This is a short family-friendly route around the heart of Sutton Benger village, pointing out places of historical interest.
This trail provides more information about places that are listed on the two 'Welcome' signs, one located on the Village Hall and one in Draycot Cerne.
This is a circular cross-country walk from the Village Hall, to Gate Farm and then to Chissell Brook, and back via Sutton Lane Meadows to the Village Hall.
This is a walk from the Village Hall, to the Draycot Park entrance, to Draycot Cerne, and return.
This is a walk from the Village Hall, to Sutton Lane, back along the High Street and Seagry Road to La Flambé, then along the footpath (the old Barrett Lane) to the B4069 bridge over the River Avon, and then into Christian Malford. Return via the Christian Malford meadows to the Avon Weir, back across the Avon to Sutton Lane, and along Sutton Lane to return to the Village Hall.
This walk takes you past various locations associated with the Romano-Saxon history of Sutton Benger; but note that there is no visible evidence of this history. Also, close to the walk, are remains of pillboxes from World War II; but please remember to stay on Public Rights of Way at all times.
This a long walk, uphill from Sutton Benger along Seagry Road, to cross the M4, left along the footpaths to Harding's Farm, into Upper Seagry along Scotland Road and Henn Lane, to Goss Croft Hall, then back through Upper Seagry along the roads to Seagry Hill, returning to Sutton Benger Village Hall.
If you would like to see some autumn colours, take the optional loop through Seagry Woods; follow the optional directions from Scotland Road, after leaving Harding's Farm.
As another alternative, you could start this entire walk from Goss Croft Hall, to Sutton Benger, returning to Upper Seagry via Harding's Farm.
This is a circular cross-country walk from the Village Hall, to Gate Farm and then to Kington Langley, stopping for a cup of tea or coffee at the Workshop Cafe at Kington Langley's Church Farm.
Return to Sutton Benger via the 'old road' from Kington Langley to Draycot Cerne - the 'road' that was replaced by the 'Draycot Straight' in the 1700s and is now just footpaths / bridleways. (Caution! - it can get muddy.)
If starting from the eastern end of Sutton Benger (from the Village Hall), you could take an alternate route, either from Queens Close alongside the Big Field, or via Sutton Lane, to Sutton Lane Meadows; then pick up the old bridleway west to Kington Langley.
An anti-clockwise cycle route from Sutton Benger Village Hall, north across the M4, past Lower Seagry to Great Somerford, left to Startley, then left to Upper Seagry and back to Sutton Benger.
Enjoy the Wiltshire Countryside on this scenic circular walk. Apart from a few hundred yards along Sutton Lane, the route is along public rights of way (PRoW) footpaths and bridleways across fields and tracks. The trail includes Avon Weir and Sutton Lane Meadows.
NOTE: As the Ordnance Survey notes, meadows near the River Avon are 'liable to floods'. If the weather has been exceedingly wet recently, some of the fields may be too flooded to walk through safely, and you are advised to re-route via Sutton Lane and then along the bridleway to Sutton Lane Meadows. Although note that the bridleway may also be flooded at times.
A Sutton Benger Christmas Trail
This Christmas Trail follows a route around Sutton Benger, starting at the Village Hall there is a pictorial clue to find at the 12 locations. You can wander the route in any direction, solving the clues in any order that you want. Email the answer to hello@bengertrails.co.uk
Bell Piece
The land to the south and east of The Bell House - now known as Bell Piece - used to be an orchard and small meadow, and was part of the mini-estate of The Bell for the last 200-300 years. On the 1808 map (which has east at the top), The Bell Inn is at H268; the landlady at that time was Mary Kifft. H269 was 'The Orchard' and H270 was 'Bell Close' (meaning a small enclosed field).
The Bell House
The Bell House used to be a Coaching Inn until the 1840s, and then became the village Doctor's House and Surgery. It was leased from the Draycot Estate by each village doctor until 1920.
When the entire Draycot Estate was auctioned in 1920, the doctor at the time - Peter Frederick Sturridge - bought the house and adjoining land. It was Lot No 56 in the Auction, as can be seen from the 1920 map. It was sold privately, prior to the Auction, in a complicated sale involving Lord Cowley and his creditors.
Dr Sturridge was the village doctor until at least the early 1930s; but by 1947 it was Doctor Clarke, who sold the house and land separately. The house became a hotel, and the land was sold for development for housing.
Bell Piece Houses
The Bell Piece land then went through two or three more complicated sales and legal leapfrogs before houses were eventually built in the 1980s.
1840s - 1850s
The village doctor from the early 1840s to around 1850 was Charles Butler; he lived at 50 High Street ('The White House' on the corner of Park Lane). He died early in the 1850s but his family continued to live in the house until the early 1920s.
