Charlton St Peter

Charlton St Peter or just Charlton is a small village and civil parish in the Vale of Pewsey in the English county of Wiltshire. The village lies about 4 miles (6 km) south-west of Pewsey.

For other Wiltshire places named Charlton, see Charlton, Wiltshire (disambiguation).

Charlton St Peter
St Peter's Church
Charlton St Peter is located in Wiltshire
Charlton St Peter
Charlton St Peter
Location within Wiltshire
Population86 (in 2011)[1]
OS grid referenceSU117560
Civil parish
  • Charlton St Peter
Unitary authority
Ceremonial county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townPewsey
Postcode districtSN9
Dialling code01980
PoliceWiltshire
FireDorset and Wiltshire
AmbulanceSouth Western
UK Parliament
WebsiteParish Council

The village is in the north of the parish, between the River Avon and the Devizes-Upavon road, the A342. To the south the parish extends onto Salisbury Plain.[2]

Parish church

The Church of England parish church of St Peter was largely rebuilt by J.L. Pearson in 1858. Fragments of a 12-century building survive, and the tower is from the 15th or 16th centuries. The north chantry chapel, c. 1523, is in memory of William and Marion Chaucey. In 1964 the church was designated as Grade II* listed.[3][4]

The first record of a vicar at Charlton is from 1306, and by that time the church had been appropriated by the nearby Upavon Priory;[5] in 1423 Upavon and Charlton were granted to the Augustinian canons of Ivychurch Priory, south-east of Salisbury, who held them until the Dissolution.[6] Today the parish is served by the Vale of Pewsey team ministry.[7]

Local government
A gold half-guinea coin of George II, minted in 1738 and found in Charlton in 2009[8]

Charlton shares a parish council, named Charlton St Peter and Wilsford, with the adjacent parish of Wilsford.[9] Charlton elects five councillors to sit alongside two from Wilsford.[10] The parish is in the area of Wiltshire Council, a unitary authority which is responsible for most local government functions.

On 1 July 2022 the parish wa renamed from "Charlton" to "Charlton St Peter".[11]

Traditions
The Charlton Cat in 2005. This building dates from about 1821, a replacement for an eighteenth-century alehouse.[5]

The village inn is the Charlton Cat, "a solitary little inn at the foot of the downs".[12] This establishment was originally called the Red Lion, later the Poores Arms after Edward Poore, lord of the nearby manor of Rushall in the eighteenth century, but the villagers had long known it as The Cat, from the ill-painted lion of the original sign. This name was formally adopted in 1921.[13][5]

Charlton and the neighbouring village of Rushall hold an annual village cricket match each year in June. It used to be played in each village alternately, but in recent years since the Village Lunch has been established in Rushall Village Hall, the match has been played in a field behind the Old Barns. In the last few years a tug-of-war competition has been started, only seriously between the men for the trophy, but there are a women's and children's tug-of-war as well.

Notable people

Stephen Duck, 18th-century poet, was born here and the grave of his wife Mary is in the churchyard. The "Duck Feast", held annually at the Charlton Cat in the first week of June, commemorates his life and work. The cost is met from the rent of "Duck's Acre", a field in Rushall donated for the purpose by Lord Palmerston.[12][14][15]

References
  1. "Charlton (Vale of Pewsey) Census Information". Wiltshire Community History. Wiltshire Council. Retrieved 9 October 2014.
  2. "Charlton (Vale of Pewsey)". Wiltshire Community History. Wiltshire Council. Retrieved 23 March 2016.
  3. Historic England. "Church of St. Peter (1365532)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 23 March 2016.
  4. "Church of St. Peter, Charlton". Wiltshire Community History. Wiltshire Council. Retrieved 23 March 2016.
  5. Crowley, D.A. (ed.). "Victoria County History - Wiltshire - Vol 10 pp33-40 - Parishes: Charlton". British History Online. University of London. Retrieved 23 March 2016.
  6. Pugh, R.B.; Crittall, Elizabeth, eds. (1956). "Alien houses: Priory of Upavon". A History of the County of Wiltshire: Volume 3. London: University of London. Retrieved 25 August 2020 – via British History Online.
  7. "St Peter, Charlton Saint Peter". Vale of Pewsey Team. Archived from the original on 2 April 2016. Retrieved 23 March 2016.
  8. Hinds, K. "Finds record for: WILT-40CC44". The Portable Antiquities Scheme. Retrieved 28 August 2022.
  9. "Charlton St Peter & Wilsford Joint Parish Council". Retrieved 5 October 2022.
  10. "Community Governance Review 2021/22: Final Recommendations of the Electoral Review Committee" (PDF). Wiltshire Council. October 2022. pp. 7–8. Retrieved 16 March 2023.
  11. "Wiltshire Registration District". UKBMD. Retrieved 5 July 2023.
  12. Bradley, Arthur Granville (1907). Round About Wiltshire. London: Methuen. pp. 34–5. OCLC 4256175.
  13. "The Poores Arms at Charlton". Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine. Devizes: Wiltshire Archaeological & Natural History Society. 99: 226. 2006.
  14. "What is the Duck Feast in the village of Charlton in the Vale of Pewsey?". Wiltshire Community History. December 2002. Retrieved 19 April 2011.
  15. Courtney, W. P. (19 May 2011) [23 September 2004]. "Temple, Henry, first Viscount Palmerston". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/27110. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)

Further reading

Media related to Charlton St Peter at Wikimedia Commons

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