Bowerchalke

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Bowerchalke
Wiltshire

Holy Trinity church, Bowerchalke
Location
Grid reference: SU018228
Location: 51°0’18"N, 1°58’34"W
Data
Population: 379  (2011)[1])
Post town: Salisbury
Postcode: SP5
Dialling code: 01722
Local Government
Council: Wiltshire
Parliamentary
constituency: 		Salisbury

Bowerchalke is a village and parish in the Chalk Hundred of Wiltshire, about nine miles south-west of Salisbury. It is in the south of Wiltshire, about a mile from the county border with Dorset and two miles from that with Hampshire. The parish includes the hamlets of Mead End, Misselfore and Woodminton.

Bowerchalke is in the Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, which is part of the Southern England Chalk Formation. The River Chalke, a classic chalk stream, rises in the village and joins the River Ebble at Broad Chalke, flowing into the Hampshire Avon south of Salisbury. The Bowerchalke Downs, also known as Woodminton Down, Marleycombe Down and Knowle Down, were defined as a 318-acre Site of Special Scientific Interest in 1971.

The Grade-II*-listed church of the Holy Trinity dates from the 13th century,[2][3] and Nobel Prize-winning novelist William Golding is buried in the churchyard.

Origins

It is not known when Bowerchalke was first inhabited or what it was called but fragmentary records from Saxon times indicate that the whole Chalke Valley area was thriving, the River Ebble also being known as the River Chalke.[4]

Prehistory

The earliest known sign of habitation is the bowl barrow on 'Marleycombe Down', which was probably built in either the Neolithic or the Bronze Age (3300–1200 BCE). The Bowerchalke Barrel Urn was excavated here in 1925 by Dr R Clay, and the repaired urn is part of the collection at the Wiltshire Museum, Devizes.[5]

4th century

Two hoards of gold and silver coins and rings from the 4th century were discovered by metal detectorists near Bowerchalke in the 20th and 21st centuries. They were used by the Durotriges, a Celtic tribe that lived in South Wiltshire and Dorset before the Roman occupation, became Romanised by c. 79 and gave their name to Dorset. The first discovery was a hoard of 17 gold staters (coins), examples of which are now displayed in the Salisbury Museum.[6] The second hoard of 2 gold rings and 5 silver coins dated to 380 was found in 2002 near the first.[7]

9th century

An Anglo-Saxon charter of 826 records the name of the area including Bowerchalke and Broad Chalke as Cealcan gemere.[8]

10th century

In 955 the Anglo-Saxon King Eadwig granted the nuns of Wilton Abbey an estate called Chalke which included land in Broad Chalke and Bowerchalke. The charter records the village name as aet Ceolcan.[8][9][10]

A charter in 974 records the name as Cheolca or Cheolcam.[8]

11th-12th centuries

The Domesday Book in 1086 divided the Chalke Valley into eight manors, Chelke or Chelce or Celce (Bowerchalke and Broad Chalke), Eblesborne (Ebbesbourne Wake), Fifehide (Fifield), Cumbe (Coombe Bissett), Humitone (Homington), Odestoche (Odstock), Stradford (Stratford Tony and Bishopstone) and Trow (about Alvediston and Tollard Royal).[4]

A charter of 1165 records the village name as Chalca, and the Pipe Rolls in 1174 record it as Chalche.[8]

13th century

The Curia Regis Rolls of 1207 records the village name as ChelkFeet of Fines, and another of 1242 records it as Chalke.[8] The name Bower Chalke was apparently given to that part of the Chalke estate where lands were in 'bower hold' tenure.[9] The name Burchelke first appeared in 1225.[4]

The church of the Holy Trinity dates from the 13th century.

