St Mary's Church in Old Dilton,

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated to Wilts) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It borders Gloucestershire to the north, Oxfordshire to the north-east, Berkshire to the east, Hampshire to the south-east, Dorset to the south, and Somerset to ...

, England was built in the 14th century. It is recorded in the

National Heritage List for England The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, ...

as a Grade I

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

, and is now a

redundant church A redundant church, now referred to as a closed church, is a church building that is no longer used for Christian worship. The term most frequently refers to former Anglican churches in the United Kingdom, but may also be used for disused churche ...

in the care of the

Churches Conservation Trust The Churches Conservation Trust is a registered charity whose purpose is to protect historic churches at risk in England. The charity cares for over 350 churches of architectural, cultural and historic significance, which have been transferred in ...

. It was declared redundant on 26 April 1973, and was

vested In law, vesting is the point in time when the rights and interests arising from legal ownership of a property are acquired by some Legal person, person. Vesting creates an immediately secured right of present or future deployment. One has a vest ...

in the Trust on 6 September 1974. The church stands close to the

Biss Brook Basic Interoperable Scrambling System, usually known as BISS, is a satellite signal scrambling system developed by the European Broadcasting Union, Eurovision Media Services and a consortium of hardware manufacturers. Prior to its development, ...

in Old Dilton hamlet, about south-west of the town of Westbury. It was a

chapelry A chapelry was a subdivision of an ecclesiastical parish in England and parts of Lowland Scotland up to the mid 19th century. Status A chapelry had a similar status to a Township (England), township, but was so named as it had a chapel of ease ...

of Westbury parish church, as the settlement lay within the ancient parish of Westbury. In the early 19th century, one of the curates assisting the vicar of Westbury was assigned to Old Dilton. When

Dilton Marsh Dilton Marsh is a village and civil parish in the far west of the county of Wiltshire, in the southwest of England. The village is about southwest of the centre of the town of Westbury; Dilton Marsh remains a distinct settlement with its own c ...

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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

was created in 1894 the boundary followed the Biss, placing the church just within the new parish. The building consists of 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 ...

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

, north chapel north aisle and vestry. The gabled south porch is believed to survive from an earlier 14th century building, but the rest of the fabric is 15th century. It has small stone spire at the western end. The interior of the church was renovated in the 18th century and includes

box pew A box pew is a type of church pew that is encased in panelling and was prevalent in England and other Protestant countries from the 16th to early 19th centuries. History in England Before the rise of Protestantism, seating was not customary in c ...

s, a three-decker

pulpit A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin ''pulpitum'' (platform or staging). The traditional pulpit is raised well above the surrounding floor for audibility and visibility, accesse ...

, and two small galleries. The gallery over the north side of the

was used as a schoolroom and has a fireplace. The octagonal stone

font In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a ''typeface'', defined as the set of fonts that share an overall design. For instance, the typeface Bauer Bodoni (shown in the figure) includes fonts " Roman" (or "regul ...

is from the 15th century and the

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George III George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland, Ireland from 25 October 1760 until his death in 1820. The Acts of Union 1800 unified Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and ...

can be seen in the chancel. The church has no electricity supply. By the beginning of the 19th century, Dilton had dwindled to a hamlet as the population of Dilton Marsh increased. A church was completed at Dilton Marsh in 1844 and the old church closed in 1900, although it was still used for

harvest festivals A harvest festival is an annual celebration that occurs around the time of the main harvest of a given region. Given the differences in climate and crops around the world, harvest festivals can be found at various times at different places. ...

. Conservation work took place in the 1930s and 1950s, funded by the

Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB) (also known as Anti-Scrape) is an amenity society founded by William Morris, Philip Webb, and others in 1877 to oppose the Victorian restoration, destructive 'restoration' of ancient bu ...

. The church remains

consecrated Sacred describes something that is dedicated or set apart for the service or worship of a deity; is considered worthy of spiritual respect or devotion; or inspires awe or reverence among believers. The property is often ascribed to objects (a ...

and the fabric is maintained by the Churches Conservation Trust. Since 2000, further restoration work has sought to resolve issues caused by damp, brown rot, cellar rot and

weevil Weevils are beetles belonging to the superfamily Curculionoidea, known for their elongated snouts. They are usually small – less than in length – and herbivorous. Approximately 97,000 species of weevils are known. They belong to several fa ...

s, including the installation of new drains and gutters (for the first time in the church's history). Two services are held at the church each year.

References

External links

YouTube video of the church in 2008

The Village of Old Dilton
at dilton-marsh.org.uk {{DEFAULTSORT:Old Dilton, Saint Mary Church of England church buildings in Wiltshire 14th-century church buildings in England Grade I listed churches in Wiltshire Churches preserved by the Churches Conservation Trust Westbury, Wiltshire

See also

References

External links