Edington, Wiltshire

Description
Edington, a tithing and parish in Wilts. The tithing lies 3 1/4 miles NE by E of Westbury town and station, on the G.W.R., and has a post office under Westbury ; money order and telegraph office, Bratton. The parish contains also the tithings of West Coulston, Baynton, and Tinhead. Acreage, 5765 ; population, 846. The manor belonged, after the Reformation, to the first Marquis of Winchester, passed to the Dukes of Bolton, and belongs now to the Taylor family. A collegiate church was built here in 1347 by William de Edington, a native of this parish and Bishop of Winchester, to which was attached a monastery of Bonhommes, founded by Edward the Black Prince, and given at the dissolution to Sir Thomas Seymour. A palace of the bishops of Salisbury also stood here, but it was plundered and destroyed by Jack Cade's mob in 1460, and Bishop Ayscough, who was then in the church performing mass, was dragged out and put to death. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Salisbury; value, £160 with residence. The church, built by Bishop Edington, has a cruciform plan, forms an interesting specimen of transition architecture from Decorated English to Perpendicular, and contains a monument of Sir Simon Taylor by Chantrey, and some ancient monuments and brasses, and a fine rood screen. The building was thoroughly restored in 1892 at a cost of £7000.