Melksham () is a town and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

on the River Avon in

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated to Wilts) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It borders Gloucestershire to the north, Oxfordshire to the north-east, Berkshire to the east, Hampshire to the south-east, Dorset to the south, and Somerset to ...

, England, about northeast of

Trowbridge Trowbridge ( ) is the county town of Wiltshire, England; situated on the River Biss in the west of the county, close to the border with Somerset. The town lies south-east of Bath, Somerset, Bath, south-west of Swindon and south-east of Brist ...

and south of

Chippenham Chippenham is a market town in north-west Wiltshire, England. It lies north-east of Bath, Somerset, Bath, west of London and is near the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The town was established on a crossing of the River Avon, ...

. The parish population was 18,113 at the 2021 census.

History

Early history

Excavations in 2021 in the grounds of

Melksham House Melksham House is an 18th-century Listed building#Categories of listed building, Grade II listed house in the centre of Melksham, Wiltshire, England. It is owned by Wiltshire Council and is the home of Melksham House School, for children and yo ...

found fragments of locally made pottery from the early

Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

(7th to 4th centuries BC). There is evidence of settlement continuing into the later Iron Age and Roman periods, including Roman clay roof tiles. Melksham developed at a ford across the River Avon. The name is presumed to derive from "''meolc''", the

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

for milk, and ''"ham"'', a village. On

John Speed John Speed (1551 or 1552 – 28 July 1629) was an English cartographer, chronologer and historian of Cheshire origins.; superseding . The son of a citizen and Merchant Taylor in London,"Life of John Speed", ''The Hibernian Magazine, Or, Compe ...

's map of

(1611), the name is spelt both ''Melkesam'' (for the

hundred 100 or one hundred (Roman numerals, Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 (number), 99 and preceding 101 (number), 101. In mathematics 100 is the square of 10 (number), 10 (in scientific notation it is written as 102). The standar ...

) and ''Milsham'' (for the town itself). Melksham is also the name of the

Royal forest A royal forest, occasionally known as a kingswood (), is an area of land with different definitions in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. The term ''forest'' in the ordinary modern understanding refers to an area of wooded land; however, the ...

that occupied the surrounding of the area in the Middle Ages.

Landowners

In 1268,

Henry III of England Henry III (1 October 1207 – 16 November 1272), also known as Henry of Winchester, was King of England, Lord of Ireland, and Duke of Aquitaine from 1216 until his death in 1272. The son of John, King of England, King John and Isabella of Ang ...

gave the manor of Melksham to Amesbury Abbey for the souls of his late cousins Eleanor, Fair Maid of Brittany and Arthur I, Duke of Brittany. In 1539 the prioress and nuns of

Amesbury Amesbury () is a town and civil parish in Wiltshire, England. It is known for the prehistoric monument of Stonehenge which is within the parish. The town is claimed to be the oldest occupied settlement in Great Britain, having been first settl ...

surrendered to the king their Melksham estates, which they had held for some 250 years. This property, which consisted of the

lordship A lordship is a territory held by a lord. It was a landed estate that served as the lowest administrative and judicial unit in rural areas. It originated as a unit under the feudal system during the Middle Ages. In a lordship, the functions of eco ...

of the manor and hundred, was in 1541 granted to Sir Thomas Seymour. He then sold it to Henry Brouncker, who also had lands nearby at Erlestoke. At some uncertain date, perhaps about 1550, Brouncker built a residence for himself near Melksham church on the site of an earlier mansion. This was known as Place House. Three generations of the family lived here: Henry Brouncker the founder, (d.1569), his son, Sir William, and his grandson Henry. On the death of this last Henry, about 1600, it became manifest that the Brouncker estate was heavily encumbered, and in the course of the next twenty or thirty years, all the property was alienated with the exception of Erlestoke, where William Brouncker, the heir, retired with his wife Anne, daughter of Sir John Dauntesey. Meanwhile, Place House was occupied for ten or eleven years by Henry Brouncker's widow and her second husband, Ambrose Dauntesey. After their death, in 1612, the house apparently was occupied by the steward, and afterwards it was conveyed to Sir John Danvers, who married into the family, in 1634. Danvers died in 1655 and the lordship of Melksham passed to his son, who then conveyed the estate to Walter Long the Younger, of Whaddon. The lordship remained in the Long family, who were descended from the first Henry Brouncker, until the early part of the 20th century, having passed to the 1st Viscount Long of Wraxall.

