Liddington is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Swindon, England. The village is about a mile beyond the south-east edge of Swindon's built-up area, close to junction 15 of the M4 motorway, which is approximately 2 miles (3.2 km) away via the B4192.
| Liddington | |
|---|---|
 The Village Inn, Liddington, in 2009 | |
  Liddington Location within Wiltshire | |
| Population | 593 (in 2021)[1] |
| OS grid reference | SU207815 |
| Civil parish |
|
| Unitary authority | |
| Ceremonial county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | Swindon |
| Postcode district | SN4 |
| Dialling code | 01793 |
| Police | Wiltshire |
| Fire | Dorset and Wiltshire |
| Ambulance | South Western |
| UK Parliament | |
| Website | Parish Council |
History
editThe parish has been an area of settlement since the earliest times. The ancient Ridgeway traverses the parish just north of the village and the Iron Age hill-fort known as Liddington Castle, which is a scheduled monument, overlooks the present-day village.[2] Liddington is recorded in the late Saxon period, around 940 AD. The Domesday Book of 1086 refers to the settlement as Ledentone.[3] The population of the parish peaked at 454 in 1841 and then gradually declined.[4]
The spelling Lyddington has sometimes been used, and still appears in the name of the Church of England parish.[5]
Most of the village was designated as a Conservation Area in 1990.[6] The Great Western Hospital, a large district hospital, was built in the north-west corner of the parish in 2002.[7]
Parish church
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A church at Liddington is first mentioned in 1291.[8] All Saints, the Church of England parish church, stands south of the present village and is a Grade I listed building.[9] It has a 13th-century chancel, a three-bay nave from the 14th or 15th century, and a plain three-stage west tower. The north aisle is described by Historic England as 13th-century and little altered. The arches below the tower are off-centre, indicating that there was a south aisle in the past.[10] The church was heavily restored in 1847 by J. H. Hakewill;[10] the work included renewal of most windows and the nave roof, and the addition of the south porch.[8]
The oldest feature of the church is the font, a tapered stone tub of c.1200 on a 19th-century base.[11] The original ring of five bells, now unringable, includes three cast in 1663 by Roger and William Purdue. A new ring of six dated 2016 by John Taylor & Co is installed below them.[12] The churchyard has the remains of a 15th-century cross: only the base and a stump of the shaft.[13]
The church was anciently attached to Shaftesbury Abbey as a prebend, and the prebendaries or rectors – who did not live at Liddington – provided a vicar to serve the church.[8] Although the prebend ceased after William Sharington bought the manor in 1543, it came back into use towards the end of the 17th century and was still recognised in 1975.[14]
The benefice was united with that of Wanborough in 1975,[14] and at some point the parishes were united too.[5] Today the parish is part of a larger benefice which also covers Bishopstone and Hinton Parva.[15]
Notable rectors include the mathematician Nathaniel Torporley (around 1611) and William Baker Pitt (from 1882 to 1935, remembered as the founder of Swindon Town Football Club).[16]
'Starfish' decoy control bunker
editLiddington Hill was the site of a control bunker for a World War II 'Starfish' bombing decoy site. This would have been used to control fires, which would have acted as a decoy to enemy planes targeting the town of Swindon to the north. The bunker had a hatch in its concrete roof and consisted of two rooms off a central passage; the room on the right housed generators, while the control room was on the left.[17]
Economy
editJust east of the village is the children's adventure centre PGL Liddington,[18] based at the historic King Edward's Place. Whilst the centre takes its name from Liddington as the nearest village, the centre is in the neighbouring parish of Wanborough.
References
edit- ^ "Liddington: population statistics, 2021 Census". CityPopulation.de. Retrieved 25 April 2023.
- ^ Historic England. "Liddington Castle (1016312)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 8 December 2021.
- ^ Liddington in the Domesday Book
- ^ "Liddington Census Information". Wiltshire Community History. Wiltshire Council. Archived from the original on 8 December 2021 – via Internet Archive.
- ^ a b "All Saints, Liddington". A Church Near You. The Archbishops' Council. Retrieved 18 March 2024.
- ^ "No. 52292". The London Gazette. 4 October 1990. p. 15595.
- ^ "Great Western Hospital - Swindon". Semperian. Retrieved 19 March 2024.
- ^ a b c Dunning, R. W.; Rogers, K. H.; Spalding, P. A.; Shrimpton, Colin; Stevenson, Janet H.; Tomlinson, Margaret (1970). "Parishes: Liddington". In Crittall, Elizabeth (ed.). A History of the County of Wiltshire, Volume 9. Victoria County History. University of London. pp. 65–75. Retrieved 18 March 2024 – via British History Online.
- ^ Historic England. "Church of All Saints (1299741)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 17 March 2024.
- ^ a b Orbach, Julian; Pevsner, Nikolaus; Cherry, Bridget (2021). Wiltshire. The Buildings Of England. New Haven, US and London: Yale University Press. pp. 399–400. ISBN 978-0-300-25120-3. OCLC 1201298091.
- ^ "All Saints, Liddington, Wiltshire". The Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland. King's College London. Retrieved 17 March 2024.
- ^ "Liddington". Dove's Guide for Church Bell Ringers. Retrieved 17 March 2024.
- ^ Historic England. "Churchyard Cross (1023397)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 19 March 2024.
- ^ a b "No. 46622". The London Gazette. 1 July 1975. p. 8391.
- ^ "Profile of the Benefice of Lyddington & Wanborough and Bishopstone with Hinton Parva" (PDF). Wanborough.info. 2012. Retrieved 18 March 2024.
- ^ "In The Beginning..." www.swindon-town-fc.co.uk. Retrieved 19 March 2024.
- ^ Historic England. "Starfish Bombing Decoy Sf41a (19191)". Research records (formerly PastScape). Retrieved 8 December 2021.
- ^ "Adventure centre creates 106 jobs". BBC News. 13 May 2010. Retrieved 15 October 2023.
External links
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Media related to Liddington at Wikimedia Commons
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