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From "RAF Yatesbury The History" with the kind permission of Phil Tomaselli - EditorCHAPTER ONE80,000,000 Years BC to 1914Yatesbury lies at the extreme western edge of the extensive chalk deposits of Salisbury Plain. This chalk was laid down over a period of about 20 million years during the late Cretaceous period about 80 million years ago. At this time, what is now the eastern part of Britain, Northern France, the North Sea and the Irish Sea was covered by a warm shallow sea teeming with microscopic life. When these tiny creatures died, they fell to the bottom of the sea and over the years built up and were compressed to form extensive chalk deposits. These deposits can also be seen as the White Cliffs of Dover and the chalk plains where the Battle of the Somme was fought in 1916 during World War 1. The Western edge of this chalk is seen as "Labour in Vain Hill" where the A4 road drops down to Calne. Yatesbury village has been around for some time. The very first mention is in the Domesday book compiled in AD 1086. The following account is given: Aluredus de Ispania tenet de Rege
Etesberie. Aiwi tenwuit tempore
Regis Edwardi,
geldabat pro 5 hidis. Terra est
4 De ea
sunt in dominio
3 hidae dimidium, ibi ibi
2 carucatae, et 2 servi; et 7 bordarii,
et unus miles, cum 1 carucata.
Ibi 20 For anyone who can't speak Latin or mediaeval French, (or whatever it maybe), here is a translation: "Alured of Spain holds Esteberie of the King. Aiwi held it in the time of King Edward and it paid geld for five hides. The land is four carucates. Of this there are 3'A hides in demesne, and there are 2 carucataes, and 2 serves; and there are 7 bordars, and one "miles" with one carucatae. There are 20 acres of pasture. It was worth £3. it is now worth £4. ,one soldier "miles" - or esquire, as understood in the olden time, - who had to render services to a feudal Lord and through him to the King and so obtain rank in proportion to the service rendered. A carucatae is the amount of land which can be tilled with one plough and eight oxen in a year. So, Yatesbury, as a village, was well established at the time of the Norman conquest. The name itself is Anglo-Saxon and there are several theories as to the name, but no definite information. Bury, as spelt by them as Berie, in Anglo-Saxon meant a large open field or flat plain and is fairly common as in Avebury, Salisbury, Amesbury, etc. The Yat part of the name is uncertain. It is possibly a corruption of Gate meaning the entrance to a place, possibly Avebury. Another possibility is that it was the fortification (burg) of a man named Yate or Geat. Over the years the spelling has varied. The book "Place Names of Wiltshire" gives a list of 25 variations from Etesberie in the Domesday book mentioned above, to Yeatesbury as it appeared in 1700. This was probably more to do with the interpretation of the writer when speaking to one of the locals. A list of the variations appears as Appendix 1. However, the site had been occupied for many thousands of years before this, as can be seen by the number of prehistoric remains around the area. There is a Bronze Age earthwork and two barrows in the south comer of the Parish with others to the south east and to the west of Yatesbury village. FOOTNOTE (by Mike Voges with apologies to Phil Tomaselli When I returned in 1959 for a Bomber D course and again in 1961 for one on Decca Navigator classmates always referred to it as “Yattesburgh” … we also reminisced about the “sausage queens” who worked in the C & T Harris factory in Calne and dispensed favours amongst the local - and luckier - RAF personnel. |