Westbury, Wiltshire
Westbury | |
---|---|
Church Street, Westbury | |
Location within Wiltshire | |
Population | 16,414 (2021 Census)[1] |
OS grid reference | ST868511 |
Unitary authority | |
Ceremonial county | |
Region | |
Country | England |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | WESTBURY |
Postcode district | BA13 |
Dialling code | 01373 |
Police | Wiltshire |
Fire | Dorset and Wiltshire |
Ambulance | South Western |
UK Parliament | |
Website | Town Council |
Westbury is a market town and
Westbury was known for the annual Hill Fair where many sheep were sold in the 18th and 19th centuries; later growth came from the town's position at the intersection of two railway lines. The busy A350, which connects the M4 motorway with the south coast, passes through the town. The urban area has expanded to include the village of Westbury Leigh and the hamlets of Chalford and Frogmore.
History
A Romano-British settlement was found at The Ham, in the north of the parish, in the 1870s.[2]
The manor of Westbury, and the
Westbury centres on its historic marketplace – although markets ceased to be held in the middle of the 19th century[5] – and the All Saints' Church.[7] This was built between c. 1340 and 1380 in a transitional style between the Decorated and Perpendicular Gothic and parts survive, but the church was rebuilt in the 1430s, when a clerestory, three chapels, and most of the central tower were added; the north chapel was given by William de Westbury and his father.[8] The west window was donated in the 19th century by Abraham Laverton.[6]
The
In 1894, Westbury parish was reduced in size when a new civil parish of Dilton Marsh was created from its western part (all the land west of the
Leighton House in the south of the town has been home to the Army Officer Selection Board and the Cadet Force Commissioning Board since 1949. Its planned disposal was announced in March 2016,[12] and later that year the MoD estimated that the Selection Board would move to Sandhurst by 2024.[13]
Jurassic fossils
A band of Late Jurassic Kimmeridge Clay runs under England from an outcrop on the Dorset coast and comes close to the surface around Westbury.[14] Many marine fossils have been found in the pits dug for the cement works north-east of the town,[14] notably the almost complete skull and 2-metre (6 ft) lower jaw of a new species which was named Pliosaurus carpenteri after its 1994 discoverer, Simon Carpenter.[15] This evidence of a large reptile-like ocean predator has been conserved by Bristol Museum.[16] A smaller fossil found in 1980 was named Pliosaurus westburyensis in 1993.[17]
Industries
In common with nearby towns in the Avon valley, Westbury was a centre of the cloth industry from the later 15th century. By the start of the 19th century, Dilton Marsh was a centre of
Toponymy
The most likely origin of the West- in Westbury is simply that the town is near the western edge of the county of Wiltshire, the bounds of which have been much the same since the Anglo-Saxon period.[20]
The -bury part of the name is a form of
Governance
The majority of local government functions (including schools, roads, social services, waste disposal, emergency planning, leisure services, development control, refuse collection and street cleaning) are carried out by Wiltshire Council, a unitary authority. The area of Westbury parish is divided into three electoral divisions, each electing one member of Wiltshire Council.[21]
Westbury is a civil parish with an elected town council of fifteen members: five for each of three wards with the same boundaries as the electoral divisions.[22] The council has significant consultative roles, in addition to responsibility for certain local services. The chairman has the title of Mayor of Westbury which is a wholly ceremonial role. Around 2020, the council took over the running of the town's play areas, toilets and flower planting from Wiltshire Council,[23] and supplemented reduced services from Wiltshire Council with its own staff. The council also runs the Grade II listed Laverton Institute which serves as the town hall and as a venue for events and meetings.[24]
The parliamentary constituency of
Geography
Westbury is in the far west of Wiltshire, close to the border with
The Biss Brook, which becomes the River Biss as it flows north towards Trowbridge, forms most of the western boundary of the parish.[27]
Suburbs of Westbury include Frogmore, Bitham Park, and The Ham (north and east), Chalford, Leigh Park, and Westbury Leigh (southwest). Westbury Leigh is sometimes considered a separate village, with its own church and chapel,
Economy
Until the 1940s, the Westbury Hill Fair was an important annual event, mostly for the sale of sheep.
