St Mary's Church, East Knoyle - geograph

St. Mary's Church is a

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 Britai ...

parish church in

East Knoyle East Knoyle is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, in the south-west of England, just west of the A350 and about south of Warminster and north of Shaftesbury, Dorset. It was the birthplace of the architect Sir Christopher Wren. The parish ...

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 England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

History

The

Parish Church of St Mary was begun before the 1066 conquest.

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described its chancel as "Norman in its bones" and wrote that its 17th-century plaster decoration, a "surprise and delight", "ought to be the purpose of a visit from every Wiltshire tourist". The church was extended in the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries, with a large tower added in the 15th. Plasterwork in the chancel depicting biblical scenes was designed in about 1639 by Dean Christopher Wren. Five of the six bells are from the 18th century. The building was further extended in the 19th century, along with

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in 1845 by

Wyatt Wyatt is a patronymic surname, derived from the Norman surname ''Guyot'', derived from "widu", Proto-Germanic for "wood". Notable people with the surname "Wyatt" include A * Aaron Wyatt, Australian musician * Addie L. Wyatt (1924–2012), Amer ...

and

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, and interior alterations in 1875-6 by Sir Arthur Blomfield. The church was declared Grade I listed in 1966. Since 2008, the ecclesiastical parish forms part of the benefice of St Bartholomew, a group of six parishes. St Mary's had a chapelry at Hindon from the 13th century. Hindon became a separate vicarage in 1869.

Notable rectors

Christopher Wren (1589–1658) was rector of East Knoyle from 1623. He married Mary Cox, daughter of Richard Cox of

Fonthill Bishop Fonthill Bishop is a small village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, to the north of the Nadder valley and south of Warminster. The Fonthill Park estate extends into the south of the parish. Landscaping which included the creation of Fo ...

. Their children were all born at the parsonage house, including in 1632 Christopher, who would become a prominent architect. After Christopher senior was appointed

Dean of Windsor The Dean of Windsor is the spiritual head of the canons of St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle, England. The dean chairs meetings of the Chapter of Canons as ''primus inter pares''. The post of Dean of Wolverhampton was assimilated to the dea ...

in 1635, the family spent part of each year there. Kerry Downes: "Wren, Sir Christopher", in ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (Oxford, 2004). Retrieved 10 March 2022.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:East Knoyle, Saint Mary Norman architecture in England Church of England church buildings in Wiltshire Grade I listed churches in Wiltshire