place

Dauntsey

Civil parishes in WiltshireEngvarB from July 2016OpenDomesdayVillages in Wiltshire
Dauntsey primary school geograph.org.uk 299923
Dauntsey primary school geograph.org.uk 299923

Dauntsey is a small village and civil parish in the county of Wiltshire, England. It gives its name to the Dauntsey Vale in which it lies and takes its name from Saxon for Dantes- eig, or Dante's island. It is set on slightly higher ground in the flood plain of the upper Bristol Avon. Today, the parish is split by the M4 motorway, with a chain of historic smaller settlements spread either side. Dauntsey Green is north of the motorway, along with Dauntsey Church at the entrance to Dauntsey Park; to the south are Greenman's Lane, Sodom and Dauntsey Lock. Dauntsey Lock is on the former Wilts and Berks Canal (presently being restored), the course of which runs alongside the Bristol-London mainline railway.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Dauntsey (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 51.536 ° E -2.011 °
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Address

Church Lane

Church Lane
SN15 4HW , Dauntsey
England, United Kingdom
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Dauntsey primary school geograph.org.uk 299923
Dauntsey primary school geograph.org.uk 299923
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Nearby Places

Dauntsey Vale

The Dauntsey Vale is a geographical feature in the north of the English county of Wiltshire. It is characterised by a wide, flat, clay floodplain of the upper reaches of the Bristol Avon river, which divides the Cotswolds to the west from the chalk downland of east and south Wiltshire. It is triangular in shape with its north edge running from the town of Royal Wootton Bassett in the east to Malmesbury in the west. This prominent north ridge is the setting for the village of Brinkworth, which at five miles long, claims to be the longest village in England. The western edge of the Vale is the edge of the Cotswolds, running from Malmesbury to Chippenham in the south. This edge is less pronounced than the classic escarpment which forms the western edge of the Cotswolds. It is characterised by a gradual drop in level, but more in the different building materials of the villages. For instance, Stanton St Quintin above the Vale has a distinct Cotswolds feel with the typical honey-coloured building stone and roof slates, while villages just a few miles away to the east like Christian Malford and Sutton Benger have typically thatched homes. The eastern edge of the Vale is more pronounced, with a steep and high hill forming a ridge running from Wootton Bassett in the north to close to Calne in the south. This ridge top provides the location for RAF Lyneham, the home until 2011 of the RAF's Hercules transport planes. It takes its name from the village of Dauntsey in the centre of the Vale.

RAF Lyneham
RAF Lyneham

Royal Air Force Lyneham otherwise known as RAF Lyneham (IATA: LYE, ICAO: EGDL) was a Royal Air Force station located 6.3 miles (10.1 km) northeast of Chippenham, Wiltshire, and 10.3 miles (16.6 km) southwest of Swindon, Wiltshire, England. The station was the home of all the Lockheed C-130 Hercules transport aircraft of the Royal Air Force (RAF) before they were relocated to RAF Brize Norton. RAF Lyneham was the Royal Air Force's principal transport hub, operating the modern Lockheed Martin C-130J Hercules, and the ageing, but very adaptable, Lockheed C-130K Hercules. The airfield was designated as a Master Diversion Airfield: it was one of the primary airfields to which aircraft could divert in the eventuality of their home bases being closed due to weather, or other unforeseen events such as aircraft crashes. The airfield became renowned for being the "gateway" between the United Kingdom and Afghanistan; the station was also where repatriation of British personnel killed in Iraq and Afghanistan took place. The bodies were transported through the nearby town of Royal Wootton Bassett, with crowds lining the streets to pay tribute to the fallen. The station closed on 31 December 2012 with the majority of its personnel and other assets having moved to RAF Brize Norton. On 31 May 2011, a parade was held, attended by the Princess Royal, to mark the departure of the squadrons. The final Hercules left Lyneham on 1 July 2011. Daily flying operations ceased on 30 September 2011.The site is now known as Ministry of Defence Lyneham (or MoD Lyneham) and is home to the Defence School of Electro-Mechanical Engineering (DSEME).

Great Somerford Halt railway station
Great Somerford Halt railway station

Great Somerford Halt was a station on the Malmesbury Branch Line of the Great Western Railway in Wiltshire, England. It was open from 1877 to 1933 for passengers, and 1879 to 1922 for goods. The station, at first named Somerford, was opened in December 1877 as part of the Malmesbury branch which left the Great Western Main Line at Dauntsey, 2+1⁄2 miles (4.0 km) to the southeast. The station was on the road to Little Somerford and separated from the northern edge of Great Somerford village by the River Avon. A small goods yard and siding were in use from January 1879.The name of the station was changed to Great Somerford in 1903 when the GWR opened a more direct route to South Wales, the South Wales Main Line which left the earlier main line at Royal Wootton Bassett and passed half a mile (900 metres) to the north near Little Somerford, where a new station was built. The reduction in traffic led to changes in 1922 at Great Somerford: the goods yard closed and staff were withdrawn from the station, which was now named Great Somerford Halt.In 1933, Little Somerford station was linked to the Malmesbury branch and became the junction station. The line south to Dauntsey, along with Great Somerford Halt, was closed on 17 July 1933, as usage of the halt had declined to an average of one passenger per two trains. The track as far south as Great Somerford was retained until 1959 and used for storage of rolling stock; the track further south had been lifted by 1949. The site of the station and goods yard is now occupied by a sewage works. The station master's house, next to the road, survives.