48-495: Berryfield is a small village to the south of the town of Melksham , in Wiltshire , England. The village is separated from the southwestern outskirts of Melksham by the A350 road and about 500 metres of farmland; it falls within the civil parish of Melksham Without . The Bristol Avon is about 0.6 miles (1 km) west of the village. Although close to Melksham town, Berryfield remains
96-424: A Methodist chapel (1905 to before 2010). The parish of Melksham Without includes several villages and suburbs of Melksham: In the 19th century, the population of Melksham parish increased from 4,000 at the 1801 census to 5,800 in 1851, then declined to 2,100 in 1891. Numbers increased slowly in the first half of the 20th century and more rapidly in the second half, rising to 14,204 by 2001. The 2011 census saw
144-510: A packhorse bridge across the Avon which in the eighteenth century was repaired by the county. The village was larger then than now, and near the church there are hollows in the land where houses once stood. In 1865, Whaddon was a parish in the hundred of Melksham and belonged to Walter Long , who lived at Hilperton. The church benefice was a rectory held by the Rector of Hilperton. It remained as
192-510: A unitary authority . Melksham civil parish is divided into four electoral divisions, each electing one member to Wiltshire Council. These are Melksham Forest, Melksham East, Melksham South, and Melksham Without North & Shurnold; the latter extends north beyond the parish to include Whitley , Shaw and Beanacre . The civil parish has a town council, with fifteen members elected by four wards: East, Forest, North and South. The councillors elect one of their number as Mayor of Melksham for
240-478: A carnival parade through the town with floats promoting local businesses and clubs and raising money for charity. Local news and television programmes are provided by BBC West and ITV West Country . Television signals are received from the Mendip TV transmitter. Melksham Independent News is the town's family-owned independent newspaper, established in 1981. Over 13,700 copies of the paper are distributed across
288-484: A modest increase to 14,677. The wider built-up area – which includes Berryfield and Bowerhill , both in Melksham Without parish – had a population of 19,357 at the 2011 census. The Shell Guide to Wiltshire , published in 1968, characterised the town as "with the exception of Swindon the most industrialized in the county". Today, Melksham has varied industries including Avon Rubber , which previously owned
336-553: A nationwide branch network and was taken over by Lloyds Bank in 1918. The Chaloner Lodge of Freemasons (no.2644) was named after its first Worshipful Master Richard Godolphin Walmesley Chaloner, 1st Baron Gisborough , who, when not in London, resided at Melksham House . He was the brother of the 1st Viscount Long . The lodge was consecrated on 27 February 1897, with the first meeting scheduled for 4 pm 19 March, held at
384-493: A one-year term. As well as having a consultative role, the town council runs the Assembly Hall events venue. Since 2019–2020 it is responsible for the town's play areas and King George V playing field , after transfer of ownership from Wiltshire Council. The outskirts of Melksham, and most of the surrounding rural communities, are administered by another parish council, Melksham Without . For Westminster elections, Melksham
432-522: A reconstructed 12th-century south doorway with a decorated tympanum. The south door is made of two 14th-century oak panels with heavy hinges. In 1676–8 the chancel was rebuilt and about 1778 was pulled down and rebuilt again. The present chancel was built in 1879 because damage to the foundations, caused by the work of 1778, had caused cracks in the walls and roof damage. The church was Grade II* listed in 1988. The surviving parish registers of baptisms, weddings, and burials begin in 1653. In 1656, during
480-597: A separate community. The place name came into use in the second half of the 20th century. Volume 7 of A History of the County of Wiltshire (Victoria County History, 1953) has "the district is known as Berryfields" (sic) and an Ordnance Survey map published in 1958 labels only Berryfield Cottages, at the west end of the present village. Development began in World War II when houses were built as accommodation for an RAF training school at Bowerhill , about 0.6 miles (1 km) to
528-483: A separate ecclesiastical and civil parish until 1894, when it was merged into Semington. In 1891 the parish had a population of 18. Since then, the population of Whaddon on its own has not been recorded. In the late 20th century it was transferred to become part of its more closely connected neighbour, Hilperton. The church of St. Mary the Virgin was built by the 12th century. It has a blocked 12th-century north doorway and
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#1732855324127576-425: A similar crescent on the north side never materialised. Simultaneously an Act was obtained to 'improve the pleasing town of Melksham' by paving and improving its footways and cleansing, lighting and watching the streets. The spa was not as successful as had been hoped, due in part to the popularity of the waters at nearby Bath . There are two Grade II* listed structures in the parish: St Michael's Church and one of
