Natural History
As you approach the Village from Blunsdon or Purton you encounter on your right Hursted Farm with its yew trees and its church-like barn.
A few hundred yards on there is a sharp left handed bend. This is Watkin's Corner , the site of a public hanging in 1819. The track beside it leads to Haxmoor Farm, mentioned in the land charter of 796AD as Hassuksmoor.
Further on you approach the Jubilee Garden Project - not a retreat, more of an advance you are told. A few yards more and you approach the Village crossroads - on your right is the Cricklade and Purton Young Farmers Clubhouse. On your left is Corner Farm, a listed 17C building, and on the opposite corner is the Bell Inn, the site of the recorded Poor's Platt meetings since 1733 and probably before then too.
Down the main street, identified as Stoke Street in the Inclosure Map of 1744, the houses for the main part are 20C, but three more, Stoke Cottage, Manor Farm and Dairy Farm are also listed buildings.
A left turn near the bottom of the street leads to the Primitive Methodist Chapel and the Ponds Farm, once owned by Sir Nevil Maskelyne the 5th Asronomer Royal, and then on to Bentham.
The bridge over the River Key is at the bottom of the main street, and a few hundred yards along the bridleway are the remains of the Purton Stoke Spa on the right, the Poor's Platt charity land on the left and the Stoke Common wild flower meadow as you near the outskirts of the ancient Braydon Forest. The Forest is still the habitat of many roe deer.
The River Key has had many names over the years. The first reference was in a grant of 796AD, when it had the name of Lortingesbourne. In the few miles from its source to the River Ray it has been known as Braden Water, Stokkenlake, Spital Brook, Weramere, Dance Brook, Worwinckel and Stoke Brook. It is now the River Key, and is a tributary of the River Ray which feeds into the River Thames at Cricklade.
A few hundred yards on there is a sharp left handed bend. This is Watkin's Corner , the site of a public hanging in 1819. The track beside it leads to Haxmoor Farm, mentioned in the land charter of 796AD as Hassuksmoor.
Further on you approach the Jubilee Garden Project - not a retreat, more of an advance you are told. A few yards more and you approach the Village crossroads - on your right is the Cricklade and Purton Young Farmers Clubhouse. On your left is Corner Farm, a listed 17C building, and on the opposite corner is the Bell Inn, the site of the recorded Poor's Platt meetings since 1733 and probably before then too.
Down the main street, identified as Stoke Street in the Inclosure Map of 1744, the houses for the main part are 20C, but three more, Stoke Cottage, Manor Farm and Dairy Farm are also listed buildings.
A left turn near the bottom of the street leads to the Primitive Methodist Chapel and the Ponds Farm, once owned by Sir Nevil Maskelyne the 5th Asronomer Royal, and then on to Bentham.
The bridge over the River Key is at the bottom of the main street, and a few hundred yards along the bridleway are the remains of the Purton Stoke Spa on the right, the Poor's Platt charity land on the left and the Stoke Common wild flower meadow as you near the outskirts of the ancient Braydon Forest. The Forest is still the habitat of many roe deer.
The River Key has had many names over the years. The first reference was in a grant of 796AD, when it had the name of Lortingesbourne. In the few miles from its source to the River Ray it has been known as Braden Water, Stokkenlake, Spital Brook, Weramere, Dance Brook, Worwinckel and Stoke Brook. It is now the River Key, and is a tributary of the River Ray which feeds into the River Thames at Cricklade.
