Winsley

Posted on Sep 30, 2010 in The villages |

St Nicholas' Church, Winsley.

Winsley, Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire

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Winsley was a part of the Ancient Parish and of the Manor of Bradford and was a Tithing of the Hundred of Bradford. The church of St Nicholas was a chapel of the mother church in Bradford itself. The present Civil Parish of Winsley came into being in 1884.

The site

Most of the parish is situated on the flattish land on the top of the Cotswolds, with steep slopes on the southern and western sides down into the valley of the River Avon.

The present village comprises a tight nuclear old settlement that is centred on the church, then linear piecemeal development along the Bradford Road, followed by a large area of late 20th century planned housing of three or more phases to the north, the Tyning area, enclosed by a bypass road which was completed in the 1990s.

There are outlying hamlets at Ashley, Avoncliff, Conkwell, Murhill and Turleigh.

Etymology

Winsley’s name probably derives from a clearing (leah) that was associated with an otherwise unrecorded Saxon settler called Wine.

Economy

Winsley is largely a dormitory for people working in Bath and other places around and has a large retired population. 2,001 inhabitants were recorded by the 2001 Census.
A short row of shops was incorporated in the Tyning Road development. Currently there is a small  supermarket/post office and one has been converted to a doctors’ surgery that is run as a branch of the Bradford on Avon Health Centre. A farm shop, including a café and micro-brewery, is located at Hartley Farm and Church Farm operates a touring caravan and campsite, both across the bypass. There is one public house: the Seven Stars in the old village centre; the former village school building opposite is now Winsley Social Club.

There is a primary school in Tyning Road; secondary school pupils attend St Laurence School in Bradford.  A special school, the Sutcliffe School, occupied for a while what is now the Dorothy House Hospice.

Quarrying was formerly an important industry at Murhill and Conkwell. The largest concerns in Winsley are now the Dorothy House Hospice and the Avon Park Retirement Village (formerly Winsley Sanatorium). Agriculture is still significant, although many of the farmhouses have been sold off and an increasing acreage is being given over to horses.

There is a small railway station at Avoncliff; Winsley is served by buses between Bradford and Bath.

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