Winterbourne Stoke

The parish of Winterbourne Stoke is situated 8km. west of Amesbury. It is crossed north to south by the river Till, which for a long time was called the Winterbourne. In the 11th century there were three estates called Winterbourne Stoke. One estate became part of Berwick St. James parish and the remaining two became Winterbourne Stoke, though it is possible a third Winterbourne estate was included.                                                                               

 During the 19th century many changes to the boundaries were made, when various plots of land were transferred between parishes. By 1881 the parish contained 3534 acres. The soil is light loam on chalk.

In 1939, the chief crops were wheat, barley, oats and potatoes. 

The parish is rich in archaeology. Winterbourne shares its boundary with five parishes, marked all round by boundary mounds, ditches and tumuli. To the north is Shrewton, marked by tumuli. To the east is Durrington, Amesbury and Wilsford cum Lake. Here are ditches, a long barrow, a king barrow, tumuli and boundary stones. To the south is Berwick St. James, marked by a ditch and boundary mounds. 

A glance at a large-scale ordnance survey map reveals an impressive number of tumuli and other prehistoric remains. The Great Cursus is an east-west earthwork enclosure nearly 3km (just under two miles) long. Most of it is in Amesbury parish, with just the western tip extending across the Winterbourne boundary. Like most cursuses, its function is unclear, although it is believed to be ceremonial. 

The Lesser Cursus, a possibly Neolithic earthwork over 400m long with transverse ditch, lies in the north-east corner of the parish.

It is close to a group of 27 barrows that were excavated in the early 1800s by Sir Richard Colt Hoare and William Cunnington. 

On the boundary with Wilsford lies a 73m long barrow which gave its name to Longbarrow Cross Roads. This is one of a group of 19 barrows, some of which are outside the parish. 

High Down and Winterbourne Stoke Down are sights of Romano-British settlements. Medieval earthworks have been identified on Winterbourne Stoke down, on Fore Down, north of Longbarrow Crossroads and at the Coniger. At a later date, part of the Coniger barrow cemetery was incorporated within an earthwork enclosure. This may reflect the use of the barrows as part of a warren and may provide evidence relating to the importance of rabbits in a medieval and post-medieval agricultural economy.  

There were three manorial estates. Winterbourne Stoke, Winterbourne Mautravers and the rectorial estate. All three changed hands numerous times.

Further information can be found in the Victoria County History of Wiltshire article in volume XV, available at the Wiltshire & Swindon History Centre, at Amesbury Library and online. 

The parish church of St. Peter dates from Norman times. It consists of a nave, transepts and crossing tower. The church was extensively restored 1838-40 and the north transept was rebuilt in 1880. There has never been a chapel in the parish; dissenting worshippers would have gone to neighbouring parishes, Shrewton being the most likely. 

The village is a small cluster of houses around the church and the manor. The rest of the parish is mostly downland, Winterbourne Stoke Down and Parsonage Down. There is a mixture of traditional houses (including eight Grade II Listed properties) and more recent developments, as well as four almshouses, administered by the Jubilee Trust.    Church Cottage and Old Glebe Farmhouse date from the 17th century and are of flint and limestone construction.

17th century Riverside Cottage has flint and limestone chequer work.  The Manor House from the early 17th century was of long gabled flint and chalk with a wing added in the later 17th century which formed a U. This was extended in 1920. An alehouse was open in 1756, probably the Bell Inn, on the east of the street near the main road. A house built mid-19th century was open in 1886 and 1992, trading as the Bell Inn, replacing the original in Church Street. During the mid-19th century several cottages and a farmstead which stood between the street and the river, to the south of the bridge, were demolished. Around 1850 when the new vicarage house was built, five buildings on the east side were demolished.

A farmstead called Scotland stood beside the Amesbury-Mere road in 1773, it was later called Scotland Lodge and is constructed of flint and stone, with bay windows and porch all in brick.  

In the 19th century, agriculture was the main source of employment in the parish. There were four farms, Manor Farm being the largest. The 1839 tithe award records this as being a 1875 acre farm. In 1851, William Brown was the farmer, employing 40 men, 11 women and 11 boys. Farms in the parish had c. 3000 sheep in 1866, rising to over 5,000 in 1886. Manor Farm had a prize-winning flock of Hampshire Down sheep in 1899. 

Tradesmen in the village in 1848 included a blacksmith, a tailor, two shop keepers, and a beer retailer. By 1875, there was also the Bell Inn, a grocer and a cattle dealer. Additions in 1899 were a carpenter and a carrier. 

In 1903, the only shop in the village was the grocer’s and Post Office, run by Mrs Louisa Grant. A carrier was available to take the residents to Salisbury on Tuesdays and Saturdays.

By 1939 there was also an omnibus passing through from Bath to Salisbury every day. In 1911, John Fallon, farmer at Scotland Lodge, was also owning and training horses. By 1920 there was extensive stabling, 70 acres of pasture set aside for horses, and gallops on 260 acres of downland. 

Neighbouring Shrewton was larger than Winterbourne, with a population three times greater in 1931. It was here that the Winterbourne residents would have gone for a greater variety of services and possibly their leisure activities. There is a photograph taken in the 1920s of a charabanc outing to Southsea. 

In 1377 there were 93 poll-tax payers, the second highest figure for a place in Dole hundred. By 1801 the population was 256, rising to its peak of 383 in 1861. The next census recorded a sharp decline to 293, possibly due to people seeking work in the towns. Since then, the figure has hovered around 200; there were 199 residents in 2017. 

In the 1920s two bungalows and a village hall were built, but by 1962 the hall had been converted into a dwelling.

Seven pairs of council houses were built in the mid-1950s, nine new dwellings were built in the early 1960’ and six in St. Peter’s Close in the 1970s. The four houses built for the local authority at the north end of Church Street completed private building in the late 20th century. Today, the village has the Bell Inn, a garage with a shop and a children’s recreation ground.  With no village hall, the church and pub are used to host village events. 

The crossroads on the Stonehenge to Shrewton road is marked by a monument on Airman’s Corner. This is a stone memorial dedicated to Capt E.B. Lorraine RE and Staff-Sergeant R.H.V. Wilson who were killed when their Nieuport monoplane crashed on 5th July 1912. 

In the late 1960s around 400 acres was declared a Site of Special Scientific Interest. Since 1980 three hundred and ninety-four acres, together with land formerly in Maddington parish became part of the Parsonage Down National Nature Reserve.

This reserve was created when, under the terms of the will of the then owner, Robert Wales, the land was sold at below market price to the Nature Conservancy Council, who then sold it to English Nature. Robert Wales was a farmer and collector of rare breeds, including Gloucester, Longhorn and Highland cattle, and Jacob sheep.