The above postcard shows the Manor House.

EAST SIDE (from junction with Lode Hill)

Block of Garages

These buildings were formerly a blacksmith's workshop.

The Cottage

A grade II listed building, upgraded from Grade III.

Listing description: Detached cottage. Early C18, 1949 extension. Flemish bond brick, half-hipped thatched roof, brick stacks. Gable-end to road. 2- storey, 5-window front on right return from road. Inserted C20 door, three 2- light and two 3-light casements, blocked door has single casement. Right bay is 1949 addition in similar style. First floor has one 3-light casement and three eyebrow dormers with 2-light casements. Right return has C20 French windows. Rear C20 extension. Interior has chamfered beams with step and runout stops, open fireplace with chamfered lintel on brick jambs.

Former occupiers: Dr Brian L Whitehead, MRCS LRCP (1964)

Hamilton House

A grade II listed building.

Listing description: Detached house. Mid C18. Painted Flemish bond brick, tiled roof, brick stacks. L-plan. 2- storey, 5-window front. Door with 6- fielded panels and fanlight, with pediment on Ionic pilasters, to right of centre, to left are three 12-pane flush sashes, to right is one 12-pane sash. First floor has five 12-pane sashes; all windows with moulded wooden architraves. Moulded and dentilled eaves cornice. Two hipped dormers to roof with 2-light casements. Left return has 12-pane sash to first floor and 2-light casement to attic, rear wing has 4- light leaded casement to first floor. Rear has 12-pane sashes to ground and first floors; external brick stack to left, 2-light casement to hipped dormer. Mid-Cl9 extension to left has large C20 window to ground floor, C18 wing to right has 2-light casements. Interior has C18 newel stairs with turned balusters, some good fireplaces with Adam-style detail and moulded corniced mantels, north room has fielded panelling and dentilled ceiling cornice.

See also entry under Emma Cottage in Doctor’s Alley.

In February 1906, Doctor Whiteley of Hamilton House (actually a ‘Mister’ as he was a qualified surgeon) became the first car owner in Downton. The vehicle was a maroon 17/20 hp Scout tonneau, registration number AM 768. It was only the third car sold by the Scout Motor Company of Salisbury. His chauffeur was James Churchill.

Former occupiers: George William Whiteley (1885-1919); Brian Whitehead MC BA MRCS LRCP (Physician and Surgeon) (1935-1953); Major-General R A Bramwell-Davis CB DSO (1960s-1970s)

- Here is the junction with Doctor's Alley -

Wellesley Cottage

Formerly known as Plasket Cottage.

A grade II listed building, upgraded from Grade III.

Listing description: Cottage at end of row. Mid-C18. Flemish bond brick with vitrified headers, thatched roof with gable-end brick stacks. Entrance now to rear, blocked front doorway. 2- storey, 3-window front. 3-light casement to left, C20 sash in blocked doorway, 12-pane sash to right. 2- brick plat band to first floor; three 12-pane sashes. Moulded brick cornice and flanking brick pilasters to sides. Coped verges to roof. Right return has 12-pane sash to ground floor and casements to attic. To left is attached single-storey extension in timber-frame and brick, with hipped tiled roof. Rear has C20 door and porch and C20 metal casements. Interior said to have reeded fireplace surround with paterae and similar detail to cupboards, which are inserted in blocked open fireplace.

Former Occupiers: Major Edwards (1964).

Staddlestone House

1 Sims Cottages

2 Sims Cottages

2 Parsonage Cottages

Formerly known as 2 Parsonage Farm Cottages.

Formerly a grade III listed building, listed with 1 Parsonage Cottages as Pair of Cottages last on E. side of lane, opposite N. end of Vicarage garden. Former listing description: C18.

1 Parsonage Cottages

Formerly known as 1 Parsonage Farm Cottages.

See also 2 Parsonage Cottages.

Christmas Cottage

The Oak House

Cemetery

WEST SIDE (from junction with Lode Hill)

St Laurence’s Church Hall and Car Park

This building was previously used as a school – its car park was the playground. The first National Girl’s School was built here in 1830. A National Sunday and Day School for 230 children was built in 1846 and enlarged in 1850 by Mrs Clarke, widow of the former Vicar. The school was taken over by Wiltshire County Council and by 1920 was known as the Church of England School. Until 1938 it remained an elementary school for all ages, up to 14 years, but after that date it was used for infants and juniors, with the children aged over 11 years going to the school in Gravel Close. In 1964 all remaining pupils were transferred to the Gravel Close school and in 1975 the buildings were converted into the Church Hall.

