Allington is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, about 3 miles (5 km) southeast of Amesbury and 7 miles (11 km) northeast of Salisbury. The parish includes the village of Boscombe; both villages are on the River Bourne and the A338 road. Most of the west boundary of the parish is also the county boundary with Hampshire.

Allington
The Old Inn, Allington
Allington is located in Wiltshire
Allington
Allington
Location within Wiltshire
Population493 (in 2011)[1]
OS grid referenceSU203396
Civil parish
  • Allington
Unitary authority
Ceremonial county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townSalisbury
Postcode districtSP4
Dialling code01980
PoliceWiltshire
FireDorset and Wiltshire
AmbulanceSouth Western
UK Parliament
Websitewww.allingtonandboscombe.org.uk
List of places
UK
England
Wiltshire
51°09′18″N 1°42′40″W / 51.155°N 1.711°W / 51.155; -1.711

History

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The south of the parish has evidence of Iron Age settlement and a Romano-British villa;[2] the Port Way Roman road crossed the parish in the southeast.[3]

Allington is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086, when there were eight households and one mill at Alentone, on land held by Amesbury Abbey.[4] By 1377, Allington was still a small village, with 35 poll-tax payers.[3]

The settlement developed where a minor road from Winterslow forded the river and crossed the road from Salisbury; the Winterslow road was obliterated in the early 20th century by the military training area.[5] The Salisbury road went through the centre of the village, passing east of the church,[6] until 1835 when a short bypass was made, taking it immediately west of the church.[3] At the southern end of the new section is a pub now called the Old Inn,[7] an early 20th-century rebuilding of an establishment standing there in 1848 or earlier.[3]

James Bell's A new and comprehensive gazetteer of England and Wales (1836) says:

ALLINGTON (formerly Aldington), a parish in the hundred of Amesbury, county of Wilts. The living is a rectory in the archdeaconry and diocese of Salisbury, valued in the king's books at £14 13s. 4d. and in 1839 in the patronage of the earl of Craven. There is a free school here. Distance from Amesbury 312 m. E.S.E. The population in 1801 was 75; and in 1831, 80. Assessed property, £721.[8]

Boscombe had a school from 1902;[9] after it closed in 1972, children attended the newly built school at Porton.[10]

In 1934 the neighbouring small parish of Boscombe was added to Allington parish.[3]

Military installations

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Land in the southeast of the parish – the whole area southeast of the railway line – has been part of the Porton Down military training area since the early 20th century.[3] The Porton Down science park, which houses the headquarters of the Ministry of Defence's Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, is nearby in Idmiston parish.

The military aircraft test establishment now known as MoD Boscombe Down encroaches on the northwest part of the parish. There was a small airfield on Boscombe Down in the First World War, which was reopened in 1930 as a bomber base and then repurposed in 1939 as an aircraft research and testing station.[11]

Religious sites

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The Church of England parish church of St Andrew at Boscombe dates from the 14th century and is Grade I listed.[12][13] Nearby, the former rectory began as a hall house in the 15th century and is now Grade II* listed.[14]

The church of St John the Baptist at Allington is an 1851 rebuilding of a church which was largely 13th-century; the new building kept the same plan and details, and incorporated fragments of 12th-century stonework.[15] It was declared redundant in 2010 and is now in the care of the Friends of Friendless Churches.[16]

The benefices of Allington and Boscombe were united in 1924, and the incumbent was to live in the Allington parsonage house.[17] In 1970 the parishes were united,[18] and in 1973 they became part of the Bourne Valley Benefice.[19] St Andrew's became the sole parish church after the Allington church was declared redundant in 2010.[20]

A cottage at Allington was converted into a Primitive Methodist chapel in 1843[21] and extended in 1981.[22] By 2014 the building had returned to private occupation.

Railways

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The Andover to Salisbury railway opened across the southeast of the parish in 1857. In the north of the parish, the Amesbury and Military Camp Light Railway was built in 1901 to serve Bulford Camp, with a station at Newton Tony where the line crossed the Allington road. This line closed to passengers in 1952, with goods services continuing until 1963.[23]

References

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  1. ^ "Wiltshire Community History – Census". Wiltshire Council. Retrieved 22 August 2015.
  2. ^ Historic England. "Site of an Iron Age enclosure and a Romano-British corridor villa (223270)". Research records (formerly PastScape). Retrieved 24 August 2015.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Baggs, A. P.; Freeman, Jane; Stevenson, Janet H. (1995). "Allington". In Crowley, D. A. (ed.). A History of the County of Wiltshire, Volume 15. Victoria County History. University of London. pp. 6–12. Retrieved 25 April 2021 – via British History Online.
  4. ^ Allington in the Domesday Book
  5. ^ "Allington". Wiltshire Community History. Wiltshire Council. Retrieved 29 April 2021.
  6. ^ "Detail from From Andrews' and Dury's Map of Wiltshire, 1773". Wiltshire Community History. Wiltshire Council. Archived from the original on 2 May 2021 – via Internet Archive.
  7. ^ "The Old Inn". Archived from the original on 23 March 2010. Retrieved 28 April 2021.
  8. ^ James Bell, A new and comprehensive gazetteer of England and Wales (1836), p. 32
  9. ^ "Boscombe School". Wiltshire Community History. Wiltshire Council. Retrieved 28 April 2021.
  10. ^ "St Nicholas Church of England Primary School, Porton". Wiltshire Community History. Wiltshire Council. Retrieved 28 April 2021.
  11. ^ "Stations-B". Air of Authority. Archived from the original on 7 September 2006. Retrieved 25 April 2021.
  12. ^ Historic England. "Church of St Andrew, Boscombe, Allington (1183690)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 23 August 2015.
  13. ^ "Church of St. Andrew, Boscombe". Wiltshire Community History. Wiltshire Council. Retrieved 23 August 2015.
  14. ^ Historic England. "Old Rectory (1183731)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 25 April 2021.
  15. ^ Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England) (1987). Churches of South-East Wiltshire. H.M. Stationery Office. p. 102. ISBN 978-0-11-700995-0.
  16. ^ "Allington". Friends of Friendless Churches. Archived from the original on 14 October 2016. Retrieved 25 April 2021.
  17. ^ "No. 32899". The London Gazette. 18 January 1924. pp. 561–562.
  18. ^ "No. 45204". The London Gazette. 2 October 1970. p. 10764.
  19. ^ "No. 45945". The London Gazette. 3 April 1973. p. 4305.
  20. ^ "St Andrew Boscombe". Bourne Valley Churches. Retrieved 26 April 2021.
  21. ^ "Primitive Methodist Chapel, Allington". Wiltshire Community History. Wiltshire Council. Retrieved 24 August 2015.
  22. ^ Allington, Salisbury in BBC Domesday Reloaded [dead link]
  23. ^ Oakley, Mike (2004). Wiltshire Railway Stations. Wimbourne: The Dovecote Press. pp. 95–96. ISBN 1-904349-33-1.
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  Media related to Allington, Bulford, Allington and Figheldean at Wikimedia Commons