02/07/2021

Route 010: Around Morgan's Hill

Morgan's Hill is a beauty spot that is a pleasure to experience whatever the season. This is a 2 mile route that can be walked within an hour, but you may wish to spend much longer than that in this well-loved nature reserve.


Important Information:

Morgan's Hill can be accessed from the car park at the Smallgrain Picnic Area. From Calne take the A4 to Quemerford, turning right at the junction signposted Bishops Cannings. Continue through Blackland until you see the signpost for Smallgrain Picnic Area on your left. Turn here and park in the car park.

This route is not accessible to wheelchairs, pushchairs, etc due to steps and stiles.

The route can be muddy, with mixed terrain and varying altitude. 



Directions

1) Park at Smallgrain Picnic Area and follow the path north east past the beech tree. Down the steps you will join the Byway, which you should follow to the east, taking a right turn.



2) This Byway continues for around 300 metres. There will be plenty of chance to take in the expansive views to your left. Wellington Barn and the Lansdowne Monument are two easily recognisable features of the landscape.



3) You will then reach a three-way junction and an information board for Morgan's Hill. Continue along the Byway. Until you come to a wooden gate.

While we walk, we can consider how Morgan's Hill got its name:

The Morgan of Morgan's Hill is said to be one Mr. John Morgan of Heddington who robbed and murdered his uncle. Morgan was apparently hung before a large crowd on this hill that now bears his name.200

Morgan's Hill is a 12.6-hectare site of Special Scientific Interest, since 1951. It is well recognisable due to the two masts that can be seen for miles around.



4) As you continue on, you may notice this memorial stone to Beatrice Gillam MBE (1920-2016) within Morgan's Hill, on your right. 

Beatrice Gillam received her MBE in 1983, for work done for the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust, of which, she was a founder member. 

Gillam seems to have been very active over decades in surveying wildlife and campaigning, including being a voluntary warden for the precursor to Natural England. Her research notes and notebooks are held by the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre.

It seems fitting that Gillam is remembered at such an important site.


5a) If you would like a shorter walk,  or you would like to explore the nature reserve, take the side-gate into the nature reserve. There is a worn path that will take you in a south west direction uphill to a wide wooden gate. 

The route information will continue again at number 11.

5b) To continue the full route, walk past this gate and the sheep fold shortly after it for another 350 metres.

6) You will come to a staggered crossroad, with a metal gate to the right. Next to this gate is a wooden gate, which will allow access to the bridleway within Morgan's Hill.


7) This part of the route is quite steep. Head towards the tree in the distance and the gate shortly beyond it.


8) Continuing onward, you will pass the communications towers that are visible for a good distance.

The hill has a long history of communication being home to a Marconi Imperial Wireless Chain receiving station from 1913 to 1935, seeing some conversions along the way to enable different uses. 

In 1981 Wiltshire Constabulary erected the current masts, with microwave dishes added in 1998, by Mercury Communications, a mobile phone network provider. 

In 1990 the MoD applied to site a mobile prefabricated building with a 2700 litre fuel storage tank and satellite dishes, however their current involvement is unknown. It is currently thought that Arqiva, a telecommunications company providing infrastructure and broadcast transmission facilities, manages the site.


9) As you continue past the communications, head towards the plantation of trees. The earthworks that you are walking towards as part of the Wansdyke. 

The Wansdyke is a series of defensive linear earthworks from the early medieval period. It is now a well-known walking route separated into the East Wansdyke and West Wansdyke, which connect at Morgan's Hill.

10) As you reach the Wansdyke, turn right. You can either follow the field, or walk within the earthworks. 


11) If you left us at number 5a, this is where the directions continue.
Continue the route through the wide wooden gate. The route from here gets steep and can be slippery/muddy.


12) This section continues for around 500 metres and there are some views of the North Wilts Golf Club. 
You will eventually reach the information board that you saw on the way out.

At this point take a left back onto the Byway and head back west back to the car park.


13) After a short distance, you will reach the steps back that will lead you to the car park. 


Thank you for using this route!


Map from the lovely folks at OpenStreetMap. 
© OpenStreetMap contributors



01/07/2021

Place Names of Calne: Back Road (Back Lane, Back Street)

7-10 Back Road.
Back in 1885 Back Road, off London Road, was called Back Lane. By 1899 this was called Back Road [1].

In medieval villages, Back Lane, was a road that ran parallel to the main road at the far end of burgage plots. Burgages were town properties rented out by a lord or a king. While Back Road does run (mostly) parallel to London Road, I can't find any evidence that the properties were burgage plots. It looks likely that this road was named at a later date as an access road, with the name previously being Quarry Street[2].

7-10 Back Road is a group of Grade II listed cottages. These are late 1700s, with no earlier buildings still existing on Back Road. In 1695, a Presbyterian chapel was built in Back Road, with a congregation that numbered around 250 by 1717[3]. It is possible that the influence of Joseph Priestley, a preacher at this chapel in the 1770s, paved the way for it to become a Unitarian chapel. The congregation dwindled to 30 in 1829 and closed by the late 1830s. The building was reused by Primitive Methodists and the Salvation Army, but demolished in the 1960s.

Back Street, now Church Street
The part of Church Street from Kingsbury Street to the Green, where Divine on the Green currently operate, previously also called Rotten Row, was called Back Street in 1885[4]. By 1899 the whole of this street was called Church Street[1].




Resources:
[1] View: Wiltshire XXVII.5 (Calne Within; Calne Without) - Ordnance Survey 25 inch England and Wales, 1841-1952. 2019. View: Wiltshire XXVII.5 (Calne Within; Calne Without) - Ordnance Survey 25 inch England and Wales, 1841-1952. [ONLINE] Available at: https://maps.nls.uk/view/106027852. [Accessed 31 July 2019]. 
[2] Calne: The town to c.1800 | British History Online. 2019. Calne: The town to c.1800 | British History Online. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/wilts/vol17/pp34-41#highlight-first. [Accessed 31 July 2019]. 
[3] Calne: Protestant nonconformity | British History Online. 2019. Calne: Protestant nonconformity | British History Online. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/wilts/vol17/pp109-111#anchorn1. [Accessed 31 July 2019].
[4] View: Wiltshire XXVII.5 (Calne Within; Calne Without) - Ordnance Survey 25 inch England and Wales, 1841-1952. 2019. View: Wiltshire XXVII.5 (Calne Within; Calne Without) - Ordnance Survey 25 inch England and Wales, 1841-1952. [ONLINE] Available at: https://maps.nls.uk/view/120377388. [Accessed 31 July 2019].