Winsley Mines

Freshford railway station is a railway station serving the village of Freshford, Bath and North East Somerset, England. It also serves the nearby village of Limpley Stoke in Wiltshire. The station has two platforms and is served by Great Western Railway. For many years the station had a notable flower garden maintained by the Vaisey sisters. This later faded but in 2007 local residents renovated the garden and planted new flowers in the memory of the Vaisey sisters. A few weeks later staff from Network Rail cut down all the flowers.In February 2006, Platform 2 at Freshford was raised by 30 cm to reduce the large stepping gap between the train and the platform. It had been lowered in 1988 as part of the realignment of the track through the station to allow trains to pass at a faster speed. At the same time the platform was raised, the station also received additional improvements including better lighting and the construction of a new waiting shelter.

The River Frome is a river in Somerset, England. It rises near Bungalow Farm on Cannwood Lane, south-west of Witham Friary, flows north through Blatchbridge to the town of Frome, and continues in a generally northerly direction passing between the eastern edge of the Mendip Hills and Trowbridge before joining the Bristol Avon at Freshford, below Bradford on Avon. The river is approximately 43 kilometres (27 mi) in length, comprising 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) from its source to the confluence with Maiden Bradley Brook, 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) through Frome to the confluence with the Mells River, and 18 kilometres (11 mi) to the Avon. Below Frome the river passes close to Beckington, Rode, Tellisford, Farleigh Hungerford and Iford Manor. The name Frome comes from the Old British word ffraw meaning fair, fine or brisk and describing the flow of the river. The name was first recorded in 701 when Pope Sergius gave permission to Bishop Aldhelm to found a monastery "close to the river which is called From" (Latin: "juxta fluvium qui vocatur From").

Freshford Manor is an early 18th century house in Freshford, Somerset, England. It is a Grade II* listed building.The two-storey Cotswold stone house, designed by Thomas Greenway, was built on the site of a previous house. A new wing at the rear of the house was built in the early 19th century and the north wing was added in the 1880s. By the 1950s the house and garden were derelict and under threat of demolition; however, it was bought and restored. One of the owners was William Francis Patrick Napier who wrote part of his History of the Peninsular War at a stone table in the garden of the house.

The Anglican Church of St Peter in Freshford within the English county of Somerset dates from the 15th century. It is a Grade II* listed building.Parts of St Peter's Church, which is on the north side of the village, date back to the fifteenth century. The three stage tower, which is supported by diagonal buttresses, was added in 1514. The church underwent Victorian restoration by Charles Edward Davis.The churchyard has a number of Georgian chest tombs, dating from the late 18th and early 19th century, four of which are listed in their own right.The parish is part of the benefice of Freshford with Limpley Stoke and Hinton Charterhouse within the Diocese of Bath and Wells.

Winsley is a large village and civil parish about 2 miles (3 km) west of Bradford on Avon in Wiltshire, England. The parish includes the hamlets of Conkwell, Turleigh, Little Ashley and Great Ashley.

Freshford is a village and civil parish in the Avon valley 6 miles (10 km) south-east of Bath, in the county of Somerset, England. The parish has a population of 551. It is in the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), within the Green Belt and is in a conservation area. The village of Freshford includes the smaller hamlets of Friary, Sharpstone, Park Corner, Woodside and Staples Hill, which are separated from the village centre by a few hundred metres of open fields. The village history goes back to Saxon times and it expanded with the growth of local industry but is now largely residential.

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.

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.

The Friary is a small hamlet outside the English village of Freshford, about 6 miles (10 km) south of Bath, Somerset. Although closer to Freshford it lies within the parish of Hinton Charterhouse. The hamlet consists of two small fields named Church Close and Corn Close, which are bounded to the south by Friary Wood and to the north by the River Frome. There are five detached houses which are accessed by a narrow lane about 0.5 miles (0.8 km) long, known locally as the causeway, which descends steeply through Friary Wood from the Warminster Road originally called the Black Dog Turnpike. The name Friary comes from its relationship to the Carthusian priory at Hinton Charterhouse about one mile away, and was where the lay brothers lived. A larger village south of Frome called Witham Friary also has connections to the Carthusians. On some early texts and Ordnance Survey maps it is shown as Friary Green. An early map of Somerset dated 1782 records the name as Friery Green. But today it is known locally as simply Friary or The Friary. There are very little standing archaeological remains of the buildings used and lived in by the lay brothers but there is evidence of contemporary construction in one of the remaining cottages and the remains of a mill adjacent to the river Frome are still visible. The church of Church Close has disappeared and is thought to have been robbed of its stone to build the later mill at nearby Iford. However, examples of the stonemasons' art are regularly unearthered, including window tracery and mullions, and door surrounds which could only have come from a high status building such as a church. There is also evidence of fish ponds and buried walls belonging to other structures built during the lay brothers' occupation. The site has never been subject to detailed archaeological investigation. The lay brothers abandoned the site some time before the dissolution of the monasteries and it later became part of the Hinton Abbey Farm estate. A map of Hinton Abbey Farm dated 1785 shows dwellings now long since demolished together with the names of their occupants or tenants. Two of the names appearing on this map are Swift and Humphrys. These families were related. Both Swift and Humphrys (now spelt Humphries) were living in Friary (in the same dwelling) according to the 1901 census and Humphries were living in the nearby village of Hinton Charterhouse until the late 1900s. One Mercy Swift, recorded on the 1901 census as 14 years old, was still living in Friary until the 1950s when the house she occupied was demolished as unfit. At that time it had neither electricity nor running water. Water had to be fetched from a nearby spring known as Ela's Well which itself has significant legendary connections with the founding of the monastery at nearby Hinton. Ela was Countess of Salisbury and in addition to founding the priory at Hinton she also founded the abbey at Lacock. Today many of the dwellings in Friary still derive water supplies from a local spring although it now arrives via a network of pipes. Mercy Swift's house or at least the ruins of it are still visible alongside the bridle path that links Friary to Freshford and in spring her hidden garden still produces an unexpected show of spring bulbs.

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.

Conkwell is a hamlet in Winsley parish, Wiltshire, England, near the county border with North East Somerset. It is about 2.3 miles (3.7 km) west of Bradford-on-Avon and 3 miles (5 km) southeast of the city of Bath. The settlement was established to house the workers in the local stone quarries. The southern side is in Winsley, but the northern is in the Somerset parish of Bathford.There used to be a small chapel serving the community, which has been incorporated into one of the dwellings. Conkwell Grange, to the south of the hamlet, is a country house built in 1907, designed in 17th-century style by E. G. Dawber for J. Thornton; the house is surrounded by an estate, created at the same time. Racehorses are trained at stables immediately east of the house.At the end of the Dundas Aqueduct on the Kennet and Avon Canal, a wharf was constructed to serve the Conkwell stone quarries.