Melksham Bank

An announcement was made in the '' Bath Chronicle'' in June 1792 of the establishment of the Melksham Bank by the firm of Awdry, Long & Bruges. In November 1813 the misquoting of part of an advertisement in two London newspapers caused panic amongst the bank customers, many of whom quickly withdrew their money, reportedly causing "some bustle" among the partners of the bank. There was further trouble in 1812, when the bank was listed on a Parliamentary Paper of the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

under the title "Country Banks Becoming Bankrupt". Moule's bank became the North Wilts Banking Company in 1835, which merged in 1877 to form Capital and Counties Bank. The latter developed a nationwide branch network and was taken over by

Lloyds Bank Lloyds Bank plc is a major British retail banking, retail and commercial bank with a significant presence across England and Wales. It has traditionally been regarded one of the "Big Four (banking)#England and Wales, Big Four" clearing house ...

in 1918.

Masonic Lodge

The Chaloner Lodge of

Freemason Freemasonry (sometimes spelled Free-Masonry) consists of fraternal groups that trace their origins to the medieval guilds of stonemasons. Freemasonry is the oldest secular fraternity in the world and among the oldest still-existing organizati ...

s (no.2644) was named after its first

Worshipful Master In Craft Freemasonry, sometimes known as Blue Lodge Freemasonry, every Masonic lodge elects or appoints Masonic lodge officers to execute the necessary functions of the lodge's life and work. The precise list of such offices may vary between the j ...

Richard Godolphin Walmesley Chaloner, 1st Baron Gisborough, who, when not in London, resided at

. He was the brother of the 1st Viscount Long. The lodge was

consecrated Sacred describes something that is dedicated or set apart for the service or worship of a deity; is considered worthy of spiritual respect or devotion; or inspires awe or reverence among believers. The property is often ascribed to objects (a ...

on 27 February 1897, with the first meeting scheduled for 4 pm 19 March, held at the town hall. Writing from London while attending his Parliamentary duties as MP for Westbury, he complained that this date was inconvenient due to his having to be at

Melton Mowbray Melton Mowbray () is a market town in the Borough of Melton, Melton district in Leicestershire, England, north-east of Leicester and south-east of Nottingham. It lies on the River Eye, Leicestershire, River Eye, known below Melton as the Rive ...

to ride in the House of Commons point to point steeplechase the next day. Despite this, the meeting went ahead and Chaloner initiated 13 of the candidates, returning to London overnight by train, getting virtually no sleep before his ride in the steeplechase early the next morning, resulting in him twice falling heavily from his horse.Chaloner Lodge No. 2644 Installation & Centenary Festival Booklet. G. Webb 1997 Later while deciding what extra furniture the lodge required, he asked that he have a special footstool, as his chair was high and his feet "dangled unpleasantly".

The Spa

In 1815 the Melksham Spa Company was formed by a group of 'respectable gentlemen', with names such as Methuen, Long and others, all of whom had done very well from the now declining textile industry. Their aim was to promote a spa, after abortive attempts to find coal had uncovered two springs. As a consequence they built six large three-storeyed,

semi-detached A semi-detached house (often abbreviated to semi) is a single-family Duplex (building), duplex dwelling that shares one common party wall, wall with its neighbour. The name distinguishes this style of construction from detached houses, with no sh ...

lodging houses forming a crescent, a pump room and hot and cold private baths. This suburban area at the southern end of the town is now known as The Spa, belonging to the

of Melksham Without. A plan for a similar crescent on the north side never materialised. Simultaneously an Act was obtained to 'improve the pleasing town of Melksham' by paving and improving its footways and cleansing, lighting and watching the streets. The spa was not as successful as had been hoped, due in part to the popularity of the waters at nearby

Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...

