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Edington, Wiltshire

Historical Description

Edington, a tithing and parish in Wilts. The tithing lies 3¼ miles NE by E of Westbury town and station, on the G.W.R., and has a post office under Westbury; money order and telegraph office, Bratton. The parish contains also the tithings of West Coulston, Baynton, and Tinhead. Acreage, 5765; population, 846. The manor belonged, after the Reformation, to the first Marquis of Winchester, passed to the Dukes of Bolton, and belongs now to the Taylor family. A collegiate church was built here in 1347 by William de Edington, a native of this parish and Bishop of Winchester, to which was attached a monastery of Bonhommes, founded by Edward the Black Prince, and given at the dissolution to Sir Thomas Seymour. A palace of the bishops of Salisbury also stood here, but it was plundered and destroyed by Jack Cade's mob in 1460, and Bishop Ayscough, who was then in the church performing mass, was dragged out and put to death. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Salisbury; value, £160 with residence. The church, built by Bishop Edington, has a cruciform plan, forms an interesting specimen of transition architecture from Decorated English to Perpendicular, and contains a monument of Sir Simon Taylor by Chantrey, and some ancient monuments and brasses, and a fine rood screen. The building was thoroughly restored in 1892 at a cost of £7000.

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 parishEdington All Saints 
HundredWhorwelsdown 
Poor Law unionWestbury and Whorwelsdown 

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


Church Records

The parish register dates from the year 1695.

Findmypast, in association with the Wiltshire Record Office, have the following parish records online for Edington:

BaptismsBannsMarriagesBurials
1597-19171754-18121597-19321597-1973

Churches

Church of England

St. Mary, St. Katherine and All Saints (parish church)

The church of St. Mary, St. Katherine and All Saints, erected by William of Edyngdon in 1361, and considered the only perfect monastic church remaining in the county, is a cruciform edifice of stone, in the Transition style from Decorated to Perpendicular, and consists of chancel, clerestoried nave, transepts, south porch with parvise and a fine embattled tower rising from the intersection, containing 6 bells: among the monuments is one of the 17th century to Sir Edward Lewys: in the south transept is an ancient tomb with the effigy of a monk, and a monument with figures, by Sir F. Chantrey, to Sir Simon R. B. Taylor bart. d. 1815: there is a window containing glass of the 14th century: the windcws of the north aisle also retain a great deal of the original stained glass: a piscina and rood screen still exist: the church was restored 1889-91 at a cost of £7,000, and affords about 300 sittings.

Methodist

Wesleyan Chapel

The Wesleyan chapel at Tinhead was erected in 1828.


Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Edington from the following:


Maps

Online maps of Edington are available from a number of sites:


Newspapers and Periodicals

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

CountyWiltshire
RegionSouth West
CountryEngland
Postal districtBA13
Post TownWestbury

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