Cross Base - St Editha - Baverstock, Wiltshire - Stone Church Artefacts on Waymarking.com

An ancient, possibly late medieval stone cross base outside St Editha's church, Baverstock.
It consists of a limestone square base with chamfered corners with broach stops. It is Grade II listed.

"In 968 the Saxon King Edgar, gave 300 acres of land at Baverstock to the Abbey of Wilton. A strong link between Baverstock and Wilton Abbey lasted until the dissolution of the monasteries in the 16th century. This came about when in 960 the king visited Wilton Abbey and was so taken with a young nun called Wulfthryth that he took her back to his manor house in Kent where a daughter, Edith, was born in 961. Eventually she and her mother returned to Wilton Abbey, where Wulfthryth became abbess. Edith led a saintly life building a church in Wilton before she died in her early twenties. Her tomb in the abbey became a place of pilgrimage. The church in Baverstock is dedicated to St Edith and is one of only two in England with such a dedication.

Archaeological evidence suggests that there was at one time a larger church on the site of the present day building. The nave and tower of the modern church were built in the mid 15th century. It is a plain building with a porch on the south side. Inside there is a font of the same period as the main church. On either side of the altar are four flat stones with full length crosses incised into them. One of the stones has a barely readable inscription to a Willoughby child who died in 1611. In 1551 Christopher Willoughby, (a nephew of Cecilia Willoughby, one of the last abbesses of Wilton before the dissolution of the monasteries) was the first lay patron of the church and is described as Lord of the Manor of Baverstock. Fifty or so years later another Christopher Willoughby was instituted as Rector of Baverstock. Links with the Willoughby family continued with John Willoughby building the Jacobean manor house in the 17th century. These links with the Willoughby family came to an end in 1649, the same year that King Charles I was executed.

Baverstock was a hamlet in a favourable position. On the northern boundary of the parish lies Grovely Wood, providing timber for the villagers, fine quality hazel nuts in autumn, and shelter from the north wind. Here roughly marking the parish boundary is a Roman road leading from Old Sarum to the lead mines in the Mendips. Towards the southern boundary are south facing cultivated fields and the water meadows."

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Relevant Website: [Web Link] Approximate Age of Artefact: Not listed

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