Church of All Saints, Christian Malford
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Christian Malford is a village and civil parish in the county of Wiltshire, England. The village lies about northeast of the town 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 ...
. The Bristol Avon forms most of the northern and eastern boundaries of the parish. The hamlets of Thornend and Upper Town lie within the parish. The unusual name is evidently a corruption of ''Christ mal Ford'', Old English ''moel, mal'' being a mark: "Christ’s mal" is Christ's mark or sign, the cross. Thus the name signified "Cross Ford". Deeds from Glastonbury Abbey cartulary relate to Christmalford Manor: in AD 940 King Edmund granted Christmalford to St Dunstan, Abbot of Glastonbury. In 1086 the Abbey of Glastonbury remained tenant-in-chief of ''Cristemeleforee'' in the ancient
Domesday 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 ...
hundred of ''Sterchelai'' (Startley). Christian Malford and the other parishes of Startley hundred were amalgamated with additional parishes to form the hundred of Malmesbury.


Fossils

The village is known to
palaeontologists Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...
as a rediscovered Lagerstätte, a site of remarkably preserved fossils, in this case in the Middle Jurassic Oxford clay, in which a chance discovery in the 19th century uncovered thousands of exquisitely preserved
ammonite Ammonoids are a group of extinct marine mollusc animals in the subclass Ammonoidea of the class Cephalopoda. These molluscs, commonly referred to as ammonites, are more closely related to living coleoids (i.e., octopuses, squid and cuttlefish) ...
s, fish and crustaceans. The site, whose exact location had not been publicly disclosed, became most famous for squid-like
cephalopod A cephalopod is any member of the molluscan class Cephalopoda (Greek plural , ; "head-feet") such as a squid, octopus, cuttlefish, or nautilus. These exclusively marine animals are characterized by bilateral body symmetry, a prominent head ...
s and
belemnites Belemnites may refer to: *Belemnitida Belemnitida (or the belemnite) is an extinct order of squid-like cephalopods that existed from the Late Triassic to Late Cretaceous. Unlike squid, belemnites had an internal skeleton that made up the cone. ...
, complete with their
phosphatized Phosphatic fossilization has occurred in unusual circumstances to preserve some extremely high-resolution microfossils in which careful preparation can even reveal preserved cellular structures. Such microscopic fossils are only visible under the sc ...
soft parts. The site was rediscovered in 2008.


Religious sites


Parish church

The Church of England parish church of All Saints, close to the river, is a
Grade I 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 ...
building. The church dates from c. 1300 but has evidence of an earlier building. The south aisle and chapel were added in the 14th century; the tower is 18th-century with 14th-century lower stages. Inside, the font is c. 1200 and the chapel screen from the 15th century is richly carved. Several windows have fragments of 15th-century glass. The church underwent
restoration Restoration is the act of restoring something to its original state and may refer to: * Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage ** Audio restoration ** Film restoration ** Image restoration ** Textile restoration * Restoration ecology ...
in the 19th century and was re-ordered in the 1990s. The parish is now part of the Draycot Benefice.


Congregational chapel

A Congregational chapel named Shecaniah was built in 1836, near the main road on the western outskirts of the village, not far from the river bridge. William Jay (1769-1853), later an eminent preacher, was pastor here during his early career in the late 1780s. A schoolroom was added in 1909 and later in the century the congregation joined the United Reformed Church. The chapel closed in 1998, then was converted for residential use.


Transport

Christian Malford is near a crossing point of the Avon, which in this area flows south from Malmesbury to Chippenham. The centre of settlement is to the south of the main road, which in the past was the A420 from Chippenham to
Swindon Swindon () is a town and unitary authority with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Wiltshire, England. As of the 2021 Census, the population of Swindon was 201,669, making it the largest town in the county. The Swindon un ...
(via Lyneham and Royal Wootton Bassett). The
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 ...
, built in 1971 and passing less than a mile north of the village centre, became the preferred route for traffic to and from Swindon, and in the late 1980s the A420 was redesignated as the B4069. The Wilts & Berks Canal, built across the southeast of the parish, to the east of Thornend, opened in this area in 1801. Completed in 1810, the canal carried goods including Somerset coal to Wootton Bassett, Swindon and beyond; it was abandoned in 1914. The
Great Western Main Line The Great Western Main Line (GWML) is a main line railway in England that runs westwards from London Paddington to . It connects to other main lines such as those from Reading to Penzance and Swindon to Swansea. Opened in 1841, it was the or ...
, the railway from London to Bristol, followed a similar route to the canal but further west, passing between Christian Malford and Thornend. The line opened in 1841 and in 1869 station opened at Dauntsey Lock, just over the eastern boundary of the parish. In 1926 a small station, , was opened to serve the village. The station closed in 1965 when local services were withdrawn. The line remains open, with the nearest railway station being at .


Amenities

The village has a small primary school, near the church; its first building dates from 1835. There is a village hall and a pub, the ''Rising Sun''.


References


External links


Village website
* {{authority control Villages in Wiltshire Civil parishes in Wiltshire Lagerstätten Paleontology in the United Kingdom