In April 2012 the Wiltshire and Swindon Historic Landscape Characterisation (HLC) Project was launched. The intention of the project was to study the whole county and to identify the historic and archaeological processes which have influenced the modern landscape.

This work should help in understanding the evolution of the settlements and countryside and to identify what we can see that is typical and what is unusual.

 Now, two years into the project, real progress is being made in analysing the areas where we live, work and visit within Wiltshire. Currently, an area of c.194,000 ha (1940 km²) has been characterised. This includes many of the well-known urban and rural landscapes that we all know and enjoy – such as Salisbury Plain and Swindon. Data exists for many of the parishes, and the coverage is expanding all the time!

In early times, the parish of Downton formed part of a great estate granted to Winchester cathedral. The village itself was divided topographically into three sections which were linked by bridges. Settlement had developed in the High Street, so called in 1452 in a document in Winchester College archives, and from the mid-15th century the area was called the east borough. 

The King’s Arms, at the junction of Church Hatch and High Street, a solid-looking brick building with a tiled roof, was known to be a public house in 1628. We know who owned and occupied the King’s Arms in the mid-C18 from the Guildhall Library insurance documents.  These refer to James Russell, a schoolmaster of Downton, who took out a policy in 1755 ‘on his house only being the King’s Arms Inn at Downton …in the tenure of Lucy Loveday, Innholder… Brick, Timber and Thatched, Brewhouse only adjoining, Thatched. Two Stables only belonging, Thatched, £10 each.’ He paid £250 on the inn and £30 on the brewhouse.