Five miles south of Devizes on the A360 brings me to my first port-of-call, namely the village of West Lavington. The village is little more than one long street with a few side lanes that lead to some interesting and historic buildings. I must have driven through here a thousand times and never had the time or inclination to pull over to investigate but today is to be different.
I pull across the main road and deposit the car in Church Lane under the shade of a giant yew whose branches are overhanging the churchyard fence. The church is dedicated to All Saints and sits in a lofted position at the southern end of the village, surrounded by a well-tended churchyard full of ancient gravestones. The church dates to Saxon times although the original wooden building has been rebuilt using flint and stone after the Norman Conquest, possibly in the early 13th century.
This is indeed a very old village – evidence exists of occupation in late Neolithic and Bronze age times with barrows and field systems visible on the hills to the south of the village. Settlement remains from Roman occupation times are to be found in the grounds of Littleton Panell manor, a village to the north which forms the local parish with West Lavington. Saxon development certainly occurred in the village but this is not visible by building remains as the Saxons built entirely with wood; instead, proof is gleaned from the Domeday Book in which the settlement is recorded as “Lafa’s Farm” and contained “ a mill, two hides and eight virgates of land with six plough teams and their men”.
I take a wander around the village although most of the more historic buildings are to be found at the southern end around Stibb Hill. The first I find are the old almshouses which were originally built as the west wing of Dauntsey’s House. These were turned over to “the poor of the parish” in the early 19th century and sadly, due to them falling into dereliction, all have now been partly rebuilt or modernised to the point that they are scarcely recognisable. I follow Stibb Hill, and cross over the babbling Bulkington Brook which flows through the village. To my left is the late-Georgian Pyt House and a bit further along I find a long timber-framed house which rather oddly, is built onto a stone plinth.
I return to the main road and head south to Rutts Lane for here is one of the village’s most striking buildings, the wonderful Dial House, dating to 1691 and displaying a still-working sundial above it’s main entrance.
In April 1689, the village suffered a disastrous fire which destroyed “226 bays of buildings”. A bay was thought to represent the area between two sets of crucks, the wooden frames that provided the support for the roof and walls. Houses, stables, barns and other outbuildings were razed to the ground with a total value of “£1,608, 18 shillings and eightpence”. The only buildings now that pre-date the fire are the Old Manor House, West Lavington Manor and Old House in Duck Street.
Walking back along the main road, I see two huge hooks suspended on the wall of an old converted barn; these were the “thatch hooks” and were used to rip burning thatch from the roofs of cottages to prevent the damage from spreading. They were last used in 1932. Just past here, on the same side is an unnamed building upon whose gable end is a striking (no pun intended) clock which also depicts the phases of the moon. A bit further still and I find the old “Horse and Groom”, once one of the village alehouses that still retains the metal bracket above the door where the pub sign would have hung.
The village has it’s fair share of ghost stories; the first concerns the “Headless Woman” who would appear for a few seconds in the graveyard before disappearing again. In the late 1800’s, the graveyard wall was demolished, revealing the headless skeletons of a woman and child. The second concerns a drummer boy who met a grisly end in the 1770’s. In the years following his demise, an Army colour sergeant was walking past the murder scene when he apparently saw and heard the boy. It frightened him so that he immediately confessed to the murder and subsequently met his maker via the gallows.
Between 1910 and 1936 the as was then War Department (now the Ministry of Defence) gradually acquired over 4,000 acres of the parish land, earmarking it for troop and artillery practise. These days, every Tuesday sees the ranges to both east and west of the village thundering away. The noise is quite deafening and must be the only downside to living in this most historic village that has continued to thrive and grow whilst others see their inhabitants moving to the larger towns for work and facilities.