Tower and Town, March 2022 (view the full edition)St George's PreshuteThe relative isolation of St George's begs the question, "How come there is a church here at all?" The explanation is that Preshute was formerly a very large parish dating back to the Saxon period and serving a widely scattered rural population well before Marlborough and its Norman castle came into being. Even today the parish boundary extends almost to Hackpen and some two miles south-east to the northern part of Savernake Forest. St George's Preshute (Anglo-Saxon for Priest's Cottage) is known to have been rebuilt as a church several times between the 13th and 18th centuries. Except for the 14th century tower the present building dates back to 1854 when it was largely reconstructed in the neo-Gothic style under the aegis of the diocesan architect, Thomas Henry Wyatt. Wyatt did nevertheless manage to incorporate a number of the features of the earlier church, including the font and the pillars along the nave with their different shaped capitals. The massive 12th century font, one of only seven in the country made of black marble from Tournai in the Ardennes, was originally in the Chapel of St Nicholas in Marlborough Castle. Some of King John's family are said to have been baptised in it. It can hold twenty gallons of water, and lends itself to almost total immersion by any vicar minded to recreate a baptism in the River Jordan ! Historic monuments abound in the church. One of the oldest is a brass plaque dated 1518 set into the floor of the south aisle and commemorating John Bailey, the Barton farmer, his wife, seven sons and three daughters. There are also memorial windows and tablets in memory of various members of Marlborough's Maurice dynasty. Commander Thomas Maurice RN is one of 24 war dead whose names are on the stone war memorial in Preshute churchyard. He, with all his ship's company, was killed in a catastrophic ammunition explosion in Chatham Harbour on 27th May 1915. Visitors to St George's can purchase a most interesting booklet on the long history of the church, and are warmly invited to enjoy some of the features unique to Preshute: a wonderfully peaceful rural church and churchyard; the traditional procession around the churchyard on Palm Sunday; the annual alfresco service at the War Memorial on Remembrance Sunday. And then at Christmas there is the spectacular candlelit Carol service which is attended by people from far and wide. St George's Preshute can truly claim to have been a haven for worshippers and passers-by for over a thousand years. Jeremy York |