St Peter's Church

The parish church of St. Peter dates from the 12th century. It is cruciform in shape, consisting of a nave with no aisles, north and south transept chapels, chancel and central tower. It is built of flint and rubble. The transepts and the new chancel were added at various dates in the 13th and 14th centuries, and the present tower was built in the later 14th.  

The artist John Buckler painted a north-west view of the church in 1805, showing that the north transept had been demolished. The north wall of the nave had a central doorway and one window at the eastern end. 

When Sir Richard Colt Hoare of Stourhead visited the church, c. 1824, he found a church that ‘though unpromising in its outward appearance, bears many marks of early Norman architecture’. The nave measured 49’ long by 16’ 10” wide and the chancel 28’ 6” long by 15’ wide.

Part of the north transept had recently been destroyed. Hoare describes the entrance ‘through a narrow portal of Norman architecture [as] striking, and rather singular in its ornaments’. He was sufficiently impressed to include a plate drawing in his book. Hoare also mentions the four graves in the churchyard containing the half-consumed remains of eight poor people, who were burned in their beds by a fire in March 1819. 

The church was extensively restored 1838-1840. The nave was given additional windows, the porch was added, the floor was raised and the roof replaced. The chancel was taken down and rebuilt in stock brick on the old foundations. The north transept was rebuilt in 1880 as a vestry and the organ chamber was added in 1881. 

The church still has its 12th century font, protected by a 17th century painted cover. The pulpit also dates from the 17th century. 

There are four bells.

The treble and third were cast in Salisbury, probably in the 15th-century or earlier. They both have similar inscriptions, based on the Latin text ‘Ave Maria Gracia plena dominus tecum’. ‘Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee’. The second was cast in Aldbourne, c. 1790, by Robert and James Wells. The tenor dates from 1712 and was also cast in Aldbourne, by Robert and William Cor. 

The gift of the living was held by the lord of the manor. In 1783 the vicar was Neville Wells, who lived at West Grimstead. He employed a curate, Thomas Grove, to look after the parish on his behalf. Grove was also the rector at Orcheston St. George. He managed to hold services at both parishes by arranging them to alternate between morning and afternoon. The two villages were three miles apart. There was a service at 11.00am and 1.00pm, giving Grove time to travel between the two. 

By 1851, the situation had improved, and the incumbent was able to provide two services every Sunday. In1864, the vicar Charles Lawford was also vicar at Berwick St. James.

He took three services every Sunday, 11.00am and 6.00pm at Winterbourne, 2.30pm at Berwick. 

A vicarage house was built in 1586, according to Hoare, by the vicar John Wigan. In 1783 the vicarage contained three rooms on the ground floor with two above, the walls were of flint and lathe and plaster with a thatched roof.  This was replaced in 1850 by a larger building of cob construction with a tiled roof, presumably built by Lawford. On the 1861 census, Lawford was living with his wife, two daughters, two pupils (the clergy often took in private pupils as another source of income) and three servants. The 1911 census tells us that the house had 13 rooms. 

The vicarage was sold in 1938. This ties in with the changes to the benefice in 1938, when the parishes of Shrewton, Maddington and Rollestone were added. 

The parish is now part of the Lower Wylye and Till Valley Team.

The ten parishes in the team are Berwick St James, Great Wishford, Stapleford, Fisherton de la Mere, South Newton, Steeple Langford, Winterbourne Stoke, Wylye, Little Langford and Stockton. 

The parish registers for Winterbourne Stoke, dating from 1726, can be seen at the Wiltshire & Swindon History Centre in Chippenham, with the exception of those currently in use.