Castle Combe village website
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In 1947 the whole village was put up for auction by the Lord
of the Manor.
Today all of the houses are in private ownership.
The village is at the southern edge of the Cotswolds, just 15
minutes from the M4, and conveniently located for Bath and Avebury.
Castle Combe has been used as the backdrop for many film and
TV sets.
Inside the church is a faceless clock, a relic from the days
when workers on the land only needed to hear the time struck.
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Lying
within the Cotswold Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and generally
regarded as being just too far south to be included in the true
Cotswolds, even so, Castle Combe in North Wiltshire, has much in
common with the renowned Cotswold towns and villages.
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| One
of the many picturesque cottages in Castle Combe. |
Not
only are the buildings built of stone quarried from the same oolite
strata which extends from Gloucestershire into Wiltshire, but both
share the ability to attract visitors from all over the globe, being
seen to represent the quintessence of the English village.
After being part of a large estate for some hundreds of years, the
lower part of the village of Castle Combe, now a Mecca for visitors,
was sold by auction in 1947.
The owner of the estate took this course being unable to meet the
repair costs of the properties, many of which were in a state of
dereliction.
Although
the National Trust attempted to acquire the entire village, (as
it was successful in doing with nearby Lacock), it was finally sold
in lots, a number of the cottages being purchased by workers on
the estate who had occupied them as sitting tenants.
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| Castle
Combe attracts visitors from all over the world. |
Prices
realised were modest to say the least, many fetching between £100
and £200. The new owners soon found the upkeep of the ailing cottages
prohibitive, in addition in 1960 virtually all the village buildings
were scheduled as being of architectural and historic interest.
This placed a statutory responsibility on owners for maintenance
of their properties, resulting in the sale of many cottages.
A steady stream of "newcomer" purchasers with the finance to repair,
extend and modernise, has now completely replaced the original estate
workers and their families, only one solitary individual born and
bred in the lower village now remaining in residence.
continued.....
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