Chittoe: St Mary
Overview
Grid reference: ST 957 666
The architects were Thomas Henry Wyatt and David Brandon, Diocesan Architects, and their plans and elevations for the church are dated 27th April 1844; the church was erected in 1845.
Visiting and facilities
Building is closed for worship
Building
Ground Plan Description and Dimensions
Ground plan:
Nave of three bays without aisles, south porch, north transept, chancel with south vestry and north organ chamber.
Footprint of Church buildings: 327 m²
Description of Archaeology and History
The architects were Thomas Henry Wyatt and David Brandon, Diocesan Architects, and their plans and elevations for the church are dated 27th April 1844; the church was erected in 1845. Wyatt (1807-1880) and Brandon (1813-1897) were in parternship from 1838 to 1851 and designed many churches in Wiltshire, the most outstanding probably being the Romanesque church at Wilton built in 1841-5. Wyatt's work on the whole was good without being inspired and accurate without being remarkable. The north transept, organ chamber and lobby were added in c.1880 but the architect is not recorded.
Exterior Description
Although there appears to have been a chapel at Chittoe in the Middle Ages, no trace of it now remains, and the people of Chittoe until the nineteenth-century celebrated their marriages and buried their dead at Bishop's Cannings, while for some years before 1845 they were usually married at Bishop's Cannings but attended Bromham Church for baptisms and funerals. In that year the church of St. Mary was erected through the efforts of Archdeacon Macdonald, Vicar of Bishop's Cannings, Mrs. Charlotte Starkey and Bisnop Denison of Salisbury. The church was built in a simple Decorated style with a nave of three bays lit by a large west window of three lights with three pointed trefoils as tracery and paired lights in the north and south walls save in the west bay of the south wall where there is a single light and a porch with a trefoil-hondod lancet in each side wall and a doorway in the south wall with moulded surround and foliate stops. High in the west wall is a trefoil opening and the apex of the gable is crowned by a simple bell-cote in which hangs one small bell. At the angles are paired buttresses slightly set back from the corners and the bays of the north and south walls are also marked by buttresses.
The chancel has a three-light east window with three trefoils are tracery and on the north and south sides are single lancet to light the sanctuary. Otherwise the south wall is concealed by a small vestry under its own gable with a chimney (now reduced in height) rising above the south wall and a small two-light window with Y tracery beside it. Access is by a doorway in the east wall. On the north side a transept was added to the nave at a later date, with a two-light window in its west wall and a three light window in the north gable, very much in the style of the nave, and an organ chamber was built alongside the north wall of the chancel. these two additions was erected a small porch with a doorway in the canted wall. The detailing throughout is competent but unremarkable, with foliate stops to the moulded hoods and accurate mouldings round doors and windows.
Building Fabric and Features
Stained Glass
1848
The east window has a central panel depicting Christ Bearing the Cross with four quatrefoils with angels boaring scrolls with texts in the outer lights. The Instruments of the Passion appear in the tracery lights and the Agnus Dei is above the central panel, the Pelican in Her Piety below. The window is signed by the monogram of William Wailes.
Stained Glass
1850
The north and south chancel windows, both single lights, are by Thomas Willement, and depict A Priest Administering the Last Rites and The Baptism of Christ.
Stained Glass
c.1906
South chancel I : St. John the Divine (obviously from a photograph of the boy commemorated) and St. John the Baptist.
Stained Glass
Nave south II: one light, The Ascension, by Wailes.
Interior
Interior Description
The interior has plastered walls painted white and tiled alleys with timber boards under the pews. The stone surrounds to the windows are left exposed and the roof is of an open timber construction with tie beams and arch braces pierced with quatrefoils. It is of six bays which means that alternate corbels are placed over the window openings. The tall moulded chancel arch is supported on triple shafts against the responds with foliated capitals, but the lower arch to the north transept is in an earlier style with semi-circular responds with moulded bases and capitals. The roof structure of the transept is similar to that in the nave though slightly simpler, and the transept is divided from the nave by a screen. There is a similar screen in the arch on the east side which communicates with the organ chamber and a doorway near the north end of the east wall opens into the small lobby.
