Bathford

The old Bathford railway bridge was built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel as part of the Great Western Railway. The ford from which the village derived its name was connected with the Fosse Way. This is mentioned in a Saxon charter of the tenth century relating to the manor. The Fosse Way stills forms the boundary of the parish. Near the river crossing is the site of a Roman villa, the hypocaust of which was found by John Aubrey's Monumenta Britannica in about the middle of the seventeenth century. Near Bathford, on the opposite side of the river, is a large meadow known as Horselands where, according to tradition, the Roman cavalry were exercised. More recently, the area bounded by Ostlings Lane and the Bradford Road (A363) was used to keep the spare horses used to haul the mail coaches up Bathford Hill. They then returned to the field to await the next coach. Some older long-standing residents of Bathford still refer to Ostlings Lane as Horses Lane. Whether the two areas are related is somewhat uncertain.This camera was installed and is maintained by the Environment Agency and can be viewed here All  content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Bathford has been formally twinned with Artannes-sur-Indre in France since October 2005