Biddestone

"BIDDESTONE, (or Bidstone), a parish, township, and village in the hundred of Chippenham, in the county of Wilts, 4 miles to the W. of Chippenham, its post town, and 18 from Bristol. It formerly constituted two parishes, St. Nicholas and St. Peter, but they are now united for ecclesiastical purposes. The brook called the Wavering flows through the village. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol, value with the curacy of Slaughterford, £102, in the patronage of the Warden and Fellows of Winchester College. The church, dedicated to St. Nicholas, is an ancient structure, and was thoroughly repaired in 1850. It has a monument to Edmund Smith, a poet of some note at the beginning of the 18th century, who died at Hartham House, in this parish. The church of St. Peter has been taken down. There is a chapel belonging to the Baptists, and a National school. The charities amount to £23 per annum. Lord Methuen is lord of the manor."

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