School House

Former occupiers: Miss D J Wicks (1935)

- Here is the junction with Snail Creep -

Tower View

Former occupiers: Kenneth Hughes (1964)

Chalkhill House

Formerly The Vicarage.

A grade II listed building, formerly listed as The Vicarage.

Listing description: Detached house. C17 rear range with front range of 1784. Flemish bond brick, tiled roof, brick stacks. L-plan. 2-storey, 6- window front. Centre 2 bays break forward, half-glazed door with 12- panel sash to left, to right and left are two 12-pane sashes. First floor has six 12-pane sashes. Pediment over two centre bays, dentilled eaves. Reset datestone at base of wall: 1640/I.C. probably dates the rear range. Right return has two blind windows to first floor, and external stack, C17 range has 3-light and 2- light chamfered mullioned windows with hoodmoulds and one 4-light casement, first floor has 16-pane sash and 3- light sash, one hipped dormer to roof with 2-light casement. Left return is windowless, quoin at base of wall is inscribed TL/1784. Rear has scattered fenestration, mainly sashes. Interior has late C18 newel stairs with stick balusters, marble fireplace to first floor has corniced mantel, internal shutters to front windows.

PEVSNER: Vicarage, NE of the Church. C18, brick, six bays with a two-bay pediment.

From Downton Parish News, May 2008: Chalkhill House was the vicarage in Downton for over three hundred years until 1975, when the present vicarage was built in the old walled vegetable garden. A stone set into the east wall of the house bears the inscription 1640/JC. This was John Chalkhill who built that part of the house. The list of vicars in the church records shows that he held the benefice from 1637- 41.
The first vicar to live there was Samuel Coxe, appointed to the living of Downton by the Warden, fellows and scholars of Winchester College 1641. There had probably been an earlier building on or near the site of that house.
The present south facing building was built in 1784 by Thomas Lear. Thomas Lear was the longest serving vicar in Downton. A memorial to him is to be found on the south wall in St Laurence’s Church: ‘during a period of nearly fifty years, the beloved Minister of this Parish’. His building was of pleasing symmetrical Georgian design, with stout brick walls, which in places are two feet thick. The mortgage for the house at that time raised to £450, a large sum of money. A wing on the west side was demolished in the early 1950s. The main rooms are spacious with lofty ceilings, and several of the doorways are unusually broad, apparently in order to allow free passage for the voluminous skirts and crinolines worn by the ladies of former times.
During the next century the living of St Laurence’s Church was often given by Winchester College, who held the patronage, to wealthy men who did not live in Downton. They were probably in London and left their responsibilities in the hands of a curate with a minimum stipend and nothing for the upkeep of the vicarage. The house fell into poor repair and the roof leaked. Moreover, when the Church Commissioners came to sell the vicarage to the present owner, it was found that no documents or papers or even deeds had been preserved.
At the back of the house are a number of outbuildings which used to be the stables. In 1959 they were converted into a parish room with kitchen and lobby, and a club room above reached by a staircase built by Mr Steve Horner.
A lovely tulip tree still stands beside the house and has withstood recent gales. It was probably planted in the middle of the eighteenth century with various other flowering trees in the garden. It may be one of the oldest tulip trees in the country. Every year it is in flower at the end of June, at the time of the Church fete.

Former occupiers: Reverend Robert Garland Plumptre MA (1893-1910); Reverend Lenthall Greville Dickenson MA (1910-1917); Reverend George Edward Salmon MA (1917-1923); Reverend John Robinson MA (1923-1939); Reverend Alan Birch DSO MA (1939-1947); Reverend Alfred Henry Purcell Fox AKC (1947- 1955); Reverend John Eric Overton MA (1955-1960); Reverend Charles Arnold Simister MM (1960-1963); Reverend Donovan Victor Evening (1963-1972); Reverend David John Letcher RD (1972- 1975).

Prebendal Cottage

Former occupiers: Canon Hayes (1964)

Vicarage

Constructed in 1975 within the walled garden of the former vicarage (see entry under Chalkhill House).

Former occupiers: Reverend David John Letcher RD (1975-1986); Reverend Michael Collins Francis Gallagher BA (1986-2003).

Manor House

Formerly known as Parsonage Manor.

