Cricklade

Cricklade's Latin motto In Loco Delicioso means "in a pleasant place".[3] In 2008 the town was awarded Best Small Town in UK in the Royal Horticultural Society's Britain in Bloom Finals and in 2011 the Champion of Champions award in the Britain in Bloom competition.[4] It hosts several sporting events and the annual Cricklade Show. The large Jubilee Clock was erected in 1898 in honour of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in the preceding year. It stands outside the Vale Hotel in High Street, where the Town Cross once stood. There are two sculptures of the Holy Cross in Cricklade, one in the churchyard of St Sampson's, the other at St Mary's. There is local rivalry about which is believed to be older.

Cricklade was founded in the 9th century by the Anglo-Saxons, at the point where the Ermin Way Roman road crossed the River Thames. It was the home of a royal mint from 979 to 1100; there are some Cricklade coins in the town museum.[5][6] The Domesday Book records Cricklade as the meeting place of Cricklade hundred in 1086.

Cricklade is one of thirty burhs (boroughs, i.e. fortresses or fortified towns) recorded in the Burghal Hidage document, which describes a system of fortresses and fortified towns built around Wessex by King Alfred. Recent research suggests these burhs were built in the short period 878–879 to defend Wessex against the Vikings under Guthrum, and to act as an offensive to the Viking presence in Mercia. Cricklade was an important part of these defences, being a short distance down Ermin Way from Cirencester, where the Vikings made their base for a year. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, completion of this system precipitated the retreat of the Vikings from Mercia and London to East Anglia in late 879.[5]

The square defences of the fortification have been excavated in several places on all four sides since the 1940s, possibly making them the most extensively sampled fortification of the period. In the initial phase, a walkway of laid stones marked the rear of a bank of stacked turfs and clay which had been dug from three external ditches.[6] In the second phase, the front of the bank, which after only a short time probably became degraded, was replaced by a stone wall. This wall enclosed the defences on all four sides, considerably strengthening the defensive capabilities of the burh. It has recently been suggested the stone wall was inserted in the 890s. Other burhs of the Burghal Hidage were also strengthened with stone walls, which suggests this was part of a systematic upgrade of the defensive provisions for Wessex, ordered by the king.[6]

The third phase is marked by systematic razing of the stone wall, which was pulled down over the inner berm (the space between the wall and the inner ditch). The stones were used to fill the inner two ditches, which shows the process was deliberate. A similar phase can be seen in the archaeological record at Christchurch, Dorset, another burh of the Hidage. Observations at other burhs suggest this phase of destruction was implemented over the whole of Wessex as a concerted policy, again, by inference, on the part of the king. The destruction may be linked to the accession of King Cnut in the early 11th century, to prevent the burhs being seized and used against him by his rivals.[6]

The fourth phase is marked by reuse of the original Anglo-Saxon defences by inserting a timber palisade along the line of the original wall. This probably marks a renewal of the defences of the town during the civil war of 1144 under King Stephen.[6]

There is little archaeological evidence of the community protected by these defences in the Saxon period, although there are signs that streets were laid out in a regular fashion behind the main north–south High Street. A gate in the northern line of the defences led to a causeway over the flood plain of the Thames and a bridge over the river, which was probably of a defensive nature.[6]

On John Speed's 1611 map of Wiltshire, the town's name is recorded as Crekelade.[6] Cricklade Museum houses several publications recounting further historical details of the town and its people.[7]

The civil parish elects a town council. It is in the area of Wiltshire Council unitary authority, which performs most significant local government functions.

Outlying hamlets in Cricklade parish are Calcutt, Chelworth Lower Green, Chelworth Upper Green, Hailstone Hill and Horsey Down.