Buildings and structures

There are two Grade II* listed structures in the parish: St Michael's Church and one of the chest tombs in its churchyard. Pevsner wrote that "the only rewarding part of Melksham is by the church".

, south of the church, is early 18th century but largely rebuilt after a 1920 fire and adapted for use as a sports and social club. Southwest of the church, a 15th-century

tithe barn A tithe barn was a type of barn used in much of northern Europe in the Middle Ages for storing rents and tithes. Farmers were required to give one-tenth of their produce to the established church. Tithe barns were usually associated with the ...

was remodelled into a school by G. E. Street in 1878; the school left the premises in 1973 and the building is now residential. The area around Canon Square, north of the church, has several Grade II listed houses and cottages, among them a former vicarage dating from the late 17th century, remodelled in 1877 by Street and now divided into two residences. There is also a small two-storey roundhouse, built in the late 18th century for the wool industry. The town's four-span bridge over the Avon is from the late 18th century.

Religious sites

A church was recorded at Melksham in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

of 1086. The

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in com ...

of St Michael and All Angels has 12th-century origins, and was enlarged in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries; in 1845 it was restored by T. H. Wyatt and is now a

Grade II* listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

building. As the town expanded, in 1876 St Andrew's church was built in Early English style to serve the Forest area to the northeast of the town. A

Baptist Baptists are a Christian denomination, denomination within Protestant Christianity distinguished by baptizing only professing Christian believers (believer's baptism) and doing so by complete Immersion baptism, immersion. Baptist churches ge ...

chapel was erected at Old Broughton Road in 1714, and replaced with a larger building on the same site in 1776 which was enlarged in 1839. In 1850 there were 165 members, and 340 children attended the Sunday School. In 1909, school buildings were completed on land in front of the chapel. Ebenezer Baptist Church, Union Street, was built in 1835 by

Particular Baptist Reformed Baptists, also called Particular Baptists, or Calvinist Baptists, are Baptists that hold to a Calvinist soteriology (salvation belief teached by John Calvin). The name "Reformed Baptist" dates from the latter part of the 20th century ...

s. A

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...

chapel was built on the High Street in 1872, its two-storey front having four large Corinthian columns and a

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative Moulding (decorative), moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, ar ...

with oculus. This became the United Church after the union of the Methodists and

Congregationalists Congregationalism (also Congregational Churches or Congregationalist Churches) is a Reformed Christian (Calvinist) tradition of Protestant Christianity in which churches practice congregational government. Each congregation independently a ...

in 1976, and the Congregational church off the Market Place closed. A Catholic church, St Anthony of Padua, was built in pale brick to the south of the town centre and opened in 1939. An independent congregation built Queensway Chapel in the eastern suburbs in 1967. Melksham has a long history of Quakerism, beginning with meetings nearby at Shaw in the 17th century. A meeting-house was built in 1698 at what is now King Street, and rebuilt on the same site around 1777 (or 1734). Quakerism declined in the 19th century but the Melksham meeting continued until 1950. The meeting-house was sold in 1958 and was used as a Spiritualist church for a time; in 2015 the building was restored and converted into offices.

Governance

Until 1974 the town was managed by Melksham Urban District Council, based at Melksham Town Hall. It was then managed by West Wiltshire District Council, but since the

abolition Abolition refers to the act of putting an end to something by law, and may refer to: *Abolitionism, abolition of slavery *Capital punishment#Abolition of capital punishment, Abolition of the death penalty, also called capital punishment *Abolitio ...

of West Wiltshire in 2009, the most significant local government functions (including schools, roads, social services, recycling, emergency planning, leisure services, housing, development control and waste disposal) have been carried out by

Wiltshire Council Wiltshire Council, known between 1889 and 2009 as Wiltshire County Council, is the Local government in England, local authority for the non-metropolitan county of Wiltshire (district), Wiltshire in South West England, and has its headquarters a ...

