Bowerhill
| Bowerhill | |
 Falcon Way |
|
  Bowerhill |
|
| OS grid reference | ST9162 |
|---|---|
| Shire county | Wiltshire |
| Region | South West |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | MELKSHAM |
| Postcode district | SN12 |
| Dialling code | 01225 |
| Police | Wiltshire |
| Fire | Wiltshire |
| Ambulance | South Western |
| EU Parliament | South West England |
Coordinates: 51°22′N 2°07′W / 51.36°N 02.12°W
Bowerhill is an outer suburb of Melksham, belonging to the civil parish of Melksham Without. Central Bowerhill is approximately 1.75 miles (2.75 km) south of Melksham town centre. Bowerhill has a sizable industrial estate to the west of its residential area. This industrial area had been developed from a former Royal Air Force military base, and is home to the Wiltshire Gymnastics Centre and the Christie Miller Leisure Centre. The German engineering company Knorr-Bremse Rail Systems (formerly Westinghouse Rail Systems) established large modern offices in Bowerhill in 2009.
Bowerhill has a population of approximately 3,000 inhabitants and is effectively a small satellite town of Melksham. In the early-2000s (decade), new residential developments such as Hunter's Meadow boosted Bowerhill's population further.
History
Bowerhill was a rural area until early in 1940 when building work began on a new RAF station. In July the RAF School of Instrument Training moved here from Cranwell and later a branch of the RAF Armament School also moved here. In the following years other courses were run and in 1942 the Armament School moved out and was replaced by the RAF Electrical School from Hereford. Much specialised training was undertaken at RAF Melksham with not only RAF personnel but Polish, Free French and American members of the Allied Air Forces.
Towards the end of the Second World War a large number of Royal Naval Air Service mechanics were trained here and many transport drivers also received instruction. From the end of the war, RAF Melksham resumed its role in Electrical and Instrument courses and continued with this and other education programmes until the early-1970s. The station was then decommissioned and used for a mixture of industrial, commercial and residential use, with much development in the 1980s.
This legacy is remembered in the area's street names, many of which are taken from historical aircraft of the RAF. These includes Falcon Way, Lancaster Road and Fulmar Close. The local pub is called The Pilot, and was formerly named The Harrier.
The village was bounded to the south by GWR Devizes Branch Line until its closure in 1966. The land formerly occupied by the railway began to be developed for new buildings in 2007.
Sources
External links
Media related to Bowerhill at Wikimedia Commons