The Market Town of Chippenham

Alfred the Great is said to have bequeathed Chippenham to his daughter Elfrida, and it is mentioned in the Doomsday book as one of the manors held by St. Edward. It used to be home to a saxon market place between the forests; Chippenham, Melksham and Braden were the favourite hunting grounds of the Wessex Kings.

In the reign of King John (1199-1216) Chippenham was granted a market (on Wednesdays) and a fair on St Andrew’s Day and the market town was granted its charter in 1554 by Queen Mary,

The town has a mix of historic housing including timber-framed houses of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, as well as Georgian stately homes.  Queen Mary paid for the building of the first stone bridge. An imposing structure of some twenty five arches.

Friday is now 'Market Day' and Saturday sees Chippenham's ‘Street Market’ around the town’s recently re-erected Butter Cross in the Market Place. Not a "cross" at all but a large stone roof sitting on six pillars.  The cross once stood a few yards away on the site of Barclay's Bank. It was taken down in 1889 and moved to the grounds of the Manor in Castle Combe where it remained until 1996.

Chippenham was the stop off point for coaches travelling between Bristol and London as it's location in north Wiltshire makes it wonderfully situated as a centre for touring within a hundred mile radius.  It lies on the southern most edge of the Cotswolds, just to the north west of Salisbury Plain & the Marlborough Downs.  The town is only a few miles from Bath and north west of the Mendips.

Visit Chippenham, in Wiltshire...

• Flickr - Chippenham

Information about Chippenham...

• Wikipedia - Chippenham

• CuriousFox UK Gazeteer - Chippenham

~ ~ WHERE WE USED TO LIVE ~ ~

The city and county of  BRISTOL

CORSHAM  in West Wiltshire

The city of  SALISBURY,  the county town of Wiltshire

The picturesque village of  SIXPENNY HANDLEY  in North Dorset,
on the South Wiltshire and Hampshire borders

The Dorset town of  WEYMOUTH

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