The chancel is two steps above the level of the nave, and is richer in its details with patterned tiles (those within the sanctuary in groups of four making up circular patterns with fleurs-de-lys and florets being of quite good quality). An arch on the north opens into the organ chamber and a small doorway on the south to the vestry. The western bay is crowded with choirstalls and the eastern bay which forms the sanctuary is taken up with an English altar replacing the original arrangement. There are still tiles belonging to the earlier reredos on the east wall arch to the organ chamber is smaller than the arch from the nave to the north transept, but otherwise similar in detail and obviouslyof the same date, and the roof is boarded to form a pointed timber vault. The close proximity of the hill and a large yew tree outside the east window makes the chancel rather dark, especially since there is stained glass in all the windows.
Fixtures and fittings
Altar
c.1930
The altar is of oak, probably of c.1930.
Reredos
c.1930
The reredos is in the form of an english altar surrounded with oak riddel posts and curtains
Pulpit
The pulpit is in the form of three sides of an octagon on Bath stone set against the south respond of the chancel arch; each panel has a trofoiled blind arch and there are attached shafts round the base which splays outwards and upwards; attached to the top are two brase candsticks.
Lectern
1893
The lecturn is a thin pedestal of brass.
Font (object)
1845
In the Perpendicular style with identical flovery cusped quatrefoils on each panel round the bowl and standing on an octagonal stop.
Organ (object)
The organ is a small one-manual instrument with five speaking stops and a super-octave coupler on the manual.
Churchyard
Grid reference: ST 957 666
Burial and War Grave Information
It is unknown whether the building is consecrated.
It is unknown whether the churchyard has been used for burial.
It is unknown whether the churchyard is used for burial.
The churchyard is closed for burial by order in council.
The date of the burial closure order is 11/02/1998
It is unknown whether the churchyard has war graves.
National Heritage record for England designations
There are no records of National Heritage assets within the curtilage of this site.
Environment
Ancient, Veteran & Notable Trees
Caring for God's Acre is a conservation charity working to support groups and individuals to investigate, care for, and enjoy the wildlife and heritage treasures found within churchyards and other burial grounds. Look on their website for information and advice and please contact their staff directly. They can help you manage this churchyard for people and wildlife.
To learn more about all the species recorded against this church, go to the Burial Ground Portal within the NBN Atlas. You can check the spread of records through the years, discovering what has been recorded and when, plus what discoveries might remain to be uncovered.
There are no records of Ancient, Veteran or Notable Trees within the curtilage of this site.
Renewables
| Renewable | Installed |
|---|---|
| Solar PV Panels | No |
| Solar Thermal Panels | No |
| Biomass | No |
| Wind Turbine | No |
| Air Source Heat Pump | No |
| Ground Source Heat Pump | No |
| Ev Charging | No |
Species summary
There are no records of species within the curtilage of this site.
Caring for God's Acre is a conservation charity working to support groups and individuals to investigate, care for, and enjoy the wildlife and heritage treasures found within churchyards and other burial grounds. Look on their website for information and advice and please contact their staff directly. They can help you manage this churchyard for people and wildlife.
To learn more about all the species recorded against this church, go to the Burial Ground Portal within the NBN Atlas. You can check the spread of records through the years, discovering what has been recorded and when, plus what discoveries might remain to be uncovered.
'Seek advice' Species
More information on species and action to be taken upon discovery.
Caring for God's Acre is a conservation charity working to support groups and individuals to investigate, care for, and enjoy the wildlife and heritage treasures found within churchyards and other burial grounds. Look on their website for information and advice and please contact their staff directly. They can help you manage this churchyard for people and wildlife.
To learn more about all the species recorded against this church, go to the Burial Ground Portal within the NBN Atlas. You can check the spread of records through the years, discovering what has been recorded and when, plus what discoveries might remain to be uncovered.
Further information
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