Crudwell

The Domesday Book of 1086 recorded a large population of 107 households at Crudwell, and smaller settlements at Chelworth and Chedglow. Most of the parish belonged to Malmesbury Abbey's Brokenborough estate, which in the 13th century had a farmstead with a fishpond and a chapel. Manor Farm, east of the church, is probably from the 17th century, with additions in the 18th. The old rectory, now a hotel, is from the early 18th century, altered in the late 19th. A school was founded at Crudwell in the 17th century by Lord Lucas. The schoolroom and schoolhouse of 1670 survive in residential use, south-west of the church. A new school was built in 1857, alongside the older buildings, became a…