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The site for the Wiltshire village of Great Bedwyn

	A Walk around Great Bedwyn
	Great Bedwyn is a village with a long history. There is evidence of Neolithic settlement nearby: the Celts, Romans and Saxons were here; and the village is mentioned in the Domesday Book. Great Bedwyn became an important mediaeval market town for the Savernake area, and once had two members of parliament - a real rotten borough. This importance of the status of Great Bedwyn was reflected in the buildings of the village, e.g. the large church, the former Town Hall, the school – and Great Bedwyn continues to thrive as a working and residential large village. This walk will typically take 45 minutes at a gentle stroll, plus any time you spend visiting the Stone Museum, the Church or taking diversions. You will be walking on road, pavement, grass and paths such as the canal tow path (which may be muddy if the weather has been wet recently). There are also a few steps. The grass and steps are not really suitable for wheelchairs and push-chairs, and alternative routes are suggested. Also, please note that crossing the railway line with a wheelchair or push-chair is not advised. The walk starts from the island in front of the Cross Keys in the centre of the village, with the inn behind you. The present building dates from about 1735, built after the Great Fire of Bedwyn in 1716. This disastrous fire destroyed 28 houses in High Street, Farm Lane and Church Street, which probably explains the lack of thatch in this central area. Its sign harks back to pre-Reformation England, and is the arms of the Papacy. The Victorian cast iron lamp standard on the island was erected in 1887 as a Jubilee memorial close to the former medieval Town Hall and Market House, demolished in 1875. Here the ale taster checked the measure and quality of all beer brewed within the village. A court was also held here, and the area around used for markets. Sheep played a prominent part in the local economy, and in former times Bedwyn was famous for the manufacturing of a coarse cloth used in soldiers' uniforms called “burrell”.
	Church Street leads away from the centre opposite the Cross Keys. The building on the corner by the bus stop was originally the stables for the Inn. Next, Tudor House, formerly named Wayfarers Cottage, shows evidence of the building which predated it. Note the Tudor rose in the glass of its small side window. Between this and the bakery was the butcher's shop until 1987, with a slaughterhouse behind. Across the road from The Bakery – still very active and a real village asset - is the Corner House, once the home of a local doctor, with its surgery building on the side. The cottage beyond The Bakery once housed a Dame School, and number 6 was once a doctor's surgery. Woods coal yard was behind Wessex house. Numbers 11 and 12 were all one house, and the post office was located here from 1926 until the 1980s. Evidence of earlier buildings can be seen in the lower courses of some of these buildings, and no. 6 has an early barrel-vaulted cellar. At no. 46 can be seen the bracket of the Old White Hart inn sign, the arms of King Richard II. The White Hart closed in 1867, and. much later, housed a sweet shop. There have been many inns in Great Bedwyn’s past (14 at different times): today two survive – the Cross Keys and the Three Tuns. On the right you will soon come to the former Village School built in 1835 by the Marquess of Ailesbury, in whose estate the village lay from late Tudor times until 1929. Note the Ailesbury coat of arms and the motto “Fuimus” (We have been) above the school. Since the construction of a new primary school in the east of the village in 1993, the old school has become the doctors' surgery and medical centre. Next to the surgery, in what is now a double-fronted private house, was a grocer's shop, and later an electrical shop which closed in the 1980s. Beyond the surgery is the old Lloyd's stonemason's yard. Lloyd' s was established in 1790, and (among many other activities) was involved in the construction of the canal and built the 1835 Great Bedwyn school. The business closed in 2009. Next to the old stone-yard is the Post Office, where many unique examples of Lloyd's stonemason's art can still be examined on the outside walls.
	A wheelwright, undertaker and rope-maker once plied his trade in the yard behind the Post Office. Beyond the Post Office are six attractive listed Victorian cottages in buff brick, known as Ailesbury brick, made at Dodsdown Brickworks less than two miles away. Edward Pole (brother of Sir Felix Pole, the general manager of the Great Western Railway) lived in the double-fronted cottage Pear Tree House at the end of the far end of the row. Next door is Glebe House, an imposing building set back from the road and dating from 1878-9. The former vicarage, it was designed for the Church Commissioners by George Gilbert Scott Jnr., the son of G G Scott Snr. who designed the Albert Memorial. Opposite Glebe House is the large and ancient Parish Church of St Mary the Virgin, dating from 1092 (photograph at the top of the first page). The size of the church indicates that at one time the village was much larger than it is today, and served the surrounding area. There is an excellent short guide and history of St Mary’s inside the church, which also tells of the early history of Great Bedwyn. Leaving the church, take the path left from the door through the churchyard and turn left at the churchyard wall, following the path across the corner of Church Field: this leads to a kissing gate opening on to the railway tracks. Please take great care when crossing the tracks, listening out for high speed trains hurrying between London and Plymouth. (To avoid the grass and the railway track, wheelchair and push-chair users can retrace their steps from the church back to the Cross Keys, and go right down Brook Street to meet the Wharf over the two bridges – and then rejoin the walk where marked with * four paragraphs down). Now cross the brick bridges over the Kennet and Avon canal, and take the canal towpath to the left. The canal came to Great Bedwyn in the first decade of the 19 th century, and was a huge influence on opening up the outside world to the village. It eventually fell into disrepair due to competition from the railway, but the Kennet and Avon Trust with a dedicated band of volunteers was able to re-open the canal in 1990 all the way from Bristol to Reading.
