St Peter's Church

As this is a sort-of landmark off the road, and I had plenty of time, I cycled in. The size of it surprised me: I'd always assumed it was tiny, but it's a town-sized church which is rather off the beaten track. The covered entrance features a mini-library of historical information, covering not only the history of the building, but of surrounding churches and Langley Burrell village. There was an amazing engraved copper plate which someone outrageously vandalised by scratching, so I've retouched the photo I took of it. The main interior part of the church was locked, but I was able to take photos through the windows, and it looks interesting and well cared-for. The building has curious oddities like a sunken full-sized arched window, used to display a carving of a tomb, doubling as a shaded bench, although it's unclear which if the latter suggested use is intentional or not. It's also unclear whether it's the result of the window sinking (or possibly the ground rising) over the centuries, or a later addition. There's another full-sized arched window immediately (and abruptly) on top of it, this one traditionally glazed: The styling is careless/bizarre, but it's certainly impressive structurally. The lower window's decoration has pronounced erosion, suggesting it's much older, but then again it's casual placement suggests reclamation from another site. The supporting structure of the arch proper, looks much sturdier. A friend with a medieval house once summarised construction from the period as, "Built by idiots in a hurry." This actually explains a lot, as the majority of them fell down, leaving only the "lucky" ones surviving today. There's a well-tended graveyard and quite a large gravel carpark, as it is set back from the road. This makes it very peaceful, as it's quite some distance from the nearest houses. Its immediate grounds also contain a mini-woodland, providing lots of shade, and it shares lawnlike grounds with a manor-like house, although the connecting path is marked as private. It's an oddity on my doorstep: There are a lot of facilities with strong connections to friends, this close to Chippenham, but this is somewhat unique. Even though there is a sort of connection through it being administered as part of a local group of churches, one ofwhich (St Nicholas' Chapel) is within Chippenham proper, I haven't visited this one before. In the carpark, there's another curiosity: A carved tree stump, bearing the legend, "Adveniat regnum tuum", which is the Latin equivalent of "Thy kingdom come", or rather something like "Eventually, your kingdom". You can determine it's all carved from one block in-situ, as the tree rings and cracks in the wood are continuous with the sculpture.
Aug 20th, 2022

Great little church
Aug 31st, 2019

Jun 9th, 2019

Lovely little ancient church in Langley Burrell.
Aug 25th, 2018

Very beautiful church, friendly people.
Jun 26th, 2016