All Saint's Church, Chicklade

All Saints’ Church in Chicklade was originally built in or before the twelfth century, and went by the name All Saints’ from 1444 or earlier. The original building was demolished and replaced in 1832, and this is the building which stands in Chicklade today.

              The original building appears to have consisted of only a chancel and a nave, and this form remained largely unaltered until the early nineteenth century. The only alterations recorded to the twelfth century building were the replacement of its windows at some stage between the thirteenth and seventeenth centuries. By the early 1800s the church was in a very poor state and in need of significant, and costly, repairs: alterations to the roof in 1827 apparently cost over £30. As a result the building was torn down and replaced in 1832. This new building, designed by John Buonarotti Papworth (a founder member of the Royal Institute of British Architects), was in a relatively plain twelfth-century style, presumably after the original, in ashlar with a combined nave and chancel and a rectangular bell-turret. In 1893 a visitor said of the 1832 church “it is difficult to conceive of anything more devoid of ‘feeling’ and even of the most elementary principles of art than the present building. It has, however, one redeeming point – it is very substantially and solidly built”.

In 1894 some changes were made to the interior of the church in order to address such criticisms: the west gallery was removed, fourteenth-century style tracery was added to the windows and a rood screen was added.

              The church seems to have had a number of items of plate over the years. In 1553 the church kept a 4.5 ounce chalice when 1 ounce of plate was taken for the king, and there may have been no plate at all by 1662. In 1705 a chalice and a plate were given to the church, hallmarked 1698, which were still present in 1893, and the church bought a new silver cup in 1823 to replace one that had been stolen. The chalice had a bell-shaped bowl and was 5¾ inches high, whilst the paten was just over 6½ inches in diameter. In addition, the church possessed a glass flagon and an electroplated alms dish.

              Other points of interest in the church include a memorial to the Randall family of the late eighteenth century, memorials to Captain Halliday and Corporal Hacker, who were both killed in the First World War, and a small wooden Pietà possibly dating from the seventeenth century which was present until at least 1963.

              The original church had two bells, one dating from 1553 and another from 1783.

The 1832 building had a single bell which was cast in Bristol in 1832 by Jeffries and Price, whose mark is inscribed on the waist of the bell.

              The ecclesiastical parish income was somewhat below the average for the deanery for much of its existence. In 1535 the living at the parish was £11 5s; seventy years later it was £30. By approximately 1830 it had risen to around £230 however this figure was still below average for the deanery. According to Kelly’s Directory the living was £132 in 1895, falling to £126 in 1907 before briefly rising to £136 in 1911. From there the living returned to £126 until some point between 1920 and 1922, when it rose to £214 after being united with Hindon parish. From there it rose again to £480 in 1923 before settling at £509 between 1923 and 1939.

In the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries the rector had access to approximately 30 acres of glebe land, that is land intended to support him, with grazing for 8 cows and 80 sheep. After enclosure these were replaced by 33 acres of land, whilst the rector also owned 1 acre and associated farm buildings within the village. The glebe was eventually sold in 1899. The rectory house appears to have suffered from periodic cycles of dilapidation and repair.

It was reported as dilapidated in 1556 but was in better repair by the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. By 1832 it was in poor repair once again, but by the end of that decade it had been rebuilt eventually becoming the glebe house of the 1922 united benefice before being sold in 1939.

As with most parish churches whilst the majority of the clergy serving Chicklade avoided significant mention in the historical records, some rectors at Chicklade were of general interest. Henry Willoughby, who served as rector from 1525 to 1581, was a pluralist, as were William Lisle Bowles and John Still (rectors from 1795 to 1797 and 1797 to 1839 respectively). Also of note were three different Luke Simpsons who from 1617 to 1735 served as successive rectors for the parish, apparently father, son and grandson. Finally, a minor scandal affected the rectory when, in 1725, the bishop sequestrated the living and appointed a curate to manage the parish as a result of the rector apparently sinking into debt and leaving the parish.

Administratively All Saints functioned as a separate parish until 1899, from which point the rectory was held in common with Pertwood, and these two rectories were brought together with the parish of Hindon in 1922 to form a united benefice.

The ecclesiastic parishes of Chicklade, Pertwood and Hindon were united in 1972, and this larger parish was in turn united with Eat Knoyle in 1976.

The parish registers survive from 1721 for deaths and burials, and from 1722 for baptisms and marriages. All are held at the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre.