Westbury, Wiltshire

Westbury
Old town hall
Westbury  Westbury shown within Wiltshire
Population	14,709 (in 2011)[1]
OS grid reference	ST868511
Unitary authority	Wiltshire
Ceremonial county	Wiltshire
Region	South West
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	WESTBURY
Postcode district	BA13
Dialling code	01373
Police	Wiltshire
Fire	Dorset and Wiltshire
Ambulance	South Western
EU Parliament	South West England
UK Parliament	South West Wiltshire
List of places UK England Wiltshire

Coordinates: 51°15′36″N 2°11′28″W / 51.260°N 2.191°W / 51.260; -2.191

Westbury is a town and civil parish in the west of the English county of Wiltshire, most famous for the Westbury White Horse.

Toponymy

The most likely origin of the West- in Westbury is simply that the town is near the western edge of the county of Wiltshire, the bounds of which have been much the same since the Anglo-Saxon period.^[2]

The -bury part of the name is a form of borough, which has cognates in many languages, such as the German -burg and the Greek -pyrgos. It carries the idea of a hill or fortified town. In Wiltshire, -bury often indicates an Iron Age or Bronze Age fortified hill fort, and such a site is to be found immediately above the Westbury White Horse.

Location

Westbury is located in the far west of Wiltshire, close to the border with Somerset. It lies at the northwestern edge of Salisbury Plain, 18 miles (29 km) southeast of the city of Bath, approximately 5 miles (8.0 km) south of the county town of Trowbridge^[2] and 4.5 miles (7.2 km) north of the garrison town of Warminster. Other nearby towns and cities include Frome, Devizes, Salisbury and Bristol. Nearby villages include Bratton, Chapmanslade, Dilton Marsh, Hisomley, Edington, Upton Scudamore, North Bradley, Rudge, Standerwick, Hawkeridge, Heywood and Yarnbrook.

There are several suburbs including Frogmore, Bitham Park, the Meads and the Ham (all northside), Chalford, Leigh Park and Westbury Leigh (southside). Westbury Leigh is generally considered as a village separate to Westbury itself, though it has become contiguous with the town. Leigh Park is a district developed since the late-1990s that is contiguous with Westbury Leigh, and incorporates a large medical centre, a community hall and a Tesco Express store.

Features and history

All Saints' Church

Westbury White Horse viewed from the hillside

In the past, Westbury was sometimes known as Westbury-under-the-Plain to distinguish it from other towns of the same name. Westbury is nestled under the northwestern bluffs of Salisbury Plain, and it is there that the town's most famous feature can be seen: the Westbury White Horse. It is sometimes claimed locally that the White Horse was first cut into the chalk face as long ago as the year 878, to commemorate the victory of Alfred the Great over the Danes in the Battle of Eðandun (probably, but not certainly, at the nearby village of Edington).^[3] However, scholars believe this to be an invention of the late 18th century, and no evidence has yet been found for the existence of the horse before the 1720s. The form of the current White Horse dates from 1778, when it was restored. In the 1950s it was decided that the horse would be more easily maintained if it were set in concrete and painted white. The horse's original form may have been quite different from the horse seen today. One 18th-century engraving shows the horse facing to the right, but in its current form it faces to the left.

Westbury centres on its historic marketplace, with the churchyard of All Saints' Church (14th century) behind it. All Saints' has a heavy ring of bells, an Erasmus Bible, a 16th-century clock with no face constructed by a local blacksmith, and a marble bust of William Phipps by Robert Taylor. The west window of the church was donated by Abraham Laverton, who also built Prospect Square (1869) and the nearby Laverton Institute (1873), which he donated to a local charity, known today as "the Laverton".

In the early part of September 1877, there was found on Bremeridge Farm, in the parish of Dilton Marsh, Wilts, belonging to Charles Paul Phipps, esq. of Chalcot House, a hoard of 32 gold coins. They were found during repairs and improvements of the homestead, about a foot and a half below the surface, in the courtyard, piled, one above another, without any appearance of a purse or box.^[4]

Until the 1940s, the Westbury Sheep Fair was an important annual event.

The town has been home to the Army Officer Selection Board and the Cadet Force Commissioning Board, located at Leighton House, since 1949; its closure was announced in 2016.^[5]

A former Lafarge cement production plant lies about 1.3 miles (2.1 km) northeast of the town centre; production ceased in 2009 but the site remains in use as a distribution centre.^[6] From 1961 until its demolition in 2016, the plant's 400 feet (120 m) chimney was the tallest unsupported structure in southwestern England.^[7]

Government

The most significant local government functions (including schools, roads, social services, waste disposal and emergency planning, housing and leisure services, development control, refuse collection and street cleaning) are carried out by Wiltshire Council. Westbury is divided into three council divisions, each electing one member.^[8]

Westbury is a civil parish with an elected town council of fifteen members. This has an almost wholly consultative and ceremonial role, and the chairman of the town council has the title of Mayor of Westbury.

