South Marston
South Marston
Main page
1719464

South Marston

logo
Community Hub0 subscribers
What are your thoughts?
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Be the first to start a discussion here.
South Marston

South Marston is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Swindon, Wiltshire, England. The village is about 3 miles (5 km) north-east of Swindon town centre.

The earliest documentary evidence for continuous settlement dates from the 13th century, but there is fragmentary archaeological evidence of occupation as far back as the Bronze Age.

It is claimed that there were Roman remains just outside South Marston in a field belonging to Rowborough Farm, but these have long disappeared. Ermin Way, a major Roman road linking Silchester and Gloucester, passed close to the village on the south-west side, separating it from Stratton St Margaret. There was a Roman station at Durocornovium, now Covingham, one mile south of the village.

The name "Marston" derives from a common Old English toponym meaning "marsh farm". This suggests that the village was founded before the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, although it is not recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086. Documentary evidence of the village exists from about 1280, when it is mentioned as part of Highworth Hundred. South Marston became a civil parish in 1894.

Alfred Bell bought the manor, farms and houses from the Earl of Carnarvon and others in the 1850s. He and his descendants rebuilt the manor house, built the school and repaired and refurbished the church. The manor house was demolished in the 1980s and replaced by a housing development.

The small Church of England parish church is dedicated to St Mary Magdalen. There is evidence of a Norman church in the simple north and south doorways; the plain font is also Norman. The present church, built in stone rubble with ashlar quoins and dressings, has a 13th-century chancel and 15th-century nave and west tower. The building was designated as Grade I listed in 1955.

Inside the church are several 18th-century monuments. Extensive restoration by the London architect John Belcher in 1886 included the addition of the south chapel and the small octagonal turret, with spire, above the east end of the nave; he also replaced the nave roof and the furnishings. The work was paid for by the Bell family, who bought the manor and village in the 1850s.

There is stained glass by Clayton and Bell, from 1886 and later. One of the six bells was cast by John Wallis in 1616; the others are from 1926.

See all
User Avatar
No comments yet.