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Calne, Wiltshire
The Lansdowne Strand Hotel and Town Hall, Calne, Witshire
Off the main road through it Calne is one of Wiltshire's most attractive towns, and one not to be missed if possible. To see the historical quarters, many of the houses in which are of the important Grade II* standard, start off in The Green. Complete a circuit of The Green not missing Weaver's House, former wool trade workshops built in the late 18th century, Grade II, now 3 flats, and just beyond it, set back, the 4 storey former cloth mill, 18th century, also Grade II and also now flats. Further on is Adam House, set back from the road by a lawn. Adam House, Grade II*, is 17th century, but was refronted in 1740 as was the Georgian fashion of the wealthy. Apparently Adam House is named after the famous architect Robert Adam, who lived there whilst working on Bowood House. Also Grade II* on the Green is Priestley's House, which can be identified by being the left of the two with steps up to the front door. Priestley's House is 16th century, but refronted in 1758, it was the home of Dr Priestley who in 1774 discovered oxygen while working as librarian for the Earl of Shelbourne at Bowood House. The adjoining House, No.20, is of the same period, and refronted at the same time.
Completing the circuit of The Green enter Church Road and you'll see a colourfully painted house, No.41, a former priest's house or vicarage, this is Grade II*, 17th century, and hasn't been refronted and has its original planked and studded 17th century front door! As you come into the open you'll see the 12th century Grade I Listed Church of St Mary, opposite it are the Grade II* Tounson Almshouses built as 8 homes in 1682 they were altered in 1973 to be 4, however the 8 front doors remain, keeping the exterior as it originally looked.
As you come out of Church Street there is the 27th century Grade II*, Lansdowne Strand Hotel and the Grade II, 19th century, Calne Town Hall on your left, pass between the two into Cox's Hill, turn right into Castle Street and continue into Market Hill, where on the left you will see another colourful house, West Hill House, and cottage, they are Grade II* and 17th century. There's always more that can be seen but if just fancying a short walk to enjoy the best of central Calne, then have a bite to eat, or shop, this is a good route.
For the best places to eat in Calne click here.
Film/TV Location For: Walk Away; I Stumble; First Born
Completing the circuit of The Green enter Church Road and you'll see a colourfully painted house, No.41, a former priest's house or vicarage, this is Grade II*, 17th century, and hasn't been refronted and has its original planked and studded 17th century front door! As you come into the open you'll see the 12th century Grade I Listed Church of St Mary, opposite it are the Grade II* Tounson Almshouses built as 8 homes in 1682 they were altered in 1973 to be 4, however the 8 front doors remain, keeping the exterior as it originally looked.
As you come out of Church Street there is the 27th century Grade II*, Lansdowne Strand Hotel and the Grade II, 19th century, Calne Town Hall on your left, pass between the two into Cox's Hill, turn right into Castle Street and continue into Market Hill, where on the left you will see another colourful house, West Hill House, and cottage, they are Grade II* and 17th century. There's always more that can be seen but if just fancying a short walk to enjoy the best of central Calne, then have a bite to eat, or shop, this is a good route.
For the best places to eat in Calne click here.
Film/TV Location For: Walk Away; I Stumble; First Born
Excerpts From The Wiltshire Council Timeline Of Calne (scroll)
978 - Witan meeting held at the King's house to discuss the celibacy of the clergy. The first floor collapses killing some and injuring many. Some consider the accident to be divine intervention
1234 - St. Edmund of Canterbury selected as Archbishop of Canterbury while living at the old rectory
1341 - A fire destroys many of the best timber frame houses
1348 - Plague at Calstone Wellingotn kills one third of tenants
1475 - By this time a fulling mill is operating at Calstone Wellington (later becomes a corn mill)
1500s - From this time there is a flourishing woollen industry in Calne initially producing broadcloth, later serge (C17th) drugget and worsted (C18th)
1550 - By this time there is a fulling mill in Quemerford
1569 - Plague raging in the town kills 105 people
1602 - A fulling mill is in operation at Studley
1606 - An outbreak of plague in Calne kills 55 people
1612 - The borough constables complain that there are too many alehouses in the town and that the beer sold in them is too strong
1636 - Another outbreak of plague kills 193 people.
