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Little Bedwyn (also spelt Little Bedwin, and sometimes called Bedwyn Parva) is a village and civil parish on the River Dun in Wiltshire, about south-west of the market town of Hungerford in neighbouring Berkshire. The parish includes the hamlets of Chisbury and Timbridge. The Kennet and Avon Canal and the Reading to Taunton railway line follow the Dun and pass through the village. Little Bedwyn is served by Bedwyn railway station, which is about south-west of the village at Great Bedwyn. ==History== Bedwyn Dyke, an early medieval fortification that may be part of the Wansdyke, passes through the parish. Most of Little Bedwyn was part of a larger estate called Bedwyn which in the early Middle Ages was held by the kings of Wessex and of England. Anciently the whole parish was within Savernake Forest.〔Crowley, 1999, pages 50-69〕 The ''National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland'' of 1868 says of Little Bedwyn: The Bedwyn Dyke, an early medieval fortification that may be a continuation of the Wansdyke, passes through the parish. About west of Little Bedwyn is Chisbury Camp, an Iron Age hill fort consisting of earthworks which enclose some .〔Pevsner & Cherry, 1975, page 174〕 Within the camp is the former St Martin's chapel, a Decorated Gothic building〔 of flint, now a farm building.〔Frank R. Heath, ''The Little Guides - WILTSHIRE'' (7th edition, 1949)〕 In the mid 19th century there was some uncertainty as to whether the parish included about of Savernake Forest lying at the parish's western end, but by the 1880s it had been decided that the land was part of the parish. From then until 1987 the total size of the parish was . In 1987, an area of was transferred to Great Bedwyn.〔〔Statutory Instruments 1987, no. 619: Kennet (Parishes) Order〕 The population of the parish has fluctuated in recent centuries. Between 1801 and 1871 it rose from 428 to 579, but since then it has fallen gradually and in 2001 stood at 280.〔(Population census figures ) at wiltshire.gov.uk〕 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「Little Bedwyn」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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