Westwood Manor

Westwood is a large village and a civil parish in west Wiltshire, England. The village is about 1.4 miles (2.3 km) southwest of the town of Bradford-on-Avon. Upper Westwood, on a ridge crest to the north, was a distinct settlement from Lower Westwood but 20th-century housing filled the gap. The parish includes most of the village of Avoncliff, namely the portion south of the Avon, and the hamlet of Lye Green.

Midway Manor is a country house and farm in Wingfield parish about 1+1⁄2 miles (2.4 km) south of Bradford on Avon in Wiltshire, England. The house is approximately midway between Bradford on Avon and Wingfield, on the B3109 road. It was originally an Elizabethan Manor Farm flanked by two large stone barns. In about 1723, the Midway estate was the property of the Shrapnel family who were prosperous cloth merchants from Bradford on Avon. Lieutenant-General Henry Shrapnel (3 June 1761 – 13 March 1842), inventor of the Shrapnel shell, was born at Midway Manor which remained with the Shrapnel family until 1871.The house had stone cannonballs mounted in various places on the front façade and a carving of the Shrapnel shell exploding with the Latin inscription Ratio Ultima Regum ("the Last Argument of Kings"), a phrase Louis XIV of France had cast on the cannons of his armies. This carving is now immediately outside the Manor's entrance gates. On the back of the gate piers, the names of some of the battles that were won with the aid of the Shrapnel shell are engraved. On top of each are four of the original spherical case shots. The late-19th century gate piers are Grade II listed since 1988.In 1892, the Manor became the property of Henry Baynton who removed the front façade, necessitating an almost complete rebuilding of the house with stone provided from the barns which were then demolished. The main structure of the house became very much as it is today.

The Village Pump Festival is a folk music festival that takes place near Trowbridge, England. It has its roots 53 years ago in a barn at the Lamb Inn, Trowbridge, and later moved a few miles outside the town to Stowford Manor Farm at Farleigh Hungerford. The music covers a variety of genres from folk and roots to blues, celtic and Ceilidh with a variety of other entertainment including a family field, with puppetry and story telling.

Avoncliff is a small village in west Wiltshire, England, in the north of Westwood parish about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) southwest of Bradford-on-Avon. It is the point at which the Kennet and Avon canal crosses the river and railway line via the Avoncliff Aqueduct, which was built by John Rennie and chief engineer John Thomas, between 1797 and 1801. The aqueduct consists of three arches and is 110 yards long with a central elliptical arch of 60 ft (18.3 m) span with two side arches each semicircular and 34 ft (10.4 m) across, all with V-jointed arch stones. The spandrel and wing walls are built in alternate courses of ashlar masonry, and rock-faced blocks. The central span sagged soon after it was built and has been repaired many times.There is a picturesque weir on the River Avon where permission for a micro hydro electric scheme was applied for from the Environment Agency in 2009, but this is still awaited in 2013. This is a popular starting point for walks along both the canal and the river, and also to Barton Farm Country Park at Bradford-on-Avon. Avoncliff is covered by two Parish Councils; Winsley on the north side of the river and Westwood on the south side. The Cross Guns Inn was built in the late 17th century and is a Grade II listed building.

Iford Manor (grid reference ST802589) is a manor house in Wiltshire, England. It is a Grade II* listed building sitting on the steep, south-facing slope of the Frome valley, in Westwood parish, about 2 miles (3.2 km) southwest of the town of Bradford-on-Avon. Its Grade I registered gardens are open to the public from April to September each year. Iford was rated as among the "20 most beautiful villages in the UK and Ireland" by Condé Nast Traveler in 2020, with the manor taking "center stage".

Avoncliff Aqueduct (grid reference ST803599) carries the Kennet and Avon Canal over the River Avon and the Bath to Westbury railway, at Avoncliff in Wiltshire, England, about 1+1⁄2 miles (2.4 km) west of Bradford-on-Avon. It was built by John Rennie and chief engineer John Thomas, between 1797 and 1801. It is a Grade II* listed structure.During construction, stone from a local quarry was used which split when affected by frost. This caused buttresses to collapse and parts of the structure to need rebuilding. Eventually Bath stone from Bathampton Down was used to ensure greater stability.The aqueduct has three arches and is 110 yards (100.6 m) long, with a central elliptical arch of 60 ft (18.3 m) span, and two semicircular side arches each 34 ft (10.4 m) across, all with V-jointed arch stones. The spandrel and wing walls are built in alternate courses of ashlar masonry and rock-faced blocks. The central span sagged soon after it was built and has been repaired many times.As part of the 20th-century restoration of the canal, the aqueduct was lined with a concrete "cradle" and made watertight in 1980.