624-686: A swimming pool, library, sports centre and council offices. Melksham has a non-League football club, Melksham Town F.C. , who play at the Oakfield Stadium on Eastern Way, which opened in January 2017. In 2018 the club won promotion from the Western League to the Southern League . Melksham Rugby Union Club also play at the Oakfields complex, on separate pitches. The Wiltshire School of Gymnastics
672-520: A time; in 2015 the building was restored and converted into offices. Until 1974 the town was managed by Melksham Urban District Council, based at Melksham Town Hall . It was then managed by West Wiltshire District Council , but since the abolition of West Wiltshire in 2009, the most significant local government functions (including schools, roads, social services, recycling, emergency planning, leisure services, housing, development control and waste disposal) have been carried out by Wiltshire Council ,
720-468: Is a small village in the civil parish of Hilperton in Wiltshire , England. The settlement is 2.5 miles (4.0 km) northeast of the county town of Trowbridge . By road, it is only accessible along Whaddon Lane, which connects it to the centre of Hilperton. The River Avon and the Kennet and Avon Canal , half a mile apart, define the natural boundaries of the settlement. The river separates Whaddon from
768-485: Is a town and civil parish on the River Avon in Wiltshire , England, about 4.5 miles (7 km) northeast of Trowbridge and 6 miles (10 km) south of Chippenham . At the 2021 census, the parish had a population of 18,113. Excavations in 2021 in the grounds of Melksham House found fragments of locally made pottery from the early Iron Age (7th to 4th centuries BC). There is evidence of settlement continuing into
816-763: Is at Bowerhill . Melksham has a cricket club who play their home matches at the Melksham House ground. The club has both youth and adult teams; in the 2019 season their Saturday side competed in Division 4 of the Wiltshire County Cricket League following promotion in 2018. Melksham railway station , on the branch of the Wessex Main Line from Chippenham to Trowbridge , has services roughly every two hours in each direction on weekdays. Trains are operated by Great Western Railway , with services marketed as
864-540: Is part of the Melksham and Devizes constituency, which was created following a boundary review and first contested at the 2024 general election, when it was won by Brian Mathew for the Liberal Democrats . The civil parish of Melksham includes Melksham Forest , formerly a separate settlement 0.8 miles (1.3 km) to the northeast and now a suburb of the town. It has an Anglican church (St Andrew's, 1876) and had
912-606: Is under restoration but its original route in this area is no longer available, so in 2012 a planning application was submitted for a new section of canal (called the Melksham Link) which will pass through Berryfield. About one thousand people live in Berryfield. Amenities include a pub called The New Inn on the former A350, and a children's playground. [REDACTED] Media related to Berryfield at Wikimedia Commons Melksham Melksham ( / ˈ m ɛ l k ʃ əm / )
960-576: The Avon is from the late 18th century. A church was recorded at Melksham in the Domesday Book of 1086. The parish church of St Michael and All Angels has 12th-century origins, and was enlarged in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries; in 1845 it was restored by T. H. Wyatt and is now a Grade II* listed building. As the town expanded, in 1876 St Andrew's church was built in Early English style to serve
1008-670: The Interregnum , the Rector was removed by the Puritans and was replaced by Martin Brunker, a public preacher, but after the Restoration of Charles II in 1660 the Rector returned. In 1879, a bell cote was also built, at the initiative of W. P. Long, whose family had been lords of the manor since 1555. Long family tombs are in a small chapel north of the chantry and include an elaborate marble monument to Walter Long (died 1807). The church
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#17328553241271056-399: The lordship of the manor and hundred, was in 1541 granted to Sir Thomas Seymour . He then sold it to Henry Brouncker, who also had lands nearby at Erlestoke . At some uncertain date, perhaps about 1550, Brouncker built a residence for himself near Melksham church on the site of an earlier mansion. This was known as Place House. Three generations of the family lived here: Henry Brouncker
1104-605: The 'TransWilts line' between Westbury and Swindon. Melksham is served by bus companies including Faresaver and First West of England . The town is on the north–south A350 primary route from the M4 motorway (Junction 17, near Chippenham) to Poole on the south coast. In February 2020, the central government gave approval for a £125m re-routing of the A350 to the east of Melksham. Primary schools within Melksham parish are: Primary schools near
1152-513: The Avon Tyre plant on a riverside site in the town centre. The plant is now the home of Cooper Tire & Rubber (a subsidiary of the American Goodyear company) and is still a major employer in the town, producing Cooper Avon and Avon Tyres brands. The site is due to close as of 31st December 2023. In 2000, Avon Rubber plc moved to a large purpose-built facility 3 km (1.9 mi) to
