Bremilham, also known as Cowage or Cowich, is a small settlement and former

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. It is near the hamlet of Foxley in the parish of

Norton Norton may refer to: Places Norton, meaning 'north settlement' in Old English, is a common place name. Places named Norton include: Canada * Rural Municipality of Norton No. 69, Saskatchewan *Norton Parish, New Brunswick **Norton, New Brunswick, a ...

. The nearest town is

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 ...

, about away to the north east. The place-name 'Bremilham' is first attested in 1065, as 'Bremelham', and means 'village where brambles or

blackberries The blackberry is an edible fruit produced by many species in the genus ''Rubus'' in the family (biology), family Rosaceae, hybrids among these species within the subgenus ''Rubus'', and hybrids between the subgenera ''Rubus'' and ''Idaeobatus' ...

grew'. In 1831, the population of the parish was 33. On some present-day maps, only Cowage Farm is shown. Bremilham was a small

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 ...

until 1893 when it was united with Foxley. In 1934 Foxley (with Bremilham) was transferred to the civil parish of Norton.

Church

There was probably a chapel at Bremilham in 1179, when

Amesbury Priory Amesbury Priory was a Benedictine monastery at Amesbury in Wiltshire, England, belonging to the Order of Fontevraud. It was founded in 1177 to replace the earlier Amesbury Abbey, a Saxon foundation established about the year 979. The Anglo-Norma ...

was granted the tithes; by 1289 there was a rector. In 1874 the benefice was united with Foxley, and from 1951 Foxley with Bremilham was held in plurality with that of Corston with Rodbourne. Today the parish is part of the Gauzebrook group of churches. Bremilham's tiny

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

church claims to be the smallest in England, measuring ten feet by eleven feet. It is either the surviving part of a 15th-century church (Historic England) or a mid-nineteenth century rebuild on the site of the chancel of the demolished church, for use as a

mortuary chapel A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the interment space or burial chamber of a deceased person or people. A mausoleum without the person's remains is called a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be consid ...

(Victoria County History). The building was recorded 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 ...

in 1986. One service is held each year. The church has no dedication and the

parish register A parish register in an ecclesiastical parish is a handwritten volume, normally kept in the parish church in which certain details of religious ceremonies marking major events such as baptisms (together with the dates and names of the parents), ma ...

s go back only to 1813. On 26 or 27 February 2020 the church bell, which used to hang on an oak beam inside the church, was stolen.

References

{{reflist Hamlets in Wiltshire Former civil parishes in Wiltshire