Box (wiltshire)

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Box is an English village in the county of Wiltshire with about 3500 inhabitants (2011). It is about 8 km east of Bath and 11 km west of Chippenham . The village covers a large area due to the widely spaced districts.

The area is rich in natural stone and the Box quarries have been famous for centuries. Today Box is best known for the village's railway tunnel, which was designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel .

geography

The community is divided by the steep Bybrook river valley . There are settlements on both sides of the plateau. Although the Bybrook served as a traffic artery in the early days, Box was not connected to main roads until 1761. Then a road was built south of the city from Chippenham to Bath. The road ran from Pickwick near Corsham via Chapel Plaister to what is now the "Five Ways" intersection in Box. From there the road ran through Blue Vein and Kingsdown to Bathford. In 1761, the Bricker's Barn Roads Trust took over the road as a toll route, creating a more direct route that is now the A4.

It wasn't until 1830 that another main road was built into the city. This was led from the junction south of Chapel Plaister to Five Ways and from there steeply down into the older part of the village. This road created a connection to Bradford on Avon and Melksham .

In large parts of the community you can find sandstone , u. a. also the good quality oolite (sand-lime brick), which is also known as "bath stone". The shell limestone can also be found in the south of the village . In the northern area there is more clay soil and the bottom of the Bybrook is made of mud and silt.

Early history

It is possible that there was a quarrying area for flint in the area as early as the Mesolithic, and Neolithic settlements have also been proven.

In the 2nd century AD there was a Roman villa with the associated agricultural lands. The villa probably had an atrium and window panes. In the late 3rd or early 4th century the villa was enlarged and became an estate for a wealthy person. The villa had 41 rooms of which 20 were laid out with mosaic. This makes it the largest collection of Roman mosaic floors in England. Such a large villa must also have been the center of very large estates. Small mansions can be found in the area in Ditteridge and Hazelbury and further afield in Colerne and Atworth .

After the Romans withdrew, Box was forgotten and Hazelbury became more and more the focus of the area. It is not known today whether there were any other Anglo-Saxon settlements in the area besides Hazelbury and Ditteridge. These two are the only ones mentioned in the Domesday Book .

Towards the end of the 7th century, legend has it that St. St. Aldhelm threw his glove on the ground near Hazelbury and ordered the residents to dig there. This would have discovered the famous sandstone. St. Aldhelm himself is said to have built the church in Bradford on Avon and also Malmesbury Abbey from it. Later, Bradenstoke Priory , Stanley Abbey and Lacock Abbey were also built from it.

The Domesday Book also reports that there were Saxon churches in Hazelbury and Ditteridge. Hazelbury had between 90 and 120 inhabitants in 1086 and two mills in town. These mills were in the Bybrook valley and it is believed that Box was part of Hazelbury at the time because Box is not mentioned in the Domesday Book. Ditteridge then had 30 residents.

Box is first mentioned in 1144, when a document identifies the area there as the property of Humphrey de Bohun. That is why there was also a Norman church there, which stood near the former Roman villa and for whose construction the stones of the villa had been used.

The village itself was east of the church, probably because the landscape dropped steeply to the west and south and rose to the north. There was a market square and Box was a market town for the surrounding area.

In a land sale document from 1283, the place is called "La Boxe" and is still of little importance.

In the late 12th and early 13th centuries, Walter Croc, or Croke, of Hazelbury and Samuel Bigod of Box supplied stones from the quarries at Box for the construction of Stanley Abbey . Sir Henry Croc supplied stones for the construction of Lacock Abbey.

Towards the end of the 14th century, some of the area's smaller settlements, such as Wormcliffe and Alcomb, disappeared. These settlements, which had developed out of peasant communities, were either incorporated as the population increased or they disappeared completely when the plague broke out . Hazelbury also lost its importance during the plague because there was no demand for sandstones at the time.

