Church Of St Edith Of Wilton

The Church of St Edith of Wilton is an Anglican parish church largely dating to the 14th and 15th centuries, with substantial restoration work carried out between 1880 and 1893 by William Butterfield. It is constructed of dressed limestone with tiled roofs. The church comprises a nave and chancel under a single roof, a west tower, a gabled south porch, a north transept, and a lean-to vestry. The south porch has a Tudor-arched doorway, a scratch dial to the left, and a coped verge with a cross finial. The nave has two 2-light pointed Perpendicular windows with hoodmoulds, and a buttress with offsets. The chancel features two 2-light pointed Perpendicular windows, and the east end includes buttresses, a 2-light C14 window with ogee cusping and a cusped ogee-headed light above. The lean-to vestry has a shouldered, chamfered doorway and two quatrefoils. The north transept, roofed with Welsh slate, incorporates a 3-light Perpendicular window with a hoodmould and a quatrefoil above, alongside an early 19th-century Tudor-arched doorway with a hoodmould. A 2-light pointed Perpendicular window with a hoodmould is found on the north side of the nave. The west tower is three stages with diagonal buttresses. A 2-light C15 square-headed window with cusped lights has been inserted into a blocked doorway, with a single ogee-headed light above. The bellstage features 2-light square-headed louvred windows with cusped lights to the north, west, and south, a cavetto-moulded cornice, and a plain stone parapet with saddleback coping.

The interior of the porch is characterised by an arch-braced collar rafter roof and a plain chamfered round-arched inner doorway with a 19th-century door. A C15 stoup is set in the east wall of the porch to the right of the door, and a tiled inscription frieze records the restoration, paid for by Marianne Charrington. The nave has a four-bay wagon roof, rendered walls with a 19th-century pink and blue tiled dado, and a polychrome tiled floor. The tower arch is closed by a 19th-century timber screen with a crenellated top. A Perpendicular-style screen by Butterfield separates the nave and chancel. The chancel features a 1½-bay panelled vaulted ceiling, a tiled floor and dado, an arched door to the vestry, a piscina, and a one-seat sedilia on the south window sill. A polychrome-tiled reredos is set within stone panels. Medieval coffin lids with relief-carved crosses are set in the floor either side of the altar. Other fittings include pews, a pulpit, and a lectern by Butterfield, and a restored C13 font in the tower. The north transept has early 19th-century box pews and white marble tablets by Osmond of Sarum, commemorating the Powells of Hurdcott House and John Leech of Hurdcott House, who died in 1862. A stained-glass window in the north window is signed by Gibbs and Howard of London, in memory of Alexander Powell who died in 1882. Stained glass in the east window is by Gibbs, and the west window is signed by G.E.R. Smith, in memory of Guy Harding who died in 1944. Monuments in the tower include a marble memorial to Rev. Hitchens who died in 1827, by Osmond of Sarum, and a gothic-style tablet in the nave to Rev. Earle who died in 1839, also by Osmond of Sarum.