, a

unitary authority A unitary authority is a type of local government, local authority in New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Unitary authorities are responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are ...

. Melksham

is divided into four electoral divisions, each electing one member to Wiltshire Council. These are Melksham Forest, Melksham East, Melksham South, and Melksham Without North & Shurnold; the latter extends north beyond the parish to include Whitley, Shaw and Beanacre. The civil parish has a town council, with fifteen members elected by four wards: East, Forest, North and South. The councillors elect one of their number as Mayor of Melksham for a one-year term. As well as having a consultative role, the town council runs the Assembly Hall events venue. Since 2019–2020 it is responsible for the town's play areas and King George V playing field, after transfer of ownership from Wiltshire Council. The outskirts of Melksham, and most of the surrounding rural communities, are administered by another parish council, Melksham Without. For Westminster elections, Melksham is part of the Melksham and Devizes constituency, which was created following a boundary review and first contested at the 2024 general election, when it was won by Brian Mathew for the Liberal Democrats.

Geography

The civil parish of Melksham includes Melksham Forest, formerly a separate settlement to the northeast and now a suburb of the town. It has an

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

church (St Andrew's, 1876) and had a

chapel (1905 to before 2010). The parish of Melksham Without includes several villages and suburbs of Melksham: * Bowerhill, a large residential community generally considered as separate from Melksham, with a large industrial area *Hunter's Meadow, a 2020s development north of Bowerhill * Berryfield, a village south of and adjacent to Melksham, often considered part of the town * Beanacre, a village to the north, again often considered as a northern suburb of the town.

Demography

In the 19th century, the population of Melksham parish increased from 4,000 at the 1801 census to 5,800 in 1851, then declined to 2,100 in 1891. Numbers increased slowly in the first half of the 20th century and more rapidly in the second half, rising to 14,204 by 2001. The 2011 census saw a modest increase to 14,677. The wider built-up area – which includes Berryfield and Bowerhill, both in Melksham Without parish – had a population of 19,357 at the 2011 census.

Economy

The ''Shell Guide to Wiltshire'', published in 1968, characterised the town as "with the exception of Swindon the most industrialized in the county". Today, Melksham has varied industries including

Avon Rubber Avon Technologies plc is a British company that specialises in the engineering and manufacturing of respiratory protection equipment for military, law enforcement and fire personnel. Its corporate headquarters are south of Melksham in Wiltshi ...

, which previously owned the Avon Tyre plant on a riverside site in the town centre. The plant became the home of Cooper Tire & Rubber (a subsidiary of the American Goodyear company) and was a major employer in the town, producing ''Cooper Avon'' and ''Avon Tyres'' brands until the site closed at the end of 2023. In 2000, Avon Rubber moved to a large purpose-built facility to the south of the town near Semington, employing over 300 on products such as gasmasks. Also to the south of the town, an area of light industry at Bowerhill is partly on the site of the former RAF Melksham training schools. Modern buildings here include regional headquarters designed by Sir Nicholas Grimshaw for the American office furniture maker Herman Miller, and the UK headquarters of

Knorr-Bremse Knorr-Bremse AG is a German manufacturer of braking systems for rail and commercial vehicles that has operated since 1905. Other products in the company's portfolio include intelligent door systems, control components, air conditioning system ...

, designer and manufacturer of railway braking systems. Melksham has a number of pharmacies, high street clothes shops, charity shops and privately run individual stores. It has five supermarkets:

Asda Asda Stores Limited (), trading as Asda and often styled as ASDA, is a British supermarket and petrol station chain. Its headquarters is in Leeds, England. The company was incorporated as Associated Dairies and Farm Stores in 1949. It expanded ...