There is an electoral ward with the name of Cricklade and Latton, which combines Cricklade parish with its neighbours to the north east: Latton and Marston Maisey. The ward population recorded in the 2011 census was 4,982.[8]

The parish is in the North Wiltshire parliamentary constituency. From 1295 the Cricklade constituency returned two members of parliament. This parliamentary borough represented just the town until 1782, when its boundaries were extended into the surrounding countryside. It later came to include Swindon, then a village. In 1885, Cricklade became a county constituency electing a single member. Cricklade constituency was abolished in 1918, with the town joining Chippenham, which was renamed to North Wiltshire in 1983 and had its boundaries redrawn in 2010, when Chippenham was given its own seat.

Large Georgian homes in central Cricklade

Cricklade Business Association[37] represents the local business community and has close links with other non-profit organisations, such as the Rotarians, the Waylands Trust, and the charity that runs the leisure centre.

Cricklade's many public houses include the Vale, the Old Bear, the White Hart, and the Red Lion. Drinks are also sold at the White Horse Members' Club and the leisure centre. An above-average proportion of the ward population ward was retired at the time of the 2011 census.[38]

There is a local museum in Calcutt Street run by the Cricklade Historical Society, housed in a former Baptist chapel. T. R. Thomson of Costorphine was a long-time resident of Cricklade and a moving spirit behind the establishment of the society. His book Materials for a History of Cricklade and various articles have enhanced the study of local history in the town.

In birth order:

• Robert of Cricklade ({c. 1000 – c. 1174–1179) was a teacher and later prominent writer based in Cirencester Abbey and the Priory of St Frideswide, Oxford.
• John Hungerford (c. 1566–1635) was a politician whose interest in Cricklade led him to build the market house in the High Street and a flying buttress for the Lady Chapel of St Sampson's Church.
• Robert Jenner (1584–1651), merchant and politician, founded a school in Cricklade and was buried here.
• Nevil Maskelyne (1611–1679), was a landowner and MP for Cricklade. He gained the town a weekly market and four fairs a year from 1662.
• George R. Poulton (born 1828), the American composer of the song "Aura", was born here.
• Reginald Arkell (1882–1959), scriptwriter, novelist and humorist, died here.
• Ellis Peters (1913–1995), set her medieval mystery novel Brother Cadfael's Penance in Cricklade.
• Francis Maddison (1927–2006), historian and Arabist, directed archaeological excavations in Cricklade.

The Thames Path, running through Cricklade, heads downstream on the south bank to Eysey Footbridge, where it crosses to the other bank.

The North Wilts Canal, opened in 1819, passed to the west of the town, linking the Thames and Severn Canal with the Wilts and Berks Canal. Abandoned in the early 20th century, parts are now being restored.[39] The Town Bridge, built in 1812, marks the limits of navigation rights on the River Thames.[40]

Cricklade railway station on the Midland and South Western Junction Railway linked Swindon with Cirencester, but was closed in 1961 and no trace of the station remains. Part of the railway route forms a cycle path (national cycle route 45). South of the town, the Swindon and Cricklade Railway is restoring the line as a leisure facility. Since 2007 passenger trains have been run between Blunsdon and Hayes Knoll, and in 2014 the line has been extended to Taw Valley Halt on the edge of Swindon. It is also being extended towards Cricklade. The nearest station to Cricklade at present is Hayes Knoll. The nearest mainline railway station is Swindon on the Great Western Main Line.

The A419 Swindon to Cirencester road bypasses the town to the north-east.

• Cricklade (UK Parliament constituency) (1295-1918)
• Down Ampney, Gloucestershire, 5 miles (8.0 km) to the north of Cricklade, birthplace of the 20th-century English pastoral composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, who also wrote spiritual music and edited the first edition of the English Hymnal. He drew on folk music of the area.

• Pevsner, Nikolaus; Cherry, Bridget (revision) (1975) [1963]. Wiltshire. The Buildings of England. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. pp. 199–202. ISBN 0140710264.
• Pugh, R.B.; Crittall, Elizabeth (eds.) (1956). A History of the County of Wiltshire, Volume 3 - Hospitals: St John the Baptist, Cricklade. Victoria County History. pp. 335–336.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cricklade.

• Cricklade Town Council
• Cricklade at Curlie
• Cricklade in the Domesday Book