14th century

A Saxon charter of 1304 records the village name as Cheolc and Cheolcan. The Feudal Aids of 1316 uses Chawke, whilst a Saxon Cartulary of 1321 uses Cealce. The Tax lists of 1327, 1332 and 1377 variously record the name as Chalk Magna and Chalke Magna.[8] Brode Chalk was first mentioned in 1380.[4]

Bower Chalke had become a separate parish by the early 14th century.[9]

16th century

c. 1536 Henry VIII granted Chalke to William Herbert (later Sir William Herbert, 1st Earl of Pembroke) during the Dissolution of the Monasteries.[10] Henry VIII 'much valued' William Herbert, a successful and ambitious soldier, who also became his brother-in-law through his marriage to Anne Parr, sister of Henry's last wife Catherine Parr. King Henry heaped favours and honours (Knighthood) upon Herbert and granted the estates of Wilton, Remesbury (north Wiltshire), and Cardiff Castle.

19th century

Chalke was a comparatively large, disconnected estate that was separated into the two ecclesiastical parishes of Broad Chalk and Bowerchalke in 1880.

William Thick was born in 1845 at 'Misselfore Green' but left the village in 1868 to join the Metropolitan Police at Whitechapel in London (warrant No 49989). In 1889, while investigating the Whitechapel murders, Sergeant Thick was named in letters as a prospective perpetrator, to wit I have very good grounds to believe that the person who has committed the Whitechapel Murders is a member of the police force. ... Sergeant William Thick. (Sergeant Thick is no longer a suspect.)[11]

From 1878 until 1924 a unique village newspaper was written, printed, published and sold for a farthing by the Reverend Edward Collett, documenting the social history of the village. Two original sets of the papers still exist. One set is retained by Bodleian Library at Oxford and the second is on loan to the Wiltshire and Swindon Archive by its custodian Paul Lee, where it can be viewed in their offices at Chippenham. The papers were researched and published by Rex Sawyer as The Bowerchalke Parish Papers in 1989 after he had discovered the original printing press in his garden. In 2004 they were republished by The Hobnob Press as Collett's Farthing Newspaper: the Bowerchalke Village Newspaper, 1878-1924. (ISBN 0-946418-22-5). Collett was also a keen amateur photographer and the majority of the photographs featured in the book are taken from his photograph album of that period.

20th century

Anglo-Canadian poet Marjorie Pickthall (1883–1922) lived in Bowerchalke from 1913 to 1919, spending summers at Chalke Cottage where she wrote prolifically. She also attempted to start an enterprise in market gardening as part of the war effort.[12]

In 1919 Reginald Herbert, 15th Earl of Pembroke started to sell the individual farms.[10]

First World War poet Siegfried Sassoon lived in the village for a while before moving to Heytesbury.

The Nobel Prize-winning novelist William Golding, author of Lord of the Flies, The Inheritors, etc. is buried in the village churchyard, having lived the middle part of his life in a cottage on the banks of the River Chalke. He also named the Gaia hypothesis which was conceived by his fellow walking companion Dr James Lovelock who lived in the village from c. 1960-1980 at both 'Pixies Cottage' Misselfore and at 'Clovers Cottage' Mead End.

International violinist Iona Brown lived in the village at 'Misselfore Cottage' from 1968 until her death in 2004. She took part in an episode of BBC Radio 4's Kaleidoscope programme and explained how hard it was to play her signature piece The Lark Ascending by Ralph Vaughan Williams, she said that the lark song during long walks on nearby 'Marleycombe Down' was a central tenet of her performance.

The village was the location for the fire in Stanley Kubrick's 1975 film Barry Lyndon based on William Makepeace Thackeray's novel The Luck of Barry Lyndon. The village school closed in 1976 and children from Bowerchalke now attend the school in neighbouring Broad Chalke. The old school buildings now serve as the Village Hall.

The village pub, The Bell Inn, closed in 1988 and is now a residential dwelling known as 'Bell House'.

The once renowned village cricket team, thanks in part to the dynasty of 'cricketing Gullivers' (Brian, David, Derek, Richard and Robin), closed c. 1973/74.

21st century

The village post office and general stores closed in 2003. The nearest post office is in Broad Chalke.