	Above the hill on the right lie the woods called Bedwyn Brail, the site of one of the largest Roman villas in England. The villa was excavated in the 1990s but is now fully re-buried. Across the canal as you walk is a fine view of the church. Go along the towpath, until you reach Great Bedwyn wharf *, once used by working barges but now servicing the many pleasure craft that use the restored canal. Opposite the exit from the wharf (and across Brook Street) is Frog Lane leading to the Village Hall and the Cricket Field. At the far end once stood a mill which burnt down in the early years of the 19th century. The mill race can still be seen and the nearby lock is called Burnt Mill Lock. If you don't wish to walk the length of Frog Lane, look at the house on the left which is a fine longed thatched cottage called “The Wharf”, the oldest part of which dates from 1650. The small window at the far end of the property denotes a shop which existed there from 1920 – 1947. A coal business was also run from the property until 1947.
	Opposite The Wharf is a modern house, on the site of Frogmore Farm. Here, soon after the First World War, the first garage in Great Bedwyn was started. Coming out of Frog Lane behind you and with the bridges to your right, turn left into Brook Street. 100 yards further on, on the left, you will see an interesting small brick and flint building with bottle glass inserts in the wall – once the home of a large local family. Local tradition suggests that this was also once the village lockup. This is one of the oldest parts of the village, and there are several fine 17 th century thatched cottages here. You can now turn back along Brook Street On the left, a footpath is marked to Bedwyn Brail (½ mile). This is not described here as part of the walk, but if you don't mind a longer walk, with some uphill ground, you can have a fine view over the village, and have a pleasant wander through the woods. On Brook Street, go over the two bridges across the canal and the railway line. From the railway bridge looking to the right (east) you can see the spire of Little Bedwyn's ancient and handsome Parish Church of St Michael, another 25 minute walk along the canal path. The railway service is an important transport link for the village, providing good access to Newbury, Reading and London, also to Westbury and the south-west. The Victorian cottages of Railway Terrace which face you as you continue along Brook Street are contemporary with the arrival of the broad gauge Berkshire and Hampshire Extension Railway in 1862. They were built to house railway workers. Their front gardens originally extended down to the railway line, but were truncated when the houses in The Knapp were built. The Knapp is named after Mrs Knapp, a member of the Parish Council for many years, whose husband's ancestors were also blacksmiths in the village. Turn right at the Cross Keys into Farm Lane, for a while from 1887 called Jubilee Street, before it reverted to its present name. This is an attractive lane with fine cottages, many thatched, and the old smithy which you will find on your left just before the modern houses begin. Opposite is The Maltings, converted in 1975 to private apartments for which it won a European Architectural Heritage Award. The Maltings housed German prisoners of war during the Second World War. Just past The Maltings is Castle Cottage, one of Great Bedwyn's oldest buildings. It has a Norman chimney (and fireplace within), but its origins remain a mystery. A blue plaque shows that In 1621 Castle Cottage was the birthplace of the celebrated physician Thomas Willis, known as 'the father of neurology'.
	Opposite The Maltings there are steps and a path that take you to the village Recreation Ground, with nine chestnut trees that were planted to commemorate the nine Great Bedwyn men who fell in the Second World War. (Wheel and push-chair users, to avoid the steps and the grass of the Recreation Ground, can go back to the Cross Keys, turn right up the High Street to the Three Tuns, and turn right for a few yards up Brown's Lane to rejoin the walk where marked with ** in the next paragraph). Cross over the Recreation Ground towards the right of the tennis courts, and join Brown's Lane. ** Immediately on your right are several attractive 18 th century houses. On the left is the Methodist Chapel, built in 1875. It was deconsecrated in 1967, and became a private house. On the wall of the cottage opposite is a modern carved stone copy of an old wooden sign which warned off vagrants. The original is in Devizes Museum. On the right hand corner is the Thee Tuns, the only other surviving pub in Great Bedwyn, which opened its doors in 1784. During the 1850s, a weekly corn market was held there, as the Market House was no longer in use.
	Turn left into the High Street. On the right is Foxbury Place, a sympathetic conversion of former farm buildings to retirement housing. Immediately afterwards is the Royal British Legion Hall, built in 1982 to replace an older building. Opposite there is an attractive row of Victorian terraced cottages, and Hillbarn House. Formerly three cottages, it is now one of the largest houses in the village. To the right, after the garage, it is worth walking down Back Lane, formerly the main thoroughfare of the village, named Portreeve Close, running parallel with Church Street. It leads past some 18 th century cottages to the village allotments on the right and, slightly further on, to the rear of Lloyd's stonemason's yard to the left. The Fighting Cocks public house once stood in this area, and both sides of the street were lined with houses. In the 18th century Back Lane extended for several hundred yards almost to the end of Church Street. Back to the High Street and turn right. Just after The Stores is Bedwyn House, originally called Portreeve House. It was the vicarage during much of the 19h century and later was home to at least two of Bedwyn's doctors, with a surgery held there as well. Next door, the Butler's Cottage, now a separate dwelling, was originally the coach house of Bedwyn House. On the other side of the road, next to the Cross Keys, are two adjoining Georgian houses, numbers 14 and 15. You can see from the windows of no. 14 that it was once a shop - until as recently as the 1980s it was a general store. No. 15, just before the Cross Keys, has a Sun fire insurance mark on the wall above the door. This a copy as the original, which was placed there after the great fire of 1716, was stolen. Now you are back where you started, and perhaps you will want to go to the Cross Keys or the Three Tuns for some welcome and well-deserved refreshment. This walk is produced by the Bedwyn History Society. If you want to know more about the Society, please send an email to bedwynhistory@hotmail.co.uk
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