The company which became known as
Businesses at the Brook Lane industrial area, north-west of the railway station, include an Arla creamery which makes Anchor butter.[33] The West Wilts trading estate, in Heywood parish just north-west of Westbury, has Welton Bibby & Baron who claim to be the UK's largest manufacturer of paper bags and similar goods.[34]
Landmarks
Pevsner states that the best houses in Westbury are near the church. His perambulation takes in the Market Place and the streets leading off it, then proceeds south and west. He notes the 1960s central shopping parade – two yellow brick ranges facing each other – and the former Barclays Bank, 1970, purple brick in brutalist style.[35]
Besides the Grade I listed All Saints' Church, the town has five Grade II* listed houses and one monument. Oldest among them is Ferndale House, now the Conservative Club, just east of the Market Place, which although altered dates from the early 18th century. In rendered brick, its front has two Palladian windows on each of the ground and first floor, all with small side lights.[36]
North of the Market Place, Bank House is an early 18th century house in red brick with stone dressings; its five-bay front, with a carved stone shell hood over the central door, is passed by traffic on the A350.[37] Leigh House at Westbury Leigh, perhaps of slightly earlier date, is a similar structure.[38]
In a central position on the Market Place, the early 19th century
Edgar House, off Edward Street south of the town centre, is a four-bay early 18th century remodelling of an older house, faced in stucco.[39] The Grade II* monument is the Phipps mausoleum in the cemetery, on the Bratton road on the eastern edge of the town. Dating from around 1871 (for the burial of John Lewis Phipps), the stone monument has a basement, an octagonal chamber with four windows, and a short spire with lantern.[40]
White Horse
A well-known feature of the area is the Westbury White Horse, which overlooks the town from a slope up to Salisbury Plain, in Bratton parish about 1+1⁄2 miles (2.4 km) east of the town. Probably first made in the 18th century, its present form dates from 1778 when it was restored. In the 1950s it was decided that the horse would be more easily maintained if it were set in concrete and painted white.[41]
Transport
Road
The A350 road passes through the town and provides a fast route to the M4 motorway (junction 17) 21 miles to the north. A controversial Westbury Bypass was once proposed which would have reduced traffic in parts of the town but would have had a negative effect on the landscape on the east of the town. The eastern bypass scheme was eventually rejected after an Independent Planning Inquiry recommended against it in 2009.[42]
Rail
The town is an important junction point on the railway network, as it lies at the point where the
Education
Westbury has one
has a sixth form offering a range of subjects. It serves Westbury and the surrounding villages including Chapmanslade, Bratton, Dilton Marsh and Edington.Westbury Leigh C of E Primary School was moved[when?] from Westbury Leigh to the neighbouring Leigh Park estate. Bitham Brook Primary School mainly serves the western part of the town. Westbury C of E Junior School serves the central part of the town and takes children from Year 3 to Year 6. It is fed by Westbury Infant School, which takes children from Reception to Year 2.
The closest further education establishment is
Religious sites
Church of England
St Mary's Church, Old Dilton was begun in the 14th century but went out of regular use in 1900 after the population dwindled in that area, southwest of Westbury. The Grade I listed building, which remains consecrated, has been in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust since 1974.[46]
The Church of the Holy Saviour at Westbury Leigh was built as a chapel of ease in 1877, the south aisle added in 1889 and the tower in 1890; all in honey coloured limestone, to designs of the Gothic Revival architect William White.[47] In 2000 the nave was screened off and converted for use as a community hall.[48]
Others
Nonconformists met in the town from 1662, and built a chapel on Warminster Road soon after 1711, which was rebuilt to suit a congregation of 500 in 1821. It became a United Reformed Church on the foundation of that organisation in 1972.[49][50]
There has been a strong Baptist movement at Westbury Leigh, encouraged by the congregations at Southwick, some 4 miles (6 km) away towards Trowbridge. An early chapel was made from a barn in 1714,[51] and replaced on the same site in 1797 by a chapel with accommodation for 500, built in red brick with stone trimmings. Improved and enlarged in the next century, it is described by Historic England as an "impressive building".[52] In 1810 another chapel was built nearby, at Penknap in Dilton Marsh parish, after a split in the congregation.[53] The earlier chapel fell into disuse sometime before 2019;[51] the Penknap building continues in use as Providence Baptist Church.[54] Later, there was a Baptist congregation in Westbury itself, and in 1868 they rebuilt their West End chapel to seat 350, on the site of a smaller 1820s chapel.[55][56]
A Methodist church and schoolroom was built in 1926 at the town end of Station Road, replacing a smaller chapel elsewhere dating from around 1809.[57] It is used as a meeting place and events venue by local organisations.[58]
The Roman Catholics built the Church of St Bernadette of Lourdes in West End, Westbury, in 1938, which is now served from St John the Baptist, Trowbridge.[59][60]
Sport and leisure
Westbury has one of the oldest Victorian swimming pools still in use in the country. Work started in 1887 by William Laverton, with his wife laying the foundation stone. The pool was built as a gift to the town of Westbury and opened on Thursday 24th May 1888 in celebration and commemoration of Queen Victoria's Jubilee.
Westbury has a Non-League football club, Westbury United, who play at the Meadow Lane ground in the Southern League (English football's eighth tier).
The non-league Rugby Football Club, Westbury RFC, has both male and female teams who play at the White Horse Country Park, a 247 acre estate that includes a 9 hole Golf Course, Driving Range, Bowels Club and Fishing Lakes. The Park also hosts shows and events throughout the year including the Donkey Derby, Vintage & Classic Car Shows and Christmas Concert.
A cricket field at Wellhead Lane was laid out by the mill-owning Lavertons and came to be known as W. H. Laverton's Ground. In 1890 W. G. Grace played in W. H. Laverton's XI against a team called the Australians.[61] Today the ground is home to Westbury & District Cricket Club,[62] and to one side is the Leighton Recreation Centre, run by Places Leisure (part of Places for People) on behalf of Wiltshire Council.[63] providing access to Health and Fitness Suites, Grass Pitches, Squash Courts, Tennis Courts and Grass Cricket Pitches.
Media
Westbury is served by a fortnightly free newspaper, the
Local news and television programmes are provided by BBC West and ITV West Country. Television signals are received from the Mendip TV transmitter.[65]
Local radio stations are BBC Radio Wiltshire, Heart West, Greatest Hits Radio South West (formerly The Breeze) and Warminster Community Radio (WCR), a community based station which broadcast from Warminster.[66]
Notable people
- William de Westbury (c.1385–1448/49), judge of the King's Bench, built (together with his father) the north chapel of All Saints' church, and endowed it.[6]
- Matthew Ley (1545–1636), and his brother James, owned Brembridge and Heywood; Matthew sat as MP for Westbury and James went on to become Lord High Treasurer and Earl of Marlborough.[67]
- John Cogswell (1592–1669), merchant from Westbury Leigh, became a politician after emigrating to North America.
- Phipps' descendants acquired the Leighton estate, and Thomas Henry Hele Phipps built Leighton House in 1800. His grandsons John Lewis Phipps (1801–1870) and Charles Paul Phipps (1815–1880) built a business as coffee merchants importing from Brazil. Charles bought Chalcot House, nearby in Dilton Marsh, and sat as MP for Westbury.[68]
- Bryan Edwards (1743–1800), born in Westbury, inherited plantations in Jamaica and was a supporter of the slave trade.[69]
- Joshua Marshman (1768–1837), was a Baptist missionary to India.[70]
- Rebecca Smith (1807–1849), last British woman executed for infanticide.[71]
- Abraham Laverton (1819–1889), mill owner and Member of Parliament for Westbury, was a philanthropist who donated many buildings to Westbury such as the Laverton Institute.
- George Laverton (1888–1954), cricketer
- Charles Nicholas Paul Phipps(1845–1913), another coffee merchant and Member of Parliament for Westbury.
- Ruth May Fox (1853–1958), born in Westbury but brought up elsewhere, became a women's rights activist in Utah.
- Vernon Bartlett (1894–1983), was a journalist, author, and independent Member of Parliament.[72]
- Penleigh Boyd (1890–1923), Australian painter[73]
See also
- Baron Westbury
- Baron Grimston of Westbury
- Westbury Ironstone Quarry – a geological Site of Special Scientific Interest
References
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- ^ Historic England. "Edgar House (1180474)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 21 December 2020.
- ^ Historic England. "Phipps Mausoleum in Westbury Cemetery (1364424)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 21 December 2020.
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- ^ "Providence Baptist Chapel, Dilton Marsh". Wiltshire Community History. Wiltshire Council. Retrieved 20 December 2020.
- ^ "Providence Baptist Church & Ebenezer Baptist Church". Retrieved 20 December 2020.
- ^ "West End Baptist Church, Westbury". Wiltshire Community History. Wiltshire Council. Retrieved 20 December 2020.
- ^ "West End Baptist Church". Retrieved 20 December 2020.
- ^ "Methodist Church, Station Road, Westbury". Wiltshire Community History. Wiltshire Council. Retrieved 20 December 2020.
- ^ "Westbury Methodist Church". Wiltshire United Area. Retrieved 20 December 2020.
- ^ "Catholic Church of St. Bernadette of Lourdes, Westbury". Wiltshire Community History. Wiltshire Council. Retrieved 20 December 2020.
- ^ "St. John the Baptist, Trowbridge and St. Bernadette, Westbury". Retrieved 20 December 2020.
- ^ Simon Rae, W. G. Grace: a Life (2012), p. 4
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- ^ "Full Freeview on the Mendip (Somerset, England) transmitter". UK Free TV. 1 May 2004. Retrieved 30 October 2023.
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- ^ "LEY, Matthew (c.1545-1636), of Westbury and Teffont Evias, Wilts". History of Parliament Online. Retrieved 21 December 2020.
- ^ a b "Victoria County History: Wiltshire: Vol 8 pp 148-163 – Westbury: Manors". British History Online. University of London. 1965. Retrieved 21 December 2020.
- ^ public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Edwards, Bryan". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 9 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 2. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the
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- ISBN 0618493379), p. 107
Bibliography
- Barfoot, Peter; Wilkes, John (1793), The Universal British Directory of Trade, Commerce, and Manufacture, vol. 4, British Directory Office, retrieved 9 February 2013
- Westbury at Wiltshire Community History – Wiltshire Council
- ThisisWestbury.co.uk: Westbury history website, archived in 2008
External links
- Westbury Town Council
- Historic Westbury photos at BBC Wiltshire
- Westbury, Wiltshire at Curlie