Baydon

The parish of Baydon lies approximately ten miles to the south east of Swindon and ten miles to the north west of Marlborough. It is on the edge of the Wiltshire/Berkshire border. It encompasses the small village of Baydon, extending north to Bailey Hill and south to Baydon Wood and several small copses. The village has grown around the Roman Road which runs through it (Baydon Road and Ermin Street.) If this road is followed north, the driver will arrive in Stratton St Margaret and then Swindon. The M4 motorway runs eastward above the village. The village is equidistant between junctions 14 and 15 and the parish is now made up of 2,473 acres.

 

Baydon parish lies on a chalk area, and is just north of the famous Marlborough Downs, (now part of the North Wessex Downs) which consist of chalk. The shape of the Baydon parish boundary roughly make an hourglass shape, stretching north to Gore Lane and south for two miles, to the east of the larger village of Aldbourne. It is thought to be the highest village in Wiltshire standing at 750 feet above sea level.

 

 The earliest written reference to Baydon was in 1196. There is no mention of it in the Domesday book, but we do know that in 1377 there were 59 poll tax payers. There were 81 men in the parish in 1773; the population was 290 in 1801.

It rose to 380 in 1861 but declined to 213 by 1921. The population began to rise in the 1950s and with more extensive car ownership in the 1960s and access to the M4 from the early 1970s this accelerated and the population in 2001 was 525.

 

 In 1086, the land of Baydon was part of the bishop of Salisbury’s Ramsbury estate. An area of 500 acres of land passed with Ramsbury manor through the Jones family to Sir Francis Burdett, who died in 1844. By 1827, this land had been merged into Manor Farm. This was sold to the Williams family, then to Francis James Simpkins and William James Phelps.

 

 The chapelry and tithing of Baydon was in the Ramsbury Parish until the 1790s, when it achieved full parish status. The boundary lines changed in 1934, when the boundary with Aldbourne was moved. This western boundary change excluded Ford Farm, and reduced the area of the parish to 2,473 acres. 

 

 The owners and tenants of the lands of Ramsbury manor in Baydon shared all the land until the enclosures of the 18^th century. In the 12^th and 13^th centuries the bishop of Salisbury leased the land to a range of tenants.

In the late 13^th century, there was a change when Sir Peter of Membury leased the land from the bishop in exchange for Membury Manor.

 

In the mid-16^th century, it is thought that 1,200 acres of the land was arable. Baydon is unusual in that it is dry and has no riverside meadowland. Indeed, piped water was not brought to the village until 1936.

 

By the 19^th century, there were around ten farms and arable farming was still the popular option. Two men who forged the way for steam ploughing farmed there; J.A. Williams and A. Brown.  

 

 Baydon was recorded as being a poor law parish in 1702, and this status continued until 1835, when it joined the Hungerford Poor Law Union. In 1775-76 the sum of £119 was spent on the poor with over £300 in 1802-03 and over £400 in 1818-19.

 

 For a long period, between the 16^th and 19^th centuries, Baydon was a village primarily of medium sized farmsteads. Between the 19^th and 20^th centuries there was little re-building; what there was was undertaken by the philanthropist Angela, Baroness Burdett-Coutts, who replaced some of the simple cottages.

Some council houses sprang up near Ermin Street.

 

 In 1834, a parcel of land was given to Baydon by the Right Honourable William Earl of Craven.

 

 Near to Baydon is Finches Farm, where Sir Isaac Newton spent many summers. He bought the estate just a few days before his death in 1727, which was settled on his grand-nephews and nieces.

 

 There is one pub which has managed to stay open in Baydon, despite others closing and being demolished. The Green Dragon was definitely in existence in 1715, on the south side of the Roman road, but was converted into cottages in 1771 and was later demolished.  Another inn, The Plough, replaced The Green Dragon, but was also converted into cottages in the years 1848-55. The Red Lion, the pub which still stands today, is though to have been built in the 17th century.

 

 Since the Second World War, building has mainly been restricted to the south of Baydon Road. In 1973, a water tower designed by Scherrer and Hicks, was built on the east side of the village, towards the M4 motorway.

 

 The current population of Baydon is thought to be around 550.

The relatively recent high increase in population and number of houses in Baydon can be explained by its proximity to Swindon and the M4.