Bradford-on-Avon (sometimes Bradford on Avon) 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 ...

in west

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, near the border with

Somerset Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...

. The town's canal, historic buildings, shops, pubs and restaurants make it popular with tourists. The parish had a population of 10,405 at the 2021 census. The history of the town can be traced back to Roman origins. It has several buildings dating from the 17th century, when the town grew due to the thriving English woollen textile industry.

History

The earliest evidence of habitation is fragments of Roman settlements above the town. In particular,

archaeological Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

digs have revealed the remains of a large

Roman villa A Roman villa was typically a farmhouse or country house in the territory of the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, sometimes reaching extravagant proportions. Nevertheless, the term "Roman villa" generally covers buildings with the common ...

with a well-preserved

mosaic A mosaic () is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/Mortar (masonry), mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and ...

on the playing fields of St Laurence School. The centre of the town grew up around the ford across the river Avon, hence the origin of the town's name ("Broad-Ford"). This was supplemented in Norman times by the stone bridge that still stands today. The Norman side is upstream, and has pointed arches; the newer side has curved arches. The Town Bridge and Chapel is a grade I

listed building 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, Hi ...

. It was originally a

packhorse bridge A packhorse bridge is a bridge intended to carry packhorses (horses loaded with sidebags or panniers) across a river or stream. Typically a packhorse bridge consists of one or more narrow (one horse wide) masonry arches, and has low Parapet#Bridg ...

, but widened in the 17th century by rebuilding the western side. On 2 July 1643 the town was the site of a skirmish in the

English Civil War The English Civil War or Great Rebellion was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Cavaliers, Royalists and Roundhead, Parliamentarians in the Kingdom of England from 1642 to 1651. Part of the wider 1639 to 1653 Wars of th ...

, when Royalists seized control of the bridge on their way to the Battle of Lansdowne. On the bridge stands a small building which was originally a

chapel A chapel (from , a diminutive of ''cappa'', meaning "little cape") is a Christianity, Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. First, smaller spaces inside a church that have their o ...

but was later used as a town lock-up. The weathervane on top takes the form of a gudgeon (an early Christian symbol), hence the local saying "under the fish and over the water". (The gilded fish is a perch; Bradford gudgeon is a local term.) The river provided power for the wool mills that gave the town its wealth. The town has 17th-century buildings dating from the most successful period of the local

textile Textile is an Hyponymy and hypernymy, umbrella term that includes various Fiber, fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, Staple (textiles)#Filament fiber, filaments, Thread (yarn), threads, and different types of #Fabric, fabric. ...

industry. The best examples of weavers' cottages are on Newtown, Middle Rank and Tory Terraces.

Daniel Defoe Daniel Defoe (; born Daniel Foe; 1660 – 24 April 1731) was an English writer, merchant and spy. He is most famous for his novel ''Robinson Crusoe'', published in 1719, which is claimed to be second only to the Bible in its number of translati ...

visited Bradford-on-Avon in the early 18th century and commented: "They told me at Bradford that it was no extra-ordinary thing to have clothiers in that country worth, from ten thousand, to forty thousand pounds a man '' quivalent to £1.3M to £5.3M in 2007', and many of the great families, who now pass for gentry in those counties, have been originally raised from, and built up by this truly noble manufacture." With improving mechanisation in textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution, the wool

weaving Weaving is a method of textile production in which two distinct sets of yarns or threads are interlaced at right angles to form a fabric or cloth. Other methods are knitting, crocheting, felting, and braiding or plaiting. The longitudinal ...

industry moved from cottages to purpose-built woollen mills adjacent to the river, where they used water and steam to power the looms. Around thirty such mills were built in Bradford-on-Avon alone, and these prospered further until the English woollen industry shifted its centre of power to Yorkshire in the late 19th century. The last local mill closed in 1905. Many have since stood empty and some became derelict. Tithe Barn at Bradford on Avon

A notable feature of Bradford-on-Avon is the large Grade I listed

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 ...

, 180 feet long and 30 feet wide, which was constructed in the 14th century and is now part of Barton Farm

Country Park A country park is a natural area designated for people to visit and enjoy recreation in a countryside environment. United Kingdom History In the United Kingdom, the term ''country park'' has a specific meaning. There are around 250 designated c ...

