Chitterne

The Kingdom of the West Saxons, also known as the Kingdom of Wessex, was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom in the south of Great Britain, from around 519 until England was unified. The Anglo-Saxons believed that Wessex was founded by Cerdic and Cynric of the Gewisse, but this may be a legend. The two main sources for the history of Wessex are the West Saxon Genealogical Regnal List and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (the latter of which drew on and adapted an early version of the List), which sometimes conflict. Wessex became a Christian kingdom after Cenwalh (r. 642–645; 648–672) was baptised and was expanded under his rule. Cædwalla later conquered Sussex, Kent and the Isle of Wight. His successor, Ine (r. 689–726), issued one of the oldest surviving English law codes and established a second West Saxon bishopric. The throne subsequently passed to a series of kings with unknown genealogies. During the 8th century, as the hegemony of Mercia grew, Wessex largely retained its independence. It was during this period that the system of shires was established. Under Egbert, Surrey, Sussex, Kent, Essex, and Mercia, along with parts of Dumnonia, were conquered. He also obtained the overlordship of the Northumbrian king. However, Mercian independence was restored in 830. During the reign of his successor, Æthelwulf, a Danish army arrived in the Thames estuary, but was decisively defeated. When Æthelwulf's son, Æthelbald, usurped the throne, the kingdom was divided to avoid war. Æthelwulf was succeeded in turn by his four sons, the youngest being Alfred the Great. Wessex was invaded by the Danes in 871, and Alfred was compelled to pay them to leave. They returned in 876, but were forced to withdraw. In 878 they forced Alfred to flee to the Somerset Levels, but were eventually defeated at the Battle of Edington. During his reign Alfred issued a new law code, gathered scholars to his court and was able to devote funds to building ships, organising an army and establishing a system of burhs. Alfred's son, Edward, captured the eastern Midlands and East Anglia from the Danes and became ruler of Mercia in 918 upon the death of his sister, Æthelflæd. Edward's son, Æthelstan, conquered Northumbria in 927, and England became a unified kingdom for the first time. Cnut the Great, who conquered England in 1016, created the wealthy and powerful earldom of Wessex, but in 1066 Harold Godwinson reunited the earldom with the crown and Wessex ceased to exist.

The Aston Valley Barrow Cemetery, or Ashton Valley Barrow Cemetery, is a group of Bronze Age bowl barrow and bell barrow tumuli on the south facing edge of Codford Down on the west side of the valley of the Chitterne Brook, within the civil parish of Codford, in Wiltshire, England. There were originally ten bowl barrows and a single bell barrow, but some of these have now been ploughed out: only the bell barrow and five bowl barrows survive. The site is a scheduled monument.

Codford Circle, also known as Wilsbury Ring, Woldsbury, and possibly Oldbury Camp, is a neolithic hill top enclosure or possible hillfort located on the summit of Codford Hill, a chalk promontory of Salisbury Plain, near to the village and civil parish of Codford, in Wiltshire, England.The site is oval in plan and approximately of 3.6 ha (8.9 acres). It is surrounded by a bank 6.5 m (21 ft) wide and up to 1.6 m (5.2 ft) high, then a ditch 5 m (16 ft) wide and up to 0.5 m (1.6 ft) deep, although an area on the south eastern edge has been reduced by ploughing. Aerial photography shows signs of an inner ditch, possibly signs of a former palisade fence, and entrances on the east and west sides. The entrances on the southeast and northwest sides are later in date. There is no archaeological evidence for occupation, and the earthworks have been interpreted as being defensively weak owing to their slight nature, therefore the site is interpreted as an enclosure of an unknown but ancient date.

Starveall and Stony Down is a 22.5 hectare biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in the parishes of Codford and Wylye, Wiltshire, England, notified in 1971.

Copehill Down is a Ministry of Defence training facility near Chitterne on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, England. It is a 'FIBUA' (Fighting In Built Up Areas) urban warfare and close quarters battle training centre, where exercises and tests are conducted. The site lies in open ground in the northeast of Chitterne parish, between Chitterne and Tilshead, at Ordnance Survey grid reference SU017453.

