Compton Bassett

Cherhill is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England. The village is about 2+1⁄2 miles (4 km) east of the town of Calne, on the A4 road towards Marlborough. The parish includes the village of Yatesbury.

Highway is a hamlet and former civil parish, now in the parish of Hilmarton, in Wiltshire, England. The hamlet lies about 1+1⁄2 miles (2.4 km) southeast of Hilmarton village and 3+1⁄2 miles (6 km) northeast of the town of Calne.

RAF Yatesbury is a former Royal Air Force airfield near the village of Yatesbury, Wiltshire, England, about 4 miles (6 km) east of the town of Calne. It was an important training establishment in the First and Second World Wars, and until its closure in 1965. For a time in the 1950s, part of the site became RAF Cherhill.

Cherhill White Horse is a hill figure on Cherhill Down, 3.5 miles east of Calne in Wiltshire, England. Dating from the late 18th century, it is the third oldest of several such white horses in Great Britain, with only the Uffington White Horse and the Westbury White Horse being older. The figure is also sometimes called the Oldbury White Horse.

The Lansdowne Monument, also known as the Cherhill Monument, near Cherhill in Wiltshire, England, is a 38-metre (125 foot) stone obelisk erected in 1845 by the 3rd Marquis of Lansdowne to the designs of Sir Charles Barry to commemorate his ancestor, Sir William Petty (1623–1687). The monument was designated as Grade II* listed in 1986, and restored by the National Trust in 1990. In 2010 fencing was erected around the monument to protect visitors from falling masonry.

Calstone and Cherhill Downs (grid reference SU047692) is a 128.6 hectare biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Wiltshire, notified in 1971, including downland at Calstone Wellington and Cherhill. It provides one of the best examples in Wiltshire of unimproved downland.The site forms part of the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The site lies towards the western edge of the Marlborough Downs, has a narrow plateau of the Middle and Upper Chalk and descends steeply to the north and more gently to the south. The south-facing slope has a complex structure of narrow, steep-sided dry valleys and coombes and has a mixture of grasses, sedges and forbs. Here grow a typical calcareous community including glaucus sedge, sheep’s-fescue, meadow oat-grass, heath-grass and common quaking-grass, together with cowslip, salad burnet, rock-rose, betony, field fleawort, bastard-toadflax, round-headed rampion, small scabious, devil’s-bit scabious, horseshoe vetch, kidney vetch and chalk milkwort. Orchids found here include, early purple orchid, burnt orchid, fragrant orchid, bee orchid and frog orchid, the last three all being common here.The site is also excellent for invertebrates, hosting the small blue, chalkhill blue, Duke of Burgundy and marsh fritillary, as well as the rare wart-biter bush cricket and the uncommon bug Sehirus dubius The lime-loving heath snail Helicella itala is also found here. There is a dewpond that holds water all year round; newts are found here as well as the Emperor dragonfly and the azure damselfly Coenagrion puella.

RAF Compton Basset was an RAF station Wiltshire, England, about 1 mile (1.6 km) east of the town of Calne.First opened as an RAF station in 1940 and used for radar training, it had no airfield. The site is often confused with RAF Yatesbury that was constructed partly within the parish of Compton Bassett in 1916. During the Second World War, RAF Yatesbury and RAF Compton Bassett were major Radio and Radar Training Schools, RAF Townsend a satellite landing ground and RAF Cherhill was No. 27 Group Headquarters Technical Training Command.After the war it became a trade training camp for certain ground Signals trades. Many thousands of newly recruited RAF personnel, most having just completed their 8 weeks basic training, were taught their RAF trade skills at RAF Compton Bassett, so as to become competent Radar Operators PPI, Wireless Operators, Teleprinter Operators, Telegraphists or Telephonists before being posted to work at RAF operational stations and airfields elsewhere in the United Kingdom or abroad. As well as their trade training, personnel experienced tougher service discipline at Compton Bassett than on operational stations. There were frequent parades involving military drill, regular "stand by your beds" inspections of personal appearance, kit inspections and inspections of barrack hut accommodation. Being put on a charge for not being up to required standard, resulting in Jankers, was very commonly experienced by personnel while being trade trained there. It also became home of the No. 3 Radio School RAF, which in the 1950s trained later washing machine entrepreneur John Bloom, The local coach company Cards of Devizes provided contracted coaches to the RAF, which on a Saturday afternoon would take the airmen to London on their 36-hour passes. Bloom decided with a friend who ran a coach company in Stoke Newington that they could underprice the Card/RAF's coaches. When Cards took Bloom to court, the judge upheld Bloom with a declaration that became Bloom's motto: "It's no sin to make a profit."