. The barn was used for collecting taxes, in the form of goods, to fund the church. There are several notable buildings in and around the town centre. Many of the old textile factories have been converted into modern flats and apartments; however, few of the buildings are still used today in their original roles. One of the few is The Swan, a public house and hotel set in the centre of town; the building is 17th century and retains many original features, in particular the stone flag floors. Records show that there has been a public house on the same site since the 1500s. The Hall, on the eastern edge of the town, is a Jacobean mansion built for John Hall, a wealthy mill-owner, in about 1610. It was bought by Stephen Moulton in 1848, and is now managed by the Alex Moulton Charitable Trust. In 1998 the Wiltshire Music Centre was opened in Bradford-on-Avon, on the grounds of St Laurence School. In 2000, the Millennium sculpture nicknamed "Millie" was unveiled. On 8 October 2003, Bradford-on-Avon was granted Fairtrade Town status.

Geography

The town lies partly in the Avon Valley, and partly on the hill that marks the Vale's western edge, southeast of

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 ...

, in the hilly area between the

Mendip Hills The Mendip Hills (commonly called the Mendips) is a range of limestone hills to the south of Bristol and Bath, Somerset, Bath in Somerset, England. Running from Weston-super-Mare and the Bristol Channel in the west to the River Frome, Somerset ...

Salisbury Plain Salisbury Plain is a chalk plateau in southern England covering . It is part of a system of chalk downlands throughout eastern and southern England formed by the rocks of the Chalk Group and largely lies within the county of Wiltshire, but st ...

and the Cotswold Hills. The local area around Bath provides 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. ...

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

known as

Bath stone Bath Stone is an oolitic limestone comprising granular fragments of calcium carbonate originally obtained from the Middle Jurassic aged Great Oolite Group of the Combe Down and Bathampton Down Mines under Combe Down, Somerset, England. Its h ...

, from which the older buildings are constructed. The River Avon (the

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...

Avon) runs through the town. The larger town 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 ...

is nearby to the southeast. The town includes the suburbs of Bearfield and Woolley; the parish includes the hamlets of Widbrook and Woolley Green. The Western Wiltshire

Green Belt A green belt or greenbelt is a policy, and land-use zone designation used in land-use planning to retain areas of largely undeveloped, wilderness, wild, or agricultural landscape, land surrounding or neighboring urban areas. Similar concepts ...

, which forms the eastern extent of the Avon Green Belt, completely surrounds Bradford-on-Avon. It helps to maintain the setting and preserve the character of the town by maintaining separation from nearby settlements such as Trowbridge, Winsley, and Westwood.

Religious sites

Early church

The

Saxon The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...

church dedicated to

Saint Laurence Saint Lawrence or Laurence (; 31 December 225 – 10 August 258) was one of the seven deacons of the city of Rome under Pope Sixtus II who were martyred in the persecution of the Christians that the Roman emperor Valerian ordered in 258. ...

may have been founded by Saint Aldhelm around 705, and could have been a temporary burial site for King Edward the Martyr. It was rediscovered by the Anglican priest, antiquarian and author William Jones in 1856, having been used for secular purposes (apparently becoming a house, a school and part of a factory). It is suggested that some of the building, containing the blind arcades at a higher level, may belong to a later period Taylor, H M; Taylor, Joan. ''Anglo-Saxon Architecture'',

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press was the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted a letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it was the oldest university press in the world. Cambridge University Press merged with Cambridge Assessme ...

, 1980. while a leaflet available at the church in February 2012 seems to prefer the period 950–1050 for the whole building. The elaborate ornamentation of the exterior consists of pilaster-strips, a broad

frieze In classical architecture, the frieze is the wide central section of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic order, Ionic or Corinthian order, Corinthian orders, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Patera (architecture), Paterae are also ...

of two plain string-courses between which is a blind arcade of round-headed arches whose short vertical pilasters have trapezoidal capitals and bases, while on the eastern

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

and the corners adjacent there is a series of mouldings as vertical triple semicylinders. Inside the church, high in the wall above a small

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the Choir (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...

arch, are the carved figures of two flying angels, the right-hand figure reportedly "intended to be clothed in transparent drapery ... the legs from the knee downward are depicted as showing through the transparent robe" which is referred to as a "quaint fancy".

