Charlton St Peter or just Charlton is a small village and civil parish in the Vale of Pewsey in the English county of Wiltshire. The village lies about south-west of Pewsey. At the 2021 census the parish had a population of 79. It shares a grouped parish council with the neighbouring parish of Wilsford.

The village is in the north of the parish, between the River Avon and the Devizes-Upavon road, the A342. To the south the parish extends onto Salisbury Plain.

The name Charlton derives from the Old English ceorltūn meaning 'churl's settlement'.

Parish church

The Church of England parish church of St Peter was largely rebuilt by J.L. Pearson in 1858. Fragments of a 12-century building survive, and the tower is from the 15th or 16th centuries. The north chantry chapel, c. 1523, is in memory of William and Marion Chaucey. In 1964 the church was designated as Grade II* listed.

The first record of a vicar at Charlton is from 1306, and by that time the church had been appropriated by the nearby Upavon Priory; in 1423 Upavon and Charlton were granted to the Augustinian canons of Ivychurch Priory, south-east of Salisbury, who held them until the Dissolution. Today the parish is served by the Vale of Pewsey team ministry.

thumb|right|A gold [[guinea (coin)|half-guinea coin of George II, minted in 1738 and found in Charlton in 2009]]

Governance

There are two tiers of local government covering Charlton St Peter, at parish and unitary authority level: Charlton St Peter and Wilsford Joint Parish Council, and Wiltshire Council. The parish council is a grouped parish council, also covering the neighbouring parish of Wilsford.

On 1 July 2022 the parish was renamed from "Charlton" to "Charlton St Peter".

Traditions

[[File:The Charlton Cat - geograph.org.uk - 87745.jpg|thumb|The Charlton Cat in 2005. This building dates from about 1821, a replacement for an eighteenth-century alehouse.

References

Further reading

  • Charlton St Peter & Wilsford Parish Council