Place Names of Calne: St. Dunstan Close, St. Dunstan Court, St. Dunstan's House

St. Dunstan Close, St. Dunstan Court and St. Dunstan's House are all located off Lickhill Road at the north of Calne. St. Dunstan Court was built as part of the Phase 6, Sector 4, North Calne Developement (Lansdowne Park) in the early 2000s, by Persimmon homes around 2003. St. Dunstan Close seems to have been built in the late 1980s.

St. Dunstan's House, a Grade II listed building, used to reside next to the Harris bacon factory at New Road before being taken down and rebuilt at what is now St. Dunstan Court on the order of the Harris family, approximately 1920s. At one time this house was a nursing home (known as Dunstan House Retirement Home), but changed to residential in the early 2000s. When the house was moved, to create space for a factory extension, the newly built factory was also called St. Dunstan's.

St. Dunstan House

They are all named for St. Dunstan, an archbishop who held the infamous witan in Calne, 978. The story goes:
"A. 978. In this year all the chief 'witan' of the English nation fell at Calne from an upper chamber, except the holy archbishop Dunstan, who supported himself upon a beam; and there some were grievously maimed, and some did not escape with life."[1]

In the recent past, Calne was home to St Dunstan Church of England Primary School. However in 2013 the onsite nursery closed when the children in attendance dropped to 10[2]. In 2014, Ofsted deemed that the school required improvement[3]. The school then stopped operating as St. Dunstan on 31/08/2015[4] when it joined the Diocese of Salisbury Academy Trust and rebranded as Marden Vale[5]. This move was deemed to be a good thing for the childen as the school would have "high quality support" from the Trust, sadly Marden Vale has been deemed 'Inadequate' by Ofsted since September 2018. However things are looking up for the school, as a monitoring inspection in April 2019 reported that the school was taking effective action towards removal of special measures and that the action plan was fit for purpose. 

I seem to have digressed. Anyway, these are the places named for the Archbishop, then St., Dunstan, who apparently avoided falling from the upper chamber of a hall, showing that God approved of Dunstan's holy reforms, which included a return to priests living chastely[6].


 

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References:
[1] https://calnepastandpresent.blogspot.com/2019/02/timeline-calne-978-archbishop-dunstan.html 
[2] The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald. 2019. School’s nursery is forced to close | The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.gazetteandherald.co.uk/news/10392567.schools-nursery-is-forced-to-close/. [Accessed 20 June 2019].
[3] Ofsted | St Dunstan Church of England Primary School. 2019. Ofsted | St Dunstan Church of England Primary School. [ONLINE] Available at: https://reports.ofsted.gov.uk/provider/21/126312. [Accessed 20 June 2019]. 
[4] St Dunstan Church of England Primary School - GOV.UK. 2019. St Dunstan Church of England Primary School - GOV.UK. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.get-information-schools.service.gov.uk/Establishments/Establishment/Details/126312. [Accessed 20 June 2019].
[5] The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald. 2019. A new chapter begins at Marden Vale Academy in Calne | The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.gazetteandherald.co.uk/news/13778355.a-new-chapter-begins-at-marden-vale-academy-in-calne/. [Accessed 20 June 2019]. 
[6] https://calnepastandpresent.blogspot.com/2018/06/early-calne-to-1086ce-brief-study.html