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update population, rewrite governance

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{{Short description|Village in Wiltshire, England}}
{{For|other Wiltshire places named Charlton|Charlton, Wiltshire (disambiguation)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2019}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2019}}
{{Infobox UK place
| country = England
| static_image_name = Charlton St Peter, Wiltshire, St Peter's Church - geograph.org.uk - 132148.jpg
| static_image_caption = St Peter's Church
| coordinates = {{coord|51.303|-1.833|type:city(100)_region:GB-WIL|display=inline,title}}
| official_name = Charlton St Peter
| population = 79
| population_ref = (Parish, 2021)<ref name=2021census>{{cite web |title=2021 Census Parish Profiles |url=https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/sources/census_2021_pp |website=NOMIS |publisher=Office for National Statistics |access-date=31 March 2025}} (To get individual parish data, use the query function on table PP002.)</ref>
| civil_parish = Charlton St Peter
| unitary_england = [[Wiltshire Council|Wiltshire]]
| lieutenancy_england = [[Wiltshire]]
| region = South West England
| constituency_westminster = [[East Wiltshire (UK Parliament constituency)|East Wiltshire]]
| post_town = Pewsey
| postcode_district = SN9
| postcode_area = SN
| dial_code = 01980
| os_grid_reference = SU117560
| website = {{URL|https://www.cspw.org.uk/|Parish Council}}
}}

'''Charlton St Peter''' or just '''Charlton''' is a small village and [[civil parish]] in the [[Vale of Pewsey]] in the English county of [[Wiltshire]]. The village lies about {{convert|4|mi|km|0}} south-west of [[Pewsey]]. At the [[2021–2022 United Kingdom censuses|2021 census]] the parish had a population of 79. It shares a [[grouped parish council]] with the neighbouring parish of [[Wilsford, Wiltshire|Wilsford]].

The village is in the north of the parish, between the [[River Avon, Hampshire|River Avon]] and the [[Devizes]]-[[Upavon]] road, the [[A342 road|A342]]. To the south the parish extends onto [[Salisbury Plain]].<ref>{{cite web|website=Wiltshire Community History|title=Charlton (Vale of Pewsey)|url=https://apps.wiltshire.gov.uk/communityhistory/Community/Index/49|publisher=Wiltshire Council|access-date=23 March 2016}}</ref>

== Parish church ==
The [[Church of England]] [[parish church]] of St Peter was largely rebuilt by [[John Loughborough Pearson|J.L. Pearson]] in 1858. Fragments of a 12-century building survive, and the tower is from the 15th or 16th centuries. The north [[chantry]] chapel, c. 1523, is in memory of William and Marion Chaucey. In 1964 the church was designated as [[Listed building#Categories of listed building|Grade II* listed]].<ref>{{National Heritage List for England|num=1365532|desc=Church of St. Peter|access-date=23 March 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|website=Wiltshire Community History|title=Church of St. Peter, Charlton|url=https://apps.wiltshire.gov.uk/communityhistory/Church/Details/1529|publisher=Wiltshire Council|access-date=23 March 2016}}</ref>

The first record of a vicar at Charlton is from 1306, and by that time the church had been appropriated by the nearby Upavon Priory;<ref name="vch">{{cite web|website=British History Online|title=Victoria County History - Wiltshire - Vol 10 pp33-40 - Parishes: Charlton|editor-first=D.A.|editor-last=Crowley|url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/wilts/vol10/pp33-40|publisher=University of London|access-date=23 March 2016}}</ref> in 1423 Upavon and Charlton were granted to the [[Augustinians|Augustinian]] canons of [[Ivychurch Priory]], south-east of Salisbury, who held them until the [[Dissolution of the Monasteries|Dissolution]].<ref name="vch2">{{Cite book|url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/wilts/vol3/pp396-397|title=A History of the County of Wiltshire: Volume 3|date=1956|publisher=University of London|editor1-last=Pugh|editor1-first=R.B.|location=London|chapter=Alien houses: Priory of Upavon|access-date=25 August 2020|editor2-last=Crittall|editor2-first=Elizabeth|via=British History Online}}</ref> Today the parish is served by the Vale of Pewsey team ministry.<ref>{{cite web|title=St Peter, Charlton Saint Peter|website=Vale of Pewsey Team|url=http://www.valeofpewsey.org/churches/charlton.html|access-date=23 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160402191306/http://www.valeofpewsey.org/churches/charlton.html|archive-date=2 April 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref>
[[File:Post-Medieval coin , Half Guinea of George II (FindID 267137).jpg|thumb|right|A gold [[guinea (coin)|half-guinea]] coin of [[George II of Great Britain|George II]], minted in 1738 and found in Charlton in 2009<ref>{{cite web |url= https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/267137 |title= Finds record for: WILT-40CC44 |author= Hinds, K |access-date= 28 August 2022 |publisher= The Portable Antiquities Scheme}}</ref>]]

==Governance==
There are two tiers of local government covering Charlton St Peter, at [[Parish council (England)|parish]] and [[Unitary authorities of England|unitary authority]] level: Charlton St Peter and Wilsford Joint Parish Council, and [[Wiltshire Council]]. The parish council is a [[grouped parish council]], also covering the neighbouring parish of [[Wilsford, Wiltshire|Wilsford]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Charlton St Peter and Wilsford Joint Parish Council |url=https://www.cspw.org.uk/ |access-date=10 October 2025}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite web |date=October 2022 |title=Community Governance Review 2021/22: Final Recommendations of the Electoral Review Committee |url=https://cms.wiltshire.gov.uk/documents/s208706/FInal%20Recommendations%20of%20the%20Community%20Governance%20Review.pdf |access-date=16 March 2023 |website=Wiltshire Council |pages=7–8}}</ref>

On 1 July 2022 the parish was renamed from "Charlton" to "Charlton St Peter".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ukbmd.org.uk/reg/districts/wiltshire.html|title=Wiltshire Registration District|publisher=UKBMD|access-date=5 July 2023}}</ref>

==Traditions==
[[File:The Charlton Cat - geograph.org.uk - 87745.jpg|thumb|The ''Charlton Cat'' in 2005. This building dates from about 1821, a replacement for an eighteenth-century alehouse.<ref name="vch" />]]
The village [[inn]] is the ''Charlton Cat'', "a solitary little inn at the foot of the downs".<ref name="AGB" /> This establishment was originally called the Red Lion, later the Poores Arms after [[Edward Poore]], lord of the nearby manor of [[Rushall, Wiltshire|Rushall]] in the eighteenth century, but the villagers had long known it as ''The Cat'', from the ill-painted lion of the original sign. This name was formally adopted in 1921.<ref>{{cite journal|year=2006|title=The Poores Arms at Charlton|journal=[[Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine]]|publisher=Wiltshire Archaeological & Natural History Society|location=Devizes|volume=99|page=226}}</ref><ref name="vch" />

Charlton and the neighbouring village of Rushall hold an annual village cricket match each year in June. It used to be played in each village alternately, but in recent years since the Village Lunch has been established in Rushall Village Hall, the match has been played in a field behind the Old Barns. In the last few years a tug-of-war competition has been started, only seriously between the men for the trophy, but there are a women's and children's tug-of-war as well.

==Notable people==
[[Stephen Duck]], 18th-century poet, was born here and the grave of his wife Mary is in the churchyard. The "Duck Feast", held annually at the Charlton Cat in the first week of June, commemorates his life and work. The cost is met from the rent of "Duck's Acre", a field in Rushall donated for the purpose by [[Henry Temple, 1st Viscount Palmerston|Lord Palmerston]].<ref name=AGB>{{cite book|last=Bradley|first=Arthur Granville|authorlink=Arthur Granville Bradley|title=Round About Wiltshire|year=1907|publisher=Methuen|location=London|pages=34–5|oclc=4256175}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://apps.wiltshire.gov.uk/communityhistory/Question/Details/39|title=What is the Duck Feast in the village of Charlton in the Vale of Pewsey?|date=December 2002|work=Wiltshire Community History|access-date=19 April 2011}}</ref><ref>{{Cite ODNB|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/27110|last=Courtney|first=W. P.|title=Temple, Henry, first Viscount Palmerston|date=19 May 2011|orig-date=23 September 2004}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
*{{cite book |last1=Pevsner |first1=Nikolaus |authorlink1=Nikolaus Pevsner |last2=Cherry |first2=Bridget (revision) |title=[[Pevsner Architectural Guides#Buildings of England|The Buildings of England]]: Wiltshire |year=1975 |publisher=[[Penguin Books]] |location=Harmondsworth |isbn=0-14-0710-26-4 |page=164}}

==External links==
{{Commons category-inline}}
* [https://www.cspw.org.uk/ Charlton St Peter & Wilsford Parish Council]

{{authority control}}

[[Category:Villages in Wiltshire]]
[[Category:Civil parishes in Wiltshire]]

Charlton St Peter - Revision history

imported>Stortford: update population, rewrite governance