An article about the closures called Village of the Damned, written by David McKie, was published in The Guardian on 30 June 2005.[13] A response titled Bowerchalke is not the village of the Damned was written by Will Heaven, Assistant Comment Editor of the Daily Telegraph on 30 August 2009.[14]

In 2010 the Chalke Valley Cricket Club moved the cricket ground from the Chalke Valley Sports Centre in Broad Chalke to a new ground at Butt's Field, Bowerchalke, behind the Church under Marleycombe Hill, to allow a longer season and better facilities.

In 2011 Bowerchalke's new cricket ground became the main venue for the first Chalke Valley History Festival, organised by local author James Holland.[15]

Bowerchalke and the Chalke Valley, looking north east from the top of the chalk escarpment

Site of Special Scientific Interest

Marleycombe Down, Knowle Down and Woodminton Down are chalk grasslan]s which comprise the entire southern outlook of the village. They are jointly known as the Bowerchalke Downs, a Site of Special Scientific Interest with many species of plants, insects and butterflies.

Geology

The rocks of Bowerchalke that can be seen today were deposited underwater between 120 and 70 million years ago (mya) until they were then uplifted from the sea and have been sculpted by periglacial weathering and erosion over the last 1 million years.

The main portion of the village is formed on the unique 'Bowerchalke greensand inlier' (an area of older rock completely surrounded by younger layers), highlighted in green on the adjacent map. It is not immediately obvious to the naked eye or on the standard Ordnance Survey maps with 10 metre contours[16] but the apex is strikingly characterised by the 'island' drawn on the Andrews 1773 map. Its presence can be detected in the friable sandy soils in the centre of the village.

References

  1. ↑ "Wiltshire Community History - Census". Wiltshire Council. http://history.wiltshire.gov.uk/community/getcensus.php?item=Bower+Chalke. Retrieved 24 October 2015. 
  2. ↑ National Heritage List 1198318: Church of Holy Trinity, Bower Chalke
  3. ↑ "Bowerchalke - Holy Trinity". http://www.chalkevalley.org.uk/bowerchalke. Retrieved 24 October 2015. 
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Ebbesbourne Wake through the Ages by Peter Meers
  5. ↑ "Bowerchalke Barrel Urn". Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre. http://www.wshc.eu/bowerchalke-barrel-urn.html. Retrieved 26 October 2015. 
  6. ↑ "Gold Coins". The Salisbury Museum. http://www.salisburymuseum.org.uk/collections/stonehenge-prehistory/gold-coinsh. Retrieved 26 October 2015. 
  7. ↑ "Bowerchalke Hoard is declared treasure". thisiswiltshire.co.uk. 10 October 2002. http://www.thisiswiltshire.co.uk/news/7337582.Bowerchalke_Hoard_is_declared_treasure/. Retrieved 26 October 2015. 
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 Broad Chalke, A History of a South Wiltshire Village, its Land & People Over 2,000 years. By 'The People of the Village', 1999
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 British History Online, A History of the County of Wiltshire: Parishes - Bowerchalke
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 "Broad Chalke". Wiltshire Council. http://history.wiltshire.gov.uk/community/getcom.php?id=33. Retrieved 25 October 2015. 
  11. ↑ Moody, Frogg. "Sergeant William Thick". Thomas Schachner. http://www.casebook.org/dissertations/ws-thick.html. Retrieved 26 October 2015. 
  12. ↑ Godard, Barbara. "Pickthall, Marjorie Lowry Christie". http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/pickthall_marjorie_lowry_christie_15E.html. Retrieved 26 October 2015. 
  13. ↑ McKie, David (30 June 2005). "Village of the damned". London. https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2005/jun/30/ruralaffairs.comment. Retrieved 26 October 2015. 
  14. ↑ Heaven, Will (30 August 2009). "Bowerchalke is not 'the village of the damned'". London. http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/willheaven/100007944/bowerchalke-is-not-the-village-of-the-damned/. Retrieved 26 October 2015. 
  15. ↑ Chalke Valley History Festival
  16. ↑ www.streetmap.co.uk

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