Broad Chalke

Coordinates: 51°01′41″N 1°56′35″W / 51.028°N 1.943°W / 51.028; -1.943

Broad Chalke, sometimes spelled Broadchalke, Broad Chalk or Broadchalk, is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, about 8 miles (13 km) west of the city of Salisbury. The 2001 Census recorded a parish population of 652 but as of 2011 it had risen to 680. This civil parish includes the hamlets of Knapp, Mount Sorrel and Stoke Farthing.

Description

Broad Chalke is in the Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and is halfway along the 13 miles (21 km) Chalke Valley. The parish has two chalk streams, as the River Chalke flows into the River Ebble at Mount Sorrell in the parish, and the main settlement stands on the banks of the Ebble.

The valley road runs from Salisbury in the east to Shaftesbury in the west between chalk downs on either side. The village sits at a crossroads where a road from Hampshire in the south runs down Knowle Hill and another route from Fovant and Tisbury in the north runs down Compton Down via Fifield Bavant and all roads meet near the public house in North Street. There is also a spur road along the River Chalke valley from Bowerchalke and Sixpenny Handley.

Chalke

The Chalke Gate (Greek: Χαλκῆ Πύλη), was the main ceremonial entrance (vestibule) to the Great Palace of Constantinople in the Byzantine period. The name, which means "the Bronze Gate", was given to it either because of the bronze portals or from the gilded bronze tiles used in its roof. The interior was lavishly decorated with marble and mosaics, and the exterior façade featured a number of statues. Most prominent was an icon of Christ which became a major iconodule symbol during the Byzantine Iconoclasm, and a chapel dedicated to the Christ Chalkites was erected in the 10th century next to the gate. The gate itself seems to have been demolished in the 13th century, but the chapel survived until the early 19th century.

History

The gate lay on the southeastern corner of the Augustaion, the main ceremonial plaza of the city, with the Hagia Sophia cathedral on the northern side and the Baths of Zeuxippos and the Hippodrome of Constantinople on the southern and western sides.

The first structure in that location was erected by the architect Aetherius during the reign of Emperor Anastasius I (r. 491–518) to celebrate the victory in the Isaurian War (492-497). Like much of the city's center, this structure burned down in the Nika riots of 532, and was subsequently rebuilt by the Emperor Justinian I (r. 527–565). This building was extensively described by the historian Procopius in his De Aedificiis. In the 7th and 8th centuries, the Chalke itself or its dependencies became a prison, until Emperor Basil I (r. 867–886) repaired it and converted it into a law court.

Chalke (disambiguation)

The Chalke Gate was the main ceremonial entrance to the Great Palace of Constantinople in the Byzantine period. Chalke may also refer to:

Places

People with the surname

Other uses

See also