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Broad Chalk, Wiltshire

Historical Description

Broad-Chalk, a village and a parish in Wilts. The village stands on the Vale of Chalk, near Cranborne Chase, 4 miles S by E of Dinton station on the L. & S.W.R., and 5½ SW of Wilton, and has a post and money order office under Salisbury; telegraph office, Dinton. It was for some time the residence of John Aubrey the antiquary. The parish includes also the hamlets of Knighton and Stoke-Farthing. Acreage, 6966; population, 661. The manor originally belonged to the Abbess of Wilton. In 1447 she presented the " Prebendaryship of Chalke" to Henry VI., who in the year following gave it to his newly founded " King's College" Cambridge, the present patrons of the living (in the diocese of Salisbury); the present value is £250. The church belongs mostly to the time of Henry VII., the tower and south transept being later, while the chancel, north transept, and west doorway are Early English. The church was carefully restored in 1874. There are Congregational and Primitive Methodist chapels.

Transcribed from The Comprehensive Gazetteer of England & Wales, 1894-5

Administration

The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.

Ancient CountyWiltshire 
Ecclesiastical parishBroad-Chalk All Saints 
HundredChalk 
Poor Law unionWilton 

Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.


Church Records

The parish registers date from the year 1538.


Churches

Church of England

All Saints (parish church)

The church of All Saints is an ancient cruciform building of stone in the styles of the 13th and 15th centuries, and consists of chancel, nave, transepts, south porch and a massive embattled central tower containing a clock and 6 bells, 4 of which were recast in 1874; the font is of the 15th century: there are fine Early English sedilia in the chancel, and an aumbry in the north transept: the fabric was restored in 1847, and affords 453 sittings; the churchyard was enlarged and improved in 1884 and a lych gate erected, the gift of Mrs. Rowland Williams, in memory of her husband, formerly vicar of the parish.

Congregational

Congregational Chapel

The Congregational chapel, erected in 1801, has seating for 270.

Methodist

Primitive Methodist Chapel

Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Broad Chalk from the following:


Newspapers and Periodicals

The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Wiltshire papers online: