Purton

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Purton is a small village in North Wiltshire with a current population of about 4,000.

The village is of a linear structure, lying along the old road between the historic market towns of Cricklade (4 miles to the north) and Wootton Bassett (4 miles to the south). The main urban centre is Chippenham however the towns of Cirencester and Swindon are closer for shopping and employment centres. Both Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire are within close proximity. The railway station is now closed, but Purton can be reached from junction 16 of the M4 motorway or by leaving the A419 at Cricklade and following the B4553 or alternatively from junction 17 of the M4. The village is accessed by one ‘B’ road, which is narrow, has a weight and speed limit and is unsuitable for heavy vehicles. There are also a number of minor country lanes and roads to the village.

Purton sits on the brow of a hill, with views across to Cricklade and the Thames floodplain. Nearby, Bradon Forest stretches out to Minety in the west.

Village amenities include several shops, post office, pubs and restaurants, doctor’s surgery, dentist, and veterinary surgery. The way the village has developed means that there is now not one central focus for shopping. A few shops exist on the main road at the junction with Pavenhill, and a few are around the bend in the road near the Village Hall.

Purton has an unusual church, St Mary the Virgin, with a tower at one end and a spire at the other. This is one of only three parish churches in England that has both a spire and a tower; the other two being at Wanborough and Ormskirk.

[edit] History

The name Purton is derived from old English 'pur' (pear) and 'ton' (enclosure or homestead).

Like the neighbouring town of Cricklade, Purton boasts its own remarkable landmarks and archæology. Whereas Cricklade is a Saxon town, Purton can demonstrate much from the Iron Age, and Roman Britain times.

Purton is a very old community with historical connexions to many interesting people. It is probable that at different times during its development, from the early Neolithic settlers, through the Romans and Saxons, distinct areas of the village were occupied. Later a mediæval settlement leading to the pattern of the village we see today came into being.

Ringsbury Camp, which has evidence of settlement during the Neolithic period, is actually considered to be an Iron Age hill fort dating from about 50 B.C. There is suggestion that the remains of a Roman villa lie under the soil at Pavenhill, on the Braydon side of Purton; whilst at The Fox on the east side of the village, grave goods found together with bodies show that a Saxon cemetery existed in Purton, the burials being from the pagan period.

Purton’s first mention in the historical record was in the year 796 when the Saxon King Ecgfrith of Mercia gave 35 hides from Purton to Malmesbury Abbey. The Abbot of Malmesbury continued to be the Chief Landlord of Purton throughout Saxon and Norman times, suggesting that an earlier church almost certainly stood at Purton. The current church of St Mary the Virgin appears at one time to have dedicated to St Nicholas. The surviving parish registers date from 1558 (Marriages and Burials)/1564 (Baptisms), with some gaps, particularly in the Civil War years, 1641-47.

In addition to the parish church, there was a Quaker Meeting House at Purton Stoke in the parish during the late 17th century and early 18th century. Later, there were two Methodist chapels belonging to different Methodist denominations.

During Tudor times, the Maskelyne family were both a significant landlord and landowner in Purton, having inherited rights granted by the last Abbot of Malmesbury Abbey to the Pulley or Pulleyne family, from whom they descended on the distaff side. The Reverend Dr Nevil Maskelyne who was, in 1765, appointed as the Astronomer Royal, is a noteworthy member of this family who were involved in Purton life for over three centuries from the 1500s. A Miss Maskelyne lived in the village until her death in the 1960s aged over a century.

The well-known Tory statesman and author Edward Hyde, who served as MP for the nearby borough of Wootton Bassett in the 1630s, lived at College Farm in the centre of the village where it is likely that his daughter Anne Hyde, first wife of King James II of England also lived for a time. After serving King Charles II of England during his years of exile under the Commonwealth and Republic, he later became Lord Chancellor of England, was raised to the peerage as Earl of Clarendon, and appointed the Chancellor of the University of Oxford. By a curious fluke, his Whig arch-rival, Sir Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury, also had property in Purton parish.

By the late 19th century and into the early part of the 20th century, other families had risen to the gentry level becoming significant landowners in the parish. Among these was James Henry Sadler, Esq., D.L., J.P., (1845-1929) who, though a Purton native, lived in nearby Lydiard House in the neighbouring parish of Lydiard Millicent, Wilts. until his death. A strict but generous benefactor of the old school, Sadler gave the cricket ground and Workingman's Institute to the village. Described as the last unofficial "Squire of Purton", his father was Dr Samuel Champernowne Sadler, of Purton, who built the Pump House at Salt's hole, a natural hotspring used for medicinal purposes since the Middle Ages and possibly earlier. Under Dr Sadler and subsequent owners attempts were made to develop this natural attraction as Purton Spa, and to market the spring waters for their healing qualities.

A study of the interconnexions of people within the parish, based on the registers and other historical evidence, since the earliest recorded period, is being prepared (2006) under the working title, "The Plenteous Pear Tree: Pedigrees and Progress of Purton's People Past and Present, a parish prosopography of Purton, Wiltshire, with ramifications elsewhere in North Wilts. and beyond", under the auspices of Richard Carruthers-Żurowski, a Canadian-based, Oxford-trained historian and genealogist.

The Victoria History of the County of Wilts. volume covering the hundreds of Cricklade and Staple is planned to appear within the next few years.

[edit] People

People with connexions to Purton, Wiltshire:-

Sources: Purton's Past; The Story of Purton; Wiltshire Notes and Queries; Wiltshire Archælogical and Natural History Society Magazine; Wiltshire Record Society publications; Kelly's Directories.

[edit] External links

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