In 1848 Doctor Charles Frederick Edwards took the lease of 'a House and Land, formerly known as the "Bell Inn", plus the parcel of pasture land known as the Orchard and Bell Close'. His immediate predecessor in The Bell House had been the publican, Thomas Ferris, who moved to be landlord of The Wellesley Arms.
Edwards may have had some financial issues at the beginning of his career. Shortly after he arrived, he borrowed £300 from the vicar, Reverend George Marsh. For security he used a £300 Life Insurance policy which he took out on himself.
1860s - 1900s
Dr Edwards was followed at The Bell by Dr George Simmons (or Symmons / Symons), and then in 1862 by Dr Henry Ryley. Ryley appears in the 1865 Harrod's Directory, but had left by 1871. He also seems to have had some money problems and was declared bankrupt in 1866; a complicated paper trail in the archives shows insurance policies and re-mortgages, including a debt of about £200, also to the vicar, Reverend Dawson.
If anybody wants to write a Victorian melodrama about the financial hardships of doctors in the 1800s, there is obviously the basis of a good story here. However, for those who just want to read something similar that's already been written, try Anthony Trollope's Dr Thorne or Elizabeth Gaskell's shorter story Mr Harrison's Confessions.
The doctor in 1871 was local man Edward Little (whose wife Louisa was from Chippenham). He was followed by Dr Percie Garlike, who was the first since Dr Butler to stay more than a few years. He was in Sutton Benger from before 1885 until the early 1900s.
Doctor Charles Barnes was the last doctor to take the lease of The Bell House; he is shown in Kelly's Directory from 1905 to 1920. Dr Sturridge then bought the house and land in the Draycot Auction in 1920.
The Bell House; 1920s - 1940s
The village doctors leased The Bell House from the Draycot Estate until 1920, when Dr Sturridge bought it outright. There were at least three other doctors after him, all probably buying The Bell House in turn.
Nesta Heath recalls that:
... (in the 1920s / 1930s) the house included the doctor’s surgery, with a purpose-built consulting room, waiting room and dispensary. The door to the surgery was up several steps in Bell Lane. The location of this previous entrance can still be seen in the brickwork / paint on the side of the building. The entrance to the surgery was through a door on Bellside; although this entrance has since been blocked up, the outline of the doorway can still be seen in the paint if you look closely.
The doctor in 1935 was Frank Reginald Sawdon; Nesta Heath recalls that he was one of the first people in the village to own a car.
See: Nesta Heath, Life and Herbing in Sutton Benger, pp. 5-12.
In 1939 the doctor was a retired army officer, Lieutenant Colonel William Arthur Spong; his address appears in a Kelly's Directory of the time: Spong Lt.-Col. William Arthur B, RR, RCh., B.A.O.(Dublin), L M physician & surgeon, Bell house.
The Bell Hotel
By the late 1940s the doctor was Dr Clarke; he retired in about 1947-1948, and sold the building to Marco Berni Inns as a hotel; however, he sold the land separately to housing developers and the plot became known as 'Clarke's Lease'.
The Surgery that Never Was
A 1947 document in the Archives at Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre (WSHC) shows a planning request from a Doctor Roberts for a large doctor's surgery to be built on Bell Piece, alongside Sutton Lane and between the High Street and Chestnut Road. It is not clear who Doctor Roberts was, nor whether he had an agreement to buy the land. The proposal did not receive planning consent because of its unsuitability in oh-so-many ways at the time, and nothing became of it. Doctor Roberts is not known to have been a doctor in the village. It was Dr Robinson who took over Dr Clarke's practice in about 1948, initially with a surgery in the skittle alley of The Wellesley Arms. She then moved her surgery to 54 High Street (The Rowans).
The village doctor in the 1950s and 1960s was Dr Robinson; she had her surgery in the skittle alley at The Wellesley Arms in the 1950s, then moved to 54 High Street (The Rowans) in the mid-1960s. She retired in about 1990, at which point Dr Wilkinson took over her practice, and the surgery moved to a temporary building next to the old village hall (roughly where the playground is today).
Marco Berni, who owned The Bell Hotel at that time, sold the plot opposite the Village Hall - the old Bell Inn kitchen gardens - with planning permission for a Doctor's Surgery. Dr Wilkinson's practice moved into the new building in about 1993, and it has remained there ever since.
Do you have any photos or memories of Dr Robinson's surgery in The Wellesley or at 54 High Street? Or do you have any photos of Dr Wilkinson's temporary surgery on the Rec? If so, please get in touch at hello@bengertrails.co.uk
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