Chirton, Wiltshire
Historical Description
Churton, Chirton, or Cherrington, a village and a parish in Wiltshire. The village stands near the Eidgeway and the river Avon, 3 miles SW of Woodborough station on the G.W.R., and 6 SE by E of Devizes, and has a post office of the name Chirton under Devizes; money order office, Woodborough; telegraph office, Woodborough railway station. The parish includes also the tithing of Conock. Acreage, 1926; population, 314. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Salisbury; value, £96. Patron, the Lord Chancellor. The church is excellent.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
| Ancient County | Wiltshire | |
| Ecclesiastical parish | Churton St. John the Baptist | |
| Hundred | Swanborough | |
| Poor Law union | Devizes |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The Phillimore transcript of Marriages at Cherington or Chirton 1588-1812, Wiltshire is available to browse online.
The register dates from the year 1579.
Findmypast, in association with the Wiltshire Record Office, have the following parish records online for Chirton:
| Baptisms | Banns | Marriages | Burials |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1579-1917 | 1754-1815 | 1588-1932 | 1588-1921 |
Churches
Church of England
St. John the Baptist (parish church)
The church of St. John the Baptist is an ancient and beautiful structure of grey stone, in the Transition Norman style, consisting of chancel, nave of three bays, aisles, south porch and an embattled western tower containing 5 bells; the south entrance has an elaborately wrought arch, with zigzag mouldings and a series of animals' heads and other figures surrounding its outer edge: there is a piscina in the chancel, with sedile, and another in the south aisle of Late Decorated character: the font, which is particularly fine, and is evidently coeval with the church, bears representations of the Twelve Apostles: there are six stained windows in the church and two in the south porch, and in the north aisle is a monument of the 18th century to the Warriner family: the church was restored and re-seated in 1850, and has 250 sittings.
Civil Registration
For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Chirton from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Churton, or Chirkton (St. John the Baptist))
Maps
Online maps of Chirton are available from a number of sites:
- Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- Google Streetview.
- National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
- OpenStreetMap.
- old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
- Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)
Newspapers and Periodicals
The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Wiltshire papers online: