Corsham

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Corsham
The historic High Street is typical of a Cotswold town
Statistics
Population:	12,000[1]
Ordnance Survey
OS grid reference:	ST869702
Administration
Parish:	Corsham Town Council[1]
District:	North Wiltshire
Shire county:	Wiltshire
Region:	South West England
Constituent country:	England
Sovereign state:	United Kingdom
Other
Ceremonial county:	Wiltshire
Services
Police force:	Wiltshire Constabulary[2]
Fire and rescue:	{{{Fire}}}
Ambulance:	Great Western
Post office and telephone
Post town:	Corsham
Postal district:	SN13
Dialling code:	01249 (Corsham) 01225 (Hawthorn)
Politics
UK Parliament:	Chippenham (c. 2009) North Wiltshire (2005)
European Parliament:	South West England

Corsham is a small mediæval town in northwest Wiltshire, England. It is at the southwestern extreme of the Cotswolds, between Bath (10 miles, 17 km) and Chippenham (5 miles, 9 km.)

The civil parish of Corsham includes the neighbouring communities of Broadstone, Chapel Knap, Easton, Gastard, Hartham, Leafield, The Linleys, Neston, The Ridge, Rudloe and Thingley.

In the past, Corsham was a centre for the wool industry, and a source for quarrying Bath stone. It includes numerous historic buildings, such as the stately home of Corsham Court. In World War II and the Cold War, it became a major administrative and manufacturing centre for the Ministry of Defence, with numerous establishments both above ground and in the old quarry tunnels.

Contents 1 History 2 Features 3 Community 3.1 Neighbouring villages 4 Transport 5 Economy 5.1 Defence 6 Notable residents 7 See also 8 References 9 Further reading 10 External links

[edit] History

Corsham derives its name from 'Cosa' village', where hām is the Old English for homestead, or village. The town is referred in the Domesday book as Cosseham; the letter 'R' appears to have entered the name later under Norman influence.

One of the towns that prospered greatly from Wiltshire's wool trade in mediæval times, it maintained its prosperity after the decline of that trade through the quarrying of Bath stone, with underground mining works extending to the south and west of Corsham.

There was once a priory in Corsham, which was destroyed, then replaced with a Georgian house (now Heywood School) located on Priory Street.

The town of Corsham was the inspiration for Charles Dickens's novel The Pickwick Papers. The name Pickwick is likely to have come from that of a nearby farm, Pickwick Lodge Farm. Pickwick was once a separate community—now the northwestern part of the town—on the A4, formerly the main turnpike road from London to Bristol.^[2]

[edit] Features

Corsham's small town centre includes the Martingate Centre, a late 20th century retail development, which also houses offices and a small teaching facility for Wiltshire College, a further education institution.

The stately home of Corsham Court can also be found in the town centre. Standing on a former Saxon Royal Manor, it is based on an Elizabethan manor home from 1582. Since 1745, it has been part of the Methuen estate. The house has an extensive collection of Old Masters, rooms furnished by Robert Adam and Thomas Chippendale, and parks landscaped by Capability Brown and Humphry Repton. The house is open to the public all year round excluding December and is famed locally for its collection of peacocks. ^[3] The owner of Corsham Court in the mid-seventeenth century was the commander of the Parliamentarian New Model Army in Wiltshire. His wife built what came to be known as the Hungerford Almshouses in the centre of town. These famous almshouses were recently featured on the BBC's Restoration television series.

Corsham is the site of the disused entrance to Tunnel Quarry, which used to be visible off Pockeredge Drive.

[edit] Community

The town has its own festival. Corsham also started a jazz festival (separate from the town festival) in 2004, which included a performance by the National Youth Jazz Orchestra. The event however was not as successful as the organizers would have hoped, bands across the seven venues had to compete with each other and turnout was lower than expected. In 2005 the festival was reduced to just two venues and a much reduced lineup. In 2006, the festival reduced in size once again, with only the Royal Oak Pub hosting the event, and the Stan Tracey Trio as principal headliners.

The local association football club, Corsham Town F.C., were founded in 1884. They came second in the Western Football League Premier Division in 2006.

[edit] Neighbouring villages

Corsham Town Council's boundaries include several neighbouring communities: Broadstone, Chapel Knap, Easton, Gastard, Hartham, Leafield, The Linleys, Neston, The Ridge, Thingley, part of Rudloe, and a small part of Chippenham south of the A4 road.^[4]

Hartham Park is a Georgian estate that includes a rare stické court.

