204 History of the Parish of Stockton, Wilis. 



timbered building, the remains of a more ancient dwelling. This 

 is an interesting specimen of a very picturesque style of architecture, 

 of which few good examples remain ; and there is a tradition in 

 the parish that it was the original manor house of Stockton. 



The rectory house, a plain brick building, was erected in the 

 year 1790, by the Rev. Henry Good, then Rector. The old par- 

 sonage which stood in the kitchen garden and had fallen to decay, 

 was occupied in two tenements by cottagers when Mr. Good took 

 the living. The house has been much improved in the interior 

 by Mr, St. Barbe, when Rector. The house on the south side of 

 the church, and the farm attached to it, called in the old parish 

 book Mr. Topp's lower farm, was purchased of Mr. Lansdown, 

 who married one of the coheiresses of the Topps, by Mr. John 

 Pinchard, probably about 1754. The cottage on the north side of 

 the churchyard was a small farmhouse, held with a copyhold by 

 Mr. Price the Rector, from whom it went to the Pinchard family, 

 and from them returned to the lord of the manor. On the green 

 before the house, were three ancient lime trees, probably planted 

 by Mr. Price. Two of them were cut down in 1829. The other, 

 which had then become a very large tree, was cut down in Decem- 

 ber, 1842. In the garden was a very large old walnut tree, which 

 was blown down by a gale from the north, April 29th, 1835. The 

 four yew trees on the green before the cottage, were planted by 

 William King, late gardenei> at Stockton house, and cannot be 

 much more than fifty years old. The stone in the centre of the 

 trees, is the base of the village cross. The steps on which it stood 

 were removed within memory. The porch in front of the cottage 

 was built in 1846, to preserve the ancient carving placed over the 

 entrance. It is part of a chimney-piece found at Codford farm- 

 house, when a part of it was taken down and re-built. The arms 

 were those of the Hungerford family, who were in no way con- 

 nected with Codford St. Mary ; and it is not unlikely that this 

 chimney-piece was removed to Codford, when the old mansion 

 house at Heytesbury was destroyed. I learn from Canon Jackson 

 of Leigh Delamere, that the arras on the carved stone of the 

 porch door at the cottage, are — 1. Hungerford, impaling Zouche, 



