St Nicholas' Church, Slaughterford

St Nicholas' is the church of Slaughterford, a hamlet of mills in the wooded valley of the By Brook, a little over 2km west of Biddestone. It stands on its own in a field above the lane. Its tower is fifteenth century, and the rest was rebuilt in 1823; an inscription inside records the rebuilding after two centuries of disuse. It is listed Grade II*.

History

St Nicholas' was a medieval church that lost two centuries to war. The local tradition, repeated by the Bybrook Benefice and the Wiltshire Community History, is that Cromwell's troops partly destroyed it while marching to Bristol to sail for Ireland, which would date the damage to 1649, and the heritage trail leaflet gives that year.

Two centuries at Biddestone

With their church unusable, the people of Slaughterford walked to Biddestone to worship. The Wiltshire Community History says a gallery, reached by an outside stair, was built for them in St Nicholas' at Biddestone. The heritage trail leaflet dates it to 1712 and says the two parishes got on badly enough to want separate doors, though Historic England dates the present gallery to the late eighteenth century. The two parishes were joined under a local government order of 1844.

Rebuilt in 1823

The nave, chancel and south porch were rebuilt in 1823 by G. Forder of Winchester, paid for mainly by local people, and an inscription inside records the rebuilding after two centuries of disuse. The windows were given new tracery in the Perpendicular style in a restoration of 1883.

A valley of mills

Slaughterford's living came from the brook. Chapps Mill, in the hamlet, began as a fulling mill; the heritage trail leaflet says it turned to paper after 1790, with spells back on cloth, and the Dowding family ran it from 1859. It made paper until the 1990s, and small businesses use the site now. Upstream, the Rag Mill had the valley's earliest paper machine. The hamlet's brewery, Little and Sons, ran from 1858 to 1915 by the leaflet's dates, and its stack still stands. The hamlet had 132 people in 1871 and 81 in 1915.

What to see

The tower is the medieval part. It is small, of two stages, with a three-sided stair turret rising to the bell stage, pierced stone panels in the bell openings, an embattled parapet and corner pinnacles. The porch is embattled too. Inside, the church is plain, with plastered walls and roof, a chamfered chancel arch and fittings of the later nineteenth century; look for the inscription of 1823. From the field there is a good view down over the hamlet, the old brewery and the valley.

Visiting

St Nicholas' is reached through a field from the road. Holy Communion is held at 11am on the second Sunday of the month, with an all-age communion outdoors in the churchyard in the summer months. The benefice does not say whether the church is open at other times, so do not count on getting inside on a weekday. There are no facilities at the church; the nearest pub is the White Hart at Ford, further along the heritage trail.

Getting there

We found no public car park in Slaughterford, so walk in from Biddestone, where there is a car park behind the village hall (SN14 7BZ). The Biddestone heritage trail comes over the hill with Slaughterford below, goes through the mill, crosses the brook and enters the churchyard by a metal gate, then climbs over Common Hill to Ford.

Nearby

Back in Biddestone, the green and pond and the White Horse are a little over 2km away. Upstream, the By Brook leads past Ford and Long Dean to Castle Combe's bridge.