Editing Malmesbury Abbey (section)

==Parish church==
[[File:Malmesbury Abbey - geograph.org.uk - 1246543.jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|The remaining part of the nave of Malmesbury Abbey, blocked off to the west, currently used as the parish church]]
The abbey, which owned {{convert|23,000|acre|km2}} in the twenty parishes that constituted the [[Malmesbury Hundred]], was closed at the [[Dissolution of the Monasteries]] in 1539 by [[Henry VIII of England|Henry VIII]] and was sold, with all its lands, to [[William Stumpe]], a rich merchant. He returned the abbey church to the town for continuing use as a parish church, and filled the abbey buildings with up to 20 looms for his cloth-weaving enterprise.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/wilts/vol14/pp127-168 |series=[[Victoria County History]] |title=A History of the County of Wiltshire, Volume 14 |chapter=Parishes: Malmesbury |pages=127–168 |editor-first=D. A. |editor-last=Crowley |author-first1=A. P. |author-last1=Baggs |author-first2=Jane |author-last2=Freeman |author-first3=Janet H. |author-last3=Stevenson |date=1991 |via=British History Online |publisher=University of London |access-date=13 July 2022}}</ref>

The west tower fell around 1550, demolishing the three westernmost bays of the nave. As a result of these two collapses, less than half of the original building stands today. During the [[English Civil War]], Malmesbury suffered extensive damage evidenced by hundreds of pock-marks left by bullets and shot which can still be seen on the south, west and east sides of the building.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/malmesbury-abbey-musket-damage|title= Malmesbury Abbey Musket Damage|publisher=Atlas Obscura|access-date=10 November 2022}}</ref>

In 1949, the church was designated as a [[Listed building#Categories of listed building|Grade I listed]] building.<ref>{{National Heritage List for England|num=1269316|desc=Abbey Church of St Mary and St Aldhelm|access-date=16 March 2016}}</ref> [[Historic England]] added it to their [[Heritage at Risk Register]] in 2022, stating that the roofs of the nave and aisles were leaking and in need of repair.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Abbey Church of St Mary and St Aldhelm, Market Cross, Malmesbury |url=https://historicengland.org.uk/advice/heritage-at-risk/search-register/list-entry/12234 |access-date=2022-11-10 |website=Heritage at Risk |publisher=Historic England |language=en}}</ref>

Today Malmesbury Abbey is in full use as the [[parish church]] of Malmesbury, in the [[Diocese of Bristol]]. The remains still contain a fine [[parvise#Late English use|parvise]] (a room over the porch) which holds some examples of books from the abbey library. The [[Anglo-Saxon charters]] of Malmesbury,<ref>{{cite book |title=Charters of Malmesbury Abbey |editor-first=Susan E. |editor-last=Kelly |year=2005 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-726317-4}}
</ref> though extended by forgeries and improvements executed in the abbey's [[scriptorium]], provide source material today for the history of [[Wessex]] and the West Saxon church from the seventh century.

===Vicars of St Paul's and the Abbey Church, Malmesbury===
From 1301 until the mid-16th century, the [[parish church]] of Malmesbury was St. Paul's. This stood in what is now Birdcage Walk (its tower and steeple remains, and is now the Abbey belltower). In 1539 Malmesbury Abbey ceased to exist as a monastic community and in August 1541 [[Thomas Cranmer]] licensed the abbey church to replace St Paul's as the parish church of Malmesbury. In 1837 the ancient chapelries of [[Corston, Wiltshire|Corston]] and [[Rodbourne, Malmesbury|Rodbourne]] were made into a separate parish, called [[St Paul Malmesbury Without]], and [[Westport, Wiltshire|St Mary Westport]] was united to the abbey church.
{{Columns-list|colwidth=22em|
*1301 Reginald de Souple
*1312 Roger Snell to Alynton
*1332 Walter Drueys
*1336 John de Ashebi
*1348 Stephen de Tettebury
*1353 Walter le Walker
*1369 Richard de Lokenham
*1379 John Oseborn
*1387 Thomas Wibbe
*1394 John Comeleygh
*1428 William Butte
*1439 Hugh Thomas
*1462 William Sherewode
*1497 Richard Chaunceller
*1503 Thomas Long
*1519 William Barlow
*1535 Richard Turner
*1544 John Aprice
*1564 John Skinner
*1565 James Procter
*1566 Thomas Trinder
*1567 John Sarney
*1611 Matthew Watts
*1616 Anthony Watson
*1618 William Noble
*1633 William Latimer
*1649 Robert Harpur
*1659 Simon Gawer
*1664 John Hodges
*1667 Nicholas Adee
*1669 John Clarke
*1676 John Binion
*1701 Christopher Hanley
*1705 Thomas Earle
*1749 John Copson
*1786 Henry Strong
*1793 George Bisset
*1829 Charles Pitt
*1874 George Windsor Tucker
*1920 Charles Paterson
*1925 James Deade
*1944 Arthur Beaghen
*1975 Peter Barton
*1994 David Littlefair
*2004 Neill Archer
*2018 Oliver Ross
}}