Grant Proposal for Project Name - Biddestone Village

History of the Parish
Both Biddestone and Slaughterford go back The church of St Peter was founded at this
to Saxon times and indeed some Roman time .By 1085, the two Manors of
remains have been found near the bridge in Biddestone, each with its own church and
Slaughterford. The origin of both names is parish, had been taken over from the Saxon
uncertain.
Alvaric by the Norman Humphrey de L‟isle.
Mankind inhabited the post Ice Age 'Wild By the Domesday Survey of 1086 there were
Wood' in this locality at least 5,000 years four cottagers with 150 acres of farmland
ago. To the east the Mesolithic tomb ('Bushy plus 3 acres of meadow and 2 of woodland.
Barrows') at 'Long Stone' near the A420, and Absentee landlords granted the occupation
another on the adjacent Lan Hill were of the area to lesser aristocracy for the next
completed by circa 2,900 BC. The bones of few centuries. People such as Henry de
21 early residents were found at the latter Bernevale, Edmund Gascelyn William 'Knight
during excavations.
of Budeston' and numerous others lived
An ancient Iron Age track way through the here.
deciduous forest from Chippenham (Cepe
ham [1086] = Cepe's settlement) to
Slaughterford (Slachtoneford = Sloe thorn
crossing) bypassed the marshy ground
around the spring line there. During the early
part of the second century AD, Roman villas
were established at Colerne, Euridge and
North Wraxall to the west, but the path
remained just that.
The first inhabitants of Biddestone, allegedly
from 620, may have been organised by an
individual called Biedin who created a
settlement or 'tun' around the water source
near the current Manor House.
Above: St Peter‟s Church, Biddestone
Above Right: The Chippenham Hundred
Biddestone & Slaughterford Parish Plan
Although the two ecclesiastical
parishes remained separate for many
years, they were rejoined when
owned by Sir Gilbert Prynne of
Allington who later sold the manors to
Lord Hungerford. When Henry VIII
executed Lord Hungerford in 1540,
the lands passed to the Crown until
they were sold to William Mompesson
in 1573. They were obtained by
William Mountjoy in 1626, in whose
family they remained for many
generations.
In 1661, Mountjoy had a gutter dug
down through the village street to
bring water from the springs in the
western grounds into the newly dug
pond on what is now the village
green.
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