Blunsdon

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Civil parish in Wiltshire, England

title: "Blunsdon" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["civil-parishes-in-wiltshire", "borough-of-swindon"] description: "Civil parish in Wiltshire, England" topic_path: "general/civil-parishes-in-wiltshire" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blunsdon" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Civil parish in Wiltshire, England ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox UK place"]

Field	Value
official_name	Blunsdon
country	England
region	South West England
static_image_name	Fred C Palmer Chapel Hill Blunsdon 1920.jpg
static_image_caption	Chapel Hill, Blunsdon ca.1920
population	2714
population_ref	(parish, 2021)
os_grid_reference	SU154902
post_town	Swindon
postcode_area	SN
postcode_district	SN25, SN26
dial_code	01793
constituency_westminster	Swindon North
civil_parish	Blunsdon
unitary_england	Swindon
lieutenancy_england	Wiltshire
website
coordinates
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Blunsdon is a civil parish in the Borough of Swindon, in Wiltshire, England, about 4 mi north of the centre of Swindon, with the A419 forming its southern boundary. Its main settlement is the village of Broad Blunsdon, with Lower Blunsdon nearby; the hamlet of Broadbush is now contiguous with Broad Blunsdon.

Blunsdon is the eastern half of the former Blunsdon St Andrew civil parish. In April 2017, that parish was divided and the western half became a new St Andrews parish.

History

Blunsdon has been inhabited at least since the Iron Age. Castle Hill is the site of a hillfort and is a scheduled monument. In Roman times, a travellers' resting place existed on the site of the present-day Cold Harbour public house. The main A419 road follow the course of a Roman road known as Ermin Way that linked the historic Roman towns of Gloucester (Glevum) and Silchester (Calleva Atrebatum), via Cirencester (Corinium).

The Domesday Book of 1086 records a manor of Bluntesdone, comprising three settlements across Blunsdon Hill on either side of Ermin Street, with altogether ten households and a total value of £5 17s. Broad Blunsdon is first mentioned as Bradebluntesdone in 1234, in the "Calendar of the Feet of Fines for Wiltshire for 1195–1272".

The L-shaped manor house, just west of the church, was built and enlarged in the 17th century; it has two fireplaces from c.1600, and a staircase also from that century.

In 1870, Broad Blunsdon was recorded as having a population of 806 in 198 households, and covering 2,260 acres, and was valued at £2,194. It lay in the chapelry of Highworth. The village included the tithing of Bury Blunsdon, population 17, now marked only by the farms of upper and lower Burytown.

Two areas of Broad Blunsdon village, one encompassing the church, were designated as a conservation area in 1990.{{London Gazette | issue = 52292 | date = 4 October 1990 | page = 15595

Parish church

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f1/St._Leonards_church,Blunsdon(geograph_3565908).jpg" caption="St Leonard's church"] ::

St Leonard's, the Church of England parish church, is in the north-east of the village. The stone rubble building has 13th-century origins, seen in the four-bay south arcade and a small two-light window in the south aisle. The west tower is from the 15th century; the elaborate wooden screen under the tower is 17th-century. A monument to John Potenger (died 1733), in white and grey marble with cherub heads, is signed by Peter Scheemakers.

William Butterfield carried out extensive restoration in 1870, when the chancel was rebuilt and the south-east chapel and north-east vestry were added. The building was designated as Grade II* listed in 1955.

There is a ring of eight bells, cast in 1913 and 2002. The stone-built former rectory, east of the church, was built in 1867–1868 to designs of Ewan Christian. Today the parish is within the benefice of Highworth with Sevenhampton and Inglesham and Hannington, centred on St Michael's church at Highworth.

Castle Hill

Castle Hill, to the east of the church, is an Iron Age hillfort and a scheduled monument. The site comprises earthworks typical for the period, with a single ditch and rampart surrounding the enclosure. It is triangular in plan and covers 3.5 ha in extent. The site is on a slight promontory with views over the valley to the north and north west. The site includes a series of parallel agricultural terraces, known as lynchets, which are thought to date from the medieval period.

Sport

The village has a football team, Blunsdon F.C., which has youth development squads as well as senior ladies and men's sides playing in the Wiltshire League.

Governance

Blunsdon parish covers Broad Blunsdon and the area west of the A419. In the southeast, the boundary with St Andrews leaves the A419 and follows the A4311 Cricklade Road, so that the Groundwell industrial estate is in Blunsdon parish. The estate is the location of the Motorola headquarters building, which featured in the 1999 James Bond film The World Is Not Enough.

Until April 2017, the whole area was the civil parish of Blunsdon St Andrew. The parish lies within the Borough of Swindon, and is part of the Blunsdon and Highworth ward which elects three members of Swindon Borough Council. For Westminster elections, the parish is part of the Swindon North constituency.

Shop

After the last privately owned shop in the village closed in 2002, a village public meeting convened and agreed to open a new community shop, which was opened in 2003 in the car park of the village hall. Run mainly by volunteers, in 2010 the shop won third place for 'Best Village Shop' at the Wiltshire Life Magazine Awards. In 2023, the shop moved to new premises at Unit 1, Blunt Rise, Blunsdon, SN26 7DA and expanded to include a cafe.

Transport

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6e/Blunsdon_Hill,_Blunsdon,Swindon-geograph.org.uk-_1090874.jpg" caption="View down Blunsdon Hill showing the old route of the A419, and of [[Ermin Way]], the Roman road to Cirencester and beyond."] ::

A bypass was built between the autumn of 2006 and spring 2009. This reunited Broad Blunsdon village with the portion that was southwest of the former A419.

References

"Blunsdon (parish): population statistics".
{{OpenDomesday. XX0000. broad-blunsdon-and-blunsdon-st-andrew. Broad Blunsdon and Blunsdon St Andrew
[https://epns.nottingham.ac.uk/browse/Wiltshire/Blunsdon/532886f8b47fc40d38000d7a-Blunsdon+St+Andrew%2C+Broad+Blunsdon ''Broad Blunsdon ''], Survey of English Place-Names at [[University of Nottingham]]; retrieved 18 May 2025
{{National Heritage List for England
[https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/24327 ''Broad Blunsdon''] at [[Vision of Britain]]; From [[John Marius Wilson]]’s ''Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales''; retrieved 21 May 2025
[https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/descriptions/846170 ''Bury Blunsdon''] at [[Vision of Britain]]; retrieved 21 May 2025
(2021). "Wiltshire". [[Yale University Press]].
{{National Heritage List for England
"Broad Blunsdon: S Leonard".
{{National Heritage List for England
"St Leonard Blunsdon".
[https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1016324?section=official-list-entry ''Hillfort and lynchets on Castle Hill''] at [[Historic England]]; retrieved 21 May 2025
(March 2017). "Community governance review - next steps". Swindon Borough Council.
(19 January 2017). "The Swindon Borough (Reorganisation of Community Governance) No. 1 Order 2017".
"Your Councillors".
"Election Maps: Great Britain". Ordnance Survey.
"Blunsdon village shop".
"Wiltshire Life Awards Initiative 2010".

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