Marden is a small village in the County of Wiltshire, in the south west of England.
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The village lies on the River Avon some six miles to the south-east of the town of Devizes, near the edge of Salisbury Plain. A nearby archaeological feature that is still being discovered is the Marden Henge.
Marden centres on its medieval parish church.
Parish registers survive from 1684 and are kept in the Wiltshire and Swindon Archives.[1]
John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-1872) described Marden as follows:
MARDEN, or MERTON, a village and a parish in Devizes district, Wilts. The village stands on the river Avon, 2 miles SW of Woodborough r. station, and 6 ESE of Devizes; and has a post office, of the name of Marden, under Devizes. The parish comprises 1,278 acres. Real property, £2,291. Pop., 235. Houses, 49. The manor belongs to S. R. Neate, Esq. Two remarkable tumuli formerly were in the neighbourhood, 240 feet in circuit, and 40 feet high; and are supposed, by some writers, to mark the scene of Ethelred's defeat by the Danes in 871; but whether they were sepulchral barrows or the earthwork of an ancient British temple, is an open question. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Salisbury. Value, £170. Patrons, the Dean and Chapter of Bristol. The church is ancient; has two Norman arches and an embattled tower; and is finely ornate, both without and within. There is a national School.[2]
Marden has been suggested as a possible location for the Battle of Merton (871).
Local government services are provided by Wiltshire Council, with its headquarters in Trowbridge, and the parish is represented there by Brigadier Robert Hall. It is represented in Parliament by the Member for the Devizes constituency, Claire Perry.
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