In a lot of ways, the sleepy and picturesque English village of Bratton in Wiltshire has a lot in common with Laurie Lee's novel Cider with Rosie. It has rose covered thatched cottages, narrow paths, and a single village shop, where if you stand outside long enough you get to hear of what going on in the village, from the time of someone's doctor's appointment, all about granny who is still trying to give up smoking or the route of the midnight dash to the vets of a poorly cat.
As you walk through its narrow lanes you can be forgiven for thinking you have been plunged into another world, as with Lees book, the new world has arrived here, Bratton has a main road running through its centre, new housing and its infant school is bright and modern and you can sit outside the pub, a conversion of three eighteen century buildings into one, and enjoy your local ale.
The village of Bratton can be found sheltering under the north edge of what only could be described as a mighty great hill. This 'hill' is, in fact, an escarpment of Salisbury Plain. Bratton lies just over a mile from the bigger town of Westbury and not too far from the beautiful city of Bath. A village in its own right since 1892, Bratton comes up trumps in both Geography and History categories. It can boast of its proximity to Salisbury Plain, a three hundred square mile chalk plateau leading to the above-mentioned large grass-covered escarpment, Bratton also lies on the edge of Bratton Downs, a geological site of special scientific interest.
Historically speaking, Bratton can also boast of many events linked with its ancient past from its White Horse hill carving, one of only sixteen in the country, a double-ditched iron age hill fort, the suspected site of an Anglo-Saxon battle won by King Alfred the Great against an 'uncoordinated band of Vikings' under its leader Guthrum. Bratton has a fifteenth-century court house used by Judge Jeffreys, the notorious hanging judge during the Monmouth Rebellion, earthworks of a moated medieval English Heritage site and finally, Bratton was the home of Major General Sir Jeremy Moore, Commander of British land forces during the Falklands War who lived in the village for twenty years until his death in 2007.
Like other West Country English villages, Bratton is pleasant, but unlike some that are much prettier Bratton has, as previously mentioned, an ace up its sleeve. It is steeped in history and has a beautiful array of geographical features. If you blink as you pass through you will miss it, but if you have your walking boots and are prepared to stop and look you will be genuinely surprised.
RSS Feed
