Visited by the Society im 1890. 275 
soon after which it was purchased by one of the Nicholas family. 
It is now the property of Lord Ashburton, in whom the advowson 
is also vested. 
There seems to be some doubt as to the dedication of the Church, 
which Sir Thomas Philips gives, in 1492, as All Saints, but a vague 
tradition assigns the honour of the dedication to St. Anne, the 
mother of the Blessed Virgin, after whom the adjacent hill, now 
ealled “ Tanhill,” the highest point in the County of Wilts, is said 
to have been named, and in support of this it may be mentioned 
that the old dedication feast of the village, which was probably the 
forerunner of the great fair held on this hill, has always been held 
on St. Anne’s day (August 6th). 
There can be no doubt that a Norman Church, of the usual 
cruciform plan, existed here before the present structure, but only 
the south-west and north-east piers of the central tower remain, 
their caps being about 6ft. from the floor. The Norman tower was 
larger than the later structure, for the piers of the latter are built 
inside the older ones. It is fortunate that we have piers of opposite 
angles remaining, as they give us the plan and dimensions of the 
Norman tower. 
The re-building of the nave took place at about the middle of the 
fourteenth century—the arcades of three bays each with cylindrical 
pillars and arches of two orders of the cavetto moulding, are of this 
period. It will be seen that one of the pillars on the north side 
has a square base—the rest having octagonal. Some parts of the 
Church had been re-built some sixty years before this, as the doorway 
of the north porch dates from the end of the thirteenth century, 
though it is at present built in with later walls. 
Early in the fifteenth century a re-modelling of the parts about 
the crossing took place. The Norman transepts were taken down 
and, with the lower part of the tower, re-built—with the exception 
of the north-east and south-west piers before referred to. ‘The 
south transept was probably built as a chantry chapel, as there is a 
coeval piscina in the south wall; and the curious corbel over the 
jamb of the arch leading into the south aisle appears to suggest 
there having been an altar there also. The north transept has the 