Up until the 18th century there was actually no real inhabited village center in Box, because most of the inhabitants lived outside the village.

In a tax roster of 1545, the wealthier residents of Box paid £ 4.40p in tax while Corsham was paid £ 5.75p.

Just like the larger neighboring parish of Corsham, many of the surrounding settlements were incorporated into Box. The formerly more influential Hazelbury and Ditteridge also came to Box.

From a tax list from 1576, we now know that the population of the municipality of Box had risen sharply. The work in the quarries was revived and not only the local demand for sandstone was met. The stones were used to build Great Chalfield Manor and Longleat House in the 15th and 16th centuries .

In the mid-15th century, the Hungerford family were one of the great landowners in Box, while Hazelbury Manor was passed on to the Bonham family by marriage from the Croc, or Croke, family.

In the 17th century, Box was already shown on several maps. a. on the map by Francis Allen from 1630. Unfortunately not all houses and farms are shown there, only the church and some larger houses and the mills. City documents prove that a large number of professions were represented in Box, such as butchers, stonemasons and landlords. Weaving was a common work done at home. The products made there were then sold to textile dealers in the surrounding cities.

At the beginning of the 17th century, a Quaker community in Box was formed.

Towards the end of the century a private psychiatric clinic was founded in the Kingsdown district, the so-called "Box Mad House".

18th century

In the 18th century, weaving and spinning remained the most common boxing activities and close ties developed, particularly with cloth merchants in Bradford-on-Avon. In any case, boys from the town's poor house in Bradford-on-Avon, founded in 1727, were trained to be weavers.

The weavers began to decline towards the end of the 18th century, as the mechanization of looms continued to advance and industrial weaving mills established themselves in the larger cities.

In 1708, a school for the poor was founded in the city , which in 1728 moved to a large room in the poor house that was now in Springfield. At the same time, the town's quarrying industry peaked when the Avon was expanded in 1727 to make it navigable between Bath and Bristol . Now the stones could be brought overland to Bath, where they were loaded onto ships and transported to London and other distant cities.

19th century

The stone trade experienced another economic boom in 1810 with the opening of the Kennet and Avon Canal. This enabled the stones to be transported across the canal directly to the Thames and thus to reach London on a shorter and cheaper route.

Canal transport was superseded by the age of railways, which brought box workers, transport facilities and increased awareness in the country.

The box tunnel

West portal of the Box Tunnel

→ Main article : Box tunnel

The last section of the London – Bristol line , which was built by the Great Western Railway , ran from Chippenham to Bath . It was also the most difficult, as a 2.6 km long tunnel, the Box Tunnel , had to be built. The work began in the spring of 1836, was carried out around the clock in several shifts and up to 4,000 workers and 300 horses were working at the same time.

The tunnel work changed the cityscape of Box significantly. Workers 'pubs sprang up and all the other people and concomitants appeared that come with such makeshift workers' quarters. The pubs and beer houses in particular experienced an upswing, which could also be recognized by names such as "Railroad Tavern". Some skilled local entrepreneurs took advantage of the track workers' presence to do profitable business with them.

The local, mainly agricultural population suffered from excesses such as drunkenness and violence. Damage to private property was the order of the day, and most residents were happy when the tunnel was finally completed. The railway line was officially opened on June 30, 1841.

A profitable side effect of the tunnel construction was that it discovered large deposits of sandstone and subsequently exploited them. Huge underground quarries were dug from the Box Tunnel between Box Hill and Corsham. The possibility of transporting the stones away by rail made it possible to reach a large number of cities and a large market, which developed into an important source of income in Box. The quarry industry peaked between 1880 and 1909, when millions of tons of sandstone could be sold. The quarries remained open until 1969. The economic development of the community, called Box Hill at the time of the tunnel construction , was vigorous. There were other pubs with names like "The Quarrymen" (The Quarry Workers) and "The Tunnel".