Calstone is a former tithing and manor in Wiltshire, England, lying southeast of Calne and adjacent to Calstone Wellington. The area was almost certainly part of the large Calne estate held by the king in the 10th century or earlier. By 1066, three estates had been granted away: one which became Calstone manor, another which became Calstone Wellington manor, and a third which was later called Blunt's. The Domesday survey in 1086 recorded three landholdings at Calestone, with altogether 62 households and four mills. The remainder, later called the 'black land' of Calstone, was kept by the Crown until 1194 when it was granted to a new owner and became the manor and parish of Blackland.Calstone village was divided between Calne and Calstone Wellington parishes. A church had been built at Calstone by 1301, presumably on the Blunt's estate; from 1600 the ecclesiastical parish was called Calstone Wellington, and the village later took this name also. Since at least 1889, the name Calstone has not been used for the settlement on Ordnance Survey maps.The Wiltshire Victoria County History lists the landowners, including the Barons Zouche from the early 14th century to the 1550s, and from 1572 Sir Lionel Duckett (1511–1587). He was a wealthy London merchant, Lord Mayor of London in 1572–1573, who supported early voyages to Africa which paved the way for the slave trade in later centuries. His son Stephen and seven other Duckett descendants were returned as MP for the rotten borough of Calne, the small number of electors being under the influence of the lord of the manor. In 1763, Thomas Duckett sold much land, including Calstone, to William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne (from 1784 Marquess of Lansdowne and Viscount Calne and Calston). These lands remained part of the family's Bowood landholdings until 1954, when the Marquesses began to sell off farms, while retaining some property in the area.An estate later called Calstone Wylye was detached from Calstone manor in the 12th century, and reunited with Calstone when it was bought by Stephen Duckett in 1585.In the 19th century, Calstone Wellington was recognised as civil parish, while Calstone remained a tithing of Calne. In 1890, both Calstone Wellington and Calstone were absorbed into the newly created Calne Without parish. For the history of the church and its parish, see Calstone Wellington.

Calstone Wellington is a small village and former parish in Wiltshire, England, about 2.5 miles (4 km) south-east of Calne and now part of the civil parish of Calne Without. The village has a 15th-century church.

Hilmarton is a village and civil parish in North Wiltshire, in the west of England. The village lies on the A3102 between the towns of Calne and Wootton Bassett, and 2 miles (3.2 km) south of Lyneham. The parish includes the village of Goatacre and the hamlets of Catcomb, Clevancy, Highway and New Zealand. Cowage Brook, a tributary of the River Marden, crosses the parish in a southwesterly direction and forms part of its western boundary.

Yatesbury is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Cherhill, in Wiltshire, England. It is in the northeast of Cherhill parish, 1 mile (1.6 km) north of the A4 road between Calne – about 4 miles (6 km) away – and Marlborough. Yatesbury was an ancient parish and in the 19th century became a civil parish, which was absorbed by Cherhill parish on 1 April 1934. In 1931 the parish had a population of 140. Yatesbury today has a population of about 150. Whilst having no shops or amenities, the village is on National Cycle Route 403. It is noted for RAF Yatesbury, which was an important training centre during World War II.

Quemerford is a southeastern suburb of the town of Calne in the county of Wiltshire, England. It is within both the Calne and Calne Without civil parishes, and lies on the A4 road towards Marlborough, which is some 11 miles (18 km) to the east. The River Marden flows in a westerly direction to the south of Quemerford, then turns north and passes under the A4 on its way to Calne. A tributary of the Marden, the River's Brook, passes north of Quemerford.