Calne - historic town

Calne today and in the past

In AD 978, Anglo-Saxon Calne was the site of a large two-storey building with a hall on the first floor. It was here that St Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury met the Witenagemot to justify his controversial organisation of the national church, which involved the secular priests being replaced by Benedictine monks and the influence of landowners over churches on their lands being taken away.

According to an account written about 1000, at one point in this meeting Dunstan called upon God to support his cause, at which point the floor collapsed killing most of his opponents, whilst Dunstan and his supporters were in the part that remained standing. This was claimed as a miracle by Dunstan’s supporters.

Early market town
In 1086 Calne may already have been, as it was later, a market town on the main London-Bristol road.

The church in it was well endowed. 74 or more households were held almost outright by burghal tenure (as citizens of a borough), and the lordship of its large outlying land was divided between the king (of whom 45 burgesses were tenants) and the church.

In the Middle Ages the king’s successor as the lord of Calne manor and, as owner of the church’s revenues, the treasurer of Salisbury Cathedral, each had the right to hold a market and a fair in the town, with two triangular market places or fair grounds. A modest hospital was provided on a modest endowment from 1248 until it provided no accommodation in 1546 and was sold two years later by the Crown.

CALNE’s famous folk

Joseph Priestley spent seven of the most productive years of his life whilst living in Calne and Bowood. It was here in 1774 that he discovered oxygen, one of the most significant advances in the history of chemistry.

Dr. Jan Ingen Housz discovered photosynthesis whilst living in Calne and he died in Bowood in 1799 and is buried in a crypt beneath St. Mary’s Church. as the blue plaque on Church House relates.

Dunstan was one of the great leaders in Anglo-Saxon England. He was an archbishop of Canterbury, who later became a saint. He was an adviser to three Anglo-Saxon kings advocating a programme of reform that established the king and the church as state powers. Dunstan’s opponents challenged him at a council in a hall in Calne in the year 978. The floor collapsed, causing injury and death, as Dunstan argued a return to purer Christian ways. This was known as the miracle of Calne as God was seen to have supported Dunstan, like the beam on which he was standing.

The Harris Brothers invented the Wiltshire Cure, a process for curing bacon and ham products, initially as a patented dry cure and later as the first wet cure in the UK. The Harris Brothers were classic entrepreneurs and if they were alive today they would be on the judging panel of “The Dragon’s Den”.

The famous Romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge lived in Church Street, Calne from October 1814 to March 1816. Whilst in Calne, Coleridge wrote his “Biographia Literaria” in which he set out his ideas. He prepared for publication his opiate inspired poem “Kubla Khan” and his Gothic Ballad “Christabel”. He also made annotations to his most famous poem, “The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner”. It was perhaps his most productive period.

Heritage Quarter

Calne Heritage Quarter is an area of the town centre celebrated for its historic character and charm. At it’s centre is the beautiful St. Mary’s Church and the interesting Heritage Centre, where you can find a lectern map of the Heritage Quarter including the Blue Plaque Trail of eleven places of interest.

Follow the trail towards the Church where you find the Proclamation Steps, where the Town Crier announced important news and nearby the tiny Almshouses which is hard to believe were originally eight houses to accommodate needy widows of the parish in the late 17th century.

Then walk around the tranquil, triangular Green with several ancient buildings with a rich heritage where some of Calne’s famous folk once lived. Also, in the Heritage Quarter around Church Street you will find several boutique independent shops where you can pick up some bargains and cafes where you can enjoy lovely food and drinks in a convivial atmosphere.

A short walk across the A4 to Marden House and you will find the entrance to Castlefields Canal & River Park, a lovely quiet recreational walking, jogging and exercise area with the river Marden, the remnants of a canal, the site of an early castle/fortified residence and wildflower and woodland areas. Extensive parts of the park are wheelchair accessible.

The Calne Free Church building is 150 years old.  You can read here more about the history of the church.