page_title: Bowerchalke
section_title: 21st century
hierarchical_section_title: Bowerchalke / Origins / 21st century
caption_attribution_description: English: Photo taken by uploader in 1980 - No rights reserved -
context_page_description: Bowerchalke is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, about 9 miles southwest of Salisbury. It is in the south of Wiltshire, about 1 mile from the county boundary with Dorset and 2 miles from that with Hampshire. The parish includes the hamlets of Mead End, Misselfore and Woodminton.
  Bowerchalke is in the Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, which is part of the Southern England Chalk Formation. The River Chalke, a classic chalk stream, rises in the village and joins the River Ebble at Broad Chalke, flowing into the Hampshire Avon south of Salisbury. The Bowerchalke Downs, also known as Woodminton Down, Marleycombe Down and Knowle Down, were defined as a 318 acres Site of Special Scientific Interest in 1971.
  The Grade II* listed church of the Holy Trinity dates from the 13th century, and Nobel Prize winning novelist William Golding is buried in the churchyard.
context_section_description: The village post office and general stores closed in 2003.  The nearest post office is in Broad Chalke.
  An article about the closures called Village of the Damned, written by David McKie, was published in The Guardian on 30 June 2005. A response titled Bowerchalke is not the village of the Damned was written by Will Heaven, Assistant Comment Editor of the Daily Telegraph on 30 August 2009.
  In 2010 the Chalke Valley Cricket Club moved the cricket ground from the Chalke Valley Sports Centre in Broad Chalke to a new ground at Butt's Field, Bowerchalke, behind the Church under Marleycombe Hill, to allow a longer season and better facilities.
  In 2011 Bowerchalke's new cricket ground became the main venue for the first Chalke Valley History Festival, organised by local author James Holland.
caption: Bowerchalke and the Chalke Valley, looking north east from the top of the chalk escarpment
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