Lea, Wiltshire

The Woodbridge Brook is a tributary of the Bristol Avon. It rises near Lydiard Millicent in Wiltshire in the west of England and flows in a generally westerly direction, joining the Avon below Malmesbury. The brook has a mean flow of 20.5 cubic feet per second (0.58 m3/s) and the waters were used in the past to power watermills.

Charlton is a village and civil parish in North Wiltshire, England, about 2 miles (3 km) northeast of Malmesbury and 4 miles (6.4 km) northwest of the village of Brinkworth. The parish includes the hamlet of Perry Green and the Charlton Park estate. The 2011 Census recorded the parish population as 425. The name Charlton derives from the Old English ceorltūn meaning 'churl's settlement'.

Cowbridge House, 3⁄4 mile (1.2 km) southeast of Malmesbury, Wiltshire, England, was an 18th-century country house that was demolished in 2007. During the Second World War, the EKCO company used the house as a shadow factory for the manufacture of radar equipment. The factory continued after the war, producing radio and telecommunications equipment; the company was taken over by Pye TMC and then Philips, and later became part of AT&T. The site was in use as offices until 2004 when the owners, Lucent Technologies, moved their operations to Swindon. Subsequently the site was redeveloped for housing.

WOMAD Charlton Park or WOMAD UK is the name given to the World of Music, Arts and Dance (WOMAD) festival that was held in Charlton Park near Malmesbury, Wiltshire, England, from 2007 to 2024. It was the direct successor to WOMAD Reading, which was held in the town of Reading each year from 1990 to 2006, and previous WOMADs elsewhere in England since 1986. The festival moved to Neston Park, also in Wiltshire, in 2026. The WOMAD festival was held on the last weekend of July, and lasted three and a half days, stretching from the Thursday evening to early Monday morning. The line-up was predominantly World music, but blues, jazz, hip-hop, electronic and rock artists also appeared.

Milbourne is a hamlet on the eastern edge of Malmesbury, Wiltshire, England. It is within the civil parish of St Paul Malmesbury Without. The hamlet consists of older houses, mainly built in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, strung out along Milbourne Lane, as well as more modern houses at the entrance to the hamlet, at Milbourne Park and at Monks Park. The older houses tend to be set back from the road, as much of what are now front gardens were wide verges forming common grazing land prior to the Enclosures Act. In the later 17th century the Oxford–Bristol road ran east–west through Milbourne and Malmesbury but this later became a minor road, which in 1973 was severed by the A429 Malmesbury bypass. There are two listed buildings, both with 17th-century origins: Milbourne House and Milbourne Farmhouse.

Little Somerford is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, 3 miles (4.8 km) southeast of Malmesbury and 7.5 miles (12.1 km) northeast of Chippenham. The northern boundary of the parish follows approximately the B4040 Malmesbury–Swindon road. The Bristol Avon forms part of the boundary to the west and south, and its tributary the Brinkworth Brook forms part of the southeastern boundary.

The Gauze Brook is a stream in South West England, which rises near the village of Littleton Drew in Wiltshire and flows in a northeasterly direction for approximately 9.1 miles (15 km) before joining the Bristol Avon near the village of Little Somerford.

Charlton Park is a country house and estate in Wiltshire, England, 2 miles (3.2 km) northeast of the town of Malmesbury. Charlton Park House is a Grade I listed building and a leading example of the prodigy house. Malmesbury Abbey held Charlton manor from before 1086 until the Dissolution. The house was begun in the 1560s by Henry Knyvet, whose wife Elizabeth Stumpe had inherited the manor. In 1598 the manor passed to their daughter Catherine, wife of Thomas Howard, who was created Earl of Suffolk in 1603, and the estate continues to be the seat of the earls. Enlargement and alteration of the house, including the addition of the second floor and stair turrets, was completed in 1607. John Dryden wrote Annus Mirabilis while staying at the house in 1667. Major alterations were made in the 1770s by Matthew Brettingham the Younger for Henry Howard, 12th Earl of Suffolk, with the rebuilding of the south front, additional stair turrets, and the roofing-over of the central courtyard to make a large domed hall; the interior was unfinished on Henry's death in 1779 and was not completed until the early 20th century. Brettingham probably also built Andover House, some 150 metres north of the main house, with its estate offices and stables. The house was converted into apartments in 1975. The park hosts corporate events and, since 2007, the annual WOMAD Charlton Park music festival. There is a small airfield at the estate with two grass runways 02/20 and 07/25. Parts of "Piece of Cake", a 1988 British six-part television serial depicting the fictional life of a Royal Air Force fighter squadron during the first year of World War II, were filmed here. The squadron's officers' mess was set in the house, and Spitfire fighter aircraft were operated from the airfield. The small village of Charlton is immediately to the east of the estate. The civil parish of Charlton encompasses the village and the estate.

Little Somerford railway station served the village of Little Somerford, Wiltshire, England from 1903 to 1963. It was on the South Wales Main Line and served as the junction for the Malmesbury branch line from 1933.

Cole Park is a Grade II* listed moated country house off Grange Lane, in the parish of St Paul Malmesbury Without, about 1+1⁄4 miles (2.0 km) south of Malmesbury, Wiltshire, England. It stands on land once known as Cowfold that was owned in the Middle Ages by the Abbey of Malmesbury, and in the Tudor period was a royal stud.

Great Somerford Halt was a station on the Malmesbury Branch Line of the Great Western Railway in Wiltshire, England. It was open from 1877 to 1933 for passengers, and 1879 to 1922 for goods. The station, at first named Somerford, was opened in December 1877 as part of the Malmesbury branch which left the Great Western Main Line at Dauntsey, 2+1⁄2 miles (4.0 km) to the southeast. The station was on the road to Little Somerford and separated from the northern edge of Great Somerford village by the River Avon. A small goods yard and siding were in use from January 1879.The name of the station was changed to Great Somerford in 1903 when the GWR opened a more direct route to South Wales, the South Wales Main Line which left the earlier main line at Royal Wootton Bassett and passed half a mile (900 metres) to the north near Little Somerford, where a new station was built. The reduction in traffic led to changes in 1922 at Great Somerford: the goods yard closed and staff were withdrawn from the station, which was now named Great Somerford Halt.In 1933, Little Somerford station was linked to the Malmesbury branch and became the junction station. The line south to Dauntsey, along with Great Somerford Halt, was closed on 17 July 1933, as usage of the halt had declined to an average of one passenger per two trains. The track as far south as Great Somerford was retained until 1959 and used for storage of rolling stock; the track further south had been lifted by 1949. The site of the station and goods yard is now occupied by a sewage works. The station master's house, next to the road, survives.

The Tetbury Avon, also known as the River Avon (Tetbury Branch), Little Avon or Ingleburn (Anglo-Saxon – English river), is a tributary of the Bristol Avon in south-west England. It rises at Tetbury in Gloucestershire and flows in a generally south-easterly direction, joining the Sherston Avon at Malmesbury in Wiltshire. The water flow has been reduced by public water extraction from its source aquifer in the Cotswold Hills. In the past watermills were used for fulling wool and grinding corn; one working mill survives.