Sample: Britain November/December 2021

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Wonders of Wiltshire

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Standing stones & stately homes

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Palace of the Peaks

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Highwaymen through history

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Life below stairs

True stories of servants in Britain’s grand houses

S Top right: Salisbury Cathedral, which boasts the tallest spire in Britain Bottom right: Lacock Abbey in Lacock village on the River Avon

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ituated in England’s rural West Country, Wiltshire is made up of rivers, medieval towns and villages, high plains and rolling downs, topped with old drovers’ roads where you can walk for miles under wide-open skies. This verdant county encompasses numerous neolithic monuments, iron age hill forts and tumuli, the ancient burial mounds that dot the skyline all over the county.

Picture-perfect Cotswold manor houses, historic churches and rural pubs abound. You can spend hours relaxing on a riverbank, where the water is clear and fast-moving, with just the rustling of the wind in the willows and the occasional birdcall to punctuate the silence.

Despite the prevailing peace, some of Britain’s most iconic and best-loved visitor attractions are in Wiltshire, not least the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Stonehenge and Avebury. Built around 5,000 years ago, these prehistoric megaliths and stone circles on Salisbury Plain are shrouded in mystery to this day.

One of the most complete stone circles in existence from this time, Stonehenge dominates the landscape. Learn all about the stones in the visitor centre – or at least examine the many theories that attempt to explain their existence

PHOTOS: © JON ARNOLD/GAVIN HELLIER/AWL IMAGES/NATIONAL TRUST IMAGES/JAMES DOBSON/MAURIZIO RELLINI/4CORNERS IMAGES/ILLUSTRATION: © LAURA HALLETT

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Hidden among the gentle wooded hills at the head of the River Stour are the lakeside walks and sweeping lawns of beautiful Stourhead

Clockwise, from left: The Palladian Bridge in the tranquil surroundings of Stourhead; the Blue Parlour within Lacock Abbey; the Westbury White Horse is one of 13 chalk figures in Wiltshire

– then stroll across the Plain to see these world-famous stones close-up. At the summer and winter solstices the sun rises on opposite sides of the monument, framed between the upright stones, making this a popular destination for modern druids.

Avebury’s stone circle and avenue are thought to be even older than Stonehenge but the stones here have been much relocated, especially by Alexander Keiller, who bought the site in the late 1930s when it had fallen into disrepair.

Many old Wiltshire buildings contain large stones taken from the ancient stone constructions here.

Salisbury, Wiltshire’s only city, is an easy drive away.

It boasts a fabulous medieval cathedral, built 1220-58, which houses the best-preserved Magna Carta and holds the record for the tallest spire in Britain. There are some fine old houses on Cathedral Close, while the Market Place hosts a Charter Market dating back to medieval times.

For a change of pace, seek out Heale House and its eight acres of riverside gardens, hidden away among the Downs above Salisbury. The house is little changed since King Charles II hid from the Roundheads here in 1651.

Snowdrop Week is a treat in February, when the gardens are briefly open to winter visitors.

Nearby Wilton House has been the family home of the Earl and Countess of Pembroke for over 460 years. The house stands on the site of a 9th-century nunnery founded

by Saxon King, Alfred the Great. The neighbouring town of Wilton has a history going back two thousand years and lays claim to the title ‘Ancient Capital of Wessex’. Don’t miss the Italianate Church of St Mary and St Nicholas,

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with its glittering mosaiced apse. ‘Wilton’ is also synonymous with luxury woollen carpets: in these parts there was always plentiful water for the mills and lots of excellent pasture for sheep.

Indeed, you will discover that most Wiltshire towns and villages have a river at their heart: rivers which drove the mills, which made the area rich. Confusingly, there are two rivers with the name Avon in Wiltshire. One rises near Malmesbury and flows west through Bradford-on-Avon.

The other rises in the Vale of Pewsey, where two tributaries, also both called the Avon, join forces and flow south towards Salisbury. Given that ‘avon’ is an old Celtic word for river, there are several waterways in Wiltshire with the name ‘River River’.

Two of Wiltshire’s most celebrated villages are rendered even prettier thanks to their riverside setting: Lacock on the River Avon (that’s the Malmesbury Avon), where William Henry Fox Talbot famously discovered the negativepositive photographic process at Lacock Abbey; and charming Castle Combe, where the By Brook, a tributary of the Avon, glides under the old bridge. These two villages may be familiar from period costume dramas and films – Dr Dolittle and War Horse featured Castle Combe, while Lacock was used in Cranford, Pride and Prejudice and the Harry Potter films.

