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Melksham

Civil parishes in WiltshireEnglish royal forestsMelkshamOpenDomesdayTowns in Wiltshire
20200926 Melksham Makers Market
20200926 Melksham Makers Market

Melksham () 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.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Melksham (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 51.371 ° E -2.138 °
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Address


SN12 6EX , Melksham Forest
England, United Kingdom
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20200926 Melksham Makers Market
20200926 Melksham Makers Market
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Nearby Places

Melksham House
Melksham House

Melksham House is a Grade II listed house, situated 164 yards, (150 metres), west of the Market Place in the town of Melksham, Wiltshire, England.The house was built between the 17th and early 18th century, although records show a building on this site since about 1608. In 1699 Richard Coxeter sold the property to Sir Walter Long, after which time various replacements and extensions were added over the years, while the house continued in the ownership of the Long family. During the 19th century the house had a succession of owners, including (from 1866) Edward Barnwell, schoolmaster, archaeologist and antiquarian, who financed the building of St Andrew's church in the Forest area of the town. After the house was bought in 1895 by Charles Awdry of Shaw Hill House, the Blathwayt family were tenants – among them George Blathwayt, appointed High Sheriff of Wiltshire in 1916.In 1920 the house and surrounding 25 acres (10 ha) was in the ownership of the Avon Rubber Company, purchased for use as the company club and sports centre for the "social welfare of their employees". The formal opening of the club took place on 11 December 1920, but just days later a fire broke out destroying much of the house, and all that could be salvaged was the façade which has remained intact to this day. The damaged part of the house was rebuilt in a manner more suited to a sports club. In 1963, Nikolaus Pevsner wrote that the house was "... alas so much pulled about that it cannot count any longer as a C17 building".In 1997, Avon Rubber sold its tyre interest to Cooper Tire & Rubber Company of Findlay, Ohio, United States, and included in this sale was Avon's 35-acre (14 ha) manufacturing site in Melksham and the Melksham House sports and social club. The site was sold in 2011 to Wiltshire Council, and in 2021 work began to redevelop it into a "campus" of council and health services, although the future fate of Melksham House is still to be determined. The sports ground on the southern part of the site was the home of Melksham Town F.C. from 1926, and was also used by Melksham Rugby Club. In January 2017, both clubs moved to new facilities at Oakfields on the eastern edge of the town.

Berryfield
Berryfield

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 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 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 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.