1638 The central tower and spire of St. Mary's Church collapses
1663 - 3 fulling mills in existence in Quemerford
1682 - Almshouses for 8 poor women are built by Dr John Tounson south of St. Mary's Church
1727 - Bowood park is bought from the Crown by Sir Orlando Bridgeman and he builds Bowood House
1728 - A market house in existence on present site of Market Hill; a workhouse opens
1728 - Fulling mill at Studley (in existence since early C13th) converted to a corn mill (demolished 1962)
1731 - A smallpox epidemic kills 176 people; new stocks are erected at Studley
1736 - Thomas Weekes gives 3 acres of land in Broughton Gifford to benefit poor widows of Calne
1745 - There are 25 inns and alehouses in the town
1746 Walter Hungerford gives a rent charge of £20 to the churchwardens and guild stewards of Calne to help the sick, wounded or maimed inhabitants of Calne
1772-1780 - Joseph Priestley discovers oxygen at Bowood House where he is librarian. He is living in a house on The Green
1795 - Dr Jan Ingen Housz discovers the process of photosynthesis at Bowood while living in Calne
1800 - Lower Mill at Quemerford is rebuilt as a cloth factory
1814-1816 - Samuel Taylor Coleridge living at 17 Church Street while writing his Biographia Literaria
1833 - A private lunatic asylum licensed at Northfield House (now part of St.Mary's School)
1835 - A gasworks is built in Horsebrook (closed in 1939) and gas lighting is installed in the town by the Calne Gas and Coke Company
1847 - The Union workhouse is built on the site presently occupied by St. Mary's School
1848 - Cloth making in the town has ceased
1850s-1870 - Paper is being made at Quemerford
1859 - A violent storm uproots 183 trees in 3 minutes in Blackland Park
1862 - Paving of the town's streets begins
1873 - A private railway line to Bowood House is built
1881 - Calne Waterworks established; sewers laid in those parts of the town previously without them
1886 - A refuse removal service for the town begins
1899 - there are now about 100 retailers in Calne
1900-1920 - Calne Borough Council builds 1700 houses
1901 - it is now compulsory for houses to be numbered
1915 - The Palace Cinema opens in Mill Street
1934 - Isolation hospital closed (author's maternal grandmother died from TB in one)
1955 - the part of Bowood House known as the Big House is demolished
1957 - Maundrell's iron foundry closes
Late 1960s - Cattle market closed
1973 - The centre of Calne is designated a conservation area
1975 - Bowood House and gardens opens to the public
1234 - St. Edmund of Canterbury selected as Archbishop of Canterbury while living at the old rectory
1341 - A fire destroys many of the best timber frame houses
1348 - Plague at Calstone Wellingotn kills one third of tenants
1475 - By this time a fulling mill is operating at Calstone Wellington (later becomes a corn mill)
1500s - From this time there is a flourishing woollen industry in Calne initially producing broadcloth, later serge (C17th) drugget and worsted (C18th)
1550 - By this time there is a fulling mill in Quemerford
1569 - Plague raging in the town kills 105 people
1602 - A fulling mill is in operation at Studley
1606 - An outbreak of plague in Calne kills 55 people
1612 - The borough constables complain that there are too many alehouses in the town and that the beer sold in them is too strong
1636 - Another outbreak of plague kills 193 people.