Another cinematic location, Stourhead, stands further south. It has had starring roles in many dramas, including the recent Bridgerton and The Pursuit of Love. Hidden among the gentle wooded hills at the head of the River Stour are the lakeside walks and sweeping lawns of one BRITAIN

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THE PLANNER GETTING THERE The Great Western Railway covers most locations, served by buses and coaches from main towns like Swindon, Bradfordon-Avon, Westbury, Salisbury, Marlborough and Chippenham. www.gwr.com WHERE TO STAY In Salisbury, stay at the four-star White Hart Hotel, a 17th-century central coaching inn in the heart of the city; or try a country pub with rooms. The Bell at Ramsbury has comfortable rooms and a celebrated restaurant whose food and drink is sourced from the Ramsbury Estate; while the Red Lion in Pewsey Vale offers Michelin-starred dining and five riverside rooms with private balconies overlooking the water.

For a cottage stay with character, rent Grade II-listed Rowley Cottage in the grounds of Iford Manor. www.mercure.accor.com; www.thebellramsbury.com; www.redlionfreehouse.com; www.ifordmanor.co.uk WHERE TO EAT & DRINK There are numerous excellent pubs in Wiltshire. Try The Bell on the Common in the village of Broughton Gifford near Bradford-on-Avon, where a large village green, swaying with long grass and wildflowers and complete with a duckpond, hosts summer cricket matches. On the Kennet & Avon Canal in the village of Avoncliff, the Cross Guns has a fascinating history dating back to the mid-15th century and idyllic views. In the picturesque Woodford Valley a few miles north of Salisbury, the Bridge Inn has a garden overlooking the Avon and a cosy interior warmed by a wood burner. www.bellonthecommon.co.uk; crossgunsavoncliff.com; www. bridgeinn-woodfordvalley.co.uk

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FURTHER INFORMATION www.visitwiltshire.co.uk

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PHOTOS: © MARIANNE CARTWRIGHT-HIGNETT/GEOGPHOTOS/ALAMY/WWW.VISITWILTSHIRE.CO.UK

PHOTOS: © ROGER HARRIS/HOUSE OF LORDS

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Clockwise, from left: The Waterfront pub at Pewsey Wharf along the Kennet and Avon Canal; the Great Terrace at Iford Manor; the mosaic apse in the Italianate Church of St Mary and St Nicholas in Wilton

of the most beautiful and famous gardens in Britain, now cared for by the National Trust. Somehow the gardens manage to absorb thousands of visitors each year and still retain their serenity.

Not far away, it’s worth rising early for a surreal experience on the Longleat Estate as the lions in the Safari Park – safely penned in – join in the morning chorus of birdsong. Longleat House itself is one of the best examples of Elizabethan architecture in the country and has been home to 15 generations of the Thynne family. In winter (this year 5 November to 8 January), a spectacular light show illuminates the grounds after dusk.

Wiltshire holds an array of scenic market towns.

Best known of these is affluent Marlborough in the northeast of the county, famous for its school and the characterful buildings that line its broad high street.

Sleepy Malmesbury further north was once a place of major importance. The first King of England, King Athelston, grandson of Alfred the Great, made the town his capital in 925. The abbey with its impressive Norman porch dates from 1180. Neighbouring Abbey House, part 13thcentury, part Tudor, has beautiful landscaped gardens on the River Avon with some unexpected horticultural twists.

Bustling Bradford-on-Avon nestles on the banks of the Avon. Part 13th-century, part 17th-century, the old bridge

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spanning the river is the centrepiece of the town, featuring an 18th-century ‘lock up’ at one end, where prisoners would be held before they went before a magistrate.

In the neighbouring Frome River Valley, medieval Iford Manor is the perfect English country house, surrounded by glorious gardens. Renowned architect and garden designer Harold Peto travelled the world collecting ancient relics, and eventually chose Iford as the perfect location in which to finally settle down and display his archaeological treasures in 1899. The current owners, the Hignett family, organize a host of events, from evening champagne tours to a summer opera festival.

Once away from the main tourist sights you stand a good chance of getting lost – something that can be avoided by hiring a narrowboat. Enjoy slowly gliding through the countryside along the Kennet and Avon Canal. The 29 lock-gates at Caen Hill near Devizes might present a challenge but the experience will be memorable.

Honeystreet, not a road but the name of a tiny village on the canal, is the perfect place to moor up, with a view of the White Horse on Pewsey Downs and refreshments at the Barge Inn, built in 1810. Look out for the mystical crop circles that dot the Vale of Pewsey in the summer.

The Wiltshire countryside invites you to stop a while, spread out a blanket and have a picnic, perhaps with a BRITAIN

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