There are 3 electoral wards in Westbury.

The parliamentary constituency of Westbury dated back to the 15th century, but the name was abandoned in 2010, when the town and most of the former constituency became part of the new South West Wiltshire.

Before the parliamentary Reforms of the mid 19th century, Westbury was considered a pocket borough, at one point having as few as twenty-four electors.^[9] This status led to gifts to the town from the owners of the parliamentary borough, including the notable former town hall in the Market Place, donated by Sir Manasseh Masseh Lopes.

Sport and leisure

Westbury has a Non-League football club Westbury United F.C. who play at the Meadow Lane ground in the Western League Division One (English football's tenth tier). The non-league Rugby Football Club (RFC), Westbury RFC, has both male and female teams who play at White Horse Country Park.

The Leighton sports field at Wellhead Lane was laid out as a cricket field by the mill-owning Lavertons. In 1890 W. G. Grace played in W. H. Laverton's XI against a team called the Australians.^[10]

Education

Westbury's schools ^[11] Westbury currently has one secondary school, two primary schools, a junior school and an infants school. The secondary school, Matravers School,^[12] is designated a specialist arts and technology college. It has a sixth form offering a range of subjects. It serves both the community of Westbury and several of the surrounding villages, including Chapmanslade, Bratton, Dilton Marsh and Edington. Westbury Leigh School is a primary school serving Westbury Leigh village and the Leigh Park district. Bitham Brook School is a primary school mainly serving the western part of the town. Westbury C of E Junior School serves the central part of the town and takes children from Year 3 to Year 6. It is fed by Westbury Infants School, which takes children from Reception to Year 2.

The closest further and higher education establishments are at Wiltshire College (Trowbridge campus), 4½ miles to the north and the University of Bath, 18 miles to the northwest.

Transport

Road transport

A First Somerset and Avon bus on route 264 (Bath to Warminster) picks up a passenger at the railway station

The A350 road passes through the town and a controversial Westbury Bypass was once proposed which would have reduced traffic in parts of the town but would have had a negative effect on the landscape on the east of the town. The eastern bypass scheme was eventually rejected after an Independent Planning Inquiry recommended against it in 2009.^[13] The town remains a bottleneck on the A350 route.

Railway transport

The town is an important junction point on the railway network, as it lies at the point where the Reading to Taunton line, formng a link from London Paddington to Penzance, intersects the Wessex Main Line, linking Bristol and Bath Spa to Salisbury and Southampton. Westbury railway station is on the west of the town.

Media

Westbury is served by a fortnightly free newspaper, the White Horse News, named after the defining feature on the edge of the town. The newspaper is delivered to all homes in the town and the nearby villages of Bratton, Dilton Marsh and Edington, amongst others.^[14] Westbury is also served by the weekly Warminster Journal and Wiltshire Times, and a radio station, The Breeze.

Notable people

• Henry Willis, originally from Westbury, was a 17th-century settler at Westbury, Long Island, which he named after his home town.^[15]
• Joshua Marshman (1768–1837), Baptist missionary^[16]
• Abraham Laverton (1819–1889), mill owner and member of parliament for Westbury
• Vernon Bartlett (1894–1983), journalist, author, and independent member of parliament^[17]
• Penleigh Boyd (1890–1923), Australian painter^[18]

See also

• List of places in Wiltshire
• List of towns in England
• Richard Bethell, 1st Baron Westbury
• Wiltshire local elections

References

Bibliography

• Barfoot, Peter; Wilkes, John (1793), The Universal British Directory of Trade, Commerce, and Manufacture, 4, British Directory Office, retrieved 9 February 2013 
• Wiltshire County Council Website page on Westbury, retrieved 18:50 Oct 29, 2004 (UTC)
• ThisisWestbury.co.uk: Westbury's history website

External links

• Westbury Town Council
• Historic Westbury photos at BBC Wiltshire
• Westbury, Wiltshire at DMOZ

Ceremonial county of Wiltshire
Unitary authorities	Swindon Wiltshire Council
Major settlements	Amesbury Bradford on Avon Bulford Camp Calne Chippenham Corsham Cricklade Devizes Highworth Larkhill Ludgershall Malmesbury Marlborough Melksham Mere Royal Wootton Bassett Salisbury Swindon Tidworth Tisbury Trowbridge Warminster Westbury Wilton Wroughton See also: List of civil parishes in Wiltshire
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