South Marston is a village in north-east Wiltshire

Wiltshire

Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers...

, England. The name Marston derives from the common English village name meaning marsh farm. It is part of the Borough of Swindon. Early in World War 2, a Ministry of Aircraft Production shadow factory and airfield were built for the Phillips & Powis (later Miles) aircraft company which built Miles Master training aircraft there. Short Brothers Ltd also used part of the airfield for final assembly and testing locally-built Stirling bombers and Vickers-Armstrong Supermarine acquired the site by the end of the war and continued to produce military aircraft such as the Attacker, Swift and Scimitar there until the early 1960s.

Demographics

As the economy and population of Swindon expanded through the latter half of the 20th century, so did that of South Marston; the purchase of the former Vickers-Armstrong factory airfield by Honda

Honda

is a Japanese public multinational corporation primarily known as a manufacturer of automobiles and motorcycles.Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, as well as the world's largest manufacturer of internal combustion engines measured by volume, producing more than...

 in 1985 and large residential development on the site of the Manor House in the mid-80s contributed to the diversification of the population to include industrial workers and commuting professionals.

History

Although the earliest documentary evidence for continuous settlement in the parish dates from the thirteenth century, there is fragmentary evidence for earlier occupation from as far back as the Bronze Age. Local wisdom has it that there were Roman remains just outside South Marston (on a field of Rowborough Farm), which have long disappeared. Certainly one of the major Roman roads, the Ermin Way

Ermin Street

Ermin Street or Ermin Way is one of the great Roman roads of Britain. It runs from Gloucester via Cirencester to Silchester . Much of it is now covered by the modern A417, A419 and B4000 roads....

 from Cirencester

Cirencester

Cirencester is a market town in east Gloucestershire, England, 93 miles west northwest of London. Cirencester lies on the River Churn, a tributary of the River Thames, and is the largest town in the Cotswold District. It is the home of the Royal Agricultural College, the oldest agricultural...

 to Speen, runs close to the southwest side of the village, separating it from Stratton St Margaret

Stratton St Margaret

Stratton St Margaret is a civil parish in the Borough of Swindon, Wiltshire, England. The parish covers north-eastern suburbs of Swindon including Stratton St Margaret itself along with Upper Stratton, Lower Stratton, Nythe and Kingsdown.-History:...

. There was a Roman station at Durocornovium (now Covingham) one mile south of the village.

The name Marston is from Saxon origins, which would date the founding of the village prior to the Norman arrival in 1066. However, it is not mentioned 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. Documentary evidence exists from c1280, when the village is mentioned as part of the Highworth

Highworth

Highworth is a market town in the unitary authority of Swindon in Wiltshire, England, located about north-east of Swindon town centre. At the 2001 census it had a population of 7,996...

Hundred, to the modern era.

This article summarises the history section of the village web site, which is a well referenced resource for the latest research on the village's history.

External links

A history of South Marstons aircraft industry