Christ Church is the parish church of the village of

Broad Town Broad Town is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, about southeast of Royal Wootton Bassett and southwest of Swindon. The parish includes the hamlet of Thornhill and the farming hamlet of Cotmarsh. Since 1996 the village and surro ...

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. Constructed between 1844 and 1846 as a late

Commissioners' church A Commissioners' church, also known as a Waterloo church and Million Act church, is an Anglican church in the United Kingdom built with money voted by Parliament as a result of the Church Building Acts of 1818 and 1824. The 1818 Act supplied ...

, it remains an active parish church and is a

Grade II listed building 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 ...

History

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked wit ...

gives a construction date for the church of 1844–1846.

Nikolaus Pevsner Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (1 ...

records the architect as W. Hinton Campbell and writes "The detail quite seriously and generously done". The land was given by Horatio Nelson Goddard, and money from eight members of the Goddard family was augmented by a large amount from the Marchioness of Ailesbury. Repairs and refurbishment in 1937 included replacement of timbers affected by dry rot and woodworm. The cookery writer

Jane Grigson Jane Grigson (born Heather Mabel Jane McIntire; 13 March 1928 – 12 March 1990) was an English cookery writer. In the latter part of the 20th century she was the author of the food column for ''The Observer'' and wrote numerous books about Eu ...

is buried in the churchyard, alongside her husband, Geoffrey. The church remains an active parish church and holds regular services.

Architecture and description

The church is of

ashlar Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...

Bath stone Bath Stone is an oolitic limestone comprising granular fragments of calcium carbonate. Originally obtained from the Combe Down and Bathampton Down Mines under Combe Down, Somerset, England. Its honey colouring gives the World Heritage City of ...

, with six bays and a

bellcote A bellcote, bell-cote or bell-cot is a small framework and shelter for one or more bells. Bellcotes are most common in church architecture but are also seen on institutions such as schools. The bellcote may be carried on brackets projecting from ...

. Pevsner describes Christ Church as "in the lancet style" and its Historic England designation records it as "a handsome building". The church is designated

Grade II 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 ...

Parish

chapelry A chapelry was a subdivision of an ecclesiastical parish in England and parts of Lowland Scotland up to the mid 19th century. Status It had a similar status to a township but was so named as it had a chapel of ease (chapel) which was the communi ...

was created for the new church in 1846 from parts of the parishes of

Broad Hinton Broad Hinton is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, about southwest of Swindon. The parish includes the hamlets of Uffcott and The Weir. Disambiguation This village of Broad Hinton near Swindon should not be confused with Broad ...

and

Clyffe Pypard Clyffe Pypard is a village and civil parish about south of Royal Wootton Bassett in North Wiltshire, England. The parish includes the large hamlet of Bushton, the small hamlet of The Barton, the former separate village of Bupton, and the shr ...

, and the vicars of those two parishes were to take turns in appointing a

perpetual curate Perpetual curate was a class of resident parish priest or incumbent curate within the United Church of England and Ireland (name of the combined Anglican churches of England and Ireland from 1800 to 1871). The term is found in common use mainly du ...

to serve the church. Broad Town was given parish status in 1857. Between 1951 and 1974, Broad Town had no vicar and was instead allied with St Bartholomew and All Saints Church in

Wootton Bassett Royal Wootton Bassett , formerly Wootton Bassett, is a market town and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, with a population of 11,043 in 2001, increasing to 11,385 in 2011. Situated in the north of the county, it lies to the west of the major ...

. Today, the parish is part of the Lyneham and Woodhill benefice, alongside five neighbouring parishes. Parish registers from 1847 are held at the

Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre The Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre in Chippenham, Wiltshire, England, serves as a focal point for heritage services relating to Wiltshire and Swindon. The centre opened in 2007 and is funded by Wiltshire Council and Swindon Borough Counci ...

, Chippenham.

References

Sources

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Broad Town, Christ Church Church of England church buildings in Wiltshire Grade II listed churches in Wiltshire Churches completed in the 1840s