St Mary the Virgin Church - Calstone Wellington

The following piece was written by Freda McQuie some years ago for a church pamphlet.

From the list of Institutions to the benefice of Calstone (south wall of nave), 1301 is the earliest date, but at this time probably a wooden church existed as we have here a specimen of a church entirely of one date (if we except the insertion of a window) and therefore representing the ideal village church of its period — Perpendicular Architecture towards the middle of the 15th century. The north window of the sanctuary was inserted about 40 years after the building of the church and a different design for the flat four-centred arch at the top is easily noticed. No other alteration to the church was made till the great restoration in 1885.

The church consists of Chancel, Nave, North Porch and Tower of Ancient Perpendicular work. The roof of the porch and the roof of the nave retain their original ribs but the oaken ceiling of each is modern. The iron studded inner door of the porch remains as it was when placed there at the time the church was built. A later niche has been inserted over it and there are bits of old painted glass in the south window of the sanctuary. The rood-loft and staircase have been removed but the doorway that led to the loft can still be traced. In the rood-beam is a socket where probably was held a crucifix. The Royal Arms painted on the wall over the chancel arch bear the date 1740, and the Bath stone font and its oak cover are probably of the same date.

Beneath the floor of the nave there is a vault, covered by a stone with an elaborate coat of arms where members of the Mitchell family were buried (1637-1817). On the south side of the chancel is a marble tablet to the memory of members of the Baily family, woolstaplers and clothiers and people of some importance in the eighteenth and early part of the nineteenth centuries; and on the north side are an elaborate marble tablet to Thomas Heath (Rector) and his wife, and brasses to the memory of William Maurice Macdonald (Rector) and his wife. In the chancel are an oak aumbry, a piscina and a stone aumbry. The piscina in the south wall of the nave indicates the position of a second altar and there are also aumbries, probably used in connection with it, north and south of the chancel arch.

In the County Archives can be seen the Faculty, dated 6th August 1884, to refit the church and chancel, remove the gallery, erect a vestry room and execute other works. It says the nave and chancel were in a state of general decay and the gallery and the staircase leading to it erected at the western end of the chancel was of such an unsightly character that it was decided to remove it. After restoration the church was re-opened on 10th November 1885 by John Lord Bishop of Salisbury but not re-consecrated. The Rev. G. R. Hadow, M.A., Rector of Calstone cum Blackland at the time, said after the restoration that the architect, Mr. Ewan Christian, who restored the church in so admirable and conservative a manner, found the foundations very shallow and attributed the absence of settlements or other ill effects from this to the good bond obtained by the use of blocks of stone of such large dimensions. But in spite of this and the very large sarsen stones on which the buttresses were raised a serious settlement had taken place at the junction of the tower and the south wall and it was to support the latter that the vestry, using an old doorway for entrance, was then built in its present position.

During the restoration the old plaster was removed from the walls revealing window sills and jambs, sedilia, piscinas (mutilated), aumbries and two doorways leading to the rood screen. Also revealed in the porch are the marks on the stones that show the cutting of initials in forbidden places was as much a passion in earlier days as it is now. The staircase was outside the church and was cut away to make room for a memorial to a stage coachman who died in 1806. This memorial takes the form of a mural tablet, and on it appears the following poetic effusion –

“While passengers of every age
With care I drove from stage to stage,
Death’s sable hearse pass’d by unseen
And stop’d the course of my machine”.

At this time an entirely new oak roof was added to the chancel, the old plaster ceiling of the nave removed, a new oak wagon roof put in its place, the old timbers above it being repaired and replaced where necessary. The present altar was made from the old timbers of the chancel roof. The top stage of the tower was rebuilt with some of the old masonry being used and the old parapet and old mullions of the windows were replaced. The floors of the chancel and sanctuary were paved with tiles and oak cubes; and there were new oak choir stalls, prayer desk, pulpit, lectern and sittings through-out. The Bath stone font with its oak cover was retained and some of those baptised at the font in 1885 donated the Brass Font Ewer 17 inches high with the inscription, “Presented to Calstone Church by some of those baptized at this font 1885”. The tower contains three bells — the smallest dated 1603, inscribed “Geve God the Glory”, was repaired in 1885 when the other two new bells were added. Early this century the oak reredos was given in memory of the Rev. G. R. Hadow.

The church plate includes a silver paten, a pair of glass cruets and a brass alms dish presented at the restoration and a Chalice and Paten c.1730. The 6-inch diameter silver paten, engraved with a cross, was given by Miss Hadow at the time of the restoration of the church in 1885, together with a pair of glass cruets with silver mounting. In the returns of 1553 no plate was found in Calstone but the Chalice c.1730 is 7 1/2 inches in height with a bell-shape cup resting on a plain knotted stem and belonging to it is a large paten dish 8 5/8 inches diameter. On both pieces the only marks found are the maker E.P. within an oblong square probably that of Edward Pocock who entered in 1728. On each piece is inscribed “Calston in the County of Wilts” with a shield of arms surrounded with mantling. The arms are either for Sir Edward de Bouverie, who succeeded his father in 1717 and died in 1736, or his brother, Sir Jacob, who was created Lord Longford, Baron of Longford and Viscount Folkstone in 1747 and died in 1761. The latter gave communion plate to the Church of Stanton St. Quintin in 1738 bearing the same arms. When the manors of Calstone and Calstone Wyley were sold by Thomas Duckett in 1765 to Lord Shelburne, the Bouverie family appears to have possessed some property at Calstone, the names of Sir Edward de Bouverie and Sir Jacob de Bouverie occurring in a church rate book of the period as paying rates for a farm and mill. The practice of engraving the Arms of donors on altar plate was not unknown before the Reformation. This custom of adding donors arms increased after the Reformation and was much in vogue during the 17th and 18th centuries.

Below are other articles on the church which you may find interesting.