Poulshot

The walk

Parking adjacent to St Paul’s church should be easy. Your route starts here, shortly taking up the byway that forms one long side of a walking rectangle. This field path is set wide between hedgerows, although the narrow trodden part is really only comfortable for two people if side by side [C].  For the first 200 metres there is no incline but a little rugged under foot.  Thereafter it is a well gritted byway [D]. After heading right on the road at the end of this byway, the road leads to a T-junction where you head down the other side of our rectangle and takes in the long thin village. (Notice the pleasant Raven pub just to your left in the other direction – of course you could reverse the walk, start and end here – to allow final refreshment at the Raven.) A detour around the pleasing village green is suggested before walking back to the church – in the area known as ‘Townsend’.

Poulshot village

Poulshot (“Pole-Shot”) is blessed with a charming 13^th century church, St Peters. The aisles and south porch were added a little later but it has not suffered from excesses of more recent restoration (e.g. Victorian).  The interior includes (with some pride) a 13^th century stained glass window: it will be found on the south wall of the chancel. The 1781 old rectory is now part of Church Farm and is adjacent to the church.

Traditionally, Wiltshire village churches are located more central to their local community.  That St Peters is rather at one end of its community may be because it formerly served a larger group of nearby villages. This may also explain the associated ‘Chapel of Ease’ which was later built more central to Poulshot dwellings (you see it on you left beyond the village green: an attractive timber framed building with a louvred turret). A building like this was designed to suppport a church that was more distant from the community centre, or alternatively just overflowing. This chapel could seat 100 parishioners.

The village green is strikingly large and offers a pleasant frame for cricket (etc) with its peaceful setting including a boundary of mixed and interesting houses – many of which were formerly small farms. There are also some attractive houses to be seen beyond the green as you walk back towards Townsend. Perhaps notice the Manor Farmhouse (on your right just beyond the green) – a 17^th century timber framed building, although now fronted in brick. A little further down (on the right) is thatched Stansfield Cottage with ‘1656’ boasted over the porch. Just before you reach Townsend and the church you pass by a turning on the left: Mill Lane.  At the end of this lane is Poulshot’s closest access to running water. Once this was the site of a mill for the grinding of snuff.

Despite its long history (Doomsday at least), there have been few celebrity Poushot residents. The one most often mentioned is a notorious highwayman. Thomas Boulter was (in-)famous for his deeds across a wide area of the south – although holdups sometimes also took him quite a way north (Cheshire).  Apparently local angry dogs were later named “Boulters” after him. His career ended at the age of 30 when he was picked up trying to reach France. He was hung at Winchester in 1775.

Poulshot community

Such brief walks around a village can’t reveal much about the spirit of the place – what sort of community it is. You can inspect the manicure of the gardens, the names given to houses, the make of cars in the drive (or whether there are ‘drives’), and perhaps the produce in the local shop (there isn’t one)… but all such research may not help much in ‘reading’ the place. That granted, there is another window of investigation (or nosiness) – namely, the internet. The online evidence from a parish newsletter and the village trust website suggests Poulshot is quite an animated community. There was even a long running  Poulshot Village News magazine delivered to all households by volunteers and available online (although seemingly now expired).

Within these spaces the inquisitive visitor finds: ‘Poulshot Friends and Neighbours’, ‘Farmers Club’, ‘Poulshot Readers’, ‘Poulshot Cricket Club’, ‘Poulshot Entertainment Group’, and so on. Perhaps a busy and creative place beneath a tranquil exterior.