Because railway and quarry workers and stonemasons settled in the area, the population rose by 47% between 1831 and 1841 from 1,550 to 2,274 people. With a ten-year break between 1841 and 1851, the population rose steadily. The town continued to expand in the 19th century east of the church and market square along the road to Corsham and onto Quarry Hill.

The quarry industry was followed by other trades such as rolling mills, breweries and malting plants, as well as candles and soap manufacturers. Nevertheless, agriculture remained the main line of business, with wheat, barley and oats being grown in particular.

Methodist chapels were erected at Kingsdown and Box Hill, and in 1858 a new cemetery was laid out at what is now the A4, west of the church. As a result, funerals in the traditional churchyard were discontinued.

In the early years of the 19th century, the Kingsdown Psychiatric Clinic housed 300 patients in rather unworthy conditions. Although the situation improved slightly by the beginning of the 20th century, at that time there were only 43 patients who had to pay the equivalent of £ 2.10 to £ 5.25.

During this time, some of the first English football clubs were founded in Box and Box Hill. In 1870 the Box Cricket Club was founded in the "Checkers Inn".

20th century

For many years all events were held in the open air on the "Fete Field". A room for holding larger indoor gatherings did not exist until Daniel George Bingham had Bingham Hall built for £ 600.

The hall was demolished in 1970 and replaced by Selwyn Hall, built in 1969, which also houses the city library.

After the First World War, a war memorial was erected in Bear Green in 1923. The Recreation Ground was created in 1926.

In addition to the abundant pubs already mentioned, Box also had its own brewery called “Pinchins” across from the school until the 1920s.

It is also interesting that the 17th century mansion on the High Street still served as a farm into the early 20th century and it was not uncommon for a herd of cows to be found on the High Street.

After the Second World War there was a severe housing shortage in the village and "Fete Field" was built on. Bargate Estate was built there, while Waverley Park was built on Henley Lane. Further residential areas were added in the course of the 20th century. Despite these new residential areas, the number of pubs in town steadily decreased. A tragic accident occurred in 1957 when the pub "The Rising Sun" was destroyed by an explosion and the landlord and his family were killed.

economy

Since 2007 there is an area in the southeast of the village on the Hatt Farm in Neston Park that serves as an open-air film studio for the BBC television series " Lark Rise to Candleford ".

The following facilities are available in box:

Bed and Breakfast

  • Lorne House (London Road, Box, Wiltshire, SN13 8NA)

Post office

  • Box Post Office (Lilstock House, London Road, Box, Corsham, SN13 8NA)

Pubs

  • The Checkers Inn (Market Place, Box, Corsham, SN13 8NZ)
  • The Northey (Bath Road, Box, Corsham, Wiltshire, SN13 8AE)
  • The Quarryman's Arms (Box Hill, Box, Corsham, Wiltshire, SN13 8HN)
  • The Queens Head (High Street, Box, Corsham, Wiltshire, SN13 8NH)

retail trade

  • Co-op (High Street, Box, Wiltshire, SN13 8NQ)

religion

The parish has three Christian churches:

  • Box Methodist Church (The Parade, Box)
  • St Christopher C Of E Church (Toad Hall, Middlehill, Box, Corsham, Wiltshire, SN13 8QP)
  • St Thomas A Becket C Of E Church (The Vicarage, Church Lane, Box, Corsham , Wiltshire, SN13 8NR)

education

The site has a Church of England- run elementary school and volunteer preschool playgroup.

  • Box C Of E Primary School (High St, Box, Corsham, Wiltshire, SN13 8NF)
  • Box Pre-School Playgroup (Market Place, Box, Corsham, Wiltshire, SN13 8NZ)

Personalities

Known residents:

literature

  • McCamley, Nick (2000) Secret Underground City , Pen & Sword Books Ltd, ISBN 0-85052-733-3 .

Web links

Coordinates: 51 ° 24 ′ 55 ″  N , 2 ° 15 ′ 9 ″  W.