Idmiston 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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

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 southeast of

Amesbury Amesbury () is a town and civil parish in Wiltshire, England. It is known for the prehistoric monument of Stonehenge which is within the parish. The town is claimed to be the oldest occupied settlement in Great Britain, having been first settl ...

and northeast 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 ...

. The parish includes the villages of

Porton Porton is a village in the Bourne valley, Wiltshire, England, about northeast of Salisbury. It is the largest settlement in Idmiston civil parish. The village gives its name to the nearby Porton Down military science park, which is home to t ...

and Gomeldon; all three villages are on the River Bourne and are linked by the

A338 road The A338 is a major primary route in southern England, that runs from the junction with the A35 at Poole in Dorset to the junction with the A420 at Besselsleigh in Oxfordshire, a distance of . In Bournemouth and Poole the road is known as ...

Porton Down Porton Down is a science and defence technology campus in Wiltshire, England, just north-east of the village of Porton, near Salisbury. It is home to two British government facilities: a site of the Ministry of Defence's Defence Science and ...

military science park is in the parish, separated from Idmiston by a railway line. It is home to the

Defence Science and Technology Laboratory The Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) is an executive agency of the Ministry of Defence of the United Kingdom. Its stated purpose is "to maximise the impact of science and technology for the defence and security of the UK". The a ...

and related businesses.

History

The

Port Way Port Way (also known as the Portway) is an ancient road in southern England, which ran from Calleva Atrebatum ( Silchester, in modern-day Hampshire) in a south-westerly direction to Sorbiodunum (Old Sarum, Wiltshire). Often associated with t ...

, a

Roman road Roman roads ( ; singular: ; meaning "Roman way") were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Republic and the Roman Em ...

towards Sorviodunum (Old Sarum), followed the Bourne valley and passed close to the present settlements. The

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 in 1086 recorded 15 households at ''Eunestetone'' (Idmiston), on land held by

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 ...

; and eight at ''Poertone'' or ''Portone'', on land held by

Edward of Salisbury Edward of Salisbury was a nobleman and courtier (''curialis''), probably part Anglo-Saxon, who served as High Sheriff of Wiltshire during the reigns of William I, William II and Henry I. The '' Chronicon Abbatiae Rameseiensis'' (1293) names him ...

and Wulfric the hunter. Idmiston Manor is a house from c. 1600 with 17th-century interior features and an arched gateway from the same period; both house and gateway are

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 ...

. The Old Rectory, opposite the church, also dates from the early 17th century and is also Grade II*. A small grass-runway aerodrome was opened in 1917 on farmland at Boscombe Down in the north of the parish for the

Royal Flying Corps The Royal Flying Corps (RFC) was the air arm of the British Army before and during the First World War until it merged with the Royal Naval Air Service on 1 April 1918 to form the Royal Air Force. During the early part of the war, the RFC sup ...

, and continued in use until 1920. The site was reopened and enlarged to form RAF Boscombe Down in 1930, then repurposed in 1939 as an aircraft research and testing station. The first hard runway was built in 1945. Now called

MoD Boscombe Down MOD Boscombe Down ' is the home of a military aircraft testing site, on the south-eastern outskirts of the town of Amesbury, Wiltshire, England. The site is managed by QinetiQ, the private defence company created as part of the breakup of the D ...

and extending into

and Allington parishes, its research and testing role continues.

Religious sites

The Grade I listed

All Saints Church, Idmiston All Saints Church in Idmiston, Wiltshire, England, was built in the 12th century. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a Grade I listed building and is in the care of The Churches Conservation Trust. It was decla ...

was built in the 12th century as the

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), 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 com ...

. In 1977 it was declared

redundant Redundancy or redundant may refer to: Language * Redundancy (linguistics), information that is expressed more than once Engineering and computer science * Data redundancy, database systems which have a field that is repeated in two or more table ...

, and St Nicholas' at Porton became the parish church; All Saints is now in the care of the

Churches Conservation Trust The Churches Conservation Trust is a registered charity whose purpose is to protect historic churches at risk in England. The charity cares for over 350 churches of architectural, cultural and historic significance, which have been transferred in ...

. In 1977, the name of the ecclesiastical parish was 'Idmiston with Porton and Gomeldon'. Today the parish of 'St Nicholas Porton and District' is within the area of the Bourne Valley benefice, a group of six rural parishes.

Railway

In 1857, the

London and South Western Railway The London and South Western Railway (LSWR, sometimes written L&SWR) was a railway company in England from 1838 to 1922. Originating as the London and Southampton Railway, its network extended to Dorchester and Weymouth, to Salisbury, Exete ...

company opened its line from

Andover Andover may refer to: Places Australia *Andover, Tasmania Canada * Andover Parish, New Brunswick * Perth-Andover, New Brunswick United Kingdom * Andover, Hampshire, England ** RAF Andover, a former Royal Air Force station United States * Andov ...

to Milford station at Salisbury, following the Bourne valley through the parish. There was a station at

from the beginning; between 1943 and 1968 a halt at Idmiston served Porton Down military camp. The railway remains in use as part of the

West of England Main Line The West of England line (also known as the West of England Main Line) is a British railway line from , Hampshire, to in Devon, England. Passenger services run between London Waterloo station and Exeter; the line intersects with the Wessex Ma ...

but there are no local stations.

Amenities

There are two primary schools in the parish. St Nicholas'

CofE The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglican tradition, with foundational doctrines being contained in the '' Thirty-nine Articles'' and ''Th ...

( VA) Primary School was built in 1972 between Idmiston and Porton. Idmiston village had its own school from 1833, replaced by a new building in 1869, opposite the church; it closed after the new school was opened to cater for the increased local population. The second school is at Gomeldon, built in 1912 and later extended, then modernised in 1972.

Notable people

John Bowle (1725–1788), known for his scholarly annotated edition of ''

Don Quixote , the full title being ''The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha'', is a Spanish novel by Miguel de Cervantes. Originally published in two parts in 1605 and 1615, the novel is considered a founding work of Western literature and is of ...

'', was vicar of Idmiston for some years until his death.

References

External links

Idmiston Parish Council
* {{authority control Civil parishes in Wiltshire Villages in Wiltshire