Beechingstoke is a small village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of Parish (administrative division), administrative parish used for Local government in England, local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below district ...

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershir ...

, England. It lies in the

Vale of Pewsey The Vale of Pewsey or Pewsey Vale is an area of Wiltshire, England to the east of Devizes and south of Marlborough, centred on the village of Pewsey. Geography The vale is an extent of lower lying ground separating the chalk downs of Salisbur ...

about west of

Pewsey Pewsey is a large village and civil parish at the centre of the Vale of Pewsey in Wiltshire, about south of Marlborough and west of London. It is within reach of the M4 motorway and the A303 and is served by Pewsey railway station on the R ...

and the same distance east of

Devizes Devizes is a market town and civil parish in Wiltshire, England. It developed around Devizes Castle, an 11th-century Norman castle, and received a charter in 1141. The castle was besieged during the Anarchy, a 12th-century civil war between St ...

. The parish includes the hamlet of Broad Street and the northern part of the village of

Bottlesford Bottlesford is a small village in Wiltshire, England, in the parish of North Newnton. It is in the Vale of Pewsey and is about west of Pewsey. There is a pub, the ''Seven Stars Inn''. Until sometime after 1971, Bottlesford was within Manningfo ...

. The River Avon and its small tributaries form parts of the west, south and northeast boundaries of the parish.

History

Marden Henge Marden Henge (also known as Hatfield Earthworks) is the largest Neolithic henge enclosure discovered to date in the United Kingdom. The monument is northeast of the village of Marden, Wiltshire, within the Vale of Pewsey and between the World Her ...

, a large

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several part ...

earthwork, is just over the south-west border of the parish. The

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

of 1086 records a manor called ''Bichenestock'', with 14 households and one mill, held by

Shaftesbury Abbey Shaftesbury Abbey was an abbey that housed nuns in Shaftesbury, Dorset. It was founded in about 888, and dissolved in 1539 during the English Reformation by the order of Thomas Cromwell, minister to King Henry VIII. At the time it was the seco ...

. In 1541 the king transferred the land to the

Dean of Winchester The Dean of Winchester is the head of the Chapter of Winchester Cathedral in the city of Winchester, England, in the Diocese of Winchester. Appointment is by the Crown. The first incumbent was the last Prior, William Kingsmill, Catherine Ogle ...

, who held it until 1845. The house known as The Manor (previously Stoke Manor), at the east end of the village, has a west wing from the early 18th century and a later west wing, both in brick under thatched roofs. Stoke Farmhouse, in the centre of the village, is from 1820–1840, in brick and slate with a cast iron porch. In 1862 the Reading to Taunton railway was built close to Beechingstoke village and became the northern boundary of the parish. There was a station at , just outside the parish to the north of Broad Street, but it closed in 1966 making the nearest station.

Parish church

The earliest known record of the

Church of England parish church A parish church in the Church of England is the church which acts as the religious centre for the people within each Church of England parish (the smallest and most basic Church of England administrative unit; since the 19th century sometimes ca ...

Saint Stephen Stephen ( grc-gre, Στέφανος ''Stéphanos'', meaning "wreath, crown" and by extension "reward, honor, renown, fame", often given as a title rather than as a name; c. 5 – c. 34 AD) is traditionally venerated as the protomartyr or first ...

is from 1291. Of the mediaeval church building, only the 14th-century

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

arch and surrounding wall survive. The

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-typ ...

was rebuilt in 1693 and the chancel in 1791. In 1848 the 1791 east window was moved to Wilsford school and a new 15th-century style one made by Wailes was inserted in the chancel in its place. The church was largely rebuilt again in 1861 under the direction of the architect S.B. Gabriel of

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city i ...

, who altered the east window to a 14th-century style and inserted a new west window. The church is

Grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Ir ...

, as is the nearby Old Rectory of c. 1830. Rectors include Edward Tufnell (1846 to 1858), who was later the first bishop of Brisbane, Australia. The benefice was held in plurality with that of Woodborough with Manningford Bohune from 1951, and in 1961 the benefices were united.

Wilcot Wilcot is a village in Wiltshire, England, in the Vale of Pewsey about southwest of Marlborough and northwest of Pewsey. The village is part of the civil parish of Wilcot, Huish and Oare. The parish was created in 2020 by merging the small ...

, Huish and Oare were added to the union in 1972 and a team ministry established; today Beechingstoke is part of the Vale of Pewsey group of churches.

Local government

Beechingstoke is a civil parish with an elected parish council. It is in the area of the

Wiltshire Council Wiltshire Council is a council for the unitary authority of Wiltshire (excluding the separate Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority of Borough of Swindon, Swindon) in South West England, created in 2009. It is the successor authorit ...

unitary authority A unitary authority is a local authority responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are usually performed by a higher level of sub-national government or the national governme ...

, which is responsible for all significant

local government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-lo ...

functions, and is represented in the council by Paul Oatway, who succeeded Brigadier Robert Hall in 2013.

Amenities

There is no school in the parish. A National school was built near the church shortly before 1859 but closed around 1872 when the school at nearby Woodborough was opened.

References

External links

* {{authority control Villages in Wiltshire Civil parishes in Wiltshire