Others

In addition to the Saxon church, the town has two

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

churches, two

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 ...

chapels, a United Church (

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 ...

and

United Reformed Church The United Reformed Church (URC) is a Protestant Christian church in the United Kingdom. As of 2024 it had approximately 44,000 members in around 1,250 congregations with 334 stipendiary ministers. The URC is a Trinitarian church whose theolog ...

), a free nonconformist church, a community church, a

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 ...

(Society of Friends) meeting house and a

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

church. Holy Trinity Church is the original

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 ...

, and stands near the town centre by the river. The Grade I listed building is Norman in origin, and it is possible that the

was built over the remains of an older church. Several chapels were added on the north side, and the wall in between was later opened up so that the chapels now form the north aisle. A squint, or hagioscope, near the altar is claimed to be England's longest. The

tower A tower is a tall Nonbuilding structure, structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from guyed mast, masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting ...

and spire was built around 1480, replacing an older one, and the south wall was largely rebuilt in the 19th century. The church has a ring of eight bells, with the

tenor A tenor is a type of male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. Composers typically write music for this voice in the range from the second B below m ...

(heaviest bell) weighing . The other

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, Christ Church, is entirely a Victorian construction. The

Catholic church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

, dedicated to St. Thomas More, occupies a Grade II listed building, dating from 1854, that used to be the town hall. There is also a Buddhist monastery in the town, under the auspices of the Aukana Trust; it comprises a monastic building each for men and for women, and a meditation hall. There are also workshops, gardens and a library, and the elegant buildings look down upon the town from a hill. The monastery practises the

Theravadin ''Theravāda'' (; 'School of the Elders'; ) is Buddhism's oldest existing school. The school's adherents, termed ''Theravādins'' ( anglicized from Pali ''theravādī''), have preserved their version of the Buddha's teaching or '' Dhamma'' in ...

tradition of Buddhism, and offers opportunities for both full-time residential and part-time practise and study.

Economy

Bradford-on-Avon was the site of an early factory for rubber products, established at Kingston Mill by Stephen Moulton in 1848 and later named George Spencer, Moulton and Co. The company was acquired by

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 ...

, a large manufacturer of rubber products for the automotive and other industries, and production continued until 1993. Today, the town is the headquarters of the

Alex Moulton Alexander Eric Moulton (9 April 1920 – 9 December 2012) was an English engineer and inventor, specialising in Suspension (vehicle), suspension design. Early life and education Moulton's father, John Coney Moulton, was a naturalist working in ...

bicycle A bicycle, also called a pedal cycle, bike, push-bike or cycle, is a human-powered transport, human-powered or motorized bicycle, motor-assisted, bicycle pedal, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, with two bicycle wheel, wheels attached to a ...

company and has several other small-scale manufacturing enterprises. The town's main business is shopping, tourism and day-to-day servicing of a population largely made up of families, commuters and the retired. The town has one mid-sized

supermarket A supermarket is a self-service Retail#Types of outlets, shop offering a wide variety of food, Drink, beverages and Household goods, household products, organized into sections. Strictly speaking, a supermarket is larger and has a wider selecti ...

on the Elms Cross industrial estate, a short walk from the canal lock, and five

convenience store A convenience store, convenience shop, bakkal, bodega, corner store, corner shop, superette or mini-mart is a small retail store that stocks a range of everyday items such as convenience food, groceries, beverages, tobacco products, lotter ...

s. Local consumers founded Bradford-on-Avon Co-operative Society in 1861, which, in the 1960s, united with other

consumer co-operative A consumer cooperative is an business, enterprise owned by consumers and managed democracy, democratically and that aims at fulfilling the needs and aspirations of its members. Such cooperatives operate within the market economy independently of t ...

s in the district to merge with a national business. A mini outdoor

shopping centre A shopping center in American English, shopping centre in English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English (see American and British English spelling differences#-re, -er, spelling differences), shopping complex, shopping arcade, ...

of independent shops, Weavers Walk, which describes itself as an "ethical trading centre", is in the town centre. The town is an increasingly popular location for films, television adaptations and more; it has played host to ''

Wolf Hall ''Wolf Hall'' is a 2009 historical novel by English author Hilary Mantel, published by Fourth Estate, named after the Seymour family's seat of Wolfhall, or Wulfhall, in Wiltshire. Set in the period from 1500 to 1535, ''Wolf Hall'' is a sym ...

