Charlton-All-Saints is a hamlet in the

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

of Downton, in South

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

, England. It lies immediately west of the River Avon, about north of Downton village and south-east of the city of

Salisbury Salisbury ( ) is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers Avon, Nadder and Bourne. The city is approximately from Southampton and from Bath. Salisbury is in the southeast of Wil ...

. The village has a population of around 450. There are several traditional thatched cottages, of which a few are from the 17th century, and the majority mid-18th century. Charlton House, at the junction of Warrens Lane and Lower Road, has a granary and a barn from the late 18th century. The

Avon Valley Path The Avon Valley Path is a long-distance path, opened in 1992, which runs for through the English counties of Wiltshire, Hampshire and Dorset. The path takes its name from the River Avon. From Salisbury it passes through the towns of Fordin ...

, a long-distance footpath between Salisbury and the Dorset coast, passes through the village.

History

The settlement has existed since Saxon times. The name "Charlton" derives from the

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

''#eorl t#n'', ''t#n'' meaning farm or settlement and '' #eorl'' being the lowest rank of free peasant in

Anglo-Saxon England Anglo-Saxon England or Early Medieval England, existing from the 5th to the 11th centuries from the end of Roman Britain until the Norman conquest in 1066, consisted of various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms until 927, when it was united as the Kingdom o ...

. The suffix "All Saints" is taken from the dedication of the village's church. Sources and road signs differ as to whether the name should be hyphenated. By 1208, Charlton was a

tithing A tithing or tything was a historic English legal, administrative or territorial unit, originally ten hides (and hence, one tenth of a hundred). Tithings later came to be seen as subdivisions of a manor or civil parish. The tithing's leader or s ...

of the parish of Downton. In the 14th century it was a prosperous farming community, highly assessed for taxation. In 1851, the Charlton and Witherington tithings were united to form an

ecclesiastical parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish priest ...

, which then had considerable secular duties. In 1897, after the creation of civil parishes, this ecclesiastical parish was united with

Standlynch Trafalgar Park (also known as Trafalgar House, formerly Standlynch Park) is a large Georgian country house about 1.4 miles (2.3 km) northeast of the village of Downton in south Wiltshire, England, and 4.5 miles (7.3 km) southeast of th ...

to form the civil parish of Standlynch with Charlton-All-Saints. This was finally merged into Downton parish in 1934. Charlton had a small school for girls from 1786, and a National School from c. 1858 which was designed by

William Butterfield William Butterfield (7 September 1814 – 23 February 1900) was a Gothic Revival architect and associated with the Oxford Movement (or Tractarian Movement). He is noted for his use of polychromy. Biography William Butterfield was born in Lon ...

. This school could accommodate 99 but attendance fell during the 20th century and it was closed in 1968.

Church and chapel

All Saints' Church, Charlton All Saints 01

The

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

church, All Saints', was built in 1851 partly at the expense of

Lord Nelson Vice-admiral (Royal Navy), Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, 1st Duke of Bronte (29 September 1758 – 21 October 1805) was a British people, British flag officer in the Royal Navy. His inspirational leadership, grasp of strate ...

, owner of the Trafalgar estate on the other side of the river. Construction is in brick to designs of

T.H. Wyatt Thomas Henry Wyatt (9 May 1807 – 5 August 1880) was an Anglo-Irish architect. He had a prolific and distinguished career, being elected President of the Royal Institute of British Architects 1870–73 and being awarded its Royal Gold Medal for A ...

, in Early English style. The font is by

and the west windows by

Morris Morris may refer to: Places Australia *St Morris, South Australia, place in South Australia Canada * Morris Township, Ontario, now part of the municipality of Morris-Turnberry * Rural Municipality of Morris, Manitoba ** Morris, Manitob ...

. Today the church is part of the Chalke Valley benefice. Butterfield also designed the

vicarage A clergy house is the residence, or former residence, of one or more priests or ministers of religion. Residences of this type can have a variety of names, such as manse, parsonage, rectory or vicarage. Function A clergy house is typically own ...

on Lower Road, built in brick in 1860–62. A Wesleyan Methodist chapel was built near All Saints in 1864, and became a private house in the 1970s.

References

External links

{{authority control Villages in Wiltshire