Seagry is a

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 ...

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, about southeast of

Malmesbury Malmesbury () is a town and civil parish in north Wiltshire, England, which lies approximately west of Swindon, northeast of Bristol, and north of Chippenham. The older part of the town is on a hilltop which is almost surrounded by the upp ...

and northeast of

Chippenham Chippenham is a market town A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village ...

. Its main settlements are the village of Upper Seagry, which was first mentioned in official records under the name Over Seagry (in 1317), and the

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

of Lower Seagry, which was first documented (1218) as Nether Seagry. The

toponym Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of '' toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage and types. Toponym is the general term for a proper name of ...

is thought to derive 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 ...

for "

sedge The Cyperaceae are a family of graminoid (grass-like), monocotyledonous flowering plants known as sedges. The family is large, with some 5,500 known species described in about 90 genera, the largest being the "true sedges" genus ''Carex'' wit ...

stream". Sedge is the common name for plants of the family ''Cyperaceae'' and stream here may refer to the River Avon, which flows through the area.

History

There is evidence that the area was settled in the Upper Paleolithic period, and also of

Saxon The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic * * * * peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...

occupation. The

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

of 1086 records 21 households and two manors: ''Segrete'' held by Durand of Gloucester, and ''Segrie'' by Drogo Fitz Ponz. ''Segrete'' became part of the estates of the

Earl of Hereford The title of Earl of Hereford was created six times in the Peerage of England. Dates indicate the years the person held the title for. Earls of Hereford, First Creation (1043) * Swegen Godwinson (1043–1051) ''earldom forfeit 1051–1052'' Earl ...

, and later passed into the ownership of Bradenstoke Abbey until the Dissolution of the Monasteries. A grange farm at Lower Seagry was associated with the Abbey. Seagry is mentioned several times by

Francis Kilvert Robert Francis Kilvert (3 December 184023 September 1879), known as Francis or Frank, was an English clergyman whose diaries reflected rural life in the 1870s, and were published over fifty years after his death. Life Kilvert was born on 3 ...

in his ''Diary''. He was living at nearby

Langley Burrell Langley Burrell is a village just north of Chippenham, Wiltshire, England. It is the largest settlement in the civil parish of Langley Burrell Without which includes the hamlets of Peckingell (south of the village) and Kellaways (to the east on ...

at the time, and visited the Awdry family at Seagry vicarage. Seagry House at Upper Seagry was a five-bay mansion built in the 18th century by Nathaniel Stratton and extended to designs of

Harold Brakspear Sir Harold Brakspear KCVO (10 March 1870 – 20 November 1934) was an English restoration architect and archaeologist. He restored a number of ancient and notable buildings, including Bath Abbey, Windsor Castle, Brownston House in Devizes and ...

in 1915. The house was rebuilt after a 1949 fire but the 18th-century gatepiers at the east and south entrances survive. The Seagry House estate was bought in 1785 by Sir James Tylney-Long of

Draycot Cerne Draycot Cerne (Draycott) is a small village and former civil parish in Wiltshire, England, about north of Chippenham. History The parish was referred to as ''Draicote'' (Medieval Latin) in the ancient Domesday hundred of Startley when Geoff ...

. Through inheritance and marriage it passed down to William, 5th Earl of Mornington (1813–1863) and then

Henry Wellesley, 1st Earl Cowley Henry Richard Charles Wellesley, 1st Earl Cowley, (17 June 1804 – 15 July 1884), known as The Lord Cowley between 1847 and 1857, was a British diplomat. He served as British Ambassador to France between 1852 and 1867. Background and educati ...

(1804–1884). Christian Wellesley, 4th Earl Cowley sold most of the land in 1920, but the house remained in the Cowley family until 1949.

Upper Seagry

The village is on a minor road between Malmesbury and

Sutton Benger Sutton Benger is a village and civil parish in the county of Wiltshire, England, northeast of the town of Chippenham.OS Explorer Map 156, Chippenham and Bradford-on-Avon Scale: 1:25 000.Publisher: Ordnance Survey A2 edition (2007). The parish i ...

at . It has a modern village hall, run jointly with Great Somerford and Startley, and Seagry CofE (VC) Primary School. The school was founded in 1966 and has about 40 pupils. In 2008 the school federated (a process whereby two or more schools choose to share resources, in this case a shared headteacher and governing body) with Somerfords' Walter Powell CofE (VA) school in Great Somerford.

Lower Seagry

The hamlet is east of Upper Seagry at , towards Great Somerford.

Local government

The civil parish elects a parish council. It is in the area of

Wiltshire Council Wiltshire Council is a council for the unitary authority of Wiltshire (excluding the separate unitary authority of Swindon) in South West England, created in 2009. It is the successor authority to Wiltshire County Council (1889–2009) and the ...

unitary authority A unitary authority is a local authority responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are usually performed by a higher level of sub-national government or the national governmen ...

, which is responsible for all significant local government functions. The present parish was formed in 1971. The ancient parish was added to Sutton Benger parish in 1934, then in 1971 the newly built

M4 motorway The M4, originally the London-South Wales Motorway, is a motorway in the United Kingdom running from west London to southwest Wales. The English section to the Severn Bridge was constructed between 1961 and 1971; the Welsh element was largely ...

became the boundary between the parishes of Sutton Benger and Seagry.

Religious sites

The

Church of England parish church A parish church in the Church of England is the church which acts as the religious centre for the people within each Church of England parish (the smallest and most basic Church of England administrative unit; since the 19th century sometimes ca ...

of St Mary the Virgin at Lower Seagry was founded in 1172 by Walter de Clifford, a descendant of the Fitz Ponz family. One of the 13th-century effigies in the church is said to be his. The church was rebuilt in 1849 on the same plan as the 12th or 13th century building by one of the architects in the Hakewill family, in squared rubble stone with a west bellcote. The 12th-century stone font bowl and 15th-century timber altar screen were retained. Today the parish is part of the Draycot benefice, a group of five churches. A

Primitive Methodist The Primitive Methodist Church is a Methodist Christian denomination with the holiness movement. It began in England in the early 19th century, with the influence of American evangelist Lorenzo Dow (1777–1834). In the United States, the Primiti ...

chapel was built at Upper Seagry in 1825. It fell into disuse some time before 2010, and was later sold for residential use.

References

External links

Seagry Parish Council
{{authority control Villages in Wiltshire Civil parishes in Wiltshire