'', '' Creation'' (a 2009 film about the life of Darwin), ''

Robin of Sherwood ''Robin of Sherwood'' is a British television series, based on the legend of Robin Hood. Created by Richard Carpenter, it was produced by HTV in association with Goldcrest, and ran from 28 April 1984 to 28 June 1986 on the ITV network. In th ...

'' and a 1972 film adaptation of ''

The Canterbury Tales ''The Canterbury Tales'' () is a collection of 24 stories written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer between 1387 and 1400. The book presents the tales, which are mostly written in verse, as part of a fictional storytelling contest held ...

''. In 2016, ''The White Princess'' TV series was filmed in the area.

Transport

Bradford-on-Avon is on the A363

road, which runs through the town from south to north, and crossed over by the B3109 linking Bradford-on-Avon with

Melksham Melksham () is a town and civil parish on the Bristol Avon, River Avon in Wiltshire, England, about northeast of Trowbridge and south of Chippenham. The parish population was 18,113 at the 2021 census. History Early history Excavations in ...

and

Frome Frome ( ) is a town and civil parish in Somerset, England, on uneven high ground at the eastern end of the Mendip Hills and on the River Frome, south of Bath. The population of the parish was 28,559 in 2021. Frome was one of the largest tow ...

. All other road routes are minor, affording access to local settlements. Bradford-on-Avon is about 15 miles from junction 18 of 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 ...

and the same distance from junction 17 at

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, ...

. Bradford-on-Avon railway station is served 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, ...

on the

Wessex Main Line The Wessex Main Line is the railway line from Bristol Temple Meads to Southampton Central. Diverging from this route is the Heart of Wessex Line from Westbury to Weymouth. The Wessex Main Line intersects the Reading to Taunton Line at and ...

and

Heart of Wessex Line The Heart of Wessex Line, also known as the Bristol to Weymouth Line, is a railway line that runs from to and Weymouth in England. It shares the Wessex Main Line as far as Westbury and then follows the course of the Reading to Taunton Line ...

routes. The line opened in the mid-19th century and was built by the original

. The main station building by Brunel is Grade II listed. Running parallel to the railway through the town is the

Kennet and Avon Canal The Kennet and Avon Canal is a waterway in southern England with an overall length of , made up of two lengths of Navigability, navigable river linked by a canal. The name is used to refer to the entire length of the navigation rather than sol ...

. The use of this canal declined as the railways grew but it was restored to full working order during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. The canal provides a link through to the Avon at Bath in the west, and the

Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after th ...

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of symbols, often specifically those of a written language, by means of Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifacete ...

in the east.

Governance

Bradford-on-Avon

elects a

town council A town council, city council or municipal council is a form of local government for small municipalities. Usage of the term varies under different jurisdictions. Republic of Ireland In 2002, 49 urban district councils and 26 town commissi ...

with twelve members: six for the North

ward Ward may refer to: Division or unit * Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward * Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a pris ...

and six for the South ward. After the May 2021 elections, there were seven Liberal Democrat and five Ideal Bradford councillors. The town council provides an increasing range of services in the town, building on its historically mostly consultative and ceremonial role. These include provision of youth services, management of significant and growing areas of green space and town facilities, and management of several premises within the town. Members of the council elect one of their number as the town's mayor, for a one-year term. The town council declared a climate emergency in March 2019 and has committed to becoming

carbon neutral Global net-zero emissions is reached when greenhouse gas emissions and Greenhouse gas removal, removals due to human activities are in balance. It is often called simply net zero. ''Emissions'' can refer to all greenhouse gases or only carbon diox ...

by 2030. Statutory local government functions – including schools, roads, social services, emergency planning, leisure services, development control, and waste disposal – are 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 ...

. The North and South wards each elect one member of Wiltshire Council. For Westminster elections, Bradford-on-Avon 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 Brian Frederick Mathew MBE, VMH is a British botanist, born in the village of Limpsfield, Surrey, England. His particular area of expertise is bulbous plants, particularly ornamental bulbous plants, although he has contributed to other field ...

for the Liberal Democrats. From 2010 to 2024, the town was in the

constituency.

Education

The town has a secondary school, St Laurence School, founded in 1980 as a result of the merger of Fitzmaurice Grammar School and Trinity

Secondary Modern school A secondary modern school () is a type of secondary school that existed throughout England, Wales and Northern Ireland from 1944 until the 1970s under the Tripartite System. Secondary modern schools accommodated the majority (70–75%) of pupil ...

. There are two primary schools: in the north of the town is Christ Church CofE ( VC) Primary School, established as a National school in 1848 and on its present site since 1956, and in the south is Fitzmaurice Primary School, opened in 1928 as Bradford on Avon Council Junior Mixed and Infants' School.

Media

Local news and television programmes are provided by BBC West and

ITV West Country ITV West Country is the British television service provided by ITV Broadcasting Limited for the South West England franchise area on the ITV network. Previously, between 2009 and 2013, the area was a non-franchise region, branded with the same ...

. Television signals are received from the Mendip and the local relay transmitters. Local radio stations are

BBC Radio Wiltshire BBC Radio Wiltshire is the BBC's local radio station serving the English county of Wiltshire. It broadcasts on FM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios at Prospect Place in Swindon. According to RAJAR, the station had a weekly au ...

on 104.3 FM, Heart West on 102.2, Greatest Hits Radio South West on 107.7 FM and West Wilts Radio, a community based radio station that broadcast online. The

Wiltshire Times The ''Wiltshire Times'' is a weekly newspaper published in Trowbridge, Wiltshire in South West England. The paper serves the western Wiltshire towns of Bradford on Avon, Trowbridge, Corsham, Chippenham, Warminster, Westbury and Melksham, and the ...

is the local newspaper that serves the town.

Sport and leisure

Bradford-on-Avon 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, Bradford Town F.C., who play at the Sports and Social Club on Trowbridge Road. In addition to a bowls & croquet club, tennis courts and a swimming pool, there is also the Bradford-on-Avon Rowing Club, catering for rowing and canoeing from their base opposite Barton Farm country park. Bradford on Avon rugby club, whose first team played in Dorset & Wilts 1 North in 2019–20, have their ground at Winsley, just west of the town. Wiltshire Music Centre is a purpose-built, 300-seat concert hall within the grounds of St Laurence School that attracts internationally renowned musicians.

Notable people

Rt Hon John Methuen as Lord Chancellor of Ireland - by Adrien Carpentiers

* Paul Methuen (1613–1667), clothier, lived and worked in Bradford-on-Avon. * John Methuen (1650–1706), was born in Bradford-on-Avon, as was his son Sir Paul Methuen (ca.1672–1757); they were successively British Ambassadors to Portugal. * Lieutenant General Henry Shrapnel (1761–1842), a British Army officer who invented the

shrapnel shell Shrapnel shells were anti-personnel artillery munitions that carried many individual bullets close to a target area and then ejected them to allow them to continue along the shell's trajectory and strike targets individually. They relied almost ...

, born at Midway Manor. * Shadrack Byfield (1789–1874),

War of 1812 The War of 1812 was fought by the United States and its allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom and its allies in North America. It began when the United States United States declaration of war on the Uni ...

infantryman and memoirist, born in Woolley, Bradford-on-Avon. * E. H. Young (1880–1949), novelist, children's writer and mountaineer, lived in Bradford-on-Avon. * Eric Derwent Walrond (1898–1966),

Afro-Caribbean Afro-Caribbean or African Caribbean people are Caribbean people who trace their full or partial ancestry to Sub-Saharan Africa. The majority of the modern Afro-Caribbean people descend from the Indigenous peoples of Africa, Africans (primarily fr ...

Harlem Renaissance The Harlem Renaissance was an intellectual and cultural revival of African-American music, dance, art, fashion, literature, theater, politics, and scholarship centered in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, spanning the 1920s and 1930s. At the ti ...

writer and journalist, lived from 1939 to 1952 at 9 Ivy Terrace, Bradford-on-Avon. *

(1920–2012), engineer and inventor, lived at

The Hall, Bradford-on-Avon The Hall, at times known as Kingston House and The Duke's House, is a Grade I listed Jacobean mansion in Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire, England. History The Hall was built around 1610 for John Hall, a wealthy mill owner, and is at the east end ...