1638 The central tower and spire of St. Mary's Church collapses
1663 - 3 fulling mills in existence in Quemerford
1682 - Almshouses for 8 poor women are built by Dr John Tounson south of St. Mary's Church
1727 - Bowood park is bought from the Crown by Sir Orlando Bridgeman and he builds Bowood House
1728 - A market house in existence on present site of Market Hill; a workhouse opens
1728 - Fulling mill at Studley (in existence since early C13th) converted to a corn mill (demolished 1962)
1731 - A smallpox epidemic kills 176 people; new stocks are erected at Studley
1736 - Thomas Weekes gives 3 acres of land in Broughton Gifford to benefit poor widows of Calne
1745 - There are 25 inns and alehouses in the town
1746 Walter Hungerford gives a rent charge of £20 to the churchwardens and guild stewards of Calne to help the sick, wounded or maimed inhabitants of Calne
1772-1780 - Joseph Priestley discovers oxygen at Bowood House where he is librarian. He is living in a house on The Green
1795 - Dr Jan Ingen Housz discovers the process of photosynthesis at Bowood while living in Calne
1800 - Lower Mill at Quemerford is rebuilt as a cloth factory
1814-1816 - Samuel Taylor Coleridge living at 17 Church Street while writing his Biographia Literaria
1833 - A private lunatic asylum licensed at Northfield House (now part of St.Mary's School)
1835 - A gasworks is built in Horsebrook (closed in 1939) and gas lighting is installed in the town by the Calne Gas and Coke Company
1847 - The Union workhouse is built on the site presently occupied by St. Mary's School
1848 - Cloth making in the town has ceased
1850s-1870 - Paper is being made at Quemerford
1859 - A violent storm uproots 183 trees in 3 minutes in Blackland Park
1862 - Paving of the town's streets begins
1873 - A private railway line to Bowood House is built
1881 - Calne Waterworks established; sewers laid in those parts of the town previously without them
1886 - A refuse removal service for the town begins
1899 - there are now about 100 retailers in Calne
1900-1920 - Calne Borough Council builds 1700 houses
1901 - it is now compulsory for houses to be numbered
1915 - The Palace Cinema opens in Mill Street
1934 - Isolation hospital closed (author's maternal grandmother died from TB in one)
1955 - the part of Bowood House known as the Big House is demolished
1957 - Maundrell's iron foundry closes
Late 1960s - Cattle market closed
1973 - The centre of Calne is designated a conservation area
1975 - Bowood House and gardens opens to the public
Town Hall, Calne, Grade II, 1884-6
The Lansdowne Strand Hotel, Calne, Witshire. Grade II* Listed coaching inn, 16th century.
3 West Hill and West Hill House, Market Hill, Calne, (left of photo and red), both Grade II* Listed, 17th century.
Market Hill, Calne
Library, Calne
29 and 30 The Green, Calne, 18th and early 19th centuries, both Grade II.
Former National School (L), and 24/25 The Green, Calne, all early 19th century, Grade II Listed.
The Old School House and 21/22 The Green, Calne, all early 19th century, Grade II Listed.
White Hart Hotel, corner of London Road and The Green, Calne, 16th century, Grade II* Listed. Possibly due for residential conversion.
Priestley's House, and 20 The Green, Calne, both Grade II* Listed, both 16th century and both refronted 1758.
The Green, Calne
The Green, Calne
Adam House, The Green, Calne, early 17th century, Grade II* Listed. Lived in by the architect Robert Adam whilst working on Bowood House.
Little Sheldon, The Green, Calne, 17th century, Grade II Listed.
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Sheldon House, 10 The Green, Calne, 17th century, Grade II Listed.
8 and 9, The Green, Calne, 18th century, Grade II Listed, former cloth mill.
The Green, Calne
The Green, Calne, looking towards the church
Weaver's House, The Green, Calne, 18th century, Grade II Listed. Former cloth mill, now flats.
The Green, Calne, several Grade II Listed houses dating from the 18th century.
32 and 33 The Green, Grade II, No. 32 is early 19th, No. 33 is 17th century.
Kingsbury Street, Calne
The Tounson Almshouses, Kingsbury Street, Calne. Grade II* Listed, 1682.
Church of St Mary, Calne, Grade I Listed, 12th century.
1, Kingsbury Street. Calne, Grade II Listed, 17th century
39 and 40, Church Street, Calne, Grade II Listed, early 19th century.
Church Street, Calne
32 Church Street, Grade II Listed, early 17th century.
41 Church Street, Calne, Grade II* Listed, early 17th century.
Motorbike sculpture on the A3102 just outside Calne, on the way to Royal Wootton Bassett, marker for Dauntsey car boot sale.
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