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Downton is a village and civil parish on the River Avon in Wiltshire, England. It is about south of Salisbury and close to the New Forest. The parish includes the hamlets of Wick and Charlton-All-Saints, and the small ancient settlements of Witherington and Standlynch. ==History== Downton can trace its ancient inhabitants to the Iron Age, Roman and Saxon times. In 1953 the site of a Roman villa was discovered at Downton.〔(Monument No. 217913 ) Pastscape〕 Excavations in advance of housing development revealed a villa with tessellated floors, at least two featuring mosaics, a hypocaust and bath house.〔 Roman features were found over an area of about 12 acres. The villa is no longer visible, but the finds, including one of the mosaics, are displayed in Salisbury Museum.〔 There are also remains of a Norman motte and bailey castle. It now is the location of the Moot Garden, an 18th-century ornamental garden overlooking the river. It contains an ancient monument known as the Moot, which commemorates the meeting place of Wiltshire Saxons. It is one of the oldest of English moots or local parliaments, a legacy of the period when the Bishop of Winchester owned lands of Downton. Manor House in Downton is probably the longest-inhabited house in the South of England; it was used as a religious house from its construction around 850 until the Reformation in the late 16th century. King John is said to have had a palace in Downton on one of the islands by the Moot. When the palace was taken down, it was believed the stone was used in the structure called New Court House. From 1295 to 1832, Downton was a parliamentary borough, giving eligible residents the right to elect two MPs to Parliament. Notable MPs include Blessed John Story, an English Roman Catholic martyr, later beatified by Pope Leo XIII; Sir Carew Raleigh, elder brother of Sir Walter Raleigh; Robert 'Bonnie Bobby Shafto', the subject of a popular folk song; and the poet Robert Southey, who was elected without his knowledge and declined to take his seat. Trafalgar Park at Standlynch was named in honour of Horatio Nelson in 1814. The artist John Constable visited Downton in 1820, and his sketch of the Avon with the church in the background is held in the British Museum. In 1836, a time of continued agricultural hardship, the parish sponsored an emigration of more than 200 of its poor people to Upper Canada for opportunities there. They sailed in April 1836 on the ship ''King William''.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Downton Emigration )〕 For about a decade from around 1961, Downton had an important part to play in British motorsport. Its Downton Engineering Works produced some of the motors used by racing cars.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Downton Engineering Works )〕 Housebuilding in the 20th and 21st centuries has developed the Wick area into a western extension of Downton village. In 1999 a community project, The Downton Millennial Book Fund, published an illustrated history of the village from its ancient days.〔Waymouth 1999, p. 186〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Downton, Wiltshire」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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