early 17th century, when

John Speed John Speed (1551 or 1552 – 28 July 1629) was an English cartographer, chronologer and historian of Cheshire origins.; superseding . The son of a citizen and Merchant Taylor in London,"Life of John Speed", ''The Hibernian Magazine, Or, Compe ...

prepared a map of Wiltshire he copied a version by

Christopher Saxton Christopher Saxton (c. 1540 – c. 1610) was an English cartographer who produced the first county maps of England and Wales. Life and family Saxton was probably born in Sowood, Ossett in the parish of Dewsbury, in the West Riding of Yorkshire ...

, which showed but did not name North Burcombe. On his own map, Speed labelled the village Quaere (Latin for ''query''), presumably because he intended to check the name later, but never did, and his engraver copied the annotation as if it were the village's name. Later map printers in turn copied Speed's map and 'Quaere' appeared on maps of Wiltshire for 145 years until

Emanuel Bowen Emanuel Bowen (1694 – 8 May 1767) was a Welsh map engraver, who achieved the unique distinction of becoming Royal Mapmaker to both to King George II of Great Britain and Louis XV of France. Bowen was highly regarded by his contemporaries f ...

corrected the mistake in his 1755 map of the county.

Amenities

The Ship Inn at Burcombe is a 17th-century village pub with whitewashed walls, low ceilings with oak beams and a large open fire. The village has a butcher's shop and a small suite of rented offices.

References

External links

Burcombe Parish Council
* {{authority control Villages in Wiltshire Former civil parishes in Wiltshire