Aldbourne (/ˈɔːldbɔːrn/ AWLD-born) is a village and civil parish about 6 miles (10 km) north-east of Marlborough, Wiltshire, England.
From here an unnamed winterbourne flows south to join the River Kennet 4 miles (6 km) away near Ramsbury.
Evidence of prehistoric activity on the chalk downs includes a barrow cemetery north-west of the village,[2] a Bronze Age cross dyke to the north,[3] and a field system in the valley around Snap.
[8] The Wiltshire Victoria County History traces the ownership of estates including Aldbourne manor, which was unusually large until it was broken up in the 17th century.
[6] An estate at Upham was given by Longespée to Lacock Abbey in 1249, and after the dissolution was bought in 1540 by John Goddard, whose descendants went on to be lords of the manor of Swindon.
[14] During the Second World War, U.S. Army paratroopers of Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division were based at Aldbourne from late 1943 to mid-1944, in preparation for the Normandy landings in June 1944 and Operation Market Garden in September.
[19] Bells cast by the Cor and Wells families survive at parish churches including Alvescot, Ashbury, Berwick St John, Blewbury, Church Hanborough, East Challow, Drayton, East Lockinge, Faringdon, Farnborough, Great Coxwell, Horspath, Longworth, Marcham, Marsh Baldon, St Nicolas Newbury, Northleach, Uffington, Seend, Sutton Courtenay, West Hanney and others.
The Perpendicular Gothic three-stage tower was added in 1460 at the expense of Richard Goddard of Upham House.
[31] Court House, in its own grounds north of the church, has at its core a 16th-century farmhouse in flint and chalkstone; additions were made in brick in the 18th century and later.
It was designed by Irish born architect Frederick Edward Bradshaw MacManus who was working in the office of Sir John Burnet.
[6] Aldbourne has two public houses, the Blue Boar[40] and the Crown,[41] and a volunteer-run sports and social club.
It displays a changing array of exhibits from Aldbourne's history, ranging from Stone Age flints and medieval documents to 19th and 20th-century photographs.
[47] Margaret Longhurst (1882–1958), the first female keeper in a major British museum, retired here and is remembered in the village's heritage centre.
[49] Earlier residents included Jankel Adler (1895–1949), a Jewish Polish painter and printmaker who lived his last few years at Whitley Cottage, where he had a studio; Ruth Dalton (1890–1966), a Labour politician; and Anthony Marreco (1915–2006), a barrister and founding director of Amnesty International.
The author and historian Gerald Brenan and his American wife, the poet and novelist Gamel Woolsey, lived in Aldbourne from the late 1930s to 1953.
[50] Gerald's long-time friend John Hope-Johnstone, a photographer with links to the Bloomsbury Group, lived in a cottage attached to their house until his death in 1970.
[54] In 1992, Reeltime Pictures filmed a direct-to-video documentary called Return to Devil's End in Aldbourne, featuring Christopher Barry (director of the 1971 story) with cast members Jon Pertwee, Nicholas Courtney, Richard Franklin and John Levene.
[55] Aldbourne was the filming location of the 2014 E4 television drama Glue, portraying the village of Overton.