Great Chalfield, also sometimes called by its

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

name of Chalfield Magna, formerly East Chalfield and anciently Much Chaldefield, is a small village 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 authorit ...

in west

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, now part of Atworth parish. Its nearest towns are

Melksham Melksham () is a town on the River Avon in Wiltshire, England, about northeast of Trowbridge and south of Chippenham. At the 2011 census, the Melksham built-up area had a population of 19,357, making it Wiltshire's fifth-largest settlement aft ...

, about away to the northeast, and

Bradford-on-Avon Bradford-on-Avon (sometimes Bradford on Avon or Bradford upon Avon) is a town and civil parish in west Wiltshire, England, near the border with Somerset, which had a population of 9,402 at the 2011 census. The town's canal, historic buildings, s ...

, at about the same distance to the southwest. The village has a notable

manor house A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were held the lord's manorial courts, communal meals w ...

, Great Chalfield Manor.

History

At the time of the

Domesday survey 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 ...

(1086) it was found that the manor of Chalfield had belonged to Wallef in the time of King Edward and possessed half a mill worth eighteen pence. This suggests that the two Chalfields (Great and Little, or East and West) shared a

water-mill A watermill or water mill is a mill that uses hydropower. It is a structure that uses a water wheel or water turbine to drive a mechanical process such as milling (grinding), rolling, or hammering. Such processes are needed in the production o ...

which stood on the stream which lies between them. A

corn mill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that has been separate ...

was operating at Great Chalfield in 1645 while it was occupied by a

Parliamentary A parliamentary system, or parliamentarian democracy, is a system of democratic governance of a state (or subordinate entity) where the executive derives its democratic legitimacy from its ability to command the support ("confidence") of the ...

garrison. The 15th-century

, Great Chalfield Manor, is a

Grade I 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 ...

. It was given to the

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

in 1943, with nine acres of land and an endowment fund, by Major R. F. Fuller, the

lord of the manor Lord of the Manor is a title that, in Anglo-Saxon England, referred to the landholder of a rural estate. The lord enjoyed manorial rights (the rights to establish and occupy a residence, known as the manor house and demesne) as well as seig ...

. In 1676, Great Chalfield had only eighteen residents. In 1831 the population was 83.Chalfield Magna
at genuki.org.uk, accessed 29 November 2010 The civil parish was abolished in 1884 and its area incorporated into the new parish of Atworth. A detailed parish history was published by the

Wiltshire Victoria County History The Wiltshire Victoria County History, properly called The Victoria History of the County of Wiltshire but commonly referred to as VCH Wiltshire, is an encyclopaedic history of the county of Wiltshire in England. It forms part of the overall Vic ...

in its volume 7 (1953).

Church

The small Church of England parish church, adjacent to the manor house and approached through the gatehouse of the manor, is dedicated to All Saints and has a

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ov ...

, a

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

, a

vestry A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government for a parish in England, Wales and some English colonies which originally met in the vestry or sacristy of the parish church, and consequently became known colloquiall ...

, a south chapel, a bell-cote crowned by a short octagonal

spire A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spires a ...

, and a porch on its west side. Of the original 14th-century church only part of its nave survives, a new chancel having been built about 1480, when the porch and south chapel were added. The present vestry was added to the east of the chapel in 1775. The single bell was cast in 1627. There are traces of

wall painting A mural is any piece of graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage. Word mural in art The word ''mural'' is a Spanish ...

s and of panels depicting the life of St Katherine, which were described in 1760 before being whitewashed over. The vestry

screen Screen or Screens may refer to: Arts * Screen printing (also called ''silkscreening''), a method of printing * Big screen, a nickname associated with the motion picture industry * Split screen (filmmaking), a film composition paradigm in which mul ...

may date from the late 15th century, and the

oak An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ''L ...

pulpit is late 17th century. The organ case is richly decorated and looks medieval but is modern. The church was designated as Grade I listed in 1962. The income of the rectory was low, and in 1953 it was stated that no rector had resided at Great Chalfield for many years. The benefice was united with

Broughton Gifford Broughton Gifford is a village and civil parish about west of Melksham in Wiltshire, England. The parish includes the hamlets of Norrington Common and The Common. History Formerly much of Broughton Gifford and the surrounding area was covered ...

in 1956, and the incumbent was to live at Broughton Gifford; from 1974 the united benefice was held in plurality with Holt. Today the church is part of the benefice of Broughton Gifford, Great Chalfield and Holt. 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 survive for the following dates: christenings 1545–1991, marriages 1608–1993, burials 1581–1985.

Notable people

In the 15th century Thomas Tropenell (c. 1405–1488) built much of the small village of Great Chalfield, including the manor, where he lived, and amassed a large

landed estate In real estate, a landed property or landed estate is a property that generates income for the owner (typically a member of the gentry) without the owner having to do the actual work of the estate. In medieval Western Europe, there were two compet ...

. The

Tropenell Cartulary The ''Tropenell Cartulary'' is an English medieval manuscript cartulary compiled for Thomas Tropenell (''c.'' 1405 – 1488), a Wiltshire landowner, in the 15th century. History A cartulary is a medieval manuscript, usually taking the form of a ...

manuscript, still kept at Great Chalfield Manor, was compiled for him as a record of his property acquisitions. In 1809, the antiquary Richard Warner was appointed

rector Rector (Latin for the member of a vessel's crew who steers) may refer to: Style or title *Rector (ecclesiastical), a cleric who functions as an administrative leader in some Christian denominations *Rector (academia), a senior official in an edu ...

of the parish. He may never have resided, but in 1830 ''The Edinburgh literary journal'' noted "Some of our readers may perhaps ask ''Who is the Rev. Richard Warner?'' We can only answer, that he is the Rector of Great Chalfield, Wilts".

Bibliography

Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin ( ; 1 March 181214 September 1852) was an English architect, designer, artist and critic with French and, ultimately, Swiss origins. He is principally remembered for his pioneering role in the Gothic Revival st ...

, in ''Examples of Gothic architecture'' (1821),
A historical account of the Manor House and Church at Great Chalfield, Wiltshire
' online. *

Thomas Larkins Walker Thomas Larkins Walker (c.1811–1860) was a Scottish architect. Life Baptised on 20 May 1811 in Dysart, Fifeshire, the son of Adam Walker, he was a pupil of Augustus Charles Pugin, and an executor of his will. In practice initially with Benjam ...

, ''The History and Antiquities of the Manor House and Church of Great Chalfield, Wiltshire, illustrated by Twenty-eight Plates of Plans, Elevations, Sections, Parts at large, and a Perspective View'' (1837)Reviewed in ''Civil Engineer and Architects' Journal'' (vol. 1, 1838)
p. 19
/ref> *H. P. Pafford, ed., ''Accounts of the parliamentary garrisons of Great Chalfield and Malmesbury, 1645–1646'' ( Wiltshire Record Society, vol. 2, 1940)

References

{{authority control Villages in Wiltshire Former civil parishes in Wiltshire