Church of St. Mary, Orcheston

St Mary’s in Orcheston is believed to have been built and developed from an original Saxon church built in the 12th century. The dedication ‘St. Mary’ was in fact recorded to have been given to the church round this time in 1297, an unusually early date to have a name of a church written down in records and is also in keeping with the Saxon tendency to name churches after the Virgin Mary, potentially verifying the Saxon history of the church.

The church is built of limestone rubble and flint and consists of a south west tower, a chancel, south aisle, south transept and south nave walls and porch and a late 13th century door. The nave has thick east and west walls possibly surviving from the small 12th century church.

The church was restored in the year 1699 by Sir Stephen Fox and again in1852 possibly by Wyatt. The church has undergone a lot of alteration especially in the years 1832-3 when a lot of the church interior was rebuilt and altered.

The aisle and western tower was added in the 13th century. The tower was later rebuilt in ashlar in 1637 to make it taller but less steep; a staircase was also added in the south east corner of the tower. Despite the alterations it still retains its 13th century walling on the northern side. In the 14th century the aisle was rebuilt along with two western bays, the remaining bays were later built in the 15th century.

The chancel was built or extensively altered in the 16th century and in 1832-3 the chancel, the north wall and aisle walls were rebuilt along with the previously wooden porch being moved and rebuilt in stone. The chancel’s two lancets to the north side and the nave along with the eastern chancel wall outside as well as inside looks to be early 19th century.

The church possessed three bells which were in1914 destroyed by fire. They included two cast at Salisbury in 1553, which survived until 1914 and the clement Tosier bell added in 1715. After the 1914 fire the three bells were replaced by three new bells cast by Taylor of Loughborough.

In 1553 it was reported that there had never been a pulpit in the church and a carpet for the communion table was also missing. Consequently, three parishioners failed to receive Easter communion in 1584 as the church was considered shabby and incomplete.

The church plate consists of a 16th century chalice and a 1506 Elizabethan cup and 1729 flagon. Incomplete series of registers also survive of baptisms from 1688 and or marriages and burials from 1691; other than those in current use at the church these are held in the Wiltshire & Swindon History Centre at Chippenham.

In 1783 one service was held each Sunday and none on weekdays. There were usually 12 communicants at the celebrations at Christmas, Easter and Whitsun. Later services increased and became more regular increasing communicants to 40.

The parish was served by many priests through out the years and received a lot of attention and attendance showing the stability and popularity of the church, which can be seen in the parish registers and the constant high figures of marriages, christenings and burials, and attendance of meetings. In 1933 the two rectories within Orcheston St. Mary and St. George were united as the Orcheston benefice. Previous recommendations for the two parishes to unite in 1650 were not carried out.