Stratton St Margaret

"STRATTON ST. MARGARET, a parish in the hundred of Highworth, county Wilts, 2½ miles N. of Swindon, its post town, and 3½ S. of Highworth. The village is large, and is situated on the ancient Ryknield Street, and on the Wilts and Berks canal. The parish comprises the hamlet of Upper Stratton with Kingsdown, also Highworth union poorhouse. There was formerly an alien priory here, founded in 1066, which at the Dissolution was given by Henry VI. to King's College, Cambridge. The line of the Great Western railway passes through the parish.

The living is a vicarage* in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol, value £216, in the patronage of the Bishop of Salisbury and Merton College, Oxford. The church is dedicated to St. Margaret. The parochial charities produce about £22 per annum, of which £3 go to a school. There is a National school for both sexes, also a public library and reading rooms. The Independents and General and Particular Baptists have chapels, with Sunday-schools adjoining. Kingsdon House is the principal residence. A. Goddard, Esq., is lord of the manor."

[Description(s) from The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868) - Transcribed by Colin Hinson ©2003]

Stratton St Margaret or Stratton is now part of Swindon, 2 miles NE of the town centre. Grid Ref SU179871. Postcode SN3 4YA. Population 924 in 1831, 7,761 in 1951.