Key facts
OS grid ref: SU072393
Postcode: SP3
Post town: Salisbury
What3words: ///sculpture.watchdogs.lunging
Unitary Authority: Wiltshire
Parliamentary Constituency: East Wiltshire
Berwick St James
Berwick St James is a small picturesque village in the Wylye Valley with the River Till flowing through the heart of it. It includes the hamlet of Asserton.
The village sits on the southern edge of Salisbury Plain, close to the A36 and A303. It’s about a 20-minute drive to the market town of Warminster which has a train station, and about 25 minutes to the cathedral city of Salisbury with its shops, restaurants, bars, culture and heritage. The train from here to London takes less than 90 minutes. Salisbury Reds operates a route through the village.
There’s a close community in the village with a WhatsApp group, a village Facebook page called ‘Carry on Berwick’, and a parish website that includes a section welcoming new people to the village.
The historic Reading Room is the village hall which hosts yoga and Pilates classes, and there’s a cricket pitch in the High Street, while The South Wiltshire Guide Centre is located in the old village school building.
The Old Forge Farm Shop & Café is open seven days a week, serving breakfast and lunch, Sunday brunch and pizza every Friday night. The Boot Inn is a cosy, dog-friendly pub offering traditional pub fare and Sunday roasts.
History
Berwick hasn’t changed much in size in the last few hundred years but Asserton, which in 1309 had its own watermill, dovecote, gardens and at least 15 tenants obligated to do various ‘works for their Lord’, is now just a few houses.
Agriculture has always dominated the valley and today the surrounding land is roughly divided between two farms, Druids Lodge and Berwick Hill Farm.
Berwick St James Manor dates from the late 11th Century, while Manor Farmhouse on the High Street is late 16th Century and Berwick House, to the west of the High Street, is early 19th Century.
There was a church in Berwick St Martin from the 12th Century and by 1191 it was dedicated to St James. Mottisfont Priory appropriated it in the early 15th Century. The flint and limestone church we see today was a renovation around 1871 and is Grade I listed.
There’s a good section about the history of Berwick St Martin on the parish website.
Walking and cycling
Berwick St James is near to the Cranborne Chase AONB (National Landscape), so the surrounding countryside is stunning. If you’d like to explore on foot, here’s a 4.5-mile walk that starts from the Boot Inn and ends at Steeple Langford.
If you have another hour or so to spare, you can visit Wiltshire Wildlife Trust’s Langford Lakes Nature Reserve. Walk along Duck Street, cross bridge over River Wylye, the reserve is on the left.