Neston village was established around Neston Park, a country estate whose house was built c.1790.^[2] Neston Park is home of the Fuller family, who give their name to the Fuller, Smith and Turner brewery in London, known for Fuller's London Pride cask ale.^[5]

[edit] Transport

Corsham is connected to Bradford on Avon by the B3109 road, to Melksham by the B3353, and to Chippenham and Bath by the A4 Bath Road, a former turnpike from London to Bristol. Four public car parks in the town centre are operated by North Wiltshire District Council, with free parking or up to an hour parking free-of-charge.^[6] Bus companies, including Coachstyle, Faresaver and FirstGroup plc, operate local services, as well as buses to all nearby towns. ^[6]

The Great Western Main Line railway from London to Bristol passes through Corsham, though the local station closed in the 1960s. Nearby stations, and most passenger trains, are operated by First Great Western. Some local services call at the nearest station at Melksham (4.5 miles, 7.2 km) while Chippenham station (4.7 miles, 7.5 km) offers frequent express services and connections. The eastern portal of Box Tunnel, built as the longest railway tunnel of its time, by Isambard Kingdom Brunel for the Great Western Railway, is at Hudswell on the western edge of the town. Corsham Railway Cutting carries the main line westward through Corsham to Box Tunnel; in 1971 6.6 hectares of land in the cutting were designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest for notable geology.

[edit] Economy

[edit] Defence

Current and former Ministry of Defence establishments include:

• Basil Hill barracks, Defence Communication Services Agency
• Copenacre Site
• Corsham Computer Centre
• Cotswold Centre (Army) [3]
• Joint Services Corsham
• HMS Royal Arthur (Royal Navy, closed)
• RAF Rudloe Manor
  • Hawthorn incorporating the Central Government War Headquarters

The Air Force station, RAF Rudloe Manor, was established in World War II. It is a primarily administrative facility and does not have runways for fixed wing aircraft. The largely disused emergency government headquarters, known as Hawthorn, Burlington or Turnstile, is located nearby. Much of the underground complex was offered for sale in 2005 [4]. The bunker was to have housed 4000 key people in the event of a nuclear attack. The tunnels are said to extend under Corsham town itself. In 2006, an £800 million renewal and expansion of the Defence Communication Services Agency facilities began, involving the construction of offices and residential facilities, and the contracting out of former Ministry work to Private Finance Initiative contractor, Inteq.^[7] The DCSA communications centre provides a hub for worldwide communications for UK military operations.

Public defence activities are supported by some local private defence contractors, such as Leafield Engineering[5], in Leafield.

[edit] Notable residents

• Camilla Parker Bowles (b. 1947) – later married Charles, Prince of Wales
• Harold Brakspear (1870–1934) – restoration architect and archæologist, lived at Pickwick Manor and Parkside in High Street^[2][8]
• Edward Hasted (1732–1812) – historian, master of Corsham Almshouse^[2]
• Nick Mason (b. 1944) – musician in the rock band Pink Floyd
• Barons Methuen – family seat is Corsham Court^[2]
• Rini Templeton (1935–1986) – artist, studied at Bath Academy in Corsham c. 1956
• Michael Tippett (1905–1998) – composer, lived at Parkside in High Street^[2]

A 1773 map shows Neston's earlier name of Corsham Side

The southern portion of the High Street is pedestrianized

[edit] See also

Neighbouring civil parishes (anticlockwise from the north):

• Biddestone – small village north of Hartham
• Colerne – medium-sized village northwest of Corsham and Pickwick
• Box – village west of Corsham; parish includes part of Rudloe
• Atworth – Neston Park Estate extends south beyond Atworth village
• Lacock – historic village and abbey, largely owned by the National Trust, east of Gastard
• Chippenham and Chippenham Without parishes – market town northeast of Easton

[edit] References

1. ^ Council Tax 2005/06PDF, Corsham Town Council. Retrieved on October 5, 2006.
2. ^ ^{a b c d e f} Corsham at Wiltshire Community History from Wiltshire County Council. Retrieved on October 4, 2006.
3. ^ http://www.corshamtown.co.uk/
4. ^ election-maps.co.uk, Corsham Civil Parish boundary on Ordnance Survey 1:50 000 colour raster layer. Retrieved on October 10, 2006.
5. ^ The History of Fuller, Smith & Turner P.L.C. from the brewery's website. Retrieved on October 4, 2006.
6. ^ ^{a b} Connect Corsham, Corsham Town Council newsletter, Issue 8, Autumn 2006.
7. ^ Wiltshire Times, 25 October 2006. "£800m to be spent on military base", Craig Evry. Retrieved on October 27, 2006.
8. ^ BRAKSPEAR, Sir; Harold (b. Corsham, Wilts. 10 March 1870 - d. 20 November 1934). Who's Who 2006 and Who Was Who 1897-2005 (2005). Retrieved 10 October 2006. Available from xreferplus.

[edit] Further reading

• McCamley, Nick (2000) Secret underground cities : an account of some of Britain's subterranean defence, factory and storage sites in the Second World War, Pen and Sword Books Ltd[6], ISBN 0-850-52733-3

[edit] External links