1200-566: The Forest area to the northeast of the town. A Baptist chapel was erected at Old Broughton Road in 1714, and replaced with a larger building on the same site in 1776 which was enlarged in 1839. In 1850 there were 165 members, and 340 children attended the Sunday School. In 1909, school buildings were completed on land in front of the chapel. Ebenezer Baptist Church , Union Street, was built in 1835 by Particular Baptists . A Methodist chapel
1248-625: The Long family, who were descended from the first Henry Brouncker, until the early part of the 20th century, having passed to the 1st Viscount Long of Wraxall . An announcement was made in the Bath Chronicle in June 1792 of the establishment of the Melksham Bank by the firm of Awdry, Long & Bruges. In November 1813 the misquoting of part of an advertisement in two London newspapers caused panic amongst
1296-589: The Rachel Fowler Centre, while many of the surrounding villages have community halls which offer a wide variety of activities. Melksham Oak Community School offers a variety of sporting and cultural facilities to the community of Melksham. The town has an annual 'Party in the Park' which usually takes place in July. It includes a fair with rides and amusements, a fireworks display, a stage hosting musical and dance acts and
1344-399: The archaeological record, but a possible fragment of late Saxon pottery has been found at Whaddon. The medieval manor of Whaddon included Paxcroft, now part of Hilperton; the total population would probably have been between 15 and 25. It is likely that the village was severely affected by the plague of 1349 , and thereafter was a small settlement, with new houses built further away from
1392-549: The bank customers, many of whom quickly withdrew their money, reportedly causing "some bustle" among the partners of the bank. There was further trouble in 1812, when the bank was listed on a Parliamentary Paper of the House of Commons under the title "Country Banks Becoming Bankrupt". Moule's bank became the North Wilts Banking Company in 1835, which merged in 1877 to form Capital and Counties Bank . The latter developed
1440-400: The building is now residential. The area around Canon Square, north of the church, has several Grade II listed houses and cottages, among them a former vicarage dating from the late 17th century, remodelled in 1877 by Street and now divided into two residences. There is also a small two-storey roundhouse, built in the late 18th century for the wool industry. The town's four-span bridge over
1488-417: The chest tombs in its churchyard. Pevsner wrote that "the only rewarding part of Melksham is by the church". Melksham House , south of the church, is early 18th century but largely rebuilt after a 1920 fire and adapted for use as a sports and social club. Southwest of the church, a 15th-century tithe barn was remodelled into a school by G. E. Street in 1878; the school left the premises in 1973 and
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1536-462: The church. By 1428, the population of Whaddon counted ten householders; it rose to 36 in 1801 and further to 63 in 1821. Sir Walter Long, 1st Baronet of Whaddon (1592–1672) was a notable 17th century resident landowner. Whaddon Lane, running from Hilperton to Whaddon, in the past continued alongside the River Avon to Melksham , but is now a dead-end for motor vehicles. A footpath leads on to
1584-415: The east. This development was accessed from the A350 road towards Semington and Trowbridge ; in 2004 Berryfield was bypassed by a new section of the A350, taking through traffic away from the village. The Wilts & Berks Canal , opened in 1810 and abandoned in 1914, passed east of Berryfield on its way from its junction with the Kennet and Avon Canal to the east side of Melksham. The Wilts & Berks
1632-418: The eastern suburbs in 1967. Melksham has a long history of Quakerism , beginning with meetings nearby at Shaw in the 17th century. A meeting-house was built in 1698 at what is now King Street, and rebuilt on the same site around 1777 (or 1734). Quakerism declined in the 19th century but the Melksham meeting continued until 1950. The meeting-house was sold in 1958 and was used as a Spiritualist church for
1680-470: The founder, (d.1569), his son, Sir William, and his grandson Henry. On the death of this last Henry, about 1600, it became manifest that the Brouncker estate was heavily encumbered, and in the course of the next twenty or thirty years, all the property was alienated with the exception of Erlestoke, where William Brouncker, the heir, retired with his wife Anne, daughter of Sir John Dauntesey. Meanwhile, Place House
1728-413: The growth in recent years there are new schools and improved infrastructure, although small pockets of Melksham town centre, including a 1960 shopping parade, await redevelopment. Melksham has a number of pharmacies, high street clothes shops, charity shops and privately run individual stores. It has five supermarkets: Asda , Sainsbury's , Waitrose , Lidl and Aldi . Melksham has an Assembly Hall and
