Wiltshire

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Wiltshire in the round

Lying across the spine of southern England, Wiltshire offers a textbook cross‑section of chalk downland, greensand vales and clay lowlands. Its long archaeological record – from 10 000‑year‑old spring‑side camps to modern military landscapes – is inseparable from that underlying geology and from the climatic swing that ended the last Ice Age.

"Birthday Flight: Barbury Castle Closer" by superdove is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Geology, topography and hydrology

Chalk and greensand.

Two‑thirds of the county is Upper, Middle and Lower Chalk, forming the high, dry Salisbury Plain, the Marlborough Downs and the long north‑east Scarp that carries The Ridgeway. Below the scarps the Upper Greensand and Gault Clay create the fertile Vale of Pewsey and a necklace of greensand hills around Warminster and Devizes. (brian-mountainman.blogspot.com)

Scarps and vales.

River incision through the soft Gault produces bold north‑facing escarpments; south‑facing dip slopes roll gently into the clay vales.  Minor rivers – Wylye, Nadder, Bourne – converge on the chalk to feed the Hampshire Avon, while the Kennet cuts east to the Thames, its valley enlarged where chalk meets greensand and now followed by the Kennet & Avon Canal. (Wiltshire Council, Wikipedia)

Legacy of the last Ice Age

The Devensian ice front stopped north of the Cotswolds, so Wiltshire was never glaciated, but Periglacial frost‑shatter and seasonal meltwaters sculpted dry valleys across Salisbury Plain, left involution folds in the chalk and laid spreads of wind‑blown Loess on the clay-with‑flints. These Periglacial deposits still dictate where springs rise (e.g. Blick Mead) and where prehistoric engineers sited trackways and monuments. (Geoscience World)

As the climate warmed after 11 700 BP, pioneer birch and juniper colonised the downs, followed by mixed oak–hazel woodland. By 6000 BP much of that cover had been cleared for grazing, giving the classic calcareous grassland that now supports chalkhill blue butterflies, orchids and sheep‑grazed turf.

Earliest human presence

Palaeolithic and Mesolithic.

Loose hand‑axes and struck flint show occasional hunter visits before the Ice Age, but the first continuous occupation comes from the Blick  Mead spring at Amesbury: butchered aurochs bone, hearths and over 70 000 struck flints testify to repeated gathering between c. 10 000 and 6000 BP – the longest Mesolithic sequence yet found beside any British chalk spring. (Wikipedia, Current Archaeology)

Neolithic transformation (c. 4000–2500 BC)

Farming and monuments arrive together: Clearance on the Kennet and Avon Interfluve opens space for cultivation; Long Barrows such as West Kennet, Horslip and South Street line the ridges. At around 3800 BC the great causewayed enclosure on Windmill Hill was dug – the largest in Britain, enclosing 8.5 ha. (Wikipedia) Two millennia later, Stonehenge and the Avebury complex crown the downland, their sarsen and bluestone circles depending on the easy transport and visibility offered by the open chalk.

Copper and Bronze Ages (c. 2500–800 BC)

Intensive arable cultivation continues; linear ditches and cross‑ploughed patches under Round Barrows show fields being taken out of production for burial mounds, marking a shift from sustenance to sanctity. Artefact hoards at Bush Barrow, Upton Lovell and Milton Lilbourne chart the rise of Wessex elites.

Iron Age (c. 800 BC–AD 43)

Iron technology and population growth defend the heights: Barbury Castle on the Ridgeway, Old Sarum, Vespasian’s Camp and numerous smaller hillforts overlook river corridors and trackways.  Excavations show round‑house clusters, grain storage pits and evidence of sheep–corn exchange along the downs. (Wikipedia)

Roman Wiltshire (AD 43–410)

Two Roman roads cross – Ermin Street (Cirencester to Silchester) and the London–Bath route. The walled market town of Cunetio grows beside the Kennet; Verlucio and Durocornovium (modern Swindon) service traffic on Ermin Street. Rich villas at Bradford‑on‑Avon, Littlecote and Box show villa agriculture thriving on the greensand and chalk margins. (Wikipedia)

Early medieval change

After Rome, the Upper Wylye valley gives its name to the kingdom of Wilsætan; by the 8th century Wilton is a royal and ecclesiastical centre, while the fortified burh of Malmesbury anchors the north. Christianity spreads from the abbeys; place‑names in ‑ton, ‑ham and ‑worth mark Saxon estate foundations. (hidden-wiltshire)

Norman and medieval landscape

Norman motte‑and‑baileys dot the river crossings (Old Sarum, Ludgershall). 1220 sees the foundation of New Salisbury, with its soaring Early English cathedral built from Chilmark stone. Open‑field agriculture dominates valleys; sheep‑corn husbandry turns the chalkland into one of Europe’s great wool‑producing centres.

Industrial and modern periods

Canals and railways slice through the soft vale floors. The Kennet & Avon Canal (1794–1810) links Bristol to London via Devizes locks; in 1841 the Great Western main line reaches Swindon, whose engineering works shape the town’s modern growth. (Wikipedia)

Since 1897 large tracts of Salisbury Plain have served as army training areas, preserving barrows, field systems and downland flora. Agro‑environment schemes now safeguard surviving chalk grassland fragments and iconic species such as the stone‑curlew.

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