Semington is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of Parish (administrative division), administrative parish used for Local government in England, local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below district ...

in Wiltshire, England. The village is about south of Melksham and about northeast of Trowbridge. The parish includes the hamlets of Little Marsh and Littleton.election-maps.co.uk
Semington Civil Parish boundary on Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 colour raster layer. Retrieved 23 October 2006. The village has two locks on the

Kennet and Avon Canal The Kennet and Avon Canal is a waterway in southern England with an overall length of , made up of two lengths of navigable river linked by a canal. The name is used to refer to the entire length of the navigation rather than solely to the c ...

, known as the

Semington Locks The Semington Locks () are situated at Semington, Wiltshire on the Kennet and Avon Canal, England. They have a combined rise/fall of 16 feet 1 inch (4.9 m). The two locks at Semington are known as Buckley's (No.15) and Barret ...

, and nearby is the start of the disused Wilts and Berks Canal.

Geography

The Semington Brook, a westward-flowing tributary of the

Avon Avon may refer to: * River Avon (disambiguation), several rivers Organisations *Avon Buses, a bus operating company in Wirral, England *Avon Coachworks, a car body builder established in 1919 at Warwick, England, relaunched in 1922, following ...

, forms the east and north boundaries of the parish. Sometime after 1818, the central part of the northern boundary was realigned to follow the

. Semington village developed along the main road from Melksham to Westbury which became the A350 primary route. In 2004 a bypass was opened, taking the A350 east of the village. Little Marsh (or Littlemarsh) is a hamlet south of Semington, along the old course of the A350. Littleton is no longer populated, and the only area currently designated as belonging to Littleton is the

roundabout A roundabout is a type of circular intersection or junction in which road traffic is permitted to flow in one direction around a central island, and priority is typically given to traffic already in the junction.''The New Shorter Oxford E ...

at the A350 and A361 road crossing.

Governance

The civil parish elects a 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 authorities of England, unitary authority of Borough of Swindon, Swindon) in South West England, created in 2009. It is the successor authorit ...

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 governme ...

, which is responsible for all significant local government functions. The village is the most populous area of 'Summerham and Seend' electoral ward. This ward starts in the northwest at Semington, stretches south to Steeple Ashton then northeast to Seend. The total ward population at the 2011 census was 4,264.

History

Anciently, Semington and Littleton were each tithings of Steeple Ashton parish (Semington village being about north of Steeple Ashton village). In the late 19th century the civil parish of Semington was formed from the two tithings, and in 1894 the ancient parish of

Whaddon Whaddon may refer to several places in England: *Whaddon, Buckinghamshire *Whaddon, Cambridgeshire *Whaddon, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire * Whaddon, Stroud, in Brookthorpe-with-Whaddon, Gloucestershire *Whaddon, Wiltshire, hamlet near Trowbridge * Wh ...

was added to it. Whaddon was transferred to

Hilperton Hilperton is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England. The village is separated by a few fields (the Hilperton Gap) from the northeastern edge of the town of Trowbridge and is approximately from Trowbridge town centre. South of Hil ...

in the late 20th century. The population of the parish was in the range 400 to 500 for many years, from the 1841 census to that of 1931. Numbers then gradually increased to reach 930 in 2011.

Canals

The

crosses marshy ground on an embankment on the northern edge of the village. The two

Semington locks The Semington Locks () are situated at Semington, Wiltshire on the Kennet and Avon Canal, England. They have a combined rise/fall of 16 feet 1 inch (4.9 m). The two locks at Semington are known as Buckley's (No.15) and Barret ...

were built between 1794 and 1802 under the supervision of the engineer John Rennie. They have a combined rise/fall of 16 ft 1 in (4.9 m). The two locks at Semington are known as Buckley's (numbered 15) and Barrett's (16). Next to the locks is the point at which the Wilts & Berks Canal left the Kennet and Avon. The Wilts & Berks is disused but the Wilts & Berks Canal Trust is restoring it. East of the locks, the canal travels across the 2004

Semington Aqueduct Semington Aqueduct () is an aqueduct at Semington, Wiltshire, England, UK. It carries the Kennet and Avon Canal over the Semington Brook. History The Kennet and Avon Canal was the realisation of a plan to link the River Avon to the River Tha ...