Sainsbury's J Sainsbury plc, trading as Sainsbury's, is a British supermarket and the second-largest chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1869 by John James Sainsbury with a shop in Drury Lane, London, the company was the largest UK r ...

Waitrose Waitrose Limited, trading as Waitrose & Partners, is a British supermarket chain, founded in 1904 as Waite, Rose & Taylor, later shortened to Waitrose. In 1937, it was acquired by the John Lewis Partnership, the UK's largest employee-owned b ...

Lidl Lidl ( ) is a trademark, used by two Germany, German international discount supermarket, discount retailer chain store, chains that operates over 12,600 stores. The ''LD Stiftung'' operates the stores in Germany and the ''Lidl Stiftung & Co. K ...

and

Aldi Aldi (German pronunciation: ), stylised as ALDI, is the common company brand name of two German multinational family-owned discount supermarket chains operating over 12,000 stores in 18 countries. The chain was founded by brothers Karl and ...

Culture and community

Melksham has an Assembly Hall and the Rachel Fowler Centre, while many of the surrounding villages have community halls which offer a wide variety of activities. Melksham Oak Community School offers a variety of sporting and cultural facilities to the community of Melksham. The town has an annual 'Party in the Park' which usually takes place in July. It includes a fair with rides and amusements, a fireworks display, a stage hosting musical and dance acts and a carnival parade through the town with floats promoting local businesses and clubs and raising money for charity.

Media

Local news and television programmes are provided by BBC West and ITV West Country. Television signals are received from the Mendip TV transmitter. Melksham Independent News is the town's family-owned independent newspaper, established in 1981. Over 13,700 copies of the paper are distributed across the town and surrounding villages biweekly. The town is also served by the regional newspapers, Gazette and Herald and Wiltshire Times. Local radio stations are BBC Radio Wiltshire on 104.3 FM, Heart West on 102.2 FM, and Greatest Hits Radio South West on 107.5 FM.

Sport and leisure

Melksham Community Campus, built by

on a central site next to

, opened in 2022. It provides a swimming pool, library, sports centre and council offices. Melksham has a

non-League football Non-League football describes association football, football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it is ...

club,

Melksham Town F.C. Melksham Town Football Club is a association football, football club based in Melksham, Wiltshire, England. Affiliated to the Wiltshire Football Association, they are currently members of the and play at the Oakfield Stadium. History The club ...

, who play at the Oakfield Stadium on Eastern Way, which opened in January 2017. In 2018 the club won promotion from the Western League to the Southern League. Melksham Rugby Union Club also play at the Oakfields complex, on separate pitches. The Wiltshire School of Gymnastics is at Bowerhill. Melksham has a cricket club who play their home matches at the Melksham House ground. The club has both youth and adult teams; in the 2019 season their Saturday side competed in Division 4 of the Wiltshire County Cricket League following promotion in 2018.

Transport

Melksham railway station, on the branch of the Wessex Main Line from

, has services roughly every two hours in each direction on weekdays. Trains are operated by

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a History of rail transport in Great Britain, British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, ...

, with services marketed as the 'TransWilts line' between Westbury and Swindon. Melksham is served by bus companies including Faresaver and First West of England. The town is on the north–south A350 primary route from the

M4 motorway The M4, originally the London-South Wales Motorway, is the third longest motorway in the United Kingdom, running from west London to southwest Wales. The English section to the Severn Bridge was constructed between 1961 and 1971; the Welsh ele ...

(Junction 17, near Chippenham) to

Poole Poole () is a coastal town and seaport on the south coast of England in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole unitary authority area in Dorset, England. The town is east of Dorchester, Dorset, Dorchester and adjoins Bournemouth to the east ...

on the south coast. In February 2020, the central government gave approval for a £125m re-routing of the A350 to the east of Melksham.

