By the Rev. J. E. JTackson. 43 
some benevolent purpose) called “the Fraternity of St. Katharine,” 
and their altar was endowed with lands and houses. 
The church is dedicated to St. Andrew, and to this the town 
owes its fourth fair. I have already mentioned three fairs as 
granted to the town by charters. For the fourth there was no 
charter, and the reason is this. The fair is now kept on the 11th 
of December. Before the change from Old to New style it used 
to be kept on the 30th of November, and the 30th of November is 
St. Andrew’s day. There is therefore no manner of doubt that 
this fair arose out of the holiday originally kept in observance of 
the Dedication of the church, and that this is therefore the oldest 
fair in Chippenham. 
Tue Tower. 
The common tradition is that it was built by Lord Hungerford, 
lord of the manor in Henry VI. That he did so or helped to do 
it, is very likely, as his coat of arms within the Order of the Garter 
(and he was the only one of the family who was a Knight of that 
Order) is, amongst others, still preserved high up against the 
present belfry. But his Lordship’s tower came long since to an 
untimely end, through the partiality of Chippenham for bell-ringing. 
An old Churchwardens’ book testifies that the townsfolk appear to 
have been ready with a peal for every body. They rang when 
King James I. passed through the town in 1621, and when his son 
the Prince came back safe out of Spain; for my Lord Bishop; for 
all the days of triumph in the year; when Sir John Danvers’s son 
came to town, (he was the son of the lord of the hundred); and for 
the routing of the Scotch: and when Colonel Cromwell came through 
and slept at the White Hart, they not only welcomed him in the 
usual way, but in order to make his evening still more agreeable, 
presented him with two bottles of sack. With so much ringing, 
no wonder the old tower began to quake. A few violent storms 
brought matters to a crisis; so in 1633 they took down and re- 
stored (an old church-book says) tower and spire. This cost £320, 
towards which Sir Francis Popham, then M.P. for the borough, 
gave £40, and as bankers’ checks and penny postages were in 
those days unknown, the town spent 8s. 2d. in sending to Littlecote 
G 2 
