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.
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 | Edington All Saints | |
| Hundred | Whorwelsdown | |
| Poor Law union | Westbury 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:
| Baptisms | Banns | Marriages | Burials |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1597-1917 | 1754-1812 | 1597-1932 | 1597-1973 |
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:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Edington (All Saints))
Maps
Online maps of Edington 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: