Geograph - photograph every grid square

Opening near the Chancel, this door allowed the priest to enter the church without having to pass through the congregation.

The Church of St John the Baptist, Bishopstone is a Grade I listed ( Link ), cruciform building, originally built in 1225 of rubble stone with flint and dressed limestone. During the 14th century it was extensively rebuilt in Chilmark stone. The first bell was installed in 1406 with two further bells added by 1553, these were replaced successively in 1583, 1587, and 1652. Pevsner in his "The Buildings of England: Wiltshire (1975)" records the building as "an important and large village church, a former living of the Bishops of Winchester". During the early Middle Ages the village had several small farmsteads, that were grouped around the church, but by the early 16th century they had been deserted, and Bishopstone (now called Manor) Farm, the church, and the Rectory house now stand isolated from the more populated part of the parish to the west.