Wanborough is a large village and civil parish in the borough of Swindon, Wiltshire, England. The village is about southeast of Swindontown centre. The settlement along the High Street is Lower Wanborough, while Upper Wanborough is on higher ground to the southwest. The parish includes the hamlets of Horpit and Foxhill, to the southeast.
History
There was a Roman settlement, Durocornovium, slightly northwest of the current village, at a road junction mentioned in the Antonine Itinerary. Being the last vicus on Ermin Way or Ermin Street before the scarp slope of the Marlborough Downs, Durocornovium was a site where horses were watered before the steep climb off the Oxfordshire plain. Wanborough is just off the Ridgeway National Trail. Development in a strip along the road frontages characterised the village, which reached maximum development in the 4th century. In three charters of the ninth century Wanborough is recorded as Wenbeorg. In the Domesday Book it is Wemberge, the 'm' being an evident mistake for 'n'. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records that a battle was fought in 592 AD between Ceawlin, King of Wessex and the Britons, at a place called Woddesbeorge or Wodnesbeorge,. This has given rise to considerable speculation as to whether the battle took place at Wanborough in Wessex, or in Staffordshire at Wednesbury. The antiquarian and historian W. H. Duignan stated in 1902: "Now it is impossible it can be Wanborough 'Wen' , in the ninth century, could not represent an original Woden. There is only one Wednesbury in Englandand I suggest that the Woddesbeorge of three versions of the Chronicle is an error for Wodnesbeorge." Modern place-name scholarship tends to agree that the battle took place at Wednesbury.
The village has a primary school and a small post office. The village has five public houses: The Brewers Arms; The New Calley Arms; The Cross Keys; The Harrow; and The Plough. There was also a sixth pub called The Black Horse which closed down early in 2012. Foxhill had one public house, The Shepherd's Rest which has re-opened as a restaurant serving Indian cuisine and renamed "The Burj". There is a monthly farmers market in the village hall on the 3rd Saturday of every month, except August where is replaced by the Wanborough Show Redlands Airfield is a base for microlight aviation and skydivingparachute training.
