Silbury Hill
Swindon also has Victorian parks and gardens, areas of extended woodlands, museums, galleries, and centres of heritage. Swindon’s special gem is the elegant Georgian Lydiard House which is set in rolling parkland. For lovers of music and spectacle Swindon is definitely the place for you with the Old Town Festival, Swindon Summer Festival, Forest Festival, World Music Festival and many more.
In Old Town there is the Swindon Museum & Art Gallery. Or you may fancy the picturesque Town Gardens and the nearby park The Lawn with its ornamental trees, wonderful walks & lakes. Come and see wildlife in their natural habitats and a wide range of floral and fauna at Stanton Park or Sevenfields. Extensive areas of Coate Water Country Park are included within the area which has been designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest, bird watching is popular here. Also why not visit The Richard Jefferies Museum: this well known writer was born at Coate.
A few miles south of Swindon is Barbury Castle, a country park of vast open spaces and offering magnificent views of Swindon. Nightingale Wood to the north -west is part of The Great Western Community Forest. The River Ray Parkway is a beautiful walk covering over eight miles through some of the most interesting and scenic areas of Swindon.
The parish of Chisledon is extensive and contains the communities of Badbury, Burderop, Coate, Draycot Foliat and Hodson all have something to offer the visitor. Yatesbury is about the centrepoint of the towns of Swindon, Chippenham, Devizes and Marlborough. This is a place with many interests for the visitor and on the adjacent downs there are various footpaths and track-ways.
Bishopstone is a thatched village a few miles east of Swindon near Charlbury Hill and the Ridgeway. The old three-storey mill is an impressive building in the village. This picturesque village is a delight so when you visit take your camera.
Marlborough Downs is a World Heritage Site attracting millions of visitors a year to marvel at the huge stone circles, stone-lined avenues, and ditches. Avebury Stones is one of the most important megalithic monuments in Europe and a must on any itinerary. Avebury village has a museum that contains interactive displays, the Alexander Keiller Museum housing one of the most important prehistoric archaeological collections in Britain, the Barn Gallery containing exhibits and other information supplied by the National Trust. The village itself holds much of interest including the church of St. James and the Red Lion Inn. Nearby is Silbury Hill at forty metres high this is the largest man-made hill in Europe.
Marlborough is ideally positioned close to the M4 making it a perfect base from which to explore the beautiful county of Wiltshire. Avebury, Silbury Hill and West Kennet Longbarrow are about six miles west of the town. Along the High Street of the town there are the 17C Chandlers Yard and 17C Merchant’s House showing aspects of period town life from shop to servants, brew house to parlour.
Situated in the centre of Britain’s second widest High Street the Castle and Ball hotel occupies a site where an inn has stood since 15C. Some of the hotel’s surviving original oak timbers predate the Spanish Armada. At the corner of Kingsbury Street, is The Church of St Mary the Virgin, of Norman origin and rebuilt in the Cromwellian period, it is well worth a visit.
Nearby Collingbourne Ducis is set in one of the most beautiful rural areas of Britain and from here there is the beautiful forest of Savernake and Collingbourne Woods to explore.
Next is the pretty village of Pewsey just to the south of Marlborough. It offers a Heritage Centre, a main line railway station and the Scotchel and Jones Mill Nature Reserves are nearby. The village has a wharf on the Kennet & Avon Canal where there are boat trips etc, and this is a good base for walking, cycling, and riding around the surrounding area. A little further east is the little village of Gt. Bedwyn, which is worth stopping at if you are cruising on the canal.
Wroughton is to the north of the Ridgeway National Trail. The old part of the village contains 17C thatched cottages that would not look amiss on a jigsaw puzzle. There is a stream running through the village and leading to the countryside there is a good network of rights of way for walkers, horse riders, and cyclists. Roundway Hill Covert is sixty eight acres of woodland with fauna & flora and panoramic views extending from the Vale of Pewsey to the east, along the northern edge of Salisbury Plain to the Avon valley and the Bowood and Spye Park estates to the north.
Wroughton is home to the STUDLEY GRANGE BUTTERFLY WORLD AND CRAFT VILLAGE showcasing a beautiful collection of butterflies
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