BREMHILL, a parish in the hundred of CHIPPENHAM,
county of WILTS, 4 miles (E.) from Chippenham
containing, with the chapelry of Foxham, 1443 inhabitants.
The living is a vicarage, with the perpetual
curacy of Highway annexed, in the archdeaconry of
Wilts, and diocese of Salisbury, rated in the king's books
at £15.15., and in the patronage of the Bishop of Salisbury.
The church, dedicated to St. Martin, is a venerable
and interesting edifice, with a massive square tower,
adorned with battlements and pinnacles: between the
aisle and the chancel is a handsome and entire roodloft,
beautifully carved; the chancel contains several
monuments, and in the churchyard are numerous epitaphs
written by the present vicar, the Rev. Mr. Bowles,
the poet, who, in 1827, published an historical description
of this parish. He has also partially altered and
embellished the parsonage-house, to assimilate it to the
architectural style of the church, and tastefully disposed
the garden and pleasure grounds. At the hamlet
of Studley, in this parish, was a Roman station, supposed
by Mr. Bowles to have been an outpost to the
more important station of. Verludo, the site of which
has been ascertained, by Sir Richard Colt Hoare, to be
near Wanshouse, about four miles distant: numerous
coins, chiefly struck in the reign of Constantine, and
British earthenware, have been dug up. The Roman
road Watling-street passed through the parish, and in
the vicinity is the course of the ancient rampart Wansdike.
Avebury, a celebrated British temple, supposed
to have been raised in honour of the chief Celtic deity>
Teutates, and Tan-hill and Silbury, two lofty eminences
appropriated to the performance of their pagan rites,
are situated within a short .distance: on Tan-hill a fair
is held, annually on August 6th.. There is a Moravian
establishment at Tytherton, in this parish. Maud Heath,
in 1478, gave land and houses in trust for keeping in
repair an ancient paved footway between Bremhill and
Chippenham, the produce of which being greater than
the outlay, a considerable fund has accumulated. On
the summit of Wick hill is an upright stone bearing an
inscription commemorative of the bequest, and on an
eminence near Chippenham is another, these being the
two extremities of the road. Midway, on the banks of
the Avon; is a more interesting monument, with a sundial,
on the sides of which are monitory inscriptions
in Latin, which have been translated into English verse
by Mr. Bowles. Near the church are the ivy-mantled
remains of a portion of the tenements belonging to the
grange of the abbot of Malmesbury. The ancient mansion
of the Hungerfords here has been converted into a
farm-house.