40: Aldbourne Circular Route and the Abandoned Village of Snap

Hidden Wiltshire Podcast

Back to recording indoors this month, and back to recording from different countries. Whilst Glyn remains in Wiltshire Paul is once again doing battle with French rural internet which seems to be arriving by means of a telephone cable lying in a ditch outside the village. But it’s amazing what Glyn can do with his editing software so the audio was fine.
Bearing in mind Paul has been away for a few weeks and Glyn has been tied up with work, there was a surprising amount to report in terms of activity since last month’s podcast.
Once again Elaine Perkins has been busily producing some terrific blogs and Facebook posts including a little history and fascinating secrets to be found in Fisherton Anger in Salisbury (Facebook post); a blog about The Village of Alderbury on the website (link below); and a blog about The Borbach Chantry also on the website (link below). Elaine seemed to spend a lot of her time trying to link two sections of a right of way interrupted by a river!
Contributors to the Closed Facebook Group will have seen some stunning aerial shots by Hedley Thorne of Hippenscombe and Fosbury Camp, and Wansdyke. The latter was part of a collaboration with You Tubers Paul and Rebecca Whitewick who posted a fascinating video about Open Access areas. You can find a link to the video below.
Facebook Contributor Colin Fry posted some images of Stanley Bridge and nearby Tytherton Lucas which were in the area of Paul’s blog entitled Maud Heath’s Causeway.
Meanwhile Paul has gone all spiritual and posted a couple more blogs featuring churches on his doorstep – the two churches at Orcheston, and St Andrew’s Church, Orcheston. Links to the blogs can be found below. But it wasn’t all about churches. Paul and his walking buddy Stu undertook a long day’s walk from Shrewton to Stapleford and back to search for the end of the River Till where it joins the River Wylye. The walk was particularly long as it involved an hour or so in the pub! A link to this blog can be found below.
To be fair to Glyn he did actually manage to get out and led the final Wiltshire Museum Guided Walk on Fyfield Down taking in the Devil’s Den and the Polissoir Stone.
But before we moved onto this week’s main subject we talked about cats. Large black cats. Whilst reading Robert Macfarlane’s beautiful book The Old Ways – A Journey on Foot, Paul came across Macfarlane’s story about his encounter with what he was certain was a black panther on the Marlborough Downs. There have been many sightings of these big cats in Wiltshire including one by Paul outside Shrewton. So Glyn has decided to start a new thread about black panther sightings on Facebook. Meanwhile there’s a link to Robert Macfarlane’s superb book below.
Finally we got onto the main subject of this episode of the podcast. A walk Paul and Stu did in March 2022 starting from Aldbourne taking in Liddington Castle and the abandoned village of Snap. You can follow the map and walk description in Paul’s blog, linked below. This is a walk rich in history from the Bronze Age right up to World War II. Aldbourne was the base for the US Army’s 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division, or Easy Company as they came to be known, and as featured in the film series Band of Brothers. And of course the walk was accompanied by some spectacular wide reaching views of Wiltshire.
In the discussion about the walk Paul mentioned a website containing some great historical facts about the history to be found along the way in this walk. The site in question was actually that for Aldbourne Heritage Centre and we’ve included a link below.
Then on to the wrap up for this episode:
Steve Dixon’s piece leading into our main subject is called “Round the Downs”. As ever the piece in the introduction and at the end of the podcast is entitled “The Holloway”.
Finally, don’t forget to check out the Hidden Wiltshire online shop on the website if you’d like to help us keep the lights on. The first Hidden Wiltshire book has now sold out but the second book is still available from the website. The book is also available at Devizes Bookshop, Wiltshire Museum in Devizes and now Wiltshire’s libraries. And don’t forget to subscribe to the Hidden Wiltshire Newsletter from the website. You can also subscribe to alerts about new Blogs.
Links:
Elaine Perkins’ blog about Alderbury can be found here The Village of Alderbury
Elaine’s blog about The Borbach Chantry can be found here The Borbach Chantry and The Woods
Paul and Rebecca Whitewick’s video about Open Access areas with aerial footage by Hedley Thorne can be found here The UK's Mystery Inland Islands
Paul’s blog about Orcheston’s two churches can be found here Orcheston and the Tale of Two Churches
Paul’s blog about Rollestone St Andrew’s Church can be found here St Andrew's Church Rollestone
Paul’s blog about the River Till and where it joins the River Wylye can be found here Stapleford and the end of The River Till
Robert Macfarlane’s book – The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot The Old Ways - Robert Macfarlane
Paul’s blog about the Aldbourne Circular Route and the Abandoned Village of Snap can be found here Aldbourne Circular Route
Aldbourne Heritage Centre’s website can be found here Aldbourne Heritage Centre
Glyn’s photographs can be seen on his Instagram feed @coy_cloud
He is also very active on Twitter where his username is @Glyndle
Paul’s photography can be found on his website at Paul Timlett Photography and on Instagram at @tragicyclist
Steve Dixon’s sound art can be found on Soundcloud where his username is River and Rail Steve Dixon River and Rail. His photographs can be found on Instagram at @stevedixon_creative and his graphic design business website is at Steve Dixon Creative
And finally you’ll find the Hidden Wiltshire online shop here Hidden Wiltshire Shop
and a link to Glyn’s blog about the latest book and how to purchase a copy here Hidden Wiltshire from near and far