, built to allow the A350 to bypass Semington village. Another aqueduct carries the canal over Semington Brook. The canal, towpath and adjacent hedges are good for wildlife and in August 2007

water voles The European water vole or northern water vole (''Arvicola amphibius''), is a semi-aquatic rodent. It is often informally called the water rat, though it only superficially resembles a true rat. Water voles have rounder noses than rats, deep brow ...

were seen.

Former railway

The Devizes Branch Line was built north of the village in 1857. A small station ( Semington Halt) was opened in 1906 where the railway crossed both the A350 and the Wilts & Berks canal; the station and the line were closed in 1966.

Former workhouse

Just west of the village is the former St George's Hospital, built in 1836–38 as a

workhouse In Britain, a workhouse () was an institution where those unable to support themselves financially were offered accommodation and employment. (In Scotland, they were usually known as poorhouses.) The earliest known use of the term ''workhouse' ...

for the Melksham poor law union to designs of

H. E. Kendall Henry Edward Kendall (23 March 1776 – 4 January1875) was an English architect. Kendall was a student of Thomas Leverton and possibly of John Nash. His wide-ranging styles included Greek, Italian and Tudor revival. His son, Henry Edward Ken ...

. The nine-bay north front in classical style has two storeys and a three-bay pediment; behind this, further ranges of one, two and three storeys surround four courtyards. The front is limestone ashlar and the rear ranges are dressed limestone. Pevsner writes: "It is typical of the coming of the Victorian age how the classical and Grecian motifs get clumsy and extremely heavy". In 1988, when the building was recorded as Grade II listed, it was in use as a hospital for the mentally handicapped. Today it is largely in residential use, while a charity providing advice to disabled people occupies the ground floor of one building.

World War II

During the

Second World War 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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, Semington was on GHQ Line which followed the path of the canal. Semington was designated as a ''centre of resistance'': extensive anti-tank ditches were constructed to the east, south, and west of the village, these were overlooked by a number of pillboxes. The defences were constructed as a part of British anti-invasion preparations.

Parish church

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 ca ...

of St George is a Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern I ...

. It dates from the 15th century and was largely rebuilt in 1860. Anciently a

chapelry A chapelry was a subdivision of an ecclesiastical parish in England and parts of Lowland Scotland up to the mid 19th century. Status It had a similar status to a township but was so named as it had a chapel of ease (chapel) which was the com ...

of Steeple Ashton, Semington was made an independent parish in 2000, and today the parish is part of the Canalside Benefice alongside parishes in Hilperton and Whaddon.

Amenities

Within the village there are over 500 houses, a primary school, a village hall, public tennis courts and a park for children. Semington has a pub, The Somerset Arms, an 18th-century building. National Cycle Route 4 follows the canal towpath, and at the road bridge just north of Semington village, route 403 branches north to Melksham and beyond.

Economy

About 1 km north of the village, in Melksham Without parish, is Hampton Park West business park which has the corporate headquarters of companies such as G-Plan, Avon Rubber plc and a Wiltshire Police operations centre. Littlemarsh

Notable residents

* Isaac Gulliver (1745–1822), smuggler *

Thomas Helliker Thomas Helliker (sometimes spelled Hilliker) (23 March 1784 – 22 March 1803), known as the Trowbridge Martyr, was a figure in early English trade union history who was hanged, aged 19, for his alleged role in machine-breaking at a Wiltshire woo ...

(1784–1803), trade union martyr, hanged for his alleged role in burning Littleton mill

Sources

* *

References

External links

Semington Parish Council website

Village website

National cycle route 4
{{authority control Villages in Wiltshire Civil parishes in Wiltshire