Stanton Fitzwarren is a village and

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 ...

northeast of Swindon, in

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 part of the

unitary authority A unitary authority is a local authority responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are usually performed by a higher level of sub-national government or the national governmen ...

of Swindon.

Parish church

The Church of England parish church of Saint Leonard is

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

.Pevsner & Cherry, 1975, page 477 The north and south doorways, the

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 ...

arch and a window in the north wall all survive from this period. The cylindrical font is an important Norman sculpture depicting eight virtues, eight vices, the Church, the Evil One and a six-winged

seraph A seraph (, "burning one"; plural seraphim ) is a type of celestial or heavenly being originating in Ancient Judaism. The term plays a role in subsequent Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Tradition places seraphim in the highest rank in Christ ...

. The Norman building had an

apse In architecture, an apse (plural apses; from Latin 'arch, vault' from Ancient Greek 'arch'; sometimes written apsis, plural apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome, also known as an '' exedra''. ...

, of which the foundations were discovered during restoration work in 1865. The chancel was rebuilt in the 14th century with a flat east wall and east window. The bell tower was added in 1631. The church has been listed as grade 1 by

English heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

. St. Leonard's

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 ...

(1865) was completed by the Gothic Revival architect J.W. Hugall. In 1891 the

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 ...

was lengthened westwards and the south porch was added. During one of the 19th century rebuildings a new east window was inserted in the chancel and the 14th century one was re-used as the centrepiece of a

folly In architecture, a folly is a building constructed primarily for decoration, but suggesting through its appearance some other purpose, or of such extravagant appearance that it transcends the range of usual garden buildings. Eighteenth-cent ...

in the grounds of Stanton House.Pevsner & Cherry, 1975, page 478 St. Leonard's parish is now part of a single Church of England benefice with the parishes of

South Marston South Marston is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Swindon, Wiltshire, England. The village is about north-east of Swindon town centre. History The earliest documentary evidence for continuous settlement dates from the 13th centu ...

and

Stratton St Margaret Stratton St Margaret is a civil parish in the Borough of Swindon, Wiltshire, England. The parish covers north-eastern suburbs of Swindon including Stratton St Margaret itself along with Upper Stratton, Lower Stratton and Kingsdown. Since May 20 ...

Railway

The Swindon and Highworth Light Railway – from the Great Western Main Line at Swindon to

Highworth Highworth is a market town and civil parish in the Borough of Swindon, England, about northeast of Swindon town centre. The 2011 Census recorded a population of 8,151. The town is notable for its Queen Anne and Georgian buildings, dating ...

– was built through Stanton Fitzwarren in 1879–81, although the original company was unable to open the line and sold it to the Great Western Railway (GWR) in 1882.The Highworth Branch: Swindon & Highworth Light Railway: The Swindon & Highworth Light Railway - A History
/ref> In 1883 the GWR finally opened the line to traffic, with three intermediate stations including one at Mill Lane, in the north of the village. Neither passenger nor goods traffic was high, but activity increased during both world wars. From 1916, timber was taken from Stanton Big Wood; and from the late 1930s the station provided access for the building of the aircraft factory at

(later taken over by

Vickers-Armstrongs Vickers-Armstrongs Limited was a British engineering conglomerate formed by the merger of the assets of Vickers Limited and Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth & Company in 1927. The majority of the company was nationalised in the 1960s and 1970s, w ...

), although this traffic ceased after a spur into the factory was built in the early 1940s. The station also served army camps in the area. British Railways withdrew passenger services in 1953, apart from workmen's trains that it continued to run until 1962. Most of the line, including the section through Stanton, was then dismantled.

Stanton House

Stanton House was built just south of the church in 1935, in traditional Cotswold style, for a New York businessman; at the same time a 19th-century cottage at the north entrance to the site was repurposed as a lodge. The house is now a hotel.

Amenities

Stanton has a

village hall A village hall is a public building in a village used for various things such as: United Kingdom In the United Kingdom, a village hall is usually a building which contains at least one large room (plus kitchen and toilets), is owned by a local ...

Stanton Fitzwarren, Swindon, Wiltshire: Village Hall
/ref> and a Women's Institute.

References

Sources

* Civil parishes in Wiltshire Villages in Wiltshire Borough of Swindon {{Wiltshire-geo-stub