Sherston Magna

"SHERSTON MAGNA, a parish in a detached portion of the hundred of Chippenham, county Wilts, 5½ miles S.W. of Malmesbury, its post town, and about the same distance from Tetbury. The village, which is extensive, is situated on an eminence near the river Avon, formed by the junction of two small streams. The inhabitants are chiefly agricultural. It was anciently a Roman station on the Consular Way, and was called by the Saxons Sceorstan. A battle was fought here in 1016, in which Edmund Ironside defeated Canute the Great. In the vicinity are a camp and fragments of three boundary crosses. Roman coins have been discovered, and at the rear of the village is a deep well, supposed to be of Roman origin.

The surface is generally level, and the soil of various qualities. There is a considerable extent of waste land. The great tithes have been commuted for a rent-charge of £250, besides a glebe of 288 acres, and the vicarial tithes for a rent-charge of £100. The living is a vicarage* with the rectory of Sheraton Parva and the curacy of Alderton united, in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol, value £150, in the patronage of the Dean and Chapter of Gloucester. The church, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, is a cruciform structure, with a square tower rising from the centre and containing five bells. The parochial charities produce about £13 per annum. There are National, British, and infant schools. The Independents, Primitive Methodists, and Baptists have each places of worship. W. H. Cresswell, Esq., is lord of the manor."

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

Sherston Magna is 6 miles SW of Malmesbury. The parish includes Sherston Parva or Sherston Pinkney. Grid Ref ST854860. Postcode SN16 0LR. Population 1,361 in 1831, 1,310 in 1951.