Durrington, Wiltshire

The area had been occupied since Neolithic times[3] but not necessarily continuously. The parish contains two important Neolithic sites: Durrington Walls and Woodhenge. Recent archaeological excavations indicate that the Neolithic inhabitants of the village kept a large number of pigs, with bone evidence suggesting that the pigs were unusually large for the time. This may be because inhabitants fattened them up to sell them to visitors to nearby Stonehenge.[4]

There is little evidence of Saxon occupation, but this may be because buildings and utensils of that time were made of wood, so little survives. The Domesday Book recorded two estates in 1086, having land for one plough team and with 5 acres (2.0 ha) of meadow.[5] These two estates may represent the later two manors.

West End manor was part of the king's estate of Amesbury until 1120 but East End manor had different origins, being privately owned by Patrick de Salisbury. At this time each manor was using the open field system, but over time this system evolved into a two, and then a three, field system. The population also began increasing and in 1377 there were 139 poll tax payers making Durrington one of the most populous villages in the hundred of Amesbury.

In 1390, Durrington's manors had a rental income of £40 which gradually decreased to £29 8s 6d in 1521.[6]

In 1399 the West End manor was given as an endowment of the newly created Winchester College, and an excellent collection of documents on its management and usage has been preserved by the College. They have also provided the name for College Road.

In 1405 the Durrington Fire occurred, the cause of which is unknown. It is widely theorised that a lamp falling onto a bale of hay caused it to ignite, or possibly that a house fire got out of control. Whatever the cause, the fire resulted in the destruction of most of the West End because most of the houses were built in an unusually close proximity to one another. Many of the West End families were left homeless, but were generously compensated by Winchester College.[7]

There were notable problems in collecting rent from tenants in the 15th and 16th centuries. Winchester College, as lord of the manor, had to pardon a great deal of rent after failing to collect it for several years. In 1461, the college decided its only option was to lower rents, cutting the rent on virgates from 20s to 16s and half-virgates from 9s to 7s, yet problems persisted. In 1480, a local tenant, John Langford, was pardoned £58 because he did not have goods from which the proceeds could be raised.[8]

The village remained a prosperous farming community although, apart from the church, there is little visual evidence before the 17th century. In 1610 East End Manor was extended with an east-west range, changing it into an L–shaped building. This new extension was used to shelter Catholic priests during the Reformation, with a number of priest holes being found here.[9] There are 17th-century houses of timber and cob, with thatched roofs, surviving in College Road, High Street and Church Street. In 1676 the population was said to be 334 people. Despite evidence of a substantial amount of building work, mainly farmhouses, in the 18th century the village did not really increase in size and remained concentrated around its two main streets.

One of the Salisbury Plain's last great bustards was shot in Durrington by a shepherd in 1802. He gave it to a Mr Moore, who commissioned a painting of it by a Mr Dudman.[10]

A second Durrington Fire occurred in 1921 when the thatch to the Old Rectory on Church Street caught fire, the wind took the embers over the Church tower landing on the thatched tied cottages to the south, razing most and leaving the remainder ruined. The Old Rectory was rebuilt under a tiled roof, and is now one of the village's more substantial houses. The cottages were removed and are now replaced by small number of residential mobile homes.

Although John Burgess asserted (without evidence) that a community of Jews settled in the East Side of the village shortly before 1405, this cannot be true as there were no Jewish communities present in England at that time.

The village has three small convenience stores: a Nisa, a Sainsbury's Local and also a Tesco Express that opened in 2008. It has an Esso filling station with a small shop and repair yard. There is also the hardware shop Bits & Pieces, a furniture shop and several hairdressers and barber's shops. Palmer's paper shop in the middle of Durrington.

No bank branches remain in the village. The Post Office closed in 2005; a Post Point opened in the village hall in October 2010 but it does not offer banking facilities. A Post Point exists as of 2019 in the Nisa but it does not offer banking facilities.

The village has three schools providing all levels of compulsory education. Durrington All Saints CofE Infant School provides lower primary education (reception to year 2); Durrington CofE VC Junior School provides upper primary education (years 3 to 6); and Avon Valley College (formerly known as Upper Avon School) provides secondary education (years 7 to 11) and has a sixth form (years 12 to 13).

There are two public houses: the Plough and the Stonehenge Inn, at opposite ends of the village.

The village has a small swimming pool and fitness centre, which is next to the secondary school. There is also a recreation ground with football pitch, two tennis courts, a park, BMX jumps and skateboarding facilities.

All Saints' Church

The Church of England parish church existed by 1179, when it was confirmed to the Fontrevist Amesbury Priory.[16] The church is likely to have had a dedication but by 1763 it was unknown.[16] The building's earliest surviving features include its Norman south doorway and three-bay late-12th-century arcade.[17]

The chancel was rebuilt in the 13th century and the Perpendicular gothic[17] west window of the nave was added in about 1500.[16] The 15th-century tower has six bells, of which five are 17th-century.[18] In 1851 the church was rebuilt to designs by the Gothic Revival architect J.W. Hugall and dedicated to All Saints.[16] Hugall retained original features including the 13th-century Norman lancet windows on the south side of the chancel, and added the north aisle.[17]

The church is a Grade II* listed building.[19] The parish is now part of the Avon River Team ministry.[20]

Larkhill has a garrison church, St Alban the Martyr, built in brick in 1938.[21]

Durrington had a small Presbyterian congregation in the 1660s and 1670s.[16] No nonconformists were recorded in the parish in 1783.[16] An independent chapel had opened by 1824 and was rebuilt or altered in 1860.[16] It may have been Wesleyan Methodist in about 1880 but by 1899 it was Congregationalist.[16] In 1905 it was replaced by a new chapel in Bulford Road, which since 1965 has been a member of the Evangelical Fellowship of Congregational Churches.[22] Additionally there is a small evangelical church called Durrington Community Church, which meets weekly in the Village Hall; this has been running since 1991.[23]

Our Lady Queen of Heaven Roman Catholic church was opened in 1960. It was still open in 1995,[16] but has since closed.[7]