Broughton Gifford

Broughton Gifford
Wiltshire
Pond on Broughton Gifford common
Location
Grid reference:	ST879635
Location:	51°22’16"N, 2°10’30"W
Data
Population:	851  (2011)
Post town:	Melksham
Postcode:	SN12
Dialling code:	01225
Local Government
Council:	Wiltshire
Parliamentary constituency:	Chippenham
Website:	Parish Council

Broughton Gifford is a village in Wiltshire, a mile and a half west of Melksham. The wider parish includes the hamlets of Norrington Common and The Common.

History

Formerly much of Broughton Gifford and the surrounding area was covered with woodland. Much of this was felled during the First and Second World Wars. Villagers long used the common to graze their livestock and grow their crops. Although the common was not included when the rest of the parish's lands were inclosed in 1783, eventually its agricultural uses died out.

The Wessex Main Line railway was opened across the southeast of the parish in 1848, following the Avon valley. In 1905 a small station, Broughton Gifford Halt, was opened for the newly-introduced steam railcar service between Chippenham and Trowbridge. The halt was southeast of the village at the Mill Lane bridge, near the road between Melksham and Bradford-on-Avon; it was closed in 1955 but the line remains open.

Geography

The village has two parts. The lower village has the church, the school, the village hall and the Fox public house. There are also two housing estates and some detached houses in this part.

The higher part, The Common, is a large area of open land with houses around it. As at 2008 there were three ponds on the common, inhabited by a paddling of ducks in their breeding season. At one end of the common is the Bell public house, and the football pitch and bowling green.

The River Avon forms a natural boundary to the south and east of the parish.

Churches

Parish church

St Mary's Church

The Church of England parish church of St Mary the Virgin, at the south end of the village, is from the 13th century and is a Grade I listed building. Additions in the 14th century included the south chapel, and the tower was added in the 15th.

The rectory was built in 1848 to designs of Thomas Henry Wyatt, and the church was lightly restored by George Gilbert Scott in 1878.

St Mary's is part of the united benefice of St Katherine's at Holt, together with All Saints at Great Chalfield.

Chapels

A Particular Baptist chapel was built in 1806 on the east side of the common, and is still in use.

A Wesleyan Methodist chapel was built in 1828 and replaced by a larger building in 1907. The chapel closed c. 2008 and is now a private home.

About the village

Packhorse bridge over the Avon

Three houses in the village are Grade II* listed:

• Gifford Hall, c.1700, The Common
• Manor House, early 17th century, on the road to The Common
• Monkton House, 1647, south of the village, by the Avon

A packhorse bridge dating from 1725 spans the River Avon to the south of Broughton Gifford, providing a route (now a public footpath) to the hamlet of Whaddon.

The village has a primary school, St Mary's, a short distance north of the church. Its first building dates from 1856, when it became a National School following the rebuilding of an earlier charity school. The school became Voluntary controlled in 1952 and was remodelled and extended in 1975.

Broughton has two public houses. The Bell on the Common is on the common. The Fox, formerly the Fox and Hounds, is at the other end of the village. There are also a village hall, a butcher's shop, a small park and an industrial estate.

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Broughton Gifford)

• Broughton Gifford Parish Council

References

• A History of the County of Wiltshire - Volume pp 51-59: {{{2}}} (Victoria County History) – [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/wilts/vol7/pp51-59 British History Online}}
• Nikolaus Pevsner: The Buildings of England: Wiltshire, 1963; 1975 Penguin Books ISBN 978-0-300-09659-0page 150–151