Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for SILCHESTER

SILCHESTER, a village and a parish in Basingstoke district, Hants. The village stands adjacent to the ancient Caer-Segont, 2¼ miles SW of Mortimer r. station, and 7 N of Basingstoke; has a post-office under Basingstoke; and gives the title of Baron to the Earl of Longford. Caer-Segont was the chief town of the ancient British Segontiaci; became the Roman city, Calleva, long but erroneously regarded as the Roman Vindonis or Vindonum; was called by the Saxons Selceastre or Silchester, signifying "the castle in the wood;'' seems to have been, in the Saxon and earlier times, surrounded by a region of thick forest; stood on the Roman road from London to Bath, at the junction of Roman roads from Salisbury and Winchester; was the place of the usurper Constantine's assumption of the purple in 407; was taken and destroyed by the Saxon Ella in 493; retains vestiges of its Roman streets, and portions of its Roman walls enclosing an area of about 120 acres; has remains of a Roman amphitheatre, 150 feet by 120; was found, by a discovery in 1833, to retain some large Roman baths; and has, at varions times, yielded large numbers of smaller Roman relics, including inscriptions, weapons, seals, rings, personal ornaments, and a profusion of coins. The parish comprises 1,881 acres. Real property, £1,799. Pop., 480. Houses, 101. The manor belongs to the Duke of Wellington. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Winchester. Value, £400.* Patron, the Duke of Wellington. The church is ancient. There are a national school, and charities £15.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a village and a parish"   (ADL Feature Type: "populated places")
Administrative units: Silchester CP/AP       Basingstoke RegD/PLU       Hampshire AncC
Place: Silchester

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