. * Sir

Donald Maitland Sir Donald James Dundas Maitland (16 August 192222 August 2010) was a senior British diplomat. He served as British Prime Minister Edward Heath's press secretary 1970 to 1974. Early life Donald was the son of Thomas Maitland. He was born ...

(1922–2010), senior diplomat, lived in Bradford-on-Avon. * Jonathan Newth (born 1939), stage and television actor, lives in Bradford-on-Avon. *

Hugh Scully Michael Hugh Scully (5 March 1943 – 8 October 2015) was an English journalist, radio and television presenter. He was the host and longest-serving presenter of the BBC programme ''Antiques Roadshow'' from 1981 to 2000. Early life Born in Br ...

(1943–2015) TV presenter, was born in Bradford-on-Avon. * Paul Emsley (born 1947), artist, lives in Bradford-on-Avon. *

Peter Hammill Peter Joseph Andrew Hammill (born 5 November 1948) is an English musician and recording artist. He was a founder member of the progressive rock band Van der Graaf Generator. Best known as a singer-songwriter, he also plays guitar and piano and ...

(born 1948), singer-songwriter, lives in Bradford-on-Avon. * Stephen Volk (born 1954), screenwriter, lives in Bradford-on-Avon. * Simon R. Green (born 1955), science-fiction/fantasy author, was born in Bradford-on-Avon. * Melanie Hall, hospital admin officer who was studying to be a nurse, disappeared in 1996 and presumed murdered; lived near the town.

Sportspeople

Hannah Brown Hannah Kelsey Brown (born September 24, 1994) is an American television personality, model, author and beauty pageant titleholder. Brown first gained recognition after placing in the top seven in season 23 of '' The Bachelor'' (2019). She subs ...

(born 1990), canoeist, lives in Bradford-on-Avon. *

Jazmin Carlin Jazmin Roxy "Jazz" Carlin (born 17 September 1990) is a former British competitive swimmer, who previously represented Wales and the Great Britain swimming team. She competed primarily in endurance freestyle events, and was based at the Univers ...

(born 1990), Olympic medallist in swimming, lived in Bradford-on-Avon while training at the

University of Bath The University of Bath is a public research university in Bath, England. Bath received its royal charter in 1966 as Bath University of Technology, along with a number of other institutions following the Robbins Report. Like the University ...

. *

Will Carling William David Charles Carling (born 12 December 1965) is an English former rugby union player. He was England's youngest captain, aged 22, and won 72 caps from 1988 to 1996, captaining England 59 times. Under his captaincy, England won Five N ...

(born 1965), rugby union player with 72 caps for

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, was born in Bradford-on-Avon. * David Constant (born 1941), Test cricket umpire, was born in Bradford-on-Avon. *

Phil de Glanville Philip Ranulph de Glanville (born 1 October 1968 in Loughborough) is a former English rugby union player who played at centre for Bath and England. Rugby career de Glanville played for Durham University while an Economics and Politics stude ...

(born 1968), rugby union player with 202 caps for

Bath Rugby Bath Rugby is a professional rugby union club in Bath, Somerset, England. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby. Founded in 1865 as Bath Football Club, since 1894 the club has played at the Recreation Ground, Bath, Rec ...

and 38 with

, has lived in Bradford-on-Avon. * Paddy Edwards (born 1965), cricketer, was born in Bradford-on-Avon. * Edgar Ford (1876–1943), cricketer, was born in Bradford-on-Avon. * Ed McKeever (born 1983), Olympic canoeing champion, lives in Bradford-on-Avon. *

Lewis Moody Lewis Walton Moody MBE (born 12 June 1978 in Ascot) is an English retired rugby union player. He played for Leicester Tigers and Bath Rugby and was part of the 2003 World Cup winning side. Moody is known for the enthusiasm with which he pl ...

(born 1978), rugby union player with 71 caps for

, lives in Bradford-on-Avon. * Rob Newman (born 1963), footballer with 691 club caps, and later manