Our Community Matters

Amesbury is a small town that has seen its major growth in population occur since the 1920s; in 1921 the population was 1,530 and in 2001 it was 8,907. Over two millennia it has veered between being a small town and a large village on several occasions. Set in the valley of the River Avon, to the north of Salisbury, it...more

Bradford on Avon lies at the southern extremity of the Cotswold limestone where it joins a bed of Forest Marble, which is mainly clay with shelly limestone and sandstone. The settlement itself grew up around the 'broad ford' on the River Avon, which gave rise to the place-name of 'Bradford'. The Avon runs from east to ...more

The town of Calne lies mainly on a band of Coral Rag that runs from north-east to south-west, to the west of the chalk downs. This is a coral and oolitic limestone and the oolitic Calne Freestone has been quarried for building stone locally. The small River Marden runs from east to west and is joined in the town by the...more

The fast growing town of Chippenham was first established in a loop of the River Avon in which the town centre still remains. From Saxon times the area was a royal forest and a king's country house, or hunting lodge, was maintained here. Other buildings were quickly attracted to this favoured site and a community was e...more

Corsham is a small town in a large parish, about 3 miles south west of Chippenham, 4 miles north west of Melksham, 7 miles north east of Bradford and about 8 miles from Bath. The London to Bristol railway line runs through the parish and the eastern end of the famous Box Tunnel lies within the parish. Apart from Corsha...more

The town of Devizes developed around the Norman castle which was probably built c.1080 by Osmund, Bishop of Salisbury. There is little evidence of prehistoric settlement on the site, but some Roman remains have been found in the Southbroom area of the town. The castle was built on a promontory on the western edge of th...more

Malmesbury is an ancient place built on a steep hill almost encircled by the Tetbury and Sherston branches of the River Avon, which unite at the south of the town. The site is easily defended with the older parts of the town being on an outcrop of cornbrash at over 75 metres. Lower parts of the parish are on beds of Ke...more

The town is set in the upper Kennet Valley on a major east/west route between London and Bath and a lesser north/south route between Swindon and Salisbury. A Romano-British burial site and Roman coins and pottery have been found in the town and it would seem likely that there was Romano-British occupation of the area w...more

The present civil parish of Melksham is fairly small and is largely built over, but the old manor of Melksham included all the area that is now the civil parish of Melksham Without. This covered the present villages of Shaw, Whitley and Beanacre, the farming area to the east that was the Royal Forest of Melksham and th...more

Pewsey is very much the capital of the Vale of Pewsey and is the commercial centre for a large rural area. The parish stretches across the vale from the Marlborough Downs in the north to the scarp slope of Salisbury Plain in the south; the highest point on the Plain is 221 metres. Thus the geology is chalk in the north...more

Royal Wootton Bassett is a market town located in North Wiltshire. It is some 4 miles south west of Swindon, and lies 10 miles from Malmesbury, 4 miles from Lyneham, 8 miles from Calne and 14 miles from Chippenham. In its earliest days the town would have bordered on Bradon Forest. Until the mid 1800s the towns of Cric...more

Salisbury, the quintessential English cathedral city, is in historical terms a recent creation, being a new town of the thirteenth century. Its name was derived from the latinization of that of a nearby hill fort, Sorviodunum. The hill fort, now known as Old Sarum, was both a natural strongpoint - a salient between the...more

Southern Wiltshire Community Area sits in the south east corner of Wiltshire where the chalk of the Salisbury Plain dips down to form the Hampshire Basin. The chalk downland scenery extends from Coombe Bissett east to Pepperbox Hill. The northerly part of the New Forest reaches into the community area to the south, wit...more

South West Wiltshire Community Area includes Wilton, Tisbury and Mere and covers the ancient Wessex Ridgeway, the Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The changing face and fortunes of agriculture has played a great part in sculpting the landscape and this area has also provided ...more

The present civil parish of Tidworth was only created in 1992 and contains North Tidworth, which has always been in Wiltshire, and South Tidworth, which was transferred from Hampshire in 1992. The villages themselves have almost completely disappeared beneath a garrison town that has been built up during the 20th cent...more

Trowbridge is situated in the low-lying claylands of the Bristol Avon, astride the River Biss, which flows into the Avon to the north of the town. The reason for the establishment of the settlement is a low ridge, known as the Trowbridge Anticline which is only about 40 to 50 feet above the clay, but which consists of ...more

Warminster lies in the south west of the county, at the foot of the downs on the Somerset border. It is ten miles from Trowbridge and just four miles from Longleat, the Elizabethan stately home belonging to the Marquess of Bath. he area around Warminster was an ideal location for early man to settle, as there was a goo...more

The ancient parish of Westbury was one of the largest in Wiltshire. Its 10,000 acres ran from Heywood to Dilton and from Chapmanslade to Bratton. The town was located in the centre. It lies on the exposed edge of the Upper Greensand strata which runs underneath the chalk uplands of Salisbury Plain. The rising of severa...more