Great Somerford

Great Somerford is a village and civil parish within Dauntsey Vale, Wiltshire, England, near the south bank of the river Avon. It lies approximately 3+1/4mi southeast of Malmesbury and 12mi west of Swindon. The hamlet of Startley and the location of Seagry Heath are within the bounds of the parish.The parish boundaries to the northeast and east follow the Avon, or in some places the river's former course. In the northwest the boundary partly follows the Rodbourne stream, a small tributary which joins the Avon northwest of the village. The Brinkworth Brook joins the Avon in the northwest corner of the parish.HistoryEight estates were recorded in the 1086 Domesday Book at the Somerfords, with altogether 80 households. The mound of a motte castle, 40 metres in diameter and probably from the 12th century, stands immediately east of the church. South of the mound is the Mount House, a 16th-century manor house, refronted in the 19th and now Grade II* listed.In 1377 there were 92 poll-tax payers at Great Somerford and 10 at Startley. The population of the parish grew from 358 at the 1801 census to 481 in 1821, then remained in the range 500-556 until 1911, falling to 421 in 1921. Housebuilding in the 1960s and 1980s brought numbers above 700.Allotment gardensGreat Somerford has Britain's first allotments. Enclosure of common land, facilitated by the Inclosure Act 1773, greatly reduced the amount of land available for personal cultivation by the poor. Stephen Demainbray, rector 1799–1854 and a Chaplain to King George III, asked the King to spare part of his parish from the enclosures of 1809. A field of about in the south of the village on Dauntsey Road became the Free Gardens, in exchange for pieces of common land elsewhere; there was a second site of about 2 acres at Seagry Heath. Plots were allotted to villages for one-year terms.