St Nicholas' Church, Biddestone

St Nicholas' is the parish church of Biddestone, on Church Road a short walk from the green and pond. It is a small church of Norman origin, little enlarged in seven centuries, listed Grade I for its twelfth-century doorway and font, its rare bell turret and its Georgian box pews and gallery. It is open every day until dusk.

History

The Wiltshire Community History records two manors and two churches in Biddestone in the eleventh century; St Nicholas' is the one that survives. The Wiltshire Community History says it stands on Saxon foundations, but what is seen is mostly Norman, of the twelfth century, with work of each century after. The Bybrook Benefice notes that it was never enlarged between the Norman period and the late Victorian era.

Two churches

The other church, St Peter's, stood on the eastern edge of the village beyond the manor. It may have been larger, was rebuilt in about 1430 and was pulled down in 1846, and its stone was used to build the sanctuary at the east end of St Nicholas'; its bell turret went to Castle Combe Manor.

Slaughterford's gallery

The heritage trail leaflet says the gallery was built in 1712 for the people of Slaughterford, whose church had been wrecked in the Civil War, and the Wiltshire Community History adds that it was reached by an outside staircase. The listing dates the gallery as it stands to the late eighteenth century. The nave was restored around 1900, and Sir Harold Brakspear restored the west window in 1935.

What to see

Start at the south doorway, the way everyone goes in. It is twelfth century, with carved capitals and a tympanum showing a cross in a beaded circle. Then look up at the east end of the nave: the little bell turret, cross-shaped in plan and of the thirteenth century, carries a short octagonal stone spire of the fifteenth, and the Wiltshire Community History describes it as a rare survival, built to hold a sanctus bell, rung at the consecration in the mass so that ploughmen and shepherds in the fields could cross themselves.

Inside, look for:

• the round twelfth-century font with a band of zig-zag;
• the box pews of about 1800 and the west gallery with fielded panels;
• the fifteenth-century chancel arch, and the nineteenth-century sanctuary beyond it, built of St Peter's stone;
• the series of wall plaques to the Mountjoy family in the chancel, from about 1695 to 1823, one of 1734 signed by M. Sidnell and one of 1807 by Brewer of Box;
• the east window of 1905 by Bell of Bristol;
• the fourteenth-century west window with intersecting tracery.

One of the two old bells, dated 1553, was found in a farmyard at Lacock in the 1920s and brought back. Several tombs in the churchyard are listed, among them two to the Allborn family.

Visiting

St Nicholas' is open daily from morning until dusk, and entry is free. Evensong is held on the first Sunday of the month, at 4pm in winter and 6pm in summer time; the Bybrook Benefice publishes a monthly rota and says the pattern can change. A Church Near You gives no accessibility information; the entrance is through the Norman doorway, so check ahead if you need step-free access. The Friends of St Nicholas, founded in 2009 in answer to an urgent appeal for roof repairs, raise money for the church with its parochial church council, the parish council records.

Getting there

Park in the public car park behind the village hall on Yatton Road, SN14 7BZ, a few hundred metres from the church. Faresaver’s 635 and 636 buses (Chippenham to Marshfield, the 636 by way of Corsham) stop by the pond a few times a day, on weekdays only.

On foot, the Biddestone heritage trail visits the church after its circuit of the green and before it heads out past the Butts towards Slaughterford.

Nearby

The White Horse on the green is a few minutes away. St Nicholas' at Slaughterford, down in the By Brook valley, is the church that the gallery was built for, and St Andrew's at Castle Combe is a short drive north.