Down Ampney

All Saints Church, Down Ampney

Down Ampney is a medium-sized village located in Cotswold district in Gloucestershire, in England. The population taken at the 2011 census was 644.

It is off the A417 which runs between Cirencester and Faringdon (in Oxfordshire) on the A420, and about 5 km north of Cricklade, which is on the A419 which runs from Cirencester to Swindon, Wiltshire.

Down Ampney was notable in medieval times as one of the principal seats of the powerful Hungerford family (their principal seat was at Farleigh Hungerford, Somerset) and a number of elaborate family monuments survive in the village church.

The Old Vicarage in Down Ampney was the birthplace of Ralph Vaughan Williams in 1872. A tune he composed, used for the hymn "Come Down, O Love Divine", is titled "Down Ampney" in its honour.

During World War II, the airfield RAF Down Ampney saw action, with planes flying to and from the runway whilst serving in the war. The church has a stained glass window in commemoration of the planes that flew from the airfield for the Battle of Arnhem, 1944.

Aside from the airfield, a school older than 150 years, a multi-use games area for younger residents, a tennis club, a village hall, a small village shop, and the church mentioned above, which evidently dates back to before the bubonic plague, are also present in the current arrangement of the village.

References

• Ampney Brook from Sheeppen Bridge - geograph.org.uk - 350346.jpg

  Ampney Brook

• East House, Down Ampney - geograph.org.uk - 331224.jpg

  East House

• The Masons Arms - geograph.org.uk - 331140.jpg

  The Masons Arms inn

• Down Ampney war memorial - geograph.org.uk - 353575.jpg

  War memorial

External links

• Down Ampney Parish Council
• Completely Cotswold
• UK Genealogy Archives
• photos on Rootsweb
• Midi of the tune "Down Ampney"
• Down Ampney Village Website
• [Down] Ampney in the Domesday Book