Hullavington is an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 village in Wiltshire, just to the north of the M4 motorway

M4 motorway

The M4 motorway links London with South Wales. It is part of the unsigned European route E30. Other major places directly accessible from M4 junctions are Reading, Swindon, Bristol, Newport, Cardiff and Swansea...

, 5 miles south-south-west of Malmesbury and 7 miles north of Chippenham

Chippenham

Chippenham may be:* Chippenham, Wiltshire* Chippenham * Chippenham, Cambridgeshire-See also:* Virginia State Route 150, also known as Chippenham Parkway, USA* Cippenham, Berkshire, UK...

.

History

Hullavington is first attested as Hunlavintone in the Domesday Book

Domesday Book

Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...

 of 1086. The place-name means 'the town of Hunlaf's people'.It appears that the Marcher Lord "Ralph de Mertemer" (Ranulph de Mortimer

Ranulph de Mortimer

Ranulph I de Mortimer of Mortemer-sur-Eaulne, was a Marcher Lord from the Montgomery lands in the Welsh Marches. In England, he was Lord of Wigmore in Herefordshire. In Normandy, he was the Seigneur of St. Victor-en-Caux. Ranulph was the founder of the English House of Mortimer of Wigmore...

) owned a house in Hullavington.

The population at the beginning of the nineteenth century was 395 (1801 census), rising to 823 in 1901 and was 1,247 in 2001.

Amenities

It has a garage, a shop, a pub and two churches, one of which meets in the village hall. The hall was recently opened by James Gray

James Gray (UK politician)

James Whiteside Gray is a British politician. He is the Conservative Member of Parliament for North Wiltshire.-Early life:Born in Scotland, Gray is the son of the late Rev...

, the MP for North Wiltshire, after the previous one burnt down because of an electrical fault.

There is also a Church of England

Church of England

The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...

 village school which has about 150 pupils and is headed by Sue Tudge. Children from the army camp make up a fair proportion of the school and the army provides entertainment and fireworks on November 5 which is attended by people from many surrounding villages.

There are many community events such as the Village Fete which is always well attended and many other meeting and concerts; there are fitness classes, line dancing, concerts, art classes etc, which take place in the village hall.

There are currently three Girlguiding UK

Girlguiding UK

Girlguiding UK is the national Guiding organisation of the United Kingdom. Guiding began in the UK in 1910 after Robert Baden-Powell asked his sister Agnes to start a group especially for girls that would be run along similar lines to Scouting for Boys. The Guide Association was a founder member of...

 units in Hullavington, Brownies and Rainbows, and a Guide unit which opened in September 2007. The Brownies now meet in the village hall and the Rainbow and Guide units meet on the army camp (Buckley Barracks) but are also open to girls from non-military families.

There is a Sunday morning football team who play in the Chippenham and District Sunday Football League Division 2. The current Hullavington Football Club has been running since 1989 and up until recently played in the village. Since 2007/2008 the team has played at Buckley Barracks which is around 2 miles away on the way towards the M4 junction.

Military Connections

There is a military base in Hullavington, situated next to the village, which was formerly RAF Hullavington

RAF Hullavington

RAF Hullavington was a Royal Air Force station in Hullavington, near Chippenham, Wiltshire.RAF Hullavington has switched regiments. At the current time it is RLC-Royal Logistic Corps.-History:Opened on 9 July 1937 as a Flying Training School....

 but today is the home of 9 Supply Regiment of the Royal Logistic Corps

Royal Logistic Corps

The Royal Logistic Corps provides logistic support functions to the British Army. It is the largest Corps in the Army, comprising around 17% of its strength...

. It has been renamed Buckley Barracks after the VC

Victoria Cross

The Victoria Cross is the highest military decoration awarded for valour "in the face of the enemy" to members of the armed forces of various Commonwealth countries, and previous British Empire territories....

 winner John Buckley

John Buckley (soldier)

Major John Buckley VC was an English recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.-Details:...

 of the former Royal Army Ordnance Corps

Royal Army Ordnance Corps

The Royal Army Ordnance Corps was a corps of the British Army. It dealt only with the supply and maintenance of weaponry, munitions and other military equipment until 1965, when it took over most other supply functions, as well as the provision of staff clerks, from the Royal Army Service...

. There are also two Air Cadet

Air Cadet Organisation

The Air Cadet Organisation is the collective name for the UK cadet forces sponsored by the Royal Air Force. The organisation is subordinate to No. 22 Group RAF, with a serving RAF officer as Commandant Air Cadets. The current Commandant is Air Commodore Barbara Cooper CBE...

 Volunteer Gliding

Gliding

Gliding is a recreational activity and competitive air sport in which pilots fly unpowered aircraft known as gliders or sailplanes using naturally occurring currents of rising air in the atmosphere to remain airborne. The word soaring is also used for the sport.Gliding as a sport began in the 1920s...

 Squadrons that operate out of Hullavington Airfield, 621VGS and 625VGS.

Representatives

The village is represented in parliament by James Gray and in Wiltshire Council

Wiltshire Council

Wiltshire Council is the unitary authority for most of the county of Wiltshire, in the West of England, the successor authority to Wiltshire County Council and to four districts—Kennet, North Wiltshire, Salisbury, and West Wiltshire—all of which had been created in 1973 and were...

 by Jane Scott

Jane Scott (politician)

Jane Antoinette Scott OBE is an English Conservative politician, Leader of the former Wiltshire County Council from 2003 to 2009 and of its successor the new Wiltshire Council from June 2009....

, both Conservatives

Conservative Party (UK)

The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...

.

Notable residents

Jazz pianist Jamie Cullum

Jamie Cullum

Jamie Cullum is an English pop and jazz-pop singer-songwriter. Though he is primarily a vocalist/pianist he also accompanies himself on other instruments including guitar and drums. Since April 2010, he has been presenting a weekly jazz show on BBC Radio 2, broadcast on Tuesdays from 19:00.- Early...

 used to live there. The former MP

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 Neil Hamilton

Neil Hamilton (politician)

Mostyn Neil Hamilton is a former British barrister, teacher and Conservative MP. Since losing his seat in 1997 and leaving politics, Hamilton and his wife Christine have become media celebrities...

 and his wife Christine

Christine Hamilton

Christine Hamilton is a British television personality and author, and the wife of former British Member of Parliament Neil Hamilton who was Minister for Corporate Affairs between 1992-1994....

 moved there in October 2004.

It is thought likely that Hannah Twynnoy

Hannah Twynnoy

Hannah Twynnoy is reputedly the first person on record to have been killed by a tiger in Britain.Hannah Twynnoy was an early 18th-century barmaid working in a pub in the centre of the English market town of Malmesbury in Wiltshire....

, believed to be the first person in Britain to have been killed by a tiger, came from Hullavington.

External links

• 621 Volunteer Gliding Squadron
• Wiltshire Sites and Monument Record Information for Hullavington (with maps and images)