Charlton, Brinkworth

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.

Hankerton is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, 3 miles (4.8 km) northeast of Malmesbury. The parish includes the hamlets of Cloatley, Cloatley End and Bullock's Horn. Streams which form the Braydon Brook, which becomes the Swill Brook further downstream, flow east and north in the parish. Some of these streams form parts of the northern parish boundary. Cloatley Manor Farm Meadows, a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest, is within the parish.

Lea is a village in Wiltshire, England, lying approximately 1.5 miles (2.4 km) east of Malmesbury. It is part of the civil parish of Lea and Cleverton which includes the village of Garsdon and the hamlet of Cleverton. Garsdon was a separate parish until 1934. The Charlton Stream forms the western boundary of the parish, and joins the River Avon near Cowbridge in the southwest of the parish. The Woodbridge Brook flows east–west across the parish to join the Charlton Stream northwest of Lea village. The southern boundary of the parish follows approximately the B4042 Swindon–Malmesbury road.

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.

Cloatley Manor Farm Meadows (grid reference ST981910) is a 12.1 hectare biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Wiltshire, notified in 1997. The site is managed as a nature reserve by Wiltshire Wildlife Trust.

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.

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.

Crudwell is a village and civil parish in north Wiltshire, England. The nearest towns are Malmesbury, about 4 miles (6.4 km) to the south-west, and Cirencester, Gloucestershire 8 miles (13 km) to the north-east. Also to the north-east is Cotswold Airport. Kemble village, about 4 miles (6.4 km) away, has the nearest railway station, with services to London Paddington and Gloucester.

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.

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.

St Aldhelm's Roman Catholic Church in Malmesbury, Wiltshire, England is a Roman Catholic Church built in 1875. The church is dedicated to St Aldhelm who lived in Malmesbury and was the abbot at nearby Malmesbury Abbey. The attached presbytery is a Grade II listed building.