Welcome to Wanborough

TO an outsider the village of Wanborough may appear to be not much more than a string of pubs, farmer's markets and the annual summer show. But while there are six fine inns in the immediate vicinity, there is a thriving community spirit to be found if you delve a little deeper.

The first impression you get is of a two-tier village, Upper and Lower Wanborough, nestling near The Ridgeway path with a mix of chocolate box style cottages and modern houses. The old and new theme carries through to the population, which borders on 2,000 and includes people who have lived in the village all their lives and those who have just moved in.

Much of the new development has been in The Beanlands near the new school, plugging the gap between Upper and Lower Wanborough. The Church of St Andrew, a Grade I listed church built in the 1300s, is a distinctive feature against the skyline as you look towards Wanborough from Swindon. In Wanborough, legend has it that when the church was built two sisters were unable to decide whether they should provide a tower or a spire; a compromise was reached whereby one gave money for a tower and the other for a spire.

There are two theories as to the origins of Wanborough's name, both showing derivation from original Saxon. The name consists of two parts, "Wan" and "borough". Wan could be from the Saxon word waegn, meaning wagon, or it could be from the Saxon word wenn, meaning tumour shaped mounds. The second part undoubtedly comes from the Saxon word beorg, but this can mean either hill or burial mound.

The village lies on a Roman road, the Ermin Way or Ermin Street, about 1.5 miles north of where that road crosses the even older Ridgeway, and where it crosses that other pre-Roman road the Icknield Way. Upper Wanborough is about 650 feet above sea level, while Lower Wanborough only about 300 feet.

The steep hill which divides the village into two parts is a part of the north facing escarpment where the chalk hills covering much of Wessex meet the lower lying, mainly clay, river basins such as the Thames. The chalk is permeable to water, so the hilltops are dry. Where the chalk meets the lower lying, impermeable, clay, there is a line of springs, and that is where villages grew up.

There is a long, winding minor road linking a whole series of such villages in this area, including Chiseldon, Badbury, Liddington, Upper Wanborough, Little Hinton (also known as Hinton Parva), Bishopstone, Idstone, and Ashbury and so on almost to Wantage.

Possibly a result of the use of these long-distance roads is the presence in Wanborough (past and present) of an unusually large number of inns, hotels and other sellers of alcohol. Wanborough was once much more important than it is today, as well as being larger in area than the present parish. The Romans had a settlement here that was later taken over by the Romano-British.

Several major battles are reported to have taken place within the present parish boundaries between these Britons and the invading Saxons. The parish then was about five miles north to south and around two miles east to west. Later the width was reduced by about a third when Little Hinton became a separate parish. An old book refers to the "Town of Wanborough looking down on little Swindon". Although now Wanborough has been incorporated into rapidly growing Swindon.

An indication of the town's (as it was then) importance is the fact that Wanborough was the most highly taxed fiscal unit in Wiltshire in 1334. A chapel in Wanborough (not the present church) called St Catherine's Chapel had five resident priests in the 13th century. It was located somewhere in the part of Lower Wanborough known as Wanborough Marsh, which probably gives a clue as to why it was abandoned.