Draycot Foliat is an hamlet in Wiltshire, England, on the back road between Chiseldon to the north and Ogbourne St. George to the south. The nearest major town is Swindon which is about 5 miles (8.0 km) north. Besides beautiful views of the Marlborough Downs, there are two farms Sheppard's Farm, and a smaller one Draycot Farm and some small groups of houses.
The Og, a tributary to the Thames flows, for about half of the year, down the centre of the hamlet forcing the road into a sharp hairpin bend. The Og is bridged by an ancient, possibly Saxon, stone bridge.
Draycot Foliat used to have a small Church, and the nearby village of Chiseldon was considered within the Draycot parish however the situation was reversed in 1571 when Edmund Gheast became the Bishop of Sarum (Salisbury) and ordered the church be demolished.[1].
It was ordered, because neither Draycot nor neighbouring Chiseldon were wealthy enough to sustain their own rectors, that the two parishes be merged. Because the Chiseldon parish was larger, it was proposed that the Draycot parish be subsumed by it, and because Chiseldon's church was in a state of disrepair, the Bishop ordered that Draycot's church be demolished and the raw materials used to repair Chiseldon. Tradition has it that the extension to Holy Cross church Chiseldon known as Draycot aisle was constructed from these raw materials. The resulting parish was expected to pay the sum of five Shillings and twelve pence to the Deacon of Wiltshire every Passover. This order was signed, not only by Edmund Gheast, but also by both Edmond Chandoyes and Thomas Chaderton, the patrons of Chiseldon and Draycot and Christopher Dewe, the vicar of Chiseldon.
In some weathers, the outline of the church can still be made out and it appears to have been about seventy-five feet long and twenty wide.[2]
Today, Draycott Foliat is part of the parish of Chiseldon with Draycot Foliat, part of the Ridgeway Benefice in the Marlborough Deanery.
References
- ↑ Order for Annexing Draycott Foliat living to Chiseldon: 1571, The Registry of the Diocese of Salisbury
- ↑ "An Address on Archaeology", F.A. Carrington
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