Can you guess what it is? If a previous member of Wiltshire Buildings Record hadn’t identified this feature I doubt I would have been able to. The team was called to look at Littleton House, Littleton Pannell, in the parish of West Lavington.

The Feature in Question...

This old farmhouse had been owned by generations of Pococks who farmed the land for sheep and arable. The house itself goes back to the 17^th century at least, and successive owners have each put their own stamp on it. Narrow mullioned windows gave way to broad, airy sashes in the 18^th century, and chunky, louring beams to fine plastered ceilings in the 19^th century.

As time went on the living accommodation proliferated, with more specialised functions being carried out in different rooms. By the end of the 19^th century there were in addition to the usual reception rooms and kitchens a dairy, butler’s pantry, pump house, brew house, coal and wood house, as well as separate cellars for wine and for beer. To find out the identity of the feature, please 'read more'...

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The Wiltshire Community History web site – http://history.wiltshire.gov.uk/community/ - has scored a century this week. 100 completed communities are now on the site with the recent appearance of Langley Burrell. This is the parish where the diarist Francis Kilvert served his father as curate in the 1870s and recorded many local people and events.

The Church of St. Peter, Langley Burrell, where the diarist Francis Kilvert was curate

Every completed community has short histories of the civil parish and of each church, chapel and school. There are maps from 1773, prints and photographs old and new, population tables, and information on historic buildings, local authors and literary associations. Links take you to all archaeological sites in each parish and to all wills proved at Salisbury Diocesan Court between the 1530s and 1857.
You can also ask us local history questions and get e-mailed replies, look at about 9,400 pages from important early books on Wiltshire, find the words of over 1,000 folk songs and over 40 Mummers’ plays collected in the county, and see locations of photographs and sites plotted on aerial photographs and maps.
Back in Langley Burrell you find information on another famous resident, Maud Heath. In 1474 she gave property and land to finance a causeway from the top of Wick Hill in Bremhill to Chippenham Market. The trust she set up continued to maintain it and you can still walk this 15th century pathway today.


Part of the 1811 structure of 64 arches that carries Maud Heath’s Causeway over the lowlands by the river Avon



In 1698 the Maud Heath Trust erected this 12 foot high monument by the river at Kellaways. This features a three faced block sundial with Latin inscriptions


1966 Memorial plaque to Francis Kilvert in Langley Burrell Church

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