A grade I listed building, upgraded from grade II*

Listing description: Detached house. Early C14 and C17 with C19 alterations. Rendered flint stone rubble, brick and timber frame, brick stacks. L-plan. C14 hall house with attached chapel. One storey and attic with basement, 5 windows. Central ledged door in moulded case, with 2- storey porch on posts, to either side are two 3-light mullioned 'and transomed windows, to right are two chamfered lights to basement and blocked 2-light ogee-headed window. Attic has two gabled dormers to left, 2-light casements to gabled porch over door, one dormer to right with 2-light casement. Chapel projecting to right has C19 3-light window with hoodmould, left return has cusped lancet to first floor and small chamfered light to basement. Right return has two cusped lancets, single chamfered lancet to ground floor and blocked one to right first floor and chimney with corbel table. To right is chamfered doorcase with planked door to basement, C20 windows to first floor. Rear has chimney on corbel table, 3-light casement, two chamfered lights to basement, two C19 3-light windows to ground floor and C20 door with flat stone hood on bracket, C20 French windows to right. Three dormers, one hipped, to roof. Wing to right has C19 3-light window and 2-light casement to attic.
Interior: All has inserted floor and oak panelling of c1600, oak fireplace surround with fluted pilasters and overmantel with Raleigh arms on panels. Chapel has inserted floor of c1600 and bolection-moulded fireplace and panelling of late C17, pointed barrel-vaulted plaster ceiling. Chapel is off northern, upper end of hall. Timber framed partition to closed truss of low end of hall. Newel stairs inserted c1600. 4-bay C14 or C15 roof over hall has chamfered arch-braced collar trusses, curved windbracing to tenoned purlins. Chapel roof has eleven pairs of common rafters and collars with arched braces. Manor was an endowment to Winchester College by William of Wykeham in 1380, later leased by Elizabeth I and occupied by brother of Sir Walter Raleigh in early C17, who improved the house.

The Manor House is said to be the oldest continuously inhabited house in the south of England. The original house on this site was built circa 850AD and was used as a rectory. The building then consisted of a barn with cellars underneath, a private chapel and a loft area where the priests slept on rushes.

There were considerable alterations in Elizabethan times. The house and all its land was let to the queen at a cost of £84 5s (£84.25) per annum. She installed John Wilkes, Secretary to Her Majesty’s Council, but he died a year later and the house was then occupied by Sir Carew Raleigh.

The Raleigh family continued to use the house for almost 100 years. According to legend, in 1586 they had to improve the house at short notice for a visit by the Queen, who was on her way to visit the then newly built Breamore House, and Sir Walter sailed a boat up the Avon, beached it near The Tannery and used its timbers to provide paneling and better roof beams.

A portrait of Sir Walter Raleigh was hidden behind oak paneling at the house, possibly when he fell from favour. It was found about 150 years later by the then resident farmer, who was facing bankruptcy. He gave the painting to a Salisbury agent, Rawlence and Squarey, in lieu of a debt, and it was sold to the National Portrait Gallery for 100 Guineas (£105) in 1857. It was the first item they had actually purchased, the previous five having been donated. It is now the best known picture of Sir Walter.

The Manor was the birthplace of Sir Roger Curtis, who commanded the gunboats at the siege of Gibraltar.

Former occupiers: Ralph G Jebb (1935); Sir Robert Perkins (1964).

Manor Cottage

A grade II listed building.

Listing description: Cottage. Circa mid to late C17 with C18 and C19 alterations and additions. Timber- framed, faced in red brick, lower courses are random bond with Flemish bond above. Plain tile roof with gabled and half-hipped ends. End stacks with brick shafts. L-shaped on plan. 2-room plan front range, left hand wing behind the right hand room appears to be of a different build either later or earlier and later faced in brick. Circa early C19 outshut behind left room. One storey and attic. 2 window east front. Circa early C20 2 and 3-light casements, attic windows in small hipped dormers above eaves. Doorway to right inside C20 conservatory-porch. Large C20 raking brick buttress at centre of front. Roof at rear carried down as catslide over brick outshut. Lower rear wing with half-hipped roof. C20 metal-frame casements and hipped dormer on north side.
Interior: Exposed timber-framed partition between 2 rooms in front range, the tie on jowled wall-post at back. Both rooms have thin chamfered beams with convex stops, the left axial, the right hand a cross-beam. The left room has large fireplace with chamfered timber lintel, the chamfer running into jambs, and brick-lined oven. The right hand room has simple C19 chimney piece and winder staircase in rear corner against partition. Rear wing has large chamfered axial beam with run-out stops. Roof space ceiled.

