Edington, Wiltshire

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This article is about the English settlement known as Tinhead. For the Sega Mega Drive video game of the same name, see Tinhead (video game).
Coordinates: 51°16′37″N 2°06′22″W / 51.277°N 02.106°W / 51.277; -02.106
Edington

Priory church (St Mary, St Katherine and All Saints)
Edington

 Edington shown within Wiltshire
Population 769 (as of 2001)
OS grid reference ST926532
Unitary authority Wiltshire
Ceremonial county Wiltshire
Region South West
Country England
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Post town WESTBURY
Postcode district BA13
Dialling code 01380
Police Wiltshire
Fire Wiltshire
Ambulance Great Western
EU Parliament South West England
List of places
UK
England
Wiltshire

Edington is a small village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, about five miles east of Westbury.

The parish includes two principal settlements, Edington village and Tinhead, which lies between the main village and Coulston and contains the parish's only surviving public house, The Three Daggers. However, many recent residents no longer make a distinction between the two settlements, calling both ‘Edington’.

History

The parish was part of the hundred of Whorwellsdown, and is believed to hold a place in English history, for it was probably here that King Alfred the Great won a decisive battle against the Danes at the Battle of Ethandun, thus saving the foundations of England.

In the year 957 the Witenagemot, or King's Council, met at Edington.[1]

The origin of the parish church, Edington Priory, is that it formed part of a monastery of the Brothers of Penitence, or Bonshommes. Until the Dissolution of the Monasteries, much of Edington was the manor of ‘Edington Romsey’, a property of Romsey Abbey.

Two miles away is the Westbury White Horse, a famous chalk figure on the side of Westbury Hill first recorded in the 18th century, which is visible from Westbury and much of western Wiltshire, although not from Edington.

William Gullick, the man who designed the New South Wales Coat of Arms, was baptised here in 1858.[2]

The population of the parish of Edington was 834 at the census of 1801 and 1,136 in 1841. It had fallen back to 714 in 1931. In 1951 it was down to 579, partly due to the civil parish having been reduced in area in 1934, with the hamlet of West Coulston being united with East Coulston.[3]

Amenities

The village is some six miles from the county town of Trowbridge, which, with Devizes and Westbury, is a convenient local shopping centre.

It has a village common. There is one public house. The medieval parish church is the home of the nationally famous annual Edington Music Festival.

Many children from Edington go to the primary school in the neighbouring village of Bratton. Secondary school options include Trowbridge, Lavington, and Matravers School at Westbury.

See also

References

  1. ↑ A History of the County of Wiltshire, vol. 2, p. 9
  2. ↑ William Gullick, heritage.nsw.gov.au, accessed 31 December 2010
  3. ↑ 'Edington', in A History of the County of Wiltshire: Volume 8: Warminster, Westbury and Whorwellsdown Hundreds (1965), pp. 239-250, accessed 15 February 2012

External links

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