Bremhill, Wiltshire

Description
Bremhill, or Bremble, a village and a parish in Wilts. The village stands on the Roman road to Bath, near the Wilts and Berks Canal, 2 1/2 miles from Calne station on the G.W.R., and 4 E by N of Chippenham. It has a post office under Calne, which is the money order and telegraph office. The parish includes also the tithings of East Tytherton, Studley, Spirthill, Charlcott, and Fosham. Acreage, 5912 ; population of the civil parish, 1090; of the ecclesiastical, with Highway, 1048. A farmhouse is built on the site of Studley House, formerly belonging to the Hungerfords. A monumental pillar, surmounted by a female figure in the costume of the time of Edward IV., is at Wickhill. The pillar and the figure are modern ; from this point and from some other points around the village there are fine views. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Salisbury, with the rectory of Highway and Foxham annexed; gross value, £632 with residence. Patron, the Bishop of Salisbury. The church is an ivy-clad edifice in very good condition, and had a finely-carved rood-loft and rood-screen, which were destroyed when the church was "restored" in 1850. In the chancel is an elaborate and ugly monument to one of the Hungerfords, 1698. Two ancient crosses are adjacent, and several epitaphs in the churchyard are from the pen of the poet Bowles, who held the vicarage, and died in 1850. There are Wesleyan and Primitive Methodist chapels, and a Moravian settlement at East Tytherton. There are free libraries at Bremhill, Foxham, and Charlcott. There is a chapel of ease at Foxham, erected in 1880, and replacing the ancient chapel of St John the Baptist. Highway is a small parish (population, 74) annexed to Bremhill, which is nearly 5 miles distant. The church of St Peter was rebuilt, 1867, but the rood-screen has been preserved, and a portion of the old wall with a Norman doorway now closed up.