Stratford sub Castle Village Website
Salisbury, Wiltshire UK

UPDATE The bus lane signing on the road surface was re-instated overnight, rather later than scheduled. The yellow hatching has also been completed. The traffic lights operate on Castle Roundabout but are still out of action on St Mark's roundabout and St Paul's Roundabout. Earlier newspost 2 September 2026 "...... the "BUS LANE" wording itself requires a specialist hand-lining crew, and unfortunately this element couldn't be completed at the time as specialist resource wa

Dr Martin Radford explores the extraordinary world of Arthur Ransome in his talk "Swallows and Amazons and the Russian Revolution, in the Reading Room, Stratford Road, SP1 3LL on Wednesday 11 November at 7.30 pm. Ransome was sued by Oscar Wilde’s lover, worked as a newspaper reporter in St Petersburg during the Russian Revolution and eloped with Trotsky’s secretary, yet we know him as the much-loved author of the “Swallows and Amazons” children’s books. The talk will be follo

All are welcome to attend the Remembrance Sunday service at 10am in St Lawrence Church, Stratford Road SP1 3LL. The congregation will leave the church to observe the two minute silence trditionally held at 11 am around the Cross of Sacrifice. 11 November 2018 - viewed from the church tower Refreshments will be available in the Reading Room opposite the church, after the service.

... by borrowing a thermal imaging camera from Wiltshire Library Services. Thermal imaging cameras will help you to identify areas of heat loss to improve your home's energy efficiency, reduce household bills and reduce carbon emissions. If you are a member of Wiltshire Libraries, you can borrow a FLIR ONE Edge thermal imaging camera free of charge. A thermal imaging camera can be reserved and collected from our local Salisbury library and can be loaned for up to a week. It

‘Unsung heroes - Animals at war’ Speaker Phil Whitemore I’ve been lucky enough to have listened to many of Phil Whitemore’s talks and always found them engaging and informative and his presentation to the Stratford Guild on 14th October was no exception. Man’s close bond with many types of animals has developed over thousands of years, allowing humans to make use of an animal’s highly developed characteristics of smell, strength, hearing, flight and sight. A bond of loyalty b

Devizes Road will be closed from St Paul's Roundabout along the length of the A360 to Highfield Road in planned stages starting on Monday 12 October. Diversions will be in signposted. Details in the letter and map below, circulated by SGN (Southern Gas Networks).

A new battery has been fitted to the defibrillator outside the Reading Room, Stratford Road SP1 3LL. It has been tested and is working and its status has now been returned to 'Active' on all the relevant emergency systems. The defibrillator had been out of action since Monday 5 October.

Wiltshire Council's mobile library service visits Castle Keep, Stratford sub Castle every two weeks and is now served by an electric vehicle (EV). The new vehicle meets the latest standards for fuel efficiency and emissions - part of Wiltshire Council's wider fleet decarbonisation strategy - with a longer-term goal of moving towards all electric vehicles and expanding EV charging networks across council sites. Source The scheduled dates for Stratford sub Castle have been a

Friends of St Lawrence talk - Friday 2nd October at 7.30 pm in the Reading Room. All the tickets have been sold and there is a waiting list in case of cancellations. Our speaker will be Clare Waddell, who many of you will know as a fellow resident of Stratford sub Castle. Clare is a dietitian at Salisbury District Hospital and has worked in the field of nutrition for more than 30 years. Clare's talk is titled "Can We Make Stratford sub Castle a Blue Zone?". For anyone unfamil

Flowers from a wedding on Saturday 12 September remained at St Lawrence Church for several days and residents were encouraged to view them and to 'Smell the roses" - the scent was wonderful! The flowers have now been removed from the church and a few more images have been added to this small collection. Click on any of the images to view in a larger window. An evening view

We will be welcoming Roger Hirons aka The Plant Doctor, for another visit to our Club. Roger is an expert on plants, ecology and garden design and a published author of ‘Hedges & Living Boundaries’, that he wrote in 2022. The title of the talk is "Putting the garden to bed for the Winter". Roger’s interest in plants began at a young age and after training at Pershore College he worked in plant nurseries, has run garden centres and now has his own garden design and landscapin

News from Wiltshire Council: More booking slots are now available at participating Household Recycling Centres "We're making more booking slots available each day at the Household Recycling Centres taking part in our booking system trial. Since the trial started, we've been looking at how residents are using the sites. We've found that most visits take less than 30 minutes and that there is enough space at the centres to welcome more vehicles. This means we can increase the

The current owner has kindly shared this undated postcard image of Orchard Cottage, Stratford sub Castle. British History Online describes the property: Orchard Cottage, of one storey with attics, has rendered brick, flint and rubble walls and a tiled roof. It was built early in the 18th century and until recently was thatched. Inside, chamfered beams are exposed. The image has been added to the Stratford's Historic houses page.

The newly refurbished village noticeboard was officially unveiled on the 9 September 2026 before the first meeting of the new 2026-27 Guild season, by local councillor John Wells and Elizabeth Byford, a long-standing resident and currently the oldest Guild member. Witnessing the unveiling were Steve Mayall and his original build team, the current Guild committee, and Barbara Mayall (Guild Chair in 2016 when the noticeboard was erected). The Guild hopes the noticeboard continu

After the overwhelming success of our August café, we made sure we had extra seating and extra cakes for our September café, which was the last for this summer season. Once again, we broke all records since we began in 2013, with proceeds amounting to £679 being donated to Old Sarum & Longhedge Pantry. What a great summer season we have had……………….. May I take this opportunity to thank everyone for continuing to support the cafés, whether helping, donating items or just com

'Censored' - speaker Miranda Pender Norah James Miranda told us of the intriguing tale of Norah C. James (a late member of her wider family) and the obscenity trial of 1929. Norah was born in London in 1895, into a wealthy, but disjointed family. She was left with a very negative view of marriage. She was also deeply affected by a history of mental health in her family. Before taking up writing Norah had numerous careers including as a nurse during the First World War

A national charitable group, Ramblers UK, organises short 'Wellbeing' walks in the Salisbury area. Included in the current programme are these walks local to Stratford sub Castle: Thursday 17 September at 10.00 - meet by the footbridge near Five RIvers Centre A choice of a 60 mins or a 90 mins walk. Friday 18 September at 10.00 - meet at the café kiosk in the centre of Victoria Park 30 mins Details and joining instructions are here: https://www.ramblers.org.uk/go-walking/wel

News from Wiltshire Council "Current Government policy requires Wiltshire to plan for around 3,500 new homes each year, making it important that local people have their say on how the county develops. Growth is something Wiltshire needs to plan for, and local feedback will help to ensure new development supports communities and brings the right benefits in the right places. Find out more about the Wiltshire Local Plan and share your views at Salisbury Market – Tuesday 8 Septe

The first meeting in the 40th year of the Garden Club is on Thursday 24 September 7.15 pm for 7.30 pm in the Reading Room SP1 3LL, opposite St Lawrence Church. Our speaker for this first meeting is Laura Hall - her talk is entitled “Creating Sustainable Wildlife Features in your Garden”. Laura is a gardener and garden designer – as many of you will know if you visited her lovely garden during the June “Open Gardens”. The meetings following this are: 29 October “Putting t