Charlton St Peter or just Charlton is a small village and civil parish in the Vale of Pewsey in the English county of Wiltshire. The village lies about south-west of Pewsey. The village is in the north of the parish, between the River Avon and the Devizes- Upavon road, the A342. To the south the parish extends onto

Salisbury Plain Salisbury Plain is a chalk plateau in the south western part of central southern England covering . It is part of a system of chalk downlands throughout eastern and southern England formed by the rocks of the Chalk Group and largely lies wi ...

Parish church

The Church of England parish church of St Peter was largely rebuilt by

J.L. Pearson John Loughborough Pearson (5 July 1817 – 11 December 1897) was a British Gothic Revival architect renowned for his work on churches and cathedrals. Pearson revived and practised largely the art of vaulting, and acquired in it a proficienc ...

in 1858. Fragments of a 12-century building survive, and the tower is from the 15th or 16th centuries. The north chantry chapel, c. 1523, is in memory of William and Marion Chaucey. In 1964 the church was designated as

Grade II* listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

. The first record of a vicar at Charlton is from 1306, and by that time the church had been appropriated by the nearby Upavon Priory; in 1423 Upavon and Charlton were granted to the

Augustinian Augustinian may refer to: *Augustinians, members of religious orders following the Rule of St Augustine *Augustinianism, the teachings of Augustine of Hippo and his intellectual heirs *Someone who follows Augustine of Hippo * Canons Regular of Sain ...

canons of

Ivychurch Priory Ivychurch Priory was a medieval monastic house in Alderbury, southeast of Salisbury, Wiltshire, England. According to Historic England, "all that remains is a cylindrical pier with multi-scalloped capital and part of the double-chamfered arch wit ...

, south-east of Salisbury, who held them until the Dissolution. Today the parish is served by the Vale of Pewsey team ministry.

Local government

Post-Medieval coin , Half Guinea of George II (FindID 267137)

Charlton shares a parish council, named Charlton St Peter and Wilsford, with the adjacent parish of Wilsford. Charlton elects five councillors to sit alongside two from Wilsford. The parish is in the area of Wiltshire Council, a unitary authority which is responsible for most local government functions. On 1 July 2022 the parish wa renamed from "Charlton" to "Charlton St Peter".

Traditions

The village inn is the ''Charlton Cat'', "a solitary little inn at the foot of the downs". This establishment was originally called the Red Lion, later the Poores Arms after Edward Poore, lord of the nearby manor of Rushall in the eighteenth century, but the villagers had long known it as ''The Cat'', from the ill-painted lion of the original sign. This name was formally adopted in 1921. Charlton and the neighbouring village of Rushall hold an annual village cricket match each year in June. It used to be played in each village alternately, but in recent years since the Village Lunch has been established in Rushall Village Hall, the match has been played in a field behind the Old Barns. In the last few years a tug-of-war competition has been started, only seriously between the men for the trophy, but there are a women's and children's tug-of-war as well.

Notable people

Stephen Duck Stephen Duck (c. 1705 – 21 March 1756) was an English poet whose career reflected both the Augustan era's interest in "naturals" ( natural geniuses) and its resistance to classlessness. Biography Duck was born at Charlton, near Pewsey, in Wi ...

, 18th-century poet, was born here and the grave of his wife Mary is in the churchyard. The "Duck Feast", held annually at the Charlton Cat in the first week of June, commemorates his life and work. The cost is met from the rent of "Duck's Acre", a field in Rushall donated for the purpose by Lord Palmerston.

References

External links