Winterbourne Gunner

Winterbourne Gunner is a small village in the UK but seems larger, as it joins onto Winterbourne Dauntsey, which itself is joined onto Winterbourne Earls. It is located in Wiltshire in England about five miles northeast of Salisbury situated on the A338. The Defence CBRN Centre is located to the southeast of the village and the River Bourne runs close by. The friendly village benefits from a small but well run junior/infants school which is a short walk into Winterbourne Earls and the village has a post office with a small shop.

Location of the Saxon graves excavated by Time Team at 51°6′57.18″N 1°44′26.23″W / 51.1158833°N 1.7406194°W / 51.1158833; -1.7406194.

Facilities

• There is a local village school, Winterbourne Earls Primary School, for children up to the age of 11.
• The village has one church, St Marys

Governance

The village falls in 'Bourne and \Woodford Vale' electoral ward. The ward starts in the east at the Winterbourne civil parish before stretching west to Woodford. The total ward population taken at the 2011 census was 4,280.^[1]

Archaeology

Winterbourne Gunner has considerable archaeological interest. In 1960 workmen digging a pipeline came across a series of early saxon graves. A subsequent excavation sowed them to be particularly rich in grave goods.^[2] A 1994 dig in a nearby building plot by television programme Time Team (season 2, "Saxon Graves") found several more early 6th century Saxon graves near Salt Lane, and discovered a series of Bronze Age features including a pond barrow and associated round barrows and urn burials, which the Saxons appear to have respected when selecting their burial sites. These show up as circular crop marks, with a diameter of 20 to 30 feet, indicating barrows. The Bronze Age features were designated as Scheduled Monuments in July 1994.^[3]

References

Coordinates: 51°07′N 1°44′W / 51.117°N 1.733°W / 51.117; -1.733

1. ↑ "Bourne and Woodford Vale ward 2011.Retrieved 10 March 2015". 
2. ↑ Musty, J.; Stratton, J. E. D. (1964). "A Saxon cemetery at Winterbourne Gunner, Near Salisbury". WANHM 59: 86–109. 
3. ↑ Pastscape Scheduled Monument 966594 (A pond barrow and a bowl barrow 200 metres to the southeast of St Mary's Church, Winterbourne Gunner). 51°06′57″N 1°44′26″W / 51.115892°N 1.740509°W / 51.115892; -1.740509 (Winterbourne Gunner scheduled Monument)

External links

• Winterbourne Earls Primary School
• St Marys

Media related to Winterbourne Gunner at Wikimedia Commons