Winterbourne Stoke

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Winterbourne Stoke
Wiltshire
Chocolate Box England - geograph.org.uk - 365945.jpg
Cottages and church
Location
Grid reference: SU077411
Location: 51°10’8"N, 1°53’31"W
Data
Population: 205  (2011[1])
Post town: Salisbury
Postcode: SP3
Dialling code: 01980
Local Government
Council: Wiltshire
Parliamentary
constituency:
Salisbury

Winterbourne Stoke is a village and parish in the Branch and Dole hundred of Wiltshire, about five miles west of Amesbury and three miles west of the prehistoric monument of Stonehenge.

The village is on the River Till at the southern edge of Salisbury Plain, on both sides of a single-carriageway stretch of the busy A303 trunk road.

Geography

The parish of Winterbourne Stoke mostly consists of downland, with chalk outcrops in places. It is bisected from north to south by the River Till, which rises to the north on Salisbury Plain, and which was originally called the River Winterbourne.[2] The village is located at the junction of the B3083, running north and south, and the A303 trunk road, running east and west.[3] The land is gently sloping; level areas near the river have been used as meadowland and slightly sloping land for arable cropping since the Middle Ages.[2]

Especially in its east part, the parish is rich in archaeological remains. The Greater and Lesser Cursus are Neolithic monuments, and there are a group of seventeen long barrows, some of which are in neighbouring parishes. A Romano-British settlement has been identified on Winterbourne Stoke Down, as well as some mediæval earthworks.[2] Most of the Parsonage Down national nature reserve is within the parish. This ancient downland is rich in wild flowers as well as having scrubby areas where yellowhammers and turtle doves flourish.[4]

Notable buildings

The Church of England parish church of St Peter (12th century with 19th-century restoration) is Grade-II* listed,[5] as is the 17th-century Manor House.[6] The church has the pulpit from St Giles at the deserted village of Imber.[7]

References

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about Winterbourne Stoke)
  1. "Wiltshire Community History - Census". Wiltshire Council. http://history.wiltshire.gov.uk/community/getcensus.php?item=Winterbourne%20Stoke. Retrieved 28 July 2015. 
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 "Parishes: Winterbourne Stoke". British History Online. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/wilts/vol15/pp275-284. Retrieved 3 September 2016. 
  3. Concise Road Atlas of Britain. AA Publishing. 2016. p. 18. ISBN 978-0-7495-7743-8. 
  4. "Parsonage Down". Wiltshire's National Nature Reserves. Wiltshire County Council. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/wiltshires-national-nature-reserves/wiltshires-national-nature-reserves#parsonage-down. Retrieved 3 September 2016. 
  5. National Heritage List 1130975: Church of St Peter, Winterbourne Stoke
  6. National Heritage List 1130971: Manor House, Winterbourne Stoke
  7. National Heritage List 1036472: Church of St Giles, Imber