Barford St Martin
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How to get to Barford
St Martin & Burcombe
From the East & South East:
From the M3 exit at Junction 7 onto the A303 (the highway only goes to the West)
signposted to Andover. You cross the A345 roundabout, pass
Stonehenge, cross the A360 roundabout, through Winterbourne Stoke - which has a
very active speed camera - and left immediately after the village onto the
B3083. Proceed to Stapleford (4 km). Join the A36 just outside the
village and proceed, along the east bank of the Wylye River, for 6 km to Wilton. Go straight ahead at
the roundabout, past Wilton House and through Wilton town on the A30.
For Burcombe, 2 km from Wilton turn left
for a couple of hundred metres right into the centre of the village.
For Barford St Martin, 4 km from Wilton turn right crossing the main road onto the B3089 into the
village
At Stonehenge, you're twenty minutes away from
Wilton
From Salisbury:
Drive west along the A36, through the traffic lights 2 km out of town,
past the Wilton Garden Centre, left turn on the roundabout, through Wilton on
the A30.
For Burcombe, 2 km beyond Wilton turn left
for a couple of hundred metres right into the centre of the village.
For Barford St Martin, 4 km from Wilton turn right crossing the main road onto the B3089 into the
village.
It's fifteen minutes drive from Salisbury
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HISTORY
BARFORD ST MARTIN
Barford St. Martin's recorded history pre-dates the Norman Conquest. Extending
along the River Nadder, the village nestles under the lea of Grovely Wood.
Bordered by Burcombe to the east and Baverstock to the west, the parish's
northern limits follow Grim's Ditch and the Roman road to Old Sarum and
Winchester; its southern frontier runs along the drove road from Shaftesbury to
Harewarren. The Bronze Age settlement at Hamshill Ditches on the southern slope
of Barford Down falls within the parish boundary.
St. Martin's 13th century church, at the centre of the village, is
older than Salisbury Cathedral, with an even earlier stone preaching cross for
itinerant priests to know where to hold services before the church was built.
This Early English perpendicular church has a tower with six 18th
century bells.
BURCOMBE
Prehistoric barrows, earthworks, tracks and field systems, surround Burcombe,
evidence of settlement in the area for thousands of years before the present
village existed. There is a Romano-British farm on the downs to the west of the
Punchbowl, and it must always have been a prosperous farming area.
The
written history of the village begins in 937, when Brydancumb is mentioned in a
Saxon charter. It means 'Bryda's valley', and the same man probably gave his
name to Bridmore in Berwick St John. In Domesday Book, 1086, the village is
called Bredecumbe.
Most of
the church is medieval but it includes the remains of an Anglo-Saxon chancel,
with long-and-short work at the east end. The north aisle was added in 1858.
In the
nearby fields on both sides of the road are the house-platforms of the deserted
medieval village of North Burcombe. This parish paid its tithes to St John's
Hospital, Wilton, and the church was considered to be a chapel of the Hospital.
The surviving village of South Burcombe paid tithes to the Rector of Wilton.
The
question of boundaries is complicated: part of Ditchampton, where St John's
Hospital lies, is a suburb of Wilton, but was always considered to belong to the
ecclesiastical parish of South Burcombe. In 1885 it was included for civil
purposes in the borough of Wilton. Then in 1894 it was made into a separate
civil parish of Burcombe Within (i.e. physically part of Wilton), while the rest
of Burcombe formed the new civil parish of Burcombe Without. Meanwhile the
ecclesiastical parish of Burcombe continued as before.
St John's
Hospital is an ancient charitable foundation first mentioned in 1195. It was not
dissolved at the Reformation because it was considered to be charitable not
'superstitious'. In 1535 there was a master, a chaplain, and four poor brethren
or sisters. The present almshouses date from the 1851 rebuilding, and the chapel
was restored in 1868.
Burcombe
church has a fine silver chalice and paten, made in 1629. The chalice is
inscribed "Donum Dei et Deo reditum capellae de Burcombe per Jo. Bowles" (The
gift of God and given back to God for the chapel at Burcombe by John Bowles).
The parish registers only go back to 1682 so John Bowles cannot be identified
there. However, the heralds' visitation of Wiltshire in 1623 gives a
pedigree of the family. It shows that in the late 15th century a John
Bowles of Bristol married Alice, one of the two daughters and co-heiresses of
the Daunger family of Maiden Bradley. Their great-grandson Rowland Bowles of
Burcombe died in 1623, leaving a son John who gave the plate to the church.
The 1704
terrier (or land survey) of the parish says "There is no house belonging to this
vicarage, nor the least ground to build a house on". This explains why, at the
time of the 1783 visitation queries, the Rector of Wishford was looking after
the parish. He took a service every other Sunday at one o'clock, with Holy
Communion at Christmas, Easter and Whitsun only. The building of the
nineteenth‑century vicarage on land given by the Earl of Pembroke enabled the
church to be better served.
Penelope Rundle,
Archivist, Wiltshire County Council Record Office, Trowbridge
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Barford St Martin Today
Today Barford's 500 inhabitants include nearly 100 from the mobile homes at Heath
Farm. Those not retired find work in Wilton and Salisbury; but few now remain
agriculturally based. Key to the life of the village is the Church of England St
Martin's First School with some 40 pupils. Barford St. Martin's coaching house ‑
the Barford Inn, provides a welcome heart to the village and acts as its main
employer, together with the Tinkerbell shop and filling station and the Black
and White shop at East End Farm. The village still owns a Tudor river mill and
rectory, a post office, a Victorian Methodist chapel and a police house; but all
have reverted to domestic use today.
Where
to Eat and Where to Stay
