The Church of St Peter and St Paul, Heytesbury is 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 ...
for the parish of
Heytesbury
Heytesbury is a village (formerly considered to be a town) and a civil parish in Wiltshire, England. The village lies on the north bank of the Wylye, about southeast of the town of Warminster.
The civil parish includes most of the small neig ...
with
Tytherington and
Knook, Wiltshire, England. It was a
collegiate church In Christianity, a collegiate church is a church where the daily office of worship is maintained by a college of canons: a non-monastic or "secular" community of clergy, organised as a self-governing corporate body, which may be presided over by ...
from the 12th century until 1840. The present building is largely 13th-century and is designated as
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 I ...
.
History
A church was mentioned at ''Hestrebe'' in the Domesday Book of 1086. The church was given to
Salisbury Cathedral
Salisbury Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is an Anglican cathedral in Salisbury, England. The cathedral is the mother church of the Diocese of Salisbury and is the seat of the Bishop of Salisbury.
The buil ...
by Henry I in about 1115, together with the church of
Godalming
Godalming is a market town and civil parish in southwest Surrey, England, around southwest of central London. It is in the Borough of Waverley, at the confluence of the Rivers Wey and Ock. The civil parish covers and includes the settlement ...
, Surrey, and lands lying beside the two churches, to form a
prebend
A prebendary is a member of the Roman Catholic or Anglican clergy, a form of canon with a role in the administration of a cathedral or collegiate church. When attending services, prebendaries sit in particular seats, usually at the back of t ...
. Shortly after this the church became
collegiate, with the head of the college the canon who held the prebend at the Cathedral.
A charter granted by bishop
Josceline (or Jocelin) between 1150 and 1160 established four canons at Heytesbury. Their income included
tithes
A tithe (; from Old English: ''teogoþa'' "tenth") is a one-tenth part of something, paid as a contribution to a religious organization or compulsory tax to government. Today, tithes are normally voluntary and paid in cash or cheques or more ...
from
Tytherington, where there was a chapel, and from
Horningsham
Horningsham is a small village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, on the county border with Somerset. The village lies about southwest of the town of Warminster and southeast of Frome, Somerset.
The parish forms part of the Longleat es ...
; the churches of
Hill Deverill
A hill is a landform that extends above the surrounding terrain. It often has a distinct summit.
Terminology
The distinction between a hill and a mountain is unclear and largely subjective, but a hill is universally considered to be not as ...
and
Swallowcliffe
Swallowcliffe is a small village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, about southeast of Tisbury and west of Salisbury. The village lies about half a mile north of the A30 Shaftesbury- Wilton road which crosses the parish.
Geography
...
; and land at
Wilton.
From about 1220 the prebend of Heytesbury was annexed to the
deanery of Salisbury, thus the Dean of Salisbury was also Dean of Heytesbury.
Most collegiate churches were abolished in 1547 as part of the
Reformation
The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...
but Heytesbury continued until it was suppressed, along with the other remaining non-residential deaneries, by the