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Mildenhall, Wiltshire

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Mildenhall (/ˈmaɪnəl/ MY-nəl)[2] is a village and civil parish in the Kennet Valley in Wiltshire, England, immediately east of the market town of Marlborough. The village is about 1.5 miles (2 km) east of the centre of Marlborough, on the minor road which follows the River Kennet towards Ramsbury. The parish also contains the hamlets of Poulton and Stitchcombe. The name has often been written as Minal, and this is continued in the present-day pronunciation.[3][4]

Mildenhall
The Horseshoe Inn, Mildenhall, 2014
Mildenhall is located in Wiltshire
Mildenhall
Mildenhall
Location within Wiltshire
Population477 (2011 census)[1]
OS grid referenceSU210696
Civil parish
  • Mildenhall
Unitary authority
Ceremonial county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townMarlborough
Postcode districtSN8
Dialling code01672
PoliceWiltshire
FireDorset and Wiltshire
AmbulanceSouth Western
UK Parliament
WebsiteParish Council
List of places
UK
England
Wiltshire
51°25′30″N 1°42′00″W / 51.425°N 1.700°W / 51.425; -1.700

History

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The toponym is derived from the Old English but the site has been occupied since the Roman occupation of Britain, when the town of Cunetio (later a fortress) stood at an important road junction, on the opposite side of the river from the later village.[5] No remains of this town are now standing, but they are clearly visible on aerial photographs. The Cunetio Hoard of Roman coins was discovered here in 1978.[6] The name of the River Kennet, which runs through Mildenhall, is thought to have been derived from the Roman name, which is also used on the village's coat-of-arms.

Cunetio was deserted as a Romano-British site in about AD 450, but the site was reoccupied in the Anglo-Saxon era and a West Saxon charter drawn up between 803 and 805 refers to this settlement in its first recognisably modern form as Mildanhald,[7] meaning "a nook of land of a woman called Milde or a man called Milda".[8] The village is recorded in Domesday Book in 1086 as Mildenhalle, a settlement of 20 households on land held by Glastonbury Abbey.[9] The name has since undergone numerous subtle changes in spelling and pronunciation.[10]

Part of the west boundary of the parish follows the River Og, until it meets the Kennet.[11] The ancient parish had three tithings, namely Mildenhall, Poulton (west, now on the edge of Marlborough) and Stitchcombe (south of the Kennet). The area was part of Savernake Forest from at least the 13th century.[3]

Poulton House, dated 1706, is described by Pevsner as "the most perfect house in Marlborough".[12]

In 1881 the Swindon, Marlborough and Andover Railway company built their Swindon-Marlborough line through the Og valley in the southwest of the parish. The line closed in 1961 and the track was removed.[13]

Parish church

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Church of St John the Baptist

Nikolaus Pevsner describes the parish church of St John the Baptist as "a perfect example of a small village church of many periods, and, together with its Late Georgian furnishings, preserved completely".[12]

Land at Mildenhall was granted to Glastonbury Abbey in the 8th century, and a church may have been built in the early 9th century.[14][15] The base of the tower of the present church is from the 9th or 10th century, and the rest is the result of stages of rebuilding in the late 12th century and early 13th.[16] In the 15th century the third stage of the tower and the clerestory were added, and most of the windows renewed. The plaster ceiling of the chancel is early 17th century, and the earlier nave roof was embellished at the same time.[3] In the 18th or 19th centuries the south aisle was partly rebuilt and the south porch added. In 1816 a round-headed window was added to the south side of the clerestory, and another over the west door.[17][18]

 
St John's, interior

The church is notable for its oak fittings, installed in 1814–1816 and called "outstanding" by Historic England. Julian Orbach, updating Pevsner's work, writes "in Gothick style, the very model of Late Georgian arrangements ... Unusually for rural England everything matches and is to a very high standard".[17] Components include box pews, children's benches, twin pulpits (one a reading desk) with tall backs and decorated testers, and the stone font with wooden cover; and in the chancel, ornate pews, panelling and the reredos with its painted texts. Other work included stone flooring in black and white, and new oak doors.[19] The west gallery, with curved panelled front to accommodate the organ, was completed in 1821.[18] The refitting cost altogether around £2,000 and was instigated by Charles Francis (rector from 1788 until his death in 1821, also rural dean) and paid for by himself and twelve local property-owners, named on six shields displayed in the church.[20]

In the heads of the chancel windows are fragments of 15th-century stained glass.[17] The north-west window depicting the Raising of Lazarus, 1882, is by Mayer & Co. of Munich.[17] There are six bells, five of them cast in 1801 after melting down the four that had been installed in 1596.[3][21] The church has several marble memorials, including two by Joseph Harris of Bath for Thomas Baskerville (1818) and Rev. Charles Francis (1821).[18] In 1966 the church was designated as Grade I listed.[18]

Sir John Betjeman refers to St. John's as "a church of a Jane Austen novel".[22] Simon Jenkins includes it in his England's Thousand Best Churches.[23]

St. John's parish is now a member of the Marlborough team ministry, alongside St Mary's at Marlborough and St George's, Preshute.[24]

Notable buildings

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Across the lane to the west of the churchyard are the 18th-century boundary brick wall, gate piers (with cornice and ball) and wrought iron gates of the former rectory.[25] A large new rectory was built in 1862, in brick in a classical style, set back from the Marlborough road about a quarter of a mile west of the village;[17] this house in turn was sold in 1965.[3]

At Poulton, further along the Marlborough road, Poulton House stands in grounds by the River Og;[26] 20th-century expansion has brought the town almost to the opposite bank. Orbach describes the Grade II* listed house – dated 1706 and extended in the 19th century – as a perfect example of Queen Anne style.[17]

Amenities

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The village has a public house, the Horseshoe Inn. Until the early 21st century Mildenhall had a post office and village shop. The village hall was built in 1988.

