Alderbury


Alderbury is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, about southeast of Salisbury.
The parish includes the village of Whaddon, which is adjacent to Alderbury, and the hamlet of Shute End. The River Avon forms the western boundary of the parish. The villages are on the Salisbury-Southampton road which became the A36 primary route; a bypass was opened in 1978, taking the A36 to the east of the villages.

Religious sites

A church at Alderbury was recorded in the 1086 Domesday Book. A new parish church of St Mary was erected on the same foundations in 1857–58 to designs by S.S. Teulon, with stained glass by Henry Holiday; Clayton and Bell; Heaton, Butler and Bayne; and William Morris. The church is Grade II listed. The parish had chapelries at Farley and Pitton until 1874, when the parish of Farley with Pitton was created.
There was a church or chapel at Whaddon in the 12th to 14th centuries, which fell into disuse sometime before 1536.
Ivychurch Priory, near Alderbury, was an Augustinian monastery established in the 12th century and dissolved in 1536.
A Wesleyan Methodist chapel was built at Alderbury in 1825 and demolished in 1970. A Primitive Methodist chapel built at Whaddon in 1884 became a Roman Catholic chapel in 1990.

Notable buildings

Alderbury House, near St Mary's church, is a Grade II* listed country house from the late 18th century.
At Shute End, St Marie's Grange was built in 1835 by architect Augustus Pugin for his own occupation. The house is Grade I listed.

Workhouses

The Alderbury Poor Law Union built workhouses to serve the Salisbury area. One workhouse was built on Coombe Road in 1836. Another was built near the Odstock road in 1878 and later had a chapel added. The county council took over the site, renamed Meyrick Close, in the 1970s as a social services facility.

Notable people

In the 16th century, Ivychurch Priory was converted into a house by Henry Herbert, 2nd Earl of Pembroke. Residents included Sir George Penruddock ; Mary Herbert, Countess of Pembroke ; and John Dove.
Tennis player Violet Millicent Pinckney was born at Alderbury.

Canal and railways

The Salisbury and Southampton Canal was built from Kimbridge to Alderbury but was never completed as far as Salisbury; construction stopped at Tunnel Hill, near Alderbury House. The canal was opened in 1802 or 1803 and closed in 1806.
The Bishopstoke-Romsey-Salisbury section of the London and South Western Railway was built north of Alderbury and Whaddon, turning west into the Dean valley towards station at West Dean. Opened in 1847, it continues in use as part of the Wessex Main Line between Bristol and Southampton. In 1866 the Salisbury and Dorset Junction Railway was built from a junction with the earlier railway near Alderbury, skirting Whaddon and turning south towards and the south coast. This line was closed in 1964 and the track was lifted.

Amenities

Alderbury has a primary school, Alderbury & West Grimstead CofE Primary School, which opened in 1993 on a new site to replace a building which had been used as a school since 1838.
There is one pub: the Green Dragon at Alderbury, additionally a social club is situated next to the village hall in the grounds of the recreation field.
Whaddon has a post office / newsagent. Alderbury has a slightly larger local store on Canal Lane.