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Explore Bradford on Avon: Ashley Road
Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire
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Former Upper Bearfield Farmhouse, Ashley Road
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Ashley Road runs from the Bath Road to the hamlet of Ashley in the parish of Winsley. The first part is behind the old terraces of Bearfield, then passes St Laurence School and post-war housing, before entering countryside and a maze of narrow lanes.
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The house that was formerly Lower Bearfield Farm stands at the junction of Ashley Road and Bath Road. After ceasing to be a farmhouse it was Bath Road sub-post office, but closed not long after an armed raid. Some of its former farmyard buildings still stand further along Bath Road.
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What is now called St Laurence School was originally built as a new home for Trinity Secondary Modern School. It moved from the cramped site in Newtown to what had been a greenfield site between Ashley Road and Winsley Road in 1962. Fitzmaurice Grammar School was amalgamated with Trinity on the new site in 1980 and the two became the present comprehensive school under the new name.
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On the campus of St Laurence School is the Wiltshire Music Centre which was built by Wiltshire County Council with an Arts Council Lottery grant and opened in December 1997 for musical education and performance. It was designed by the architects Fielden Clegg of Bath and contains nine workshop spaces and an auditorium that seats 300.
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It had long been suspected that there was a substantial Roman building in the area from odd finds and part of a bath complex was excavated in 1976. The outline of walls showed as parch marks in the school playing field in dry weather in 1999 and were confirmed by aerial and geophysical survey. Excavation by Bristol and Cardiff Universities under the late Mark Corney revealed two Roman Villa buildings, just a few inches below the grass. They were almost identical, except that one was finished and well-appointed with fine mosaics, while the other seemed to have been given over agricultural and industrial uses.
Upper Bearfield Farm consisted of a big farmhouse on one side of Ashley Road and a farmyard with barns and cowsheds on the other. The yard was developed into an estate of 40 houses which is called The Old Batch, after an old field name, while the farm moved a little up the road.
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The Dog & Fox public house was three houses in 1841, but had become a pub by 1879. It is built of rubble stone and has some 17th century features.
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After some narrow bends the lane comes to a crossroads where stands Little Ashley Farm, a substantial farmhouse with barns around a farmyard. The present building dates from the early 17th century, but there had been an earlier one, associated with Robert Nutte who died in 1598. None of the buildings is now involved in farming and all have been converted to houses. Just beyond the buildings is Quoins Vineyard which produces white wine.