Whitley is a village in the
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 below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...
of
Melksham Without
Melksham Without is a civil parish in the county of Wiltshire, England. It surrounds, but does not include, the town of Melksham and is the largest rural parish in Wiltshire, with a population of 7,230 (as of 2011) and an area of .
In 1894 the ...
,
Wiltshire
Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...
, England. It had a population of 1,914 in the 2011 census. This parish was formed in Local Government Act of 1894, when Whitley was united with the nearby settlements of
Beanacre and
Shaw, which are all primarily residential and agricultural communities. The village is about northwest of
Melksham
Melksham () is a town on the River Avon in Wiltshire, England, about northeast of Trowbridge and south of Chippenham. At the 2011 census, the Melksham built-up area had a population of 19,357, making it Wiltshire's fifth-largest settlement aft ...
on the B3353 Shaw to
Corsham
Corsham is a historic market town and civil parish in west Wiltshire, England. It is at the south-eastern edge of the Cotswolds, just off the A4 national route, southwest of Swindon, southeast of Bristol, northeast of Bath and southwest of ...
road.
[ The hamlet of West Hill is to the west, on the road to Atworth.
]
History
The manor of Whitley was recorded in the 13th century and became a tithing of Melksham parish.Lacock
Lacock is a village and civil parish in the county of Wiltshire, England, about 3 miles (5 km) south of the town of Chippenham, and about outside the Cotswolds area. The village is owned almost in its entirety by the National Trust ...
road.[ Whitley House dates from the late seventeenth century. Whitley Farmhouse, Slade's Farmhouse and the Pear Tree Inn all date to the late seventeenth century, and Westlands Farmhouse and Northey's Farmhouse to the early eighteenth. Cottages were added to the village throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but substantial infill only took place in the twentieth century. Lower Whitley, around Westlands Farm, remains relatively undeveloped.]
Amenities
A Methodist
Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's ...
chapel was built in 1828 and replaced by a new building at Top Lane in 1867.pub
A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...
, the ''Pear Tree Inn'', dating from the late 17th century with a 19th-century interior. There is a village hall, the Reading Rooms, built in 1904.
References
External links
*
{{authority control
Melksham Without
Villages in Wiltshire