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Latton Village
Kelly's directory
1895
Before Alfred
there was
Joseph Aldworth
North Wilts
1810-1820
History
1851 Census
Who lived in the
area in 1851
Staunch
Last working
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Butterfield
Victorian 'photo album.
A 1950's newspaper article.......................
LATTON
FORMER JUNCTION OF RIVERS AND CANALS
WHERE PLEASURE BOATS,
SWINDON-BOUND,
PAID TOLL OF 2s 6d
“Water, water everywhere..” These words from “The Ancient Mariner” might well be used to describe the tiny Cotswold-style village of Latton, clustered by the side of a great Roman roadway not far from the Gloucestershire border.
But there the similarity with Samuel Coleridge’s famous poem must end for, although there are many “drops” in the village that are not fit to drink, there are also many which are. In fact there is sufficient water to provide nearby Swindon with about half its needs. And here too, you will find a silvery lido, and fishing waters and modern houses!
Opened with a silver key by the then Minister of Health, Sir E. Hilton Young, on 1 June 1934, the Latton pumping station can provide about 3,000,000 of water daily. It is pumped up-hill to a reservoir at Blunsden from where it flows on by gravity to the town.
But that is not the only water in this little village which is a strange mixture of the ancient and modern. Who would expect to find a lido not a stone’s throw from the busy highway?
SEVEN ACRES OF SPRING WATER
Yet there it is. Some seven acres of deep spring water in which about 5,000 people bathe yearly. Surrounded by tall trees and high green banks, the water is divided into two small lakes, each of which provides excellent sport for the angler. In the further of the two lakes golden carp and trout can be caught and in the other the more common jack, tench, roach and eels.
The lakes were originally gravel pits which filled with water and were opened for bathing a few years before the war. Mr. L. O. Hammond, of Cricklade, who excavated the gravel and who is now owner of the lido, stocked the water with fish from the Severn.
WHERE WATERWAYS MET
More water, this time canals. It was at Latton Basin that two important waterways met – the Thames and Severn and Wilts and Berks canals. Once the scene of great activity, the basin is now overgrown and the canals dried up, but a few of the old wooden locks can still be found.
Living in the old lock house, where she was born, is Mrs. Rose Haines, aged 66, whose father was lock keeper, and her 37-year-old blind son, Robin.
Mrs. Haines comes from the well-known old Latton family of Howse and she told me that at one time, if a visitor to the village spoke to one of the locals and called him Mr. Howse he would not be far wrong.
She has vivid memories of the days when the two canals were in use and recalled that pleasure boats passing through the basin to go to Swindon had to pay a toll of 2s. 6d.
HIGHWAYMAN’S HIDE-OUT?
According to one local story the old lock house was in existence long before the canals came into being. Underneath the house is an arched cellar with a blocked doorway leading out on to a partly buried slate path. It was said that in days gone by a highwayman used the cellar as a hiding place whence he rode out to hold up travellers on the busy main road a short distance away.
Like all romantic stories it is probably far from the truth. The well–preserved roomy cellar is constructed of brick and mortar similar to that used for building the canal bridges and it seems much more likely that it was used to house the ponies who towed the barges along the canals.
BLIND CRAFTSMAN AND MUSICIAN
Blinded in the early days of the war. Robin Haines learned how to make hampers and baskets from willow sticks and is now kept busy in a shed adjoining his home. He finds his blindness little handicap, and takes a prominent part in the social life of Latton and the surrounding villages.
Robin has mastered Braille music and plays the piano at most local concerts. Travelling is simplified by the use of a tandem.
Leaving Mrs. Haines, I went back down the long, twisting, muddy lane and called in to see her younger sister, 52-year old Mrs. A. Russell, who lives by the side of the main road in the oldest house in the village.
There is no front garden and the front door opens straight on to the road. Originally it was the old bakery and the huge round oven can still been seen, although the sturdy iron doors are sealed with rust. But the 400-year old house was not always so close to the road. Mrs. Russell can remember when there was a grass verge between the front door and the traffic.
WHERE LOCAL FEAST WAS HELD
Just across the road from the old house, at the top of Gosditch, is part of an old stone cross which stands in the middle of a patch of grass and used to be surrounded by tall elms.
It was here that the locally famous Latton feast used to be centred. The feast, held every September until about 30 years ago, is said to have commemorated the building of the church.
Next door to the old bakery is what must be one of the smallest post offices in England. But for a tiny black notice board, the pillar box gate post and the partly hidden telephone kiosk, the post office might be just another cottage. Seventy-eight-year-old Miss Mary Roseblade, a sister of the present postmaster, Mr. Richard Roseblade aged 65, opened the tiny post office more than 50 years ago. She retired after 33 years but is now back living with her brother and occasionally gives a hand behind the little counter.
ROMAN COINS AND PAVEMENT
And just how old is Latton? It is likely that, being so close to such an important Roman road as Ermin Street, there may have been a settlement there in Roman times. This view was strengthened by the discovery some years ago of Roman coins and the remains of tessellated pavements.
But whatever was its fate during the Roman occupation, there was almost certainly a settlement there during the early part of the 12th. century since parts of the imposing Norman-style church are believed to date from the days of King Stephen.
On the side of the church, with its square squat tower and fine Norman doorway, is a sundial which is said to be as high as the top of the spire of Salisbury Cathedral. And a short distance from the church, almost hiding Church Farm, is what is reputed to be the biggest walnut tree in the country.
VILLAGE “SOLD” FOR BREAD AND BEER!
Latton was granted by King John to Cirencester Abbey and was held for a while by a branch of the Estoville family who assumed the name of de Latton.
In 1305 John de Latton and his wife ceded their rights and in exchange received from the Abbey a form of maintenance grant – 14 white loaves and nine gallons of beer each week for life.
The village passed through many hands before being bought in 1920 by the Co-operative Wholesale Society who built a creamery some distance away. The progress of the village today is very much bound up with the C. W. S. who, either in the factory or on the farms, provide work for the majority of the villagers.
Much of the old-world charm of Latton, which probably took its name from the “slow moving” River Churn bordering the village, has disappeared. But in place of the quaint old cottages has grown a more modern village with a modern factory and modern water pumping station. Latton is too busy being useful to trouble unduly about its appearance.