Mildenhall usually holds a village fête, typically in mid-September on the village playing field, as well as a Guy Fawkes Bonfire Night and a Duck Race using plastic ducks. Mildenhall publishes a monthly newsletter called The Parish Pump, a joint publication with the neighbouring village of Axford.

There was a school, the Protestant Free School, in the village from 1824 to 1969.[27] Designed in the shape of a cross by Robert Abraham, the former school is now a house.[28]

The Rabley Drawing Centre a short way outside the village includes a contemporary art gallery specialising in original prints and works on paper, and a studio which runs art courses and workshops. It represents international artists including Royal Academicians.[29]

Notable people

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Mildenhall: Population". Wiltshire Community History. Wiltshire Council. Retrieved 4 October 2022.
  2. ^ Miller, 1971, page not cited
  3. ^ a b c d e Baggs, A. P.; Freeman, Jane; Stevenson, Janet H. (1983). "Parishes: Mildenhall". In Crowley, D. A. (ed.). A History of the County of Wiltshire, Volume 12. Victoria County History. University of London. pp. 125–138. Retrieved 14 December 2022 – via British History Online.
  4. ^ "The History of St John the Baptist Minal". Mildenhall Parish Council. Retrieved 14 December 2022.
  5. ^ "Cvnetio Romano-British Town Mildenhall, Wiltshire". www.Roman-Britain.org. 28 September 2010. Retrieved 8 October 2016.
  6. ^ Nigel Kerton, C4's Time Team dig in at Mildenhall, at gazetteandherald.co.uk, Friday 4 September 2009
  7. ^ Birch, page not cited
  8. ^ Mills & Room, 2003, page 328
  9. ^ Mildenhall in the Domesday Book
  10. ^ "Wiltshire Community History: Mildenhall". Wiltshire Council. Retrieved 28 February 2014.
  11. ^ "Election Maps: Great Britain". Ordnance Survey. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
  12. ^ a b Pevsner, Nikolaus; Cherry, Bridget (revision) (1975) [1963]. Wiltshire. The Buildings of England (2nd ed.). Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. p. 336. ISBN 0-14-0710-26-4.
  13. ^ Oakley, Mike (2004). Wiltshire Railway Stations. Wimborne: The Dovecote Press. p. 97. ISBN 1904349331.
  14. ^ "Church of St. John the Baptist, Mildenhall". Wiltshire Community History. Wiltshire Council. Retrieved 17 December 2022.
  15. ^ Stanton, Maurice. "History of Minal, Chapter 3". Mildenhall Community Site. Archived from the original on 14 March 2010 – via Internet Archive.
  16. ^ "St John the Baptist, Mildenhall, Wiltshire". The Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland. King's College London. Retrieved 17 December 2022.
  17. ^ a b c d e f Orbach, Julian; Pevsner, Nikolaus; Cherry, Bridget (2021). Wiltshire. The Buildings Of England. New Haven, US and London: Yale University Press. pp. 476–478. ISBN 978-0-300-25120-3. OCLC 1201298091.
  18. ^ a b c d e Historic England. "Church of St. John the Baptist (1365445)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 4 January 2016.
  19. ^ Tanner, G. F. (1920). "Notes on the Rural Deaneries of Marlborough and Cricklade (from Charles Francis' Rural Dean's Book of 1812–1816)". Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine. 41 (133): 129, 134 – via Biodiversity Heritage Library.
  20. ^ "Church Refurbishment". Mildenhall Parish Council. Retrieved 18 December 2022.
  21. ^ "Mildenhall, Wiltshire, S John Bapt". Dove's Guide for Church Bell Ringers. Retrieved 18 December 2022.
  22. ^ Betjeman, John (1952). First and Last Loves. Murray. p. 183.
  23. ^ Jenkins, Simon (1999). England's Thousand Best Churches. Allen Lane. p. 734. ISBN 0-7139-9281-6.
  24. ^ "St John the Baptist Minal". Marlborough Anglican Team. Retrieved 19 December 2022.
  25. ^ Historic England. "Walls, Gatepiers and Gates to Former Rectory (1183456)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 19 December 2022.
  26. ^ Historic England. "Poulton House (1034116)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 12 December 2022.
  27. ^ "Protestant Free School, Mildenhall". Wiltshire Community History. Wiltshire Council. Retrieved 4 January 2016.
  28. ^ Historic England. "School House (1183528)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 4 January 2016.
  29. ^ "About". Rabley Gallery. 11 August 2013. Retrieved 15 December 2021.
  30. ^ Lane-Poole, Stanley (1896). "Pococke, Edward" . In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 46. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  31. ^ Foster, Joseph (1888–1892). "Pocock, Edward (1)" . Alumni Oxonienses: the Members of the University of Oxford, 1500–1714. Oxford: Parker and Co – via Wikisource.
  32. ^ Foster, Joseph (1888–1892). "Pocock, Edward (2)" . Alumni Oxonienses: the Members of the University of Oxford, 1500–1714. Oxford: Parker and Co – via Wikisource.
  33. ^ Courtney, William Prideaux (1892). "Lavington, George" . In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 32. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  34. ^ "Winchester from the South". Winchester Museums. Archived from the original on 9 January 2019.
  35. ^ "Prentice, Reginald Ernest [Reg], Baron Prentice". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. 2004. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/75257. Retrieved 11 December 2022. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
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