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St Mary's Church, South Tidworth

19th-century Church of England church buildingsChurch of England church buildings in WiltshireChurches completed in 1878Churches preserved by the Churches Conservation TrustGothic Revival architecture in Wiltshire
Gothic Revival church buildings in EnglandGrade I listed churches in WiltshireJohn Johnson buildingsRedundant churchesReligious organizations disestablished in 1972Tidworth
St Mary's, South Tidworth
St Mary's, South Tidworth

St Mary's Church in South Tidworth, Wiltshire, England, was built in 1878. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building, and is now a redundant church in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust.The church is built of rock-faced brown stone, in a style described by Historic England as "spectacular Geometrical Gothic". It was designed by John Johnson, with work supervised by G.H. Gordon, for Sir John Kelk. Kelk, an engineer and major building contractor who owned the Tedworth House estate nearby, had previously worked with Johnson on the construction of the Alexandra Palace. St Mary's cost Kelk £12,000. The site is near that of the medieval parish church.The chancel is 28 feet (8.5 m) by 17 feet (5.2 m) and the three by nave 43 feet (13 m) by 17 feet (5.2 m). There are also north and south aisles, a north vestry and a south porch. At the west end is a tall and slender bell turret with a tapering spire, also known as a flèche, above a massive stepped buttress. Nikolaus Pevsner calls the bell tower "perverse and wilful...à la Burges".Pevsner considers the interior "sensational, in scale as in everything else". It includes carvings and polished marble shafts in the columns of the arcade piers. The chancel floor is laid with Italian mosaic. There is also a silver chalice and patens of 1837 and 1877 and a silver-gilt flagon of 1869. The altar and other carved stonework are by Farmer & Brindley. The stained glass is by Clayton and Bell, apart from the east window which was designed by Heaton, Butler and Bayne.Outside the church is an avenue of yew trees, the largest of which has a girth of 7 feet 9 inches (2.36 m).The church was declared redundant on 1 September 1972, and was vested in the Trust on 19 December 1973. Access to the church is restricted after vandalism in 2016.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article St Mary's Church, South Tidworth (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

St Mary's Church, South Tidworth
Salisbury Road,

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N 51.228333333333 ° E -1.6644444444444 °
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Salisbury Road

Salisbury Road
SP9 7HW , Tidworth
England, United Kingdom
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St Mary's, South Tidworth
St Mary's, South Tidworth
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Snoddington
Snoddington

Snoddington is a small hamlet in Hampshire and close to the border of Wiltshire near to Thruxton Aerodrome and first mentioned in the eleventh century in the Domesday Book. The hamlet is surrounded by agricultural downlands and has become part of the South of England urban sprawl being largely inhabited by commuters. Local facilities are limited with no local shop. Likewise the absence of public transport links requires that local inhabitants own at least one vehicle for the purposes of shopping in local supermarkets. The hamlet is part of the parish of Shipton Bellinger where local Church of England worshippers repair to St Peters Parish Church for Sunday services. Snoddington Manor House is first mentioned in Domesday Book and has a long history of occupancy passing through a number of different families. In a "History of Hampshire" a limited history is offered: The manor of SNODDINGTON belonged before the Conquest to Tovi and at the time of the Domesday Survey to Hugh de Port, tenant-in-chief. (fn. 38) It was held in the 13th century of Robert de Pont de L'Arche, lord of Newton Valence, and by him of Robert St. John, a descendant of Hugh de Port. (fn. 39) The overlordship of the St. John family subsequently lapsed, and the manor was held henceforward as of the manor of Newton Valence (q.v.) by suit of court and the service due from the fourth part of a knight's fee. (fn. 40)At the beginning of the 13th century Thomas de Port and Margery de Cundy held jointly of Robert de St. John the fourth part of a knight's fee in Snoddington, (fn. 41) and a century later, in 1305, Gilbert Cundy held the same land, valued at 60s., of Aymer de Valence. (fn. 42) However, before 1316, Snoddington had come into the possession of Ingram Berenger, (fn. 43) lord of Shipton Bellinger, who two years later obtained from Thomas Harengod and Eleanor his wife (fn. 44) a quitclaim of all their rights in two messuages and 2 carucates of land in Snoddington for a rent of £5 during the life of Eleanor. (fn. 45) From this date the manor followed almost exactly the descent of Shipton Bellinger (fn. 46) (q.v.) until 1466, when Robert Bodenham died seised only of the reversion of the manor. This right passed to his infant grandson and heir Richard, son of his son Robert, (fn. 47) who as soon as he came into possession evidently sold the manor, probably to pay his grandfather's debts, to Tristram Fauntleroy, (fn. 48) a younger son of the Dorset family of that name. Tristram died in 1538, leaving a son and heir Brian, (fn. 49) whose son Henry held the manor until his death in 1578. (fn. 50) His heir was his son William, (fn. 51) who evidently died in a few years without issue, since his brother Henry was returned as the heir of his father Henry in 1589. (fn. 52) From this date the descent of the manor is unknown until the beginning of the 18th century, when it was in the possession of Richard Bird. Elizabeth, daughter and heir of Richard, brought Snoddington in marriage to Ralph Etwall of Andover, and the manor continued in the Etwall family until 1885. when Mr. William Etwall sold it to Mr. William H. Alexander. (fn. 53) The latter dying in 1905 devised the manor by will to Mr. H. C. Formby, B.A., J.P., the present owner. (fn. 54)

Battle of the Beanfield

The Battle of the Beanfield took place over several hours on 1 June 1985, when Wiltshire Police prevented The Peace Convoy, a convoy of several hundred New Age travellers, from setting up the 1985 Stonehenge Free Festival in Wiltshire, England. The police were enforcing a High Court injunction obtained by the authorities prohibiting the 1985 festival from taking place. Around 1,300 police officers took part in the operation against approximately 600 travellers.The convoy of travellers heading for Stonehenge encountered a police road block seven miles from the landmark. Police claimed that some traveller vehicles then rammed police vehicles in an attempt to push through the roadblock. Around the same time police smashed the windows of some of the convoy's vehicles and some travellers were arrested. The rest broke into an adjacent field, and a stand-off developed that persisted for several hours. According to the BBC, "Police said they came under attack, being pelted with lumps of wood, stones and even petrol bombs". Conversely, The Observer states the travellers were not armed with petrol bombs and that police intelligence suggesting so "was false".Eventually the police launched another attack during which the worst of the violent police behaviour took place. According to The Observer, during this period pregnant women and those holding babies were clubbed by police with truncheons and the police were hitting "anybody they could reach". When some of the travellers tried to escape by driving away through the fields, The Observer stated that the police threw truncheons, shields, fire extinguishers and stones at them to try to stop them.Dozens of travellers were injured, and 537 travellers were eventually arrested. This represents one of the largest mass arrests of civilians since at least the Second World War, possibly one of the biggest in English legal history.Two years after the event, a Wiltshire police sergeant was found guilty of Actual Bodily Harm as a consequence of injuries incurred by a member of the convoy during the Battle of the Beanfield.In February 1991 a civil court judgement awarded 21 of the travellers £24,000 in damages for false imprisonment, damage to property and wrongful arrest. The award was swallowed by their legal bill as the judge did not award them legal costs.