​Bemerton HISTORY

YOUR HOUSE

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Cherry Orchard Lane

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Railway Yards

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The east side of Cherry Orchard Lane housed railway yards.   The south-east junction with Lower Road, opposite the Heritage garages, was the site of engine sheds which were a target for a German fighter-bomber raid during the Second World War. 

 

The bomb did not damage the sheds, but a water tank was hit by shrapnel and the bomb skimmed across Cherry Orchard Lane, landed in the allotments throwing cabbages in all directions and blew out the windows of nearby houses.

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Boathouse Meadow

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At the bottom of Cherry Orchard Lane, on the south side of Lower Road, is the Boathouse Meadow Business Park.  The area takes its name from the former meadow which was used for recreational purposes and which included a boathouse. 

 

Next to the meadow was Burden’s Field.   Here Albert Burden, a self-employed gardener, grew fruit and vegetables, which he sold from a little tin shack on the corner. He also kept his horse and cart here which he used for selling his products throughout the village.  Growing fruit and vegetables was an essential activity for most households, and village residents would keenly wait for Albert to pass so they could nip out and scoop up the horse manure to fertilize their own plants and vegetables.  Albert lived at 46 Lower Road. 

 

During the war Burden’s Field became a Home Guard target shooting range and it was also the site for a large silver barrage balloon.

 

By 1956, the area had been developed and had become the home of the Salisbury Abattoir; a 100-unit caravan park for families awaiting allocation of the new council properties on Bemerton Heath; and, later, the motor showrooms which are here today.

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