Badgers Rake

Parsonage Farm House

Formerly a grade II listed building.

Former listing description: C16-17, some early C19 alterations. Two- storeys, brick, old tile roof. The E. front which is rough-cast has a central projecting gabled porch, the upper part of which has a C18 2-light casement window and is carried on two square posts with small cornice beam forming a large porch with modern ledged central door. To the right-hand of the porch there are two 6-light mullioned and transomed windows high in the wall with gabled 4-light mullioned and transomed semi-dormers over. To the left-hand are two 6-light similar windows at lower level with two 4-light semi-dormers over. At the right-hand end of the front there is a two-storey gabled wing with 6-light ground floor window and 4-light upper window. This wing was altered early C19. Interior may be of interest.

PEVSNER: ‘NW of the Church. Gabled E front with a gabled porch and, to its right, mullioned and transomed windows. C16 to C17.’

Former occupiers: Wlliam Pigott Shuckburgh (19th Century); Walter John Barrow (1935-1953); Edmund J Bishop (1964).

Acorns

Electricity Sub-Station

Parsonage Farm

The modern bungalow effectively replaced Parsonage Farm House (see separate entry). The Granary at Parsonage Farm is a grade II listed building:

Listing description for the granary: Granary. Early C18. Timber-framing with brick nogging to square panels, half-hipped tiled roof, on staddlestones. Central planked door with strap hinges. Interior not accessible.

Gatesgarth

The Gables

Hope Cottage

Meadowcroft

Formerly a grade III listed building. Former listing description: Late C18- Early C19.

Pops Cottage

Formerly a grade III listed building. Former listing description: Late C18- Early C19.

Dovecote Cottage

Formerly known as Anchor Cottage.

Formerly a grade III listed building. Former listing description: Late C18- Early C19.

Former Occupiers: Mrs 'Packet o' Stars' Mussell; Ted Maxted.

Yarnbrook

Yew Tree Cottage

1 Carver Cottages

Carver Cottages were built in 1925, by her children, to fulfil the work of Mrs Lavinia Mary Carver, late of The Moot. They were intended for occupation by ‘financially deserving’ tenants and are administered by the Carver Trust.

Former occupiers: Edward Derrick (1930s-1960s).

2 Carver Cottages

See 1 Carver Cottages.

Former occupiers: Jack Ireland (1930s- 1950s); Mrs Ireland (1960s).

1 Council Houses

Former occupiers: Mrs E Crowe (1960s).

2 Council Houses

Former occupiers: Joseph C Hughes (1960s).

3 Council Houses

Former occupiers: Mrs E Mitchell (1960s).

4 Council Houses

Former occupiers: Cecil Thomas (1960s).

Allotment Gardens

Church of The Good Shepherd and Our Blessed Lady Queen of Angels

The Roman Catholic Church was built on land donated by Earl Nelson and consecrated in 1950. The large Icon in the church came from the now unused chapel at Standlynch (see separate entry under Standlynch Chapel, Standlynch).

Scout Huts

Former Recreation Ground

Harvest Cottage

- Here is the track to Barford Park Farm and Fish Farm (see below) -

Railway Cottage

Park Side

Formerly known as Pump Cottage.

Former occupiers: Mr Coffin (1930s); Bertram Newman (1964).

Barford Park

In about 1690 Charles Duncombe, the MP for Yarmouth, bought the 800 acre Barford Estate. In 1695 he was elected MP for Downton and around the same time had a new country home built on the estate, to the north of the modern day Barford Park Farm complex.

The Duncombe family also owned land in Helmsley in Yorkshire.Their connection with the Downton area lasts until the present day as the Earl of Radnor is descended from one of the Duncombe lines. Robert Shafto, MP for Downton from 1779 to 1790, married into the Yorkshire line and lived at Barford Park. He was the subject of the traditional song ‘Bonnie Bobby Shafto’.

The house was destroyed by fire in 1815, at which time it was the residence of the Stockman family. The trees leading from Barford Park Farm to the lane are all that remain.

On 5 July 1828 a severe thunderstorm began at sunset and raged for three hours. It was later reported that hailstones had killed all the rooks in Barford Park.

One of Downton’s most popular legends involves Barford Park. At the age of about six weeks Queen Elizabeth I was taken by her nurse to stay at the house. Unfortunately she died shortly after her arrival and the nurse, fearing for her own safety, rushed into the village and stole the first baby she saw.
In her anxiety to save her head from the block she grabbed a baby boy by mistake. When the house was pulled down after the fire of 1815, the old cellar yielded a small coffin containing the bones of a small baby boy.
So, Queen Elizabeth I was in fact a Downton Boy and this explains why she never married, her tremendous power of leadership and her love of the village.

