West Dean, Wiltshire

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West Dean
Wiltshire, Hampshire
Cottages in West Dean - geograph.org.uk - 349472.jpg
Cottages, West Dean
Location
Grid reference: SU257273
Location: 51°2’38"N, 1°38’6"W
Data
Population: 252  (2011[1])
Post town: Salisbury
Postcode: SP5
Dialling code: 01794
Local Government
Council: Wiltshire
Parliamentary
constituency:
South West Wiltshire

West Dean is a village, parish and former manor on the border of Wiltshire and Hampshire.[2] The village is on the River Dun about seven miles east of Salisbury.

History

A Roman villa site straddles the Wiltshire/Hampshire border.[3] The village was mentioned in the Cartularium saxonicum for the year 880 as (æt) Deone, as Duene in the Domesday Book of 1086 (one of the 51 holdings of Waleran the Hunter), as Westdone in 1265, and as Westdune in 1270.[4]

The Salisbury and Southampton Canal was opened through the parish in 1802 or 1803 but was never completed as far as Salisbury; it closed in 1806.

The Wessex Main Line railway was built through the village in 1847, with Dean station where it crosses the road at a level crossing. The county border runs right across the station platforms.

From 1941 to 2003, chalk caverns under Dean Hill to the south of the village were used as a Royal Naval Armaments Depot for munitions storage and maintenance.[5]

Religious sites

Borbach Chantry was built in 1333. It has been designated as a Grade I listed building[6] and is now in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust.[7]

The Anglican Church of St Mary was built in 1866 and is Grade II listed.[8][9]

A Wesleyan Methodist chapel was built c.1870 and closed in 1971.[10]

Woodland

Much of the northern half of the parish is woodland, including Bentley Wood which contains a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest.

References

Outside links

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