The brook running under the road at the southern end of Seagry Hill is the 'boundary brook' from the medieval charter; so the house by the brook has 'moved' frequently between Sutton Benger and Seagry over the years, with the changes in parish boundaries.

The Murder of Judith Pearce

Judith Pearce was a lady who was murdered in Brookside Cottage, Seagry Hill, in November 1820; a man called Edward Buckland was found guilty of her murder at a trial in Salisbury and was hanged in March 1821. The witnesses at the trial were all from Sutton Benger, including the village policeman and the landlord of the Bell Inn.

Mrs Pearce had been born in Sutton Benger, and was buried in Sutton Benger. There is a substantial memorial stone to her memory in the graveyard; it is under a tree, near the Old Rectory. The story is often re-told in histories of the village. However, her cottage was in Seagry, on the northern side of the brook which formed the parish boundary between Sutton Benger and Seagry. Despite the fact that Brookside Cottage is now in Sutton Benger, and firmly south of the parish boundary (the M4), her story is ‘claimed’ by Seagry and she has always been referred to as ‘Judith Pearce of Seagry’.

Kay Taylor provides a detailed account of the story in Sutton Benger from Saxon Times to the Dawn of the 21st Century, pp. 55-65.

The Vicar at the time was the Reverend Christopher Lipscomb (who subsequently became Bishop of Jamaica, in the West Indies). He gave a sermon in All Saint's Church on Sunday 18 March, 1821, the day after Edward Buckland was hanged; his sermon was then published (price one shilling) and became a contemporary best-seller.

Several of his sermons can be found on-line, including one preached in Chippenham the previous year with a text from Matthew ch. X, v. 16:

Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.

Judy’s Bridge

A document from 150 years ago, produced by the Wiltshire County Bridges Committee, relates to the maintenance of road bridges across the county following the end of the Turnpike system. The Committee met on 3 April 1877 to finalise and approve the list of bridges that were to be maintained at the cost of the County Council. One of the two bridges in Sutton Benger was named as ‘Bridge 135a, Judy Pearce Bridge’.

Brookside Cottage

The house by the brook has always been called Brookside Cottage, but the one that you can see today is a different house from the one which stood here 200 years ago. Judy Pearce's cottage was demolished some time after her murder, and the core of the cottage which you can see today was built in 1850.

(With thanks to https://www.findagrave.com/ and 'Lost Ancestors' for the photograph of the gravestone in All Saints' churchyard.)