Slaughterford is a small village and former

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 ...

about west of

Chippenham Chippenham is a market town in northwest Wiltshire, England. It lies northeast of Bath, west of London, and is near the Cotswolds Area of Natural Beauty. The town was established on a crossing of the River Avon and some form of settlement is ...

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. The village has a crossing point of the

Bybrook River The Bybrook, also known as the By Brook, is a small river in England. It is a tributary of the Bristol Avon and is some long. Its sources are the Burton Brook and the Broadmead Brook, which rise in South Gloucestershire at Tormarton and Cold ...

. It stands in a wooded valley between

Castle Combe Castle Combe is a village and civil parish within the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in Wiltshire, England. The village is around north-west of Chippenham. A castle once stood in the area, but was demolished centuries ago. The vil ...

and

Box A box (plural: boxes) is a container used for the storage or transportation of its contents. Most boxes have flat, parallel, rectangular sides. Boxes can be very small (like a matchbox) or very large (like a shipping box for furniture), and ca ...

History

The weavers' cottages have 16th-century origins. The present Manor Farmhouse dates from 1753, and attached to it is a late medieval barn. A small 18th-century brewery, now a house, has a prominent chimney that points to its past. Slaughterford was a separate parish with its own church until it was merged with

Biddestone Biddestone is a village and civil parish in northwest Wiltshire, England, about west of Chippenham and north of Corsham. The parish includes the smaller settlement of Slaughterford. Geography The Bybrook River forms the western boundary of th ...

in 1934. Its population at the 1931 census had been 67. The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868) states:

Religious sites

The Church of St Nicholas of Myra 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 I ...

. Built in the 15th century, it was partly destroyed about 1649 by

Richard Cromwell Richard Cromwell (4 October 162612 July 1712) was an English statesman who was the second and last Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland and son of the first Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell. On his father's death ...

's troops on their way to Ireland, and lay in ruins until rebuilt in 1823. Further

restoration Restoration is the act of restoring something to its original state and may refer to: * Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage ** Audio restoration ** Film restoration ** Image restoration ** Textile restoration *Restoration ecology ...

in 1883 included

tracery Tracery is an architectural device by which windows (or screens, panels, and vaults) are divided into sections of various proportions by stone ''bars'' or ''ribs'' of moulding. Most commonly, it refers to the stonework elements that support the ...

for the windows. The tower has a single bell cast by

John Rudhall John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Seco ...

in 1823, and there is a 20th-century sanctus bell. The benefice was united with Biddestone sometime before 1953, and today the parish is part of the Bybrook Team Ministry. A

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...

meeting house was set up in the village in the 17th century. It became disused and the building collapsed in the 1960s, although the burial ground survives. Among the Quakers of the village were the Cheevers family.

References

External links

{{authority control Villages in Wiltshire Former civil parishes in Wiltshire