Ditteridge

Ditteridge
The Church of Saint Christopher, Ditteridge
Ditteridge is located in Wiltshire
Ditteridge
Ditteridge
Location within Wiltshire
OS grid referenceST818694
Civil parish
Unitary authority
Ceremonial county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townCorsham
Postcode districtSN13
Dialling code01225
PoliceWiltshire
FireDorset and Wiltshire
AmbulanceSouth Western
UK Parliament
List of places
UK
England
Wiltshire
51°25′24″N 2°15′49″W / 51.4234°N 2.2636°W / 51.4234; -2.2636

Ditteridge is a village in the civil parish of Box, Wiltshire, England. It is about 0.8 miles (1.3 km) northwest of Box village and 3.5 miles (6 km) west of the town of Corsham. Formerly a larger settlement, it has an early Norman church and had its own civil parish for a time in the 19th century.

History

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The Fosse Way Roman road passes 1.5 miles (2.4 km) west of Ditteridge. Domesday Book in 1086 recorded a small settlement at Digeric with six households and a half share in a mill.[1]

Consisting today of a farm and a handful of houses, the ancient parish of Ditteridge (which included the hamlet of Alcombe) had a larger population, peaking at 119 at the 1851 census.[2] In 1881 the parish had a population of 101.[3] As well as land around the hamlet (mostly to its north), the parish had three detached parts, all within the current Box parish.[4] The civil parish, created in 1837, was combined with Box on 25 March 1884.[2][5]

Cheney Court (or Cheyney Court) is a large 17th-century manor house of two and a half storeys.[6][7] In the late 19th century the author P. G. Wodehouse spent some of his childhood there while his parents lived in Hong Kong, the house being owned by his grandmother and four of his aunts.[8] The Grade II* listed[6] building was used by a language school – part of the Marcus Evans Group – as recently as 2020[9] but was absent from the company's website in January 2022.[10]

At Middlehill, half a mile to the south, a spa was built in 1783 but failed after a few years.[11] Spa House is from that period,[12] and nearby Middlehill House is an 1830s recasing of a mid-18th century building.[13]

From circa 1849 a school was associated with the church; after it closed in the 1880s, children attended the school at Box.

Location

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Ditteridge is about 1.4 miles (2.3 km) east of the Three Shire Stones, which mark the point where the counties of Gloucestershire, Somerset, and Wiltshire meet.

Parish church

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The parish church of St Christopher is described by Orbach as "small and characterful".[11] There is evidence of a Saxon church on the site. The rubble stone nave of the present church dates from c.1100,[14] as evidenced by the south doorway which has carving of unusually high quality.[15] The imposts have a winged dragon and a horse, and masked men's heads; the arch has lyre-shaped leaf motifs and the blank tympanum has a shallow niche, perhaps for a statue. East of the porch is a small Norman arch-headed light.[16]

The chancel was added in the 13th century and has a piscina from the same period. The south porch was built in the 14th century, and changes were made to the windows in the 15th. Restoration in 1859–60 by E. W. Godwin included new roofs, ashlar lining to the north and east walls of the chancel, and an outer arched surround to the doorway. Some stained glass was designed by Godwin[11] and the massive stone pulpit with incised decoration, described by Historic England as "high Victorian", is also his. A north vestry was added in the 20th century.[16]

The stone bowl of the font is Norman although its shaft and base are probably later medieval.[15] The small bellcote above the junction of nave and chancel has a single bell dated c.1599.[17] There are seven Grade II listed monuments in the churchyard.[18]

At some point the benefice was united with Box and Hazelbury, although the parishes remain distinct.[19] Today the parish is part of the Lidbrook Group, which also covers St John's church at Colerne.[20]

War memorial, Ditteridge

References

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  1. ^ Ditteridge in the Domesday Book
  2. ^ a b "Victoria County History – Wiltshire – Vol 4 pp315–361: Table of population, 1801–1951". British History Online. University of London. Retrieved 28 October 2015.
  3. ^ "Population statistics Ditteridge CP/AP through time". A Vision of Britain through Time. Retrieved 2 December 2023.
  4. ^ "Boundary Map of Ditteridge AP/CP". A Vision of Britain through Time. University of Portsmouth. Retrieved 3 February 2022.
  5. ^ "Chippenham Registration District". UKBMD. Retrieved 2 December 2023.
  6. ^ a b Historic England. "Cheney Court, Ditteridge (1285230)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 28 October 2015.
  7. ^ "Image of Cheney Court, Ditteridge, c.1900". Bath In Time. Bath and North East Somerset Council. Retrieved 31 January 2022.
  8. ^ Roderick Easdale, The Novel Life of PG Wodehouse (Andrews Ltd, 2014), p. 40
  9. ^ "Learn Business English in England" (PDF). Marcus Evans Linguarama. December 2019. Retrieved 31 January 2022.
  10. ^ "marcus evans Linguarama". www.linguarama.com. Retrieved 31 January 2022.
  11. ^ a b c Orbach, Julian; Pevsner, Nikolaus; Cherry, Bridget (2021). Wiltshire. The Buildings Of England. New Haven, US and London: Yale University Press. pp. 291–292. ISBN 978-0-300-25120-3. OCLC 1201298091.
  12. ^ Historic England. "Spa House (1022801)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 7 February 2022.
  13. ^ Historic England. "Middlehill House (1363588)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 7 February 2022.
  14. ^ "Church of St. Christopher, Ditteridge, Box". Wiltshire Community History. Wiltshire Council. Retrieved 3 February 2022.
  15. ^ a b "St Christopher, Ditteridge, Wiltshire". The Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland. King's College London. Retrieved 3 February 2022.
  16. ^ a b Historic England. "Church of St Christopher (1285201)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 3 February 2022.
  17. ^ "Ditteridge, S Christopher". Dove's Guide for Church Bell Ringers. Retrieved 3 February 2022.
  18. ^ "Ditteridge: St Christopher (605135)". Church Heritage Record. The Archbishops' Council. Retrieved 3 February 2022.
  19. ^ "St Christopher, Ditteridge". A Church Near You. The Archbishops' Council. Retrieved 3 February 2022.
  20. ^ "Churches". Box Churches. Retrieved 29 January 2022.
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Media related to Ditteridge at Wikimedia Commons

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