Bedwin, Little (St. Michael)

BEDWIN, LITTLE (St. Michael), a parish, in the union of Hungerford, hundred of Kinwardstone, Marlborough and Ramsbury, and S. divisions of Wilts, 4½ miles (W. S. W.) from Hungerford; containing 597 inhabitants. This place, in some documents called East Bedwyn, is intersected by the Bath and Bristol road, and the Kennet and Avon canal; and comprises by measurement 4204 acres of good arable and pasture land. The living is a vicarage, valued in the king's books at £9. 6. 8., and in the gift of the Marquess of Ailesbury: the tithes have been commuted for £33. 10. and £256. 12., the former payable to his lordship, and the latter to the incumbent. The church is a handsome structure in the decorated and later English styles, with a square embattled tower surmounted by an octagonal spire. Within the mounds of Chisbury Castle, comprising an area of fifteen acres, are the remains of a chapel, now used as a barn: the spot is said to have derived its name from Cissa, the Saxon chieftain, who resided here during the early period of the heptarchy, and the chapel is supposed to have belonged to some religious house. The ancient Wansdyke traverses the parish in a direction nearly east and west.