Grafton, Wiltshire

Grafton is a civil parish in Wiltshire, England, in the Vale of Pewsey about 7 miles (11 km) southeast of Marlborough.

Wilton Water was created by damming a spring-fed valley as a reservoir for the summit pound of the canal.

In 1905, owing to traffic for army camps on Salisbury Plain, the two lines were linked by the Grafton Curve and a bridge over the canal.

[16] The style is called "thoroughly Norman" by Pevsner;[17] in limestone ashlar and square rubble, it has a matching lychgate.

[18] The tall five-bay nave has aisles and a clerestory, and the short apsed chancel is described in Orbach's revision of the Pevsner volume as "boldly modelled with much shafting, and painted decoration".

[20] The listing states that "the whole is a triumph of a normally difficult revival style, and significant in its evolution" and notes that the design is said to be based on the 12th-century Église Saint-Pierre [fr], Thaon, Normandy.

[21] A chapelry district was assigned to the new church in the year of its consecration, 1844, made from the southern part of Great Bedwyn parish.

The district boundary was drawn along the canal in the north-west and through Wilton in the north-east, thus including West Grafton, Marten and Wexcombe.

A National School was opened at East Grafton in 1846 and improved in the 20th century; it closed in 2011 owing to falling pupil numbers.

[29] Julian Orbach describes Wilton as "a pretty hamlet of thatched houses in timber frame and brick".

Crofton Pumping Station, which supplies the Kennet and Avon Canal and has a 200-year-old beam engine, is just beyond the northern boundary of the parish.

St Nicholas' Church