Dauntsey

Dauntsey
19th-century school and almshouses, Dauntsey
Dauntsey Location within Wiltshire
Population	581 (in 2011)[1]
OS grid reference	ST993819
Unitary authority	Wiltshire
Ceremonial county	Wiltshire
Region	South West
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	CHIPPENHAM
Postcode district	SN15
Dialling code	01249 01666
Police	Wiltshire
Fire	Dorset and Wiltshire
Ambulance	South Western
UK Parliament	North Wiltshire
Website	Parish Council
List of places UK England Wiltshire 51°32′10″N 2°00′40″W / 51.536°N 2.011°W / 51.536; -2.011

Dauntsey is a small village and

Today, the parish is split by the

History

Dauntsey Park House, north of the church and overlooking the Avon, has a 14th-century core; it was remodelled in the late 17th or early 18th, and again c. 1800. The house is a Grade II* listed building.^[4] To the north, on the road to Little Somerford, are Home Idover Farmhouse (late 18th) and Idover Demesne Farmhouse (early 19th, a remodelling of an earlier building).^[5][6]

Sir Henry Danvers left land for a school and almshouse, together with further land to provide an income to maintain the school, in his will of 1645. The school was built c. 1667 and continued in use until the mid 19th century when it was replaced by a National School, built 1864–66.^[7][8]

Descent of the manor

Dauntsey family

The family which took its name from the manor of Dauntsey is said by Macnamara^[9] to have originally been called "Oldstock", which he deduced from its Latinised name Vetus Ceppus in early charters. Ceppus or Cippus signifies in mediaeval Latin "stocks" in which a felon's legs and feet were locked.

Stradling

The oldest memorial in the church is that of Joan Dauntesey who died c. 1455 and her third husband John Dewale

"Pardon, for 40 marks paid in the hanaper, to John Stradlyng, chivaler, and Joan late the wife of Maurice Russell, chivaler, tenant in chief, of their trespass in intermarrying without licence."

Thereupon commenced the Stradling family of Wiltshire. In 1428 a feudal aid was assessed on John Stradling for the manor of Dauntsey in the hundred of Malmesbury. He was then also lord of the manors of Smethcote and Castle Combe. Unexpectedly, during her marriage to Stradling, Joan inherited the entire Dauntsey patrimony, on the early death without progeny of her brother Sir Walter Dauntsey.

Joan outlived Stradling and married, thirdly, John Dewale, with whom she is buried, as is witnessed by an alabaster slab in front of the high altar in St James's Church, showing the couple life size, he being dressed in full armour. Around the margin of the slab runs a much obliterated inscription:

Hic jacet Johannes Dewale armiger et Domina Johanna uxor eius quondam uxor Domini Mauricii Russel militis qui quondam Johannes Dewale obiit mense...die ultimo MCCCC...III. Et prefata Johanna obiit in primo die anno Dom....Quorum (aiabus p'pcietur ?) Deus. Amen

In English:

"Here lies John Dewale, esquire, and Dame Joan his wife once wife of Maurice Russell, knight, which said John Dewale died in the month...on the last day (of) 14...3. And the aforesaid Joan died on the first day A.D....Of whom (may God spare their souls?). Amen"

Above her head are the armorials of Dauntsey, severely worn away, and above Dewale's head is his shield of arms on which only a chevron can now be seen.^[13] Dauntsey folklore relates that the parish priest named Cuthbert murdered Edward, the last male member of the Stradling family.^[11] The murder was caught^{[clarification needed]} on the evidence of a kitchen boy who had hidden himself in an oven and was an eyewitness.^[11] Cuthbert was said to have starved to death hanging in a cage from a tree in the gardens. ^[11]

Danvers

Edward Stradling's sister Anne married Sir John Danvers and so introduced the Danvers family to Dauntsey. To the north of the chancel is the tomb of Sir John and Lady Anne. Above the tomb are fragments of a stained glass window with Sir John and his wife kneeling with their sons and daughters. Anne outlived her husband by 25 years, and had a canopied tomb built for herself on the south wall of the chancel. To the north of the chancel stands the chapel that houses the marble tomb of

As a result, the estate and church were forfeited to the Crown. In 1690 they were granted to the Mordaunt family, whose name is linked with Charles Mordaunt, Earl of Peterborough. The arms of the Earl can be seen above the South door.[11]

Meux

In the 1890s, Sir Henry and Lady Meux occupied the house and Lady Meux left her mark on the church by removing an old stained glass window and replacing it with another in memory of Sir Henry Meux.^[11]

St James the Great Church

The parish church, on the edge of the village, can be dated back to 1177 when Malmesbury Abbey claimed it; in 1263 it was given to the Lord of Dauntsey Park House.^[2] In the 14th century the nave, north and south aisles were added. The bell tower (1620) and north-east chapel (1656) were built for the first Earl of Danby and family.^[14] By 1763 it was dedicated to St James the Great.^[2]

There are many historical features in the church, from dates etched into pews by bored youngsters to the medieval doom board,^[15] the prime historical feature – one of only five painted wooden tympanums in the country.^[11] It is above the rood screen, with Christ in the centre of the top. The two characters under Jesus are John and Mary the mother of Jesus; these have been painted over in the past by residents of the manor house who had themselves put into the painting. To the right are Adam and Eve being cast out of the Garden of Eden by St Michael wielding his sword. At the bottom left are the dead in their shrouds; some have discarded their shrouds and are on their way to St Peter's gate and the others are headed for the yaws^{[clarification needed]} of the Devil, depicted as a fire-breathing monster at the bottom right. The painting was designed to put the fear of God into all who looked upon it. This is the third paint scheme of the tympanum. Prior paint schemes did not display the Last Days; rather, they likely reflect the religious attitudes of the local lords.^[16]

The tower has five bells, of which three are from the 17th century.^[17] The First World War memorial window at the east end of the south aisle was designed and made by Kempe and Tower, whose trademark, a black tower above a golden garb or wheatsheaf, can be seen on the bottom left of the window.^[11]

The church is a

The Wilts & Berks Canal was built across the south of the parish c. 1801. Traffic declined after the railway was built and was minimal by the end of the century; the canal was formally abandoned in 1914.^[2]

The

The road through Dauntsey Lock, linking Chippenham with Lyneham and Royal Wootton Bassett, was formerly the A420 which was a main route from Bristol to Swindon and Oxford. After the opening of the M4 motorway (completed in 1971)^[2] this section was reclassified as the B4069.

Amenities

The primary school amalgamated in 1992 with the school at Brinkworth, to form Brinkworth Earl Danby's CE VC Primary School.^[7]

The only pub in the parish, the Peterborough Arms at Dauntsey Lock, closed in 2013 and was bought in 2014 by the Wilts & Berks Canal Trust for use as offices and a community centre.^[21] The building dates from the early 19th century.^[22]

Sources

• "Stradling family of Glamorganshire". Dictionary of Welsh Biography. National Library of Wales.
• Histed, Lucy. A Guide to St James the Great, Dauntsey, c. 2007 (Booklet in church)
• Macnamara, Francis Nottige (1895). Memorials of the Danvers family (of Dauntsey and Culworth). London: Hardy & Page. Retrieved 29 May 2016.
• Plumtree, James. 'The earlier paint schemes and possible contexts of the Dauntsey Doom'. Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine 107 (2014): 156–162. [1]

References