Knook Castle is the site of an Iron Age univallate hillfort on Knook Down, near the village of Knook in Wiltshire, England, but largely within the civil parish of Upton Lovell. It has also been interpreted as a defensive cattle enclosure associated with nearby Romano-British settlements. It is roughly rectangular in plan with a single entrance on the south/south-east side, but with a later break in the wall on the western side. The site is a scheduled monument.John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870–1872) described Knook Castle as follows: Knook Castle is an ancient single ditched entrenchment, of about 2 acres; is supposed to have been originally a British village, and afterwards a Roman summer camp; and has yielded Roman coins. Traces of another ancient British village are to the N. "The site of these villages", says Sir R. Hoare, "is decidedly marked by great cavities and a black soil; and the attentive eye may easily trace out the lines of houses and the streets, or rather the hollow ways, conducting to them. Numerous tumuli and barrows are in the neighbourhood." The site and surrounding downs are easily accessible by public footpath, with the Imber Range perimeter path running east to west immediately to the north of the site. Further to the north lies Imber Range, one of the military firing ranges of Salisbury Plain.

Codford is a civil parish south of Salisbury Plain in the Wylye Valley in Wiltshire, England. Its settlements are the adjacent villages of Codford St Peter and Codford St Mary, which lie some 7 miles (11 km) southeast of Warminster. The two villages are on the A36 road between Salisbury and Warminster. The A36 previously ran along the whole length of the High Street, but a bypass which was built in the 1990s removed the through traffic. The Chitterne Brook flows north–south through the parish, then turns southeast to flow through Codford St Mary before joining the Wylye.

Fisherton de la Mere, also spelt Fisherton Delamere, is a small village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Wylye, on the River Wylye, Wiltshire, England. The village lies just off the A36, midway between Salisbury and Warminster, each about 10 miles (16 km) distant. The parish came to an end in 1934 and was divided between Wylye and Stockton, the latter gaining the hamlet of Bapton while the village of Fisherton de la Mere retained a separate identity within Wylye. In 1931 the parish had a population of 195.

St Nicholas's Church in Fisherton Delamere, Wiltshire, England, was built in the 14th century. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building, and is now a redundant church in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust. It was declared redundant on 1 June 1982, and was vested in the Trust on 30 October 1984. The church, which is built in a chequerboard pattern of flint and stone, sits on a hill overlooking the River Wylye. It was built on the site of a Norman church in the 14th century and was substantially rebuilt in the 19th century. In the 1830s and 1860s John Davis organised the work including the demolition and rebuilding of the chancel under the supervision of W. Hardwick, a Warminster surveyor. It has a two-stage tower which is supported by diagonal buttresses. Inside the church is a Minton tiled reredos which may date from the 1861 rebuilding. The screen was designed by Frederick Charles Eden and installed in 1912 while carrying out other work on the church. Because of local objections the screen was never painted. The cylindrical font dates from the 12th century. One of the bells was transferred to Wylye church in 1975; two of the remaining four were cast by James Burrough of Devizes in 1745, and two by Mears in 1844. William Herbert Allen (1863–1943), a landscape watercolour artist whose career spanned more than 50 years from the 1880s to the 1940s, is buried in the churchyard.

Royal Air Force Tilshead or more simply RAF Tilshead is a former Royal Air Force station west of Tilshead, Wiltshire, England and 9 miles (14 km) east of Warminster. The unpaved airfield was open from 1925 until 1941. Nearby at Shrewton, a relief landing ground controlled by No. 38 Wing RAF was open from 1940 to 1946.

The Imber friendly fire incident took place on 13 April 1942 at Imber in the English county of Wiltshire during the Second World War. One of the Royal Air Force fighter aircraft taking part in a firepower demonstration accidentally opened fire on a crowd of spectators, killing 25 and wounding 71. Pilot error and bad weather were blamed for the incident.

Imber is an uninhabited village within the British Army's training area on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, England. It lies in an isolated area of the Plain, about 2+1⁄2 miles (4 km) west of the A360 road between Tilshead and West Lavington. A linear village, its main street follows the course of a stream. Recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086, Imber was always an isolated community, several miles from any market town, and most of its men worked in agriculture or related trades. Beginning in the 1890s, the Ministry of Defence slowly bought up the village and in 1943 the whole population of about 150 was evicted to provide an exercise area for American troops preparing for the invasion of Europe during the Second World War. After the war, the villagers were not allowed to return to their homes. The area of the former parish, which is now part of the civil parish of Heytesbury, remains under the control of the Ministry of Defence despite several attempts by former residents to return. Non-military access is limited to several open days a year.