samedi 15 janvier 2005

More Scenes from Wiltshire Bishop's Cannings It would be easy to pass by Bishop's Cannings, just off the old Bath to London coach-road between Devizes and Silbury Hill, were it not for the church steeple of St. Mary the Virgin prominent above the surrounding trees and undulating downland. The church is a fine example of the Early English style... its size and grandeur in this diminutive village due to its location on the Bishop of Salisbury's estate. The Doomsday Book reference to the village names it Cainingham... the ham or hamlet attached to nearby All Cannings. In the 11th century the Bishop of Sarum was the chief tenant and the village name was subsequently recorded as Canyng Episcopi (1294), Canygges Bishop's (1296), Bisshopescanyngges (1314) and Bishops Canynges (1491). However, the only physical evidence of the Bishop's palace is a grassy ditch supposed to have been a moat and now surrounding a field. Update 15 June 2007 : This article has been moved and can now be read on my new expanded web site 20/20 Visions 6:39:57 PM    comment []