Avoncliff railway station serves the hamlet of Avoncliff in Wiltshire, England, together with the nearby villages of Westwood and Winsley, and Turleigh hamlet. It is next to the Kennet and Avon Canal and almost adjacent to the Avoncliff Aqueduct, so it is popular with walkers and cyclists who wish to travel along the canal path or the picturesque walks around the station.The station has two platforms, each long enough for 1+1⁄2 coaches, with a waiting shelter and original lamp-posts, and is served by Great Western Railway. Residents have voluntarily decorated the station with pots of flowers and, to mark its 100-year anniversary on 9 July 2006, decorated the station with bunting and dressed in Victorian clothing for the celebrations.

Turleigh is a hamlet in west Wiltshire, England. It lies immediately south of the village of Winsley, overlooking the Avon valley, about 1.2 miles (1.9 km) west of Bradford on Avon. The Kennet and Avon Canal and Avoncliff railway station are below the hamlet in the river valley.

Gripwood Quarry (grid reference ST822603) is a 2.9 hectare geological Site of Special Scientific Interest at Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire, England, notified in 1951. The quarry lies in a field to the south west of the Bradford-on-Avon Tithe Barn, on the south side of the River Avon. It cuts into Oolitic limestone and has a wall in the middle creating an upper and a lower quarry, last used for mushroom growing. The walls are whitewashed and there is a large wooden crane.

Bradford-on-Avon Tithe Barn is a Grade I listed barn in Pound Lane, Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire, England. It was part of a medieval grange belonging to Shaftesbury Abbey and was built in the early 14th century, with a granary dated to about 1400. It is owned and protected by English Heritage and managed by the Bradford on Avon Preservation Trust.

Farleigh Hungerford Castle, sometimes called Farleigh Castle or Farley Castle, is a medieval castle in Farleigh Hungerford, Somerset, England. The castle was built in two phases: the inner court was constructed between 1377 and 1383 by Sir Thomas Hungerford, who made his fortune as steward to John of Gaunt. The castle was built to a quadrangular design, already slightly old-fashioned, on the site of an existing manor house overlooking the River Frome. A deer park was attached to the castle, requiring the destruction of the nearby village. Sir Thomas's son, Sir Walter Hungerford, a knight and leading courtier to Henry V, became rich during the Hundred Years War with France and extended the castle with an additional, outer court, enclosing the parish church in the process. By Walter's death in 1449, the substantial castle was richly appointed, and its chapel decorated with murals. The castle largely remained in the hands of the Hungerford family over the next two centuries, despite periods during the War of the Roses in which it was held by the Crown following the attainder and execution of members of the family. At the outbreak of the English Civil War in 1642, the castle, modernized to the latest Tudor and Stuart fashions, was held by Sir Edward Hungerford. Edward declared his support for Parliament, becoming a leader of the Roundheads in Wiltshire. Farleigh Hungerford was seized by Royalist forces in 1643, but recaptured by Parliament without a fight near the end of the conflict in 1645. As a result, it escaped slighting following the war, unlike many other castles in the south-west of England. The last member of the Hungerford family to hold the castle, Sir Edward Hungerford, inherited it in 1657, but his gambling and extravagance forced him to sell the property in 1686. By the 18th century, the castle was no longer lived in by its owners and fell into disrepair; in 1730 it was bought by the Houlton family, Trowbridge clothiers, when much of it was broken up for salvage. Antiquarian and tourist interest in the now ruined castle increased through the 18th and 19th centuries. The castle chapel was repaired in 1779 and became a museum of curiosities, complete with the murals rediscovered on its walls in 1844 and a number of rare lead anthropomorphic coffins from the mid-17th century. In 1915 Farleigh Hungerford Castle was sold to the Office of Works and a controversial restoration programme began. It is now owned by English Heritage, who operate it as a tourist attraction, and the castle is a Grade I listed building and a Scheduled Ancient Monument.

Farleigh Hungerford (grid reference ST800576) is a village within the civil parish of Norton St Philip in the Mendip district, in Somerset, England, 9 miles southeast of Bath, 3½ miles west of Trowbridge on A366, between Trowbridge and Radstock in the valley of the River Frome. Within this small village are the notable ruins of Farleigh Hungerford Castle, which played a significant part in the English Civil War. Evidence has also been found of occupation during Roman times; the foundations of a villa were excavated in a field just north west of the castle in 1822. From 1985 to 2010 the village was the venue for the annual Trowbridge Village Pump Festival.