Barford Park Farm

The Farmhouse is a grade II listed building, upgraded from grade III.

Listing description: Farmhouse. Late C17, C18 addition and early C19 enlargement to south west. Flemish bond with vitrified headers, tiled hipped roof, brick stacks. L-plan. Original front of 2-storeys, 3 windows has half-glazed door in eared surround with pulvinated frieze, tripartite sash and plate glass sashes to either side, first floor has 3-light sash to right and two C20 windows to left; all sashes with flat arched heads and keystones. Left part has moulded eaves cornice. Right return has glazed door with side-lights and 12-pane sashes to first floor. Rear is now main entrance front, to C18 build, door in C20 porch to right, 12-pane and tripartite sash to ground and first floors. Attached to this front is single-storey kitchen range in English bond brick, with hipped tiled roof and C20 casements. Interior has moulded ceiling cornices and classical-style fireplaces.

The following other buildings at Barford Park Farm are also grade II listed buildings in their own right:

Alley Cottage attached to north side of Barford Park Farmhouse.
Listing description: Cottage and stable. CD 1695 incised on keystone over window on front, converted to farm cottage early C19. English bond brick, tiled hipped roof, brick stacks. Single storey and attic, 3 windows. Planked door in beaded case to left, cross window to centre with dated keystone, blocked door to left and inserted doorway and C19 casement to right. Three gablets with 2-light casements to attic. Right return has inserted planked door, 3-light cast- iron casements and small casements. Rear outshut with double gabled roof, central planked door in chamfered case and 2-light and 1-light cast-iron casements. Valley between gables has tile-hung extension. Interior has planked doors, C17 newel stairs with splat balusters and plank and muntin partition below hand rail, C18 beaded fireplace and doorcase to north side, Initials CD are of Sir Charles Duncombe who bought the Barford Park Estate in 1690; Barford House was demolished 1815.

Summerhouse in garden of Barford Park Farmhouse
Listing description: Summerhouse. Early C19. Flint with brick bands, conical thatched roof. Hexagonal. Open on east side, one small fixed window to south side.

Granary to north of Barford Park Farmhouse
Listing decscription: Granary. C18. Flemish bond brick, on staddlestones, half-hipped tiled roof. 4 bays. Planked door with strap hinges and segmental head on south side, blocked door on left return with loft window above, planked door on north side. Interior has loft to west end only, with planked partition, lined planked roof. Roof trusses have interrupted tie-beam, with vertical posts from collar to cross rail. Possibly originally timber-framed and rebuilt in brick C18.

Despite its listed status, District Councillors granted consent for the demolition of the granary in 2008. However, at the eleventh hour the pressure group Save Britain's Heritage mounted a legal challenge and raised £70,000 to save and preserve the building.

Barn to east of Barford Park Farmhouse - Upgraded from grade III
Listing description: Barn. Late C17. English bond brick with some flint, tiled roof with coped verges. 6 bays, north and south aisles. Two hipped porches on south side with C20 double doors, planked stable door to left. North side has one hipped and one blocked gabled porch, planked stable door to right, opposite one to south. Gables have rectangular pitching doors. Interior has flint and brick wall dividing barn into two equal halves. Tie-beam roof trusses with raking struts to principals, straight windbracing to purlins and to aisle posts.

Range of barns and stables to north of Barford Park Farmhouse
Listing description: Range of barns and stables. Late C17 and C18. English bond brick, tiled roofs. Single-storey with lofts. East front has inserted double hinged garage doors to left, planked door with segmental head and keystone to stable, two cross ranges to right have inserted open fronts. Stable has planked loft door. Left return has 2-light casement and loft door over garage. Rear wall has some lozenge diaper-work, cross range to left has hipped roof, range to right has coped verge with kneelers. Interior of north cross range has 4- bay roof with tie-beam and raking struts to principals, range to south has 4-bay roof with tie-beam and raking struts to collar.

Former occupiers: Mr Wookey; Cyrus Carter (1935-1953); Mrs E Hayter (The Laundry, Barford Park) (1935); Major Sir Dudley Forwood Bart. (1964)

Garden Cottages, Barford Park Farm

Fishery Cottage

Formerly known as Salmon Hatchery Cottage.

Former occupiers: Alistair Lees (1964)

Trafalgar Fish Farm