Christian Malford is a small village in the county of Wiltshire in England. The unusual name is evidently a corruption of Christ mal Ford, Old English moel, mal being a mark: "Christ’s mal" is Christ’s mark or sign, the cross. The name signified "Cross Ford". Deeds from Glastonbury Abbey cartulary relate to Christmalford Manor: in AD 940 King Edmund granted Christmalford to St. Dunstan, Abbot of Glastonbury.[1]
Christian Malford School recently celebrated its 150-year anniversary and the building of the school was closely linked with the building of the Great Western Railway. The village has no railway station, however people can travel by bus or car to nearby Chippenham for frequent services to London and the West Country.
The village is known to palaeontologists as the rediscovered Lagerstätte, a site of remarkably preserved fossils, in this case in the Middle Jurassic Oxford clay, in which a chance discovery in the 19th century uncovered thousands of exquisitely preserved ammonites, fish and crustaceans. The site, whose exact location had not been publicly disclosed, became most famous for squid-like cephalopods and belemnites, complete with their phosphatized soft parts. The site was rediscovered in 2008.[2]