Originally
home to a Roman Villa and then a castle as well. Castle Combe is the
Wiltshire Mecca of picturesque villages. There are many wonderful
buildings including the Dower House and the White Hart as well as the
lovely church.
The church was extensively restored in the 19th
century but mostly remains the old work. Round the top of the tower run
76 arches high and low. The parapet is carved with nearly fifty stone
heads. Looking down on the roof is a carving of a shuttle and scissors
the mark of the cloth industry put there by the merchants who built the
tower. Walter De Dunstaville (1270) whose family owned the Castle after
the Norman conquest, has his tomb in the church with effigy showing him
in full chain armour with angels at his head and a dog at his feet, and
six small figures in the panels of the tomb.
The
Scrope family moved in as Lords of the manor in the reign of Richard
II and stayed for nearly 500 years. The manor house along with later
additions became a hotel. Castle Combe did develop as a weaving town
along with the rest of Wiltshire in the fifteenth century. It
manufactured a red and white cloth known as 'Castlecombe'. Weaving was
carried out in the 50 or so weaving cottages.
Caslte Combe
is most famous for being portrayed as a fishing-port in the filming of
Dr Doolittle staring Rex Harrison and Anthony Newley. The
television aerials were removed and a little jetty was built on the
banks of By Brook, to make the town into a seaport. Local inhabitants
became 'extras' at 50s. per day, with meals, alcohol, and
clothes all thrown in.
One local who was in the film used to sit
by the market cross and recant the stories of the filming.
"Tell
'ee wot, zome o' them vilm volk, they be all right, out"
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