Broad Hinton

Broad Hinton is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, about 5 miles (8 km) southwest of Swindon. The parish includes the hamlets of Uffcott and The Weir. It shares a grouped parish council with the neighbouring parish of Winterbourne Bassett. In 2011 the parish had a population of 650.

There are several barrows in the parish, notably on Hackpen Hill. East of The Weir is a Romano-British burial site and possibly the remains of a house of that period.

Bincknoll Castle is an earthwork on a promontory on a chalk escarpment in the northernmost part of the parish. It is the remains of a fortified enclosure, possibly Romano-British in origin, that was re-used in the Middle Ages.

The Domesday Book of 1086 records that a man called Ranulph held the manor of Broad Hinton. It then passed to the Wase family and became known as Hinton Wase. In 1365 Nicholas Wase sold the manor to William Wroughton (died 1392), whose family then held Broad Hinton until 1628 when Sir Giles Wroughton sold it to Sir John Glanville, MP and later Speaker of the House of Commons. He was a cousin of John Evelyn's wife, and the diarist visited him at Broad Hinton in 1654, noting that he was living in the manor's gatehouse because he had burnt down his home to prevent the Roundheads setting up a garrison there during the Civil War. In 1709 a later John Glanville sold the manor to Thomas Bennet, from whom it descended via the female line through the Legh, Keck and Calley families. In 1839 James Calley sold Broad Hinton to the Duke of Wellington. In 1867 his son the 2nd Duke of Wellington sold Broad Hinton to N. Story-Maskelyne, who in 1869 sold it on to the former MP Sir Henry Meux, 2nd Baronet. Sir Henry died in 1900 and his widow Lady Meux had the manor broken up and auctioned in several lots in 1906.

The Church of England parish church of Saint Peter ad Vincula ("St Peter in Chains") is one of only 15 churches in England with this dedication, which is in honour of the Basilica of San Pietro in Vincoli in Rome.

The earliest parts of the church building date from late in the 12th century. They include an Early English Gothic priest's doorway, which was later moved from the chancel to the organ chamber. In the 13th century the chancel was rebuilt, the nave was altered and the church was dedicated to Saint Mary. The Perpendicular Gothic tower was built in the 15th or early in the 16th century. A rood stair was inserted early in the 16th century. The nave was re-roofed in 1634 and the east end of the chancel was altered or rebuilt in the 18th century.

In the 19th century the church was called St. Peter's. In 1843 a pulpit, desk and stalls were designed for the church by the architect William Hinton Campbell;^{[citation needed]} it is not known if these were ever made and, if so, whether they survive. The building was restored in 1879 to plans by the Gothic Revival architect C.E. Ponting of Marlborough. He had a new, wider chancel arch built and re-used the old one to link the chancel with the organ chamber. In 1958 the church was designated as Grade I listed.

The church contains several imposing monuments, notably to members of the Wroughton and Glanville families.