Foxham, Wiltshire
Coordinates: 51°29′35″N 2°02′35″W / 51.493°N 02.043°W
Foxham is a village in Bremhill civil parish in Wiltshire, about 5 miles (8.0 km) northeast of Chippenham and a similar distance northwest of Calne.
Manor
Cadenham Manor is a house of five bays built in the second half of the 17th century.[1] It replaces an earlier manor house, from which part of a window-head survives in the north porch that was added in the 20th century.[1]
Church and chapel
There is a record of Foxham being a chapelry of the parish of Bremhill and Highway by 1219.[2] The present Church of England parish church of Saint John the Baptist was designed by the Gothic Revival architect William Butterfield and built in 1878-81.[1] It includes a stained glass window made in about 1855 that was part of the east window of St Martin's parish church, Bremhill.
Foxham had a Wesleyan chapel, but it has been closed and converted into a house.
Canal
Construction of the Wilts & Berks Canal began at Semington in 1796 and had reached Foxham by December 1798, when Foxham locks were under construction.[3] By June 1800 the next section, from Foxham to Dauntsey, was complete.[4] The canal was completed to Abingdon in September 1810.[5]
The canal passed Foxham just east of Cadenham Manor. It brought coal from the Somerset coalfield to Swindon and Abingdon. It declined after the Great Western Main Line was completed in 1841. Traffic was minimal after an aqueduct at Stanley between Chippenham and Calne collapsed in 1901[6] and the canal was formally abandoned by an Act of Parliament in 1914.[7]
The main line of the canal is now being restored.[8] The section east of Foxham Top Lock is one of those whose restoration has now been completed.[9]
Amenities
Foxham has one public house, the Foxham Inn.
The Reading Room was built in 1884 and extended in 1979 (taken from 'The Newsletter' August 2013 being the parish newsletter for Bremhill, Foxham, the Tythertons and surrounding villages and hamlets). It is Foxham's village hall and also includes its Sub-Post Office.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Pevsner & Cherry, page 251
- ↑ Pugh & Crittall, 1953, pages 197-198
- ↑ Small, 1999, page 20
- ↑ Small, 1999, page 21
- ↑ Small, 1999, page 24
- ↑ Small, 1999, page 94
- ↑ Small, 1999, pages 95-96
- ↑ Small, 1999, pages 107-109
- ↑ "Restoration at Foxham". Foxham & Lyneham Banch. Wilts & Berks Canal Trust. 2009. Retrieved 11 August 2010.
Sources
- Pevsner, Nikolaus; Cherry, Bridget (revision) (1975) [1963]. The Buildings of England: Wiltshire. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. p. 251. ISBN 0140710264.
- Pugh, R.B.; Crittall, Elizabeth (eds.); Chettle, H.F.; Powell, W.R.; Spalding, P.A.; Tillott, P.M. (1956). Victoria County History: A History of the County of Wiltshire, Volume 7. pp. 197–198.
- Small, Doug (1999). The Wilts & Berks Canal. Stroud: Tempus Publishing Ltd. ISBN 978-0-7524-1619-9.
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