Education

Primary schools within Melksham parish are: *Aloeric Primary School *Forest & Sandridge C of E Primary School *The Manor C of E VC Primary School (formerly Lowbourne Junior, St Michaels School) *River Mead School (formerly King's Park Primary School, Lowbourne Infants School) Primary schools near the town include: *Bowerhill Primary School *Churchfields Primary School, Atworth *Seend C of E Primary School *Shaw C of E Primary School *St Mary's Broughton Gifford Primary School There is one secondary school in the Melksham catchment area: Melksham Oak Community School opened in 2010 at Bowerhill, replacing The George Ward Technology College which served the community for over 50 years. Stonar School, an all-ages independent day and boarding school, is nearby at Atworth.

Dinosaur

Melksham is the namesake for a prehistoric crocodile species discovered in the town. ''Ieldraan melkshamensis'', or the Melksham Monster, was 10 ft long and was an

apex predator An apex predator, also known as a top predator or superpredator, is a predator at the top of a food chain, without natural predators of its own. Apex predators are usually defined in terms of trophic dynamics, meaning that they occupy the hig ...

in the waters around the UK during the

Jurassic The Jurassic ( ) is a Geological period, geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately 143.1 Mya. ...

period. The fossil had been in the possession of the

Natural History Museum A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history scientific collection, collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, Fungus, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleo ...

since 1875, until a team from the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

led by Davide Foffa classified it in 2017 as a distinct species.

Notable people

* Edward Barnwell (1813–1887), schoolmaster, archaeologist and antiquarian, owned

from 1866 and financed the building of St Andrew's church in the Forest area of the town * Matthew Bound,

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

* Edmund Wright Brooks (1834–1928),

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally, others referred to them as Quakers ...

philanthropist * John Fowler (1826–1864), agricultural engineer * Ken Gill (1927–2009), trade union leader and caricaturist, born and brought up in Melksham * Sidney Goodwin (1910–1912), born in Melksham, child victim of the sinking of the ''

Titanic RMS ''Titanic'' was a British ocean liner that sank in the early hours of 15 April 1912 as a result of striking an iceberg on her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, United States. Of the estimated 2,224 passengers a ...

'' together with his parents and five siblings * James Hurn,

cricketer Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

* Julia de Lacy Mann (1891–1985), economic historian, principal of

St Hilda's College, Oxford St Hilda's College (full name = Principal and Council of St. Hilda's College, Oxford) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. The college is named after the Anglo-Saxon saint Hilda of Whitby and was founded in 1893 as a ...

; retired to Melksham, was president of the West Wilshire Historical Society * Robert Martineau,

bishop;

curate A curate () is a person who is invested with the ''care'' or ''cure'' () of souls of a parish. In this sense, ''curate'' means a parish priest; but in English-speaking countries the term ''curate'' is commonly used to describe clergy who are as ...

in Melksham from 1938 * Phil McMullen, writer, music critic, events organiser * Henry Moule (1801–1880), pioneer of the earth closet * Horace Newte, writer, born in Melksham * Andy Park, known as "Mr. Christmas" *

Diana Ross Diana Ross (born Diane Ernestine Earle Ross March 26, 1944) is an American singer and actress. Known as the "Queen of Motown Records", she was the lead singer of the vocal group the Supremes, who became Motown#Major divisions, Motown's most suc ...

, children's author, lived at Shaw for many years * Brad Scott, MMA fighter * John Dunlop Southern, cricketer * George Thicknesse, 19th Baron Audley, died, and is buried, in Melksham * Ann Yearsley (ca. 1753–1806), poet; died in Melksham

References

* * ''British Spas from 1815 to the Present: A Social History'', Phyllis M. Hembry, Leonard W. Cowie, Evelyn E. Cowie, Social Science, 1997 * Wiltshire Notes and Queries. Vol. IV 1903

External links

* *
The Well House Collection
– a privately run museum of Melksham * {{authority control Towns in Wiltshire Civil parishes in Wiltshire English royal forests