Winsley

The area was probably farmed in Roman times, as it lay between the town of Aquae Sulis (now Bath) and a villa complex at Bradford. where from 1803 stone for the canal was carried by wagons down a wooden railway. The 1841 census found 105 labourers working in stone quarries at Winsley. Later in that century, with transport of stone made easier by the railways, several stone mining firms operated in the area including Randell & Saunders at Murhill Down. By 1929 it was known as Winsley Chest Hospital, and by 1934 had been enlarged to house 134 patients; from 1948 patients with mental handicaps were treated. The hospital closed in 1982. Avonpark retirement village was built there in 1994 using some of the hospital buildings, and is now owned by Retirement Villages Group Ltd. Dorothy House Winsley House, off Bradford Road in the south-west of the village, may have 17th- century origins. The Sutcliffe School for Boys bought and converted the house in 1953, and added school buildings in the grounds. After the school closed in 1992 the site was bought by the Dorothy House charity, which provides at-home medical care and a hospice for people with chronic or life-limiting illnesses. ==Geography==

Winsley is distinctly split into Old Winsley village and newer housing estates: the 1960s Tyning estate to the northeast and the 1980s Church Farm estate to the northwest. The B3108 road from Bradford to Limpley Stoke originally passed through the village but a relief road avoiding the narrow roads and double bends was completed in 1997. ==Governance==

The civil parish elects a parish council. It is in the area of Wiltshire Council unitary authority, which is responsible for all significant local government functions. The parish is part of the Winsley & Westwood electoral division, which elects one member of Wiltshire Council; the division also covers Wingfield, Westwood, Limpley Stoke, Monkton Farleigh and South Wraxall parishes. which was divided into civil parishes in 1894. ==Amenities==

On the Tyning Estate, built in the 1960s, a GP practice with a dispensary are next to the Church of England primary school. In the old village with its manor house and many 17th-century houses and artisans' cottages, the village hall, St Nicholas' parish church, a Methodist church (built 1902) and a bowls club, are around the village pub. Winsley Cricket Club is next to the Manor House grounds overlooking the Avon Valley, while Bradford on Avon Rugby Football Club is northeast of the village. There is a farm shop and café at Hartley Farm, north of the village. Bus service D1 passes through the village, with a regular timetable throughout the day serving Bath, Trowbridge and Warminster. The railway towards Bath and Bristol passes to the south and west of the parish, following the river valley; station is within the parish and is just outside. Murhill Bank (John Presland Nature Reserve), on the western edge of the village, is a steeply sloping area of woodland with a one-acre unimproved (never farmed) meadow. It is maintained as a nature reserve by the parish council, who bought the site in 1987. Underground stone quarries nearby which provide hibernation places for bats are designated as the Winsley Mines Site of Special Scientific Interest, forming part of the Bath and Bradford-on-Avon Bats Special Area of Conservation which is important for three species of bats. ==Parish church==

There was a chapel at Winsley in 1349, one of several dependent on Holy Trinity parish church at Bradford. By 1841 the church was felt to be too small and in need of repair, and it was rebuilt at the instigation of Rev. Harvey of Bradford and the Winsley chapelwarden, James Baber, owner of Murhill stone quarry and other local properties. They engaged Bristol architect R. S. Pope who designed an aisle-less nave and chancel in Gothic style; the 15th-century tower was retained, linked by a short passage to the southwest corner of the new church. Pevsner describes the tower as "quite unusual in its composition, with the mid stair-turret and the saddleback roof". The font is 15th-century but Pevsner describes the interior as otherwise uninspired. The tower had three bells in 1553, of which the treble cast in 1545 by Thomas Gefferies survives; the others were made or recast in 1756 (by Thomas Bilbie) and 1951. Bilbie probably also made the clock bell. The union with Limpley Stoke was severed in 1970 when that parish was united with Freshford, Somerset. Today the church is part of the benefice of North Bradford-on-Avon and Villages, alongside St James at South Wraxall, St Peter at Monkton Farleigh and Christ Church, Bradford. ==Notable people==

The science fiction and fantasy writer Jonathan Green grew up in the village. ==References==