Church Of St Mary

Church of St Mary, Wilton

This Grade II* listed building is a part-surviving medieval church, much rebuilt around 1845 as a small chapel when the rest of the structure was reduced to ruins. The building was restored in 1938-9.

The church is constructed of local ashlar limestone mixed with some rubble, with a clay tiled roof. It comprises a rectangular two-bay chapel with attached ruins of medieval nave arcades and west wall.

The west wall dates entirely from around 1845 and features a simple Gothic arched entrance without mouldings, flanked by a tall two-light Perpendicular style window on each side. These windows have square heads and hood moulds. The stonework of the door and windows was probably salvaged from the demolished parts of the building. Above the west door stands a statue of Robert Bingham, who was consecrated as Bishop in 1229 and founded the new city of Salisbury. This statue was erected during the 1938-9 restoration, which was funded by U.S. Ambassador Robert Bingham, who claimed descent from the medieval Bishop.

The north and south walls contain two blocked Perpendicular arches at their western ends, representing the eastern bays of the 15th century nave arcades. To their east are the stubs of the east walls of the aisles, transformed into deep buttresses around 1845. The chancel east wall has a triple lancet window with the centre light higher. It has minimal mouldings and no hoodmould. This window was renewed in 1751, and the current fabric appears consistent with that date.

The interior is plastered and painted, with no windows in the north and south walls. An 18th century moulded arch divides the space at the chancel step. The chancel has a plaster star-groined vault, almost certainly of 1751. It lacks ribs, but the groin lines are decorated with mouldings in the form of husk chains, with a small Rococo rose at the centre. The floor comprises stone flags including some ledger slabs, and black and white chequered marble around the altar.

The principal fixtures include a fine oak communion table with six turned baluster legs. The altar rails feature 18th century style turned balusters and may date from the 1939 restoration; the original altar rails were removed to Wylye church in 1845. The seating comprises small 19th or early 20th century school-style chairs. The north-west window contains stained glass by Harry Stammers, dated 1952. The east window holds two badges and a small Crucifixion, reset and of unknown date. The font was brought here in 1980 from the redundant church of Farrington, Dorset. It is probably Norman, a crudely cut cylindrical form slightly tapered inwards at the bottom, with a thick roll-moulding at the base of the bowl and rough vertical fluting all round above.

The chancel retains a very good collection of monuments from the old church, many dating from the late 18th century Neoclassical or early 19th century Grecian periods. Among the finest is a tablet to the Hetley family of 1829, signed by Osmond of Salisbury, the predominant local monumental mason, who signed many other tablets here. Notable earlier monuments include a small plain tablet with gabled top to Thomas Mell, who died in 1625, mayor of Wilton and servant of the Earls of Pembroke and later of King James I and Charles I. Edmund Philips, who died in 1677 and was described as "sweeper of Burbage and farrier to the Earl of Pembroke", is commemorated by a small but highly decorative tablet with fancy swan-neck pediment and leafy console brackets. An unreadable tablet dating from around 1690 features a large bolection frame, steep broken pediment, and a skull and crossbones at the base. The nave walls carry three painted benefaction boards, gilt on black and probably all dating from around 1840, referring to much earlier bequests.

The grassed churchyard contains some good 18th century chest tombs and low stone kerbs towards North Street and the Market Place. To the south and east are higher boundary walls of stone and 18th century brickwork.

The ruined nave to the west of the chapel is a Scheduled Ancient Monument (WI329). It consists of the south arcade in three broad moulded arches with moulded capitals, probably of the 15th century. The north arcade survives only as short stubs of the piers and east and west responds. Some finely carved capitals, possibly 15th century, have been reset on the piers. The west wall features a large tower arch opening with an ogee stoup in the south jamb. Some Perpendicular tracery appears in the head of the western arch, clearly in a non-original position. This arch could not have been a window before 1845, as the tower stood to its west. The presence of one nave arcade, the resetting of capitals, and this arch are evidence that the ruined nave was deliberately embellished around 1845 to create a Picturesque ruin.

St Mary is almost certainly the Saxon parish church of Wilton, sited next to the market cross (of which the base still exists) at the crossroads at the centre of the town. By the 9th century it had attached to it one of the most important nunneries in Southern England, the later medieval fabric of which became at the Reformation the core of Wilton House. St Mary was rebuilt in the 13th century, by which time Wilton had developed into a major centre with probably eight or nine churches, although Leland reports twelve or more. From the 13th century onwards, Wilton was eclipsed by the growth of Salisbury approximately 3 miles to the east, and the number of churches declined over the following centuries. St Mary was much rebuilt again in the 15th century, perhaps as a result of the merging of churches. By the 16th century all the other churches had disappeared.

Despite some alterations in 1751 to the chancel, the fabric was in considerable disrepair by the early 19th century. In 1841-5 it was superseded by the sumptuous Italianate church of St Mary and St Nicholas, designed by Wyatt & Brandon and built nearby. Whether Wyatt & Brandon were responsible for the subsequent demolition and partial reconstruction of St Mary is not known, though it is possible. The architect of the 1938-9 restoration is not recorded. St Mary was declared redundant in 1972 and transferred to the care of the Churches Conservation Trust in 1977.