Visit Great Somerford Places

Welcome to Visit Great Somerford Places
The Walkfo guide to things to do & explore in Great Somerford

  

Great Somerford Places Overview: History, Culture & Facts about Great Somerford

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Great Somerford history

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Eight estates were recorded in the 1086 Domesday Book at the Somerfords, with altogether 80 households. The population of the parish grew from 358 at the 1801 census to 481 in 1821. Housebuilding in the 1960s and 1980s brought numbers above 700.

Allotment gardens

Great Somerford has Britain’s first allotments. Enclosure of common land greatly reduced the amount of land available for personal cultivation by the poor. A field of about 6 acres (2.4 ha) in the south of the village on Dauntsey Road became the Free Gardens. There was a second site of about 2 acres at Seagry Heath.

Railway

Malmesbury Branch Line was opened across the parish in 1877. It crossed the Avon just north of Great Somerford village. The name of the station was changed in 1903 when the GWR opened a more direct route to South Wales. A new station was built half a mile (900 metres) to the north near the village.

Great Somerford landmarks

Great Somerford Measuring Station

In 1963 the Environment Agency constructed one of the earliest compound crump weirs in Britain. The typical river level range is between 15 and 70 centimetres. The highest level recorded was 2.43 metres in 2007.

World War II pillboxes

There are three remaining Second World War pillboxes in the village of Dauntsey. The first faces the river and the disused railway, the second is on the edge of a field next to the Avon. The third pillbox is situated along the left of the road opposite a small cottage.

You can visit Great Somerford places with Walkfo Great Somerford to hear history at Great Somerford’s places whilst walking around using the free digital tour app. Walkfo Great Somerford has 13 places to visit in our interactive Great Somerford map, with amazing history, culture & travel facts you can explore the same way you would at a museum or art gallery with information audio headset. With Walkfo, you can travel by foot, bike or bus throughout Great Somerford, being in the moment, without digital distraction or limits to a specific walking route. Our historic audio walks, National Trust interactive audio experiences, digital tour guides for English Heritage locations are available at Great Somerford places, with a AI tour guide to help you get the best from a visit to Great Somerford & the surrounding areas.

“Curated content for millions of locations across the UK, with 13 audio facts unique to Great Somerford places in an interactive Great Somerford map you can explore.”

Walkfo: Visit Great Somerford Places Map
13 tourist, history, culture & geography spots

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Great Somerford historic spots	Great Somerford tourist destinations	Great Somerford plaques	Great Somerford geographic features
Walkfo Great Somerford tourism map key: places to see & visit like National Trust sites, Blue Plaques, English Heritage locations & top tourist destinations in Great Somerford

  

Best Great Somerford places to visit

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Great Somerford has places to explore by foot, bike or bus. Below are a selection of the varied Great Somerford’s destinations you can visit with additional content available at the Walkfo Great Somerford’s information audio spots:

Cole Park Cole Park is a Grade II* listed moated country house in Wiltshire. It stands on land once known as Cowfold that was owned in the Middle Ages by the Abbey of Malmesbury. In the Tudor period was a royal stud.

Gauze Brook Gauze Brook rises near the village of Littleton Drew in Wiltshire. It flows in a northeasterly direction for approximately 9.1 miles (15 km) before joining the Bristol Avon.

Dauntsey Vale The Dauntsey Vale is a wide, flat, clay floodplain of the upper reaches of the Bristol Avon river. It is triangular in shape with its north edge running from the town of Royal Wootton Bassett in the east to Malmesbury in the west. This prominent north ridge is the setting for the village of Brinkworth, which at five miles long, claims to be the longest village in England.

Visit Great Somerford plaques