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A Sketch of the History of the Parish of 
Hroad Chalke, délilts. 
—=GHE parish of Broad Chalke is situate in the hundred of 
Chalke, in the southern division of the county of Wilts. 
It is rather more than seven miles from Salisbury, over five from 
Wilton, and over four from Dinton, the nearest railway and telegraph 
station. A “ bench mark” on the Church porch is 278°9 feet above 
mean sea level. The name is obviously derived from the situation 
of the village in the broad open valley of the chalk. The Chalke 
stream, or Ebele, which rises near Berwick St. John, flows through 
the village; a tributary of this stream has its source at Knowle 
Green, Bower Chalke; the Ebele falls into the Avon near Nunton. 
The parish is in shape a narrow parallelogram, about four miles 
long by two and a half broad, and contains six thousand seven 
hundred and sixty-five acres, being one of the largest parishes in 
extent in South Wilts. The population at the last census (1891) 
was six hundred and sixty-one. ee 
The far greater part of the lands forming the hundred of Chalke 
was granted in the year 955 by the Saxon King Eadwic to the 
Abbess of the Benedictine Monastery at Wilton, under the name of 
Ceoleum. The lands so granted comprised the parishes of Broad 
Chalke, Bower Chalke, Alvediston, Berwick St. John, and Semley. 
The remaining part of the hundred was made up of the parishes of 
Ebbesborne Wake, Fifield Bavant, and Tollard Royal. The ten 
*tithings” when first formed by King Alfred, were Semley, Berwick 
St. John, Alvediston, Ebbesborne, Fifield, Gerardstone, Knighton, 
Stoke Verdon, Chalke, and Tollard Royal. 
In Domesday Book the two parishes of Broad Chalke and Bower 
Chalke are surveyed under the name of Chelche. 
In addition to Broad Chalke proper the parish comprises four 
‘d 