1776-529: The later Iron Age and Roman periods, including Roman clay roof tiles. Melksham developed at a ford across the River Avon . The name is presumed to derive from " meolc ", the Old English for milk, and "ham" , a village. On John Speed 's map of Wiltshire (1611), the name is spelt both Melkesam (for the hundred ) and Milsham (for the town itself). Melksham is also the name of the Royal forest that occupied
1824-424: The now declining textile industry. Their aim was to promote a spa, after abortive attempts to find coal had uncovered two springs. As a consequence they built six large three-storeyed, semi-detached lodging houses forming a crescent, a pump room and hot and cold private baths. This suburban area at the southern end of the town is now known as The Spa , belonging to the civil parish of Melksham Without . A plan for
1872-467: The south of the town near Semington , employing over 300 on products such as gasmasks. Melksham is also home to Knorr-Bremse , a designer and manufacturer of railway braking systems , at a purpose-built facility in south Bowerhill. The town has a thriving business district, is close to the retail centres of Bath , Chippenham , Devizes and Trowbridge , and is surrounded by attractive villages such as Lacock , Holt , Seend and Semington. To cater for
1920-490: The steeplechase early the next morning, resulting in him twice falling heavily from his horse. Later while deciding what extra furniture the lodge required, he asked that he have a special footstool, as his chair was high and his feet "dangled unpleasantly". In 1815 the Melksham Spa Company was formed by a group of 'respectable gentlemen', with names such as Methuen, Long and others, all of whom had done very well from
1968-455: The surrounding of the area in the Middle Ages. In 1268, Henry III of England gave the manor of Melksham to Amesbury Abbey for the souls of his late cousins Eleanor, Fair Maid of Brittany and Arthur I, Duke of Brittany . In 1539 the prioress and nuns of Amesbury surrendered to the king their Melksham estates, which they had held for some 250 years. This property, which consisted of
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2016-411: The town and surrounding villages biweekly. The town is also served by the regional newspapers, Gazette and Herald and Wiltshire Times . Local radio stations are BBC Radio Wiltshire on 104.3 FM, Heart West on 102.2 FM, and Greatest Hits Radio South West on 107.5 FM. Melksham Community Campus, built by Wiltshire Council on a central site next to Melksham House , opened in 2022. It provides
2064-477: The town hall. Writing from London while attending his Parliamentary duties as MP for Westbury, he complained that this date was inconvenient due to his having to be at Melton Mowbray to ride in the House of Commons point to point steeplechase the next day. Despite this, the meeting went ahead and Chaloner initiated 13 of the candidates, returning to London overnight by train, getting virtually no sleep before his ride in
2112-404: The town include: There is one secondary school in the Melksham catchment area: Melksham Oak Community School opened in 2010 at Bowerhill, replacing The George Ward Technology College which served the community for over 50 years. Stonar School , an all-ages independent day and boarding school, is nearby at Atworth . Melksham is the namesake for a prehistoric crocodile species discovered in
2160-673: The town. Ieldraan melkshamensis , or the Melksham Monster, was 10 ft long and was an apex predator in the waters around the UK during the Jurassic period. The fossil had been in the possession of the Natural History Museum since 1875, until a team from the University of Edinburgh led by Davide Foffa classified it in 2017 as a distinct species. Whaddon, Wiltshire Whaddon
2208-546: The village of Holt , and the canal separates it from Hilperton and Semington . Archaeological finds indicate occupation of Whaddon in the Iron Age , lasting into the time of Roman Britain . Under the name of Wadone , the village is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086, when it was held by a Saxon called Alvric and had two plough teams, with both meadow and pasture recorded. The Saxons used wood both for their buildings and their utensils, leaving little evidence of either in
2256-735: Was built on the High Street in 1872, its two-storey front having four large Corinthian columns and a cornice with oculus . This became the United Church after the union of the Methodists and Congregationalists in 1976, and the Congregational church off the Market Place closed. A Catholic church, St Anthony of Padua, was built in pale brick to the south of the town centre and opened in 1939. An independent congregation built Queensway Chapel in
2304-489: Was occupied for ten or eleven years by Henry Brouncker's widow and her second husband, Ambrose Dauntesey. After their death, in 1612, the house apparently was occupied by the steward, and afterwards it was conveyed to Sir John Danvers, who married into the family, in 1634. Danvers died in 1655 and the lordship of Melksham passed to his son, who then conveyed the estate to Walter Long the Younger, of Whaddon . The lordship remained in
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