Church Steps - Combe Lane
Church Steps - Combe Lane


Sitting on a relatively remote plot of level ground on the steep south slopes of Salisbury Plain, the Church of St James the Great in Bratton used to be known as ‘the church in isolation’. This was because the hamlet of Littlestoke, that it was originally built to serve, had been abandoned around the time of the Black death and for a long time the church was only accessible by tracks and field paths.

This changed in 1832 when the road up to the church from Stradbrook was built. And a little later, at the instigation of the Rev C Palairet, a series of steps were constructed directly across the steep-sided coombe, making the Church easier to reach from the centre of the village by foot. It is said that he had the steps installed as he was fed up with the congregation dragging in mud from the path along the banks of the stream at the bottom of the coombe. But the creation of this more direct route would also have made it easier for him to travel between the Church and its Oratory, where services were also held when the weather made it difficult to get to the Church.

It is a long-standing joke in the village that the number of steps is different each time they are counted. However there are actually 208 or 211 if the ones inside the churchyard are included. We don’t know the exact date that they were originally laid, but it is reasonable to imagine that it must have been around 1855 when the Rev Palairet was designing Combe Cottage and Church Hill Cottage (for his curate and verger, respectively), which were conveniently built either side of the steps. It almost certainly would have been before 1863 when the Rectory (now Summerdown House) was built alongside the Oratory at the top of the Butts.

After 150 years, or so, of wear and tear, the steps were in a fairly bad state of repair. So, in 2006 ‘The Monday Gang' (a group of retired villagers who look after the grounds of the Church and its surroundings), embarked on a four year programme of painstaking work to restore them and they have continued to keep them in an immaculate condition to this day.

Then and Now - The church steps, Bratton

Villagers celebrate end of four-year church steps project



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Bratton History Association.

The Bratton History Association aims to provide all those curious about local history with an opportunity to meet, exchange ideas, and discover more about the history of Bratton and Wiltshire. Activities include monthly meetings, talks by professional historians, visits to places of interest to historians, and our own local history project.

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