2010 : Biddestone, at the west end of The Green

Image: © Maurice Pullin Taken: 2 Mar 2010

The Butts and Ham Lane straight on, Cuttle Lane to the right. "Biddestone lies in the hundred of Chippenham, three miles to the west. It was a Saxon village, its name most likely deriving from a Saxon settler Beidin. Other spellings have been Bedereston (1187), Buddeston (1215, 1428), Byddeston (1339, 1523), Biddeston (1339) and Biedestone (1297)." "In 1085 ‘Bedestone’ belonged to Humphrey de L’Ilsle (before this Alvanic the Saxon). It had two manors, two churches and two parishes. In the Norman to late Tudor period the manors appeared separate. In 1616 they had become one and all the land passed from the Mompessons to Sir Gilbert Prynne of Allington. It was not until a local Government Order of 1844 that the parishes of Biddestone and Slaughterford were amalgamated. Matilda gave the Church tithes of Biddestone St Nicholas to the Priory of Monkton Farleigh which also held the Slaughterford tithes. In 1316 Edmund Gascelyn of Sheldon held the Manor but not the priory lands. He sold it to Lord Hungerford who was executed by Henry VIII and the property was confiscated. In 1536 after the Dissolution all rights were held by the Crown and it was then sold to William Mountjoy in 1626. In 1661 Mr Mountjoy made a gutter from the springs and put the water from the streets into a pond. A spring opened near the Manor House which was called the ‘Holy well’. John Cox was Lord of the Manor from 1739-51. He was Warden of Winchester and New College, Oxford. The Methuens acquired Biddestone property in 1785 and Corsham Court holds records of Biddestone from 1511 to 1855." The above was copied from: http://www.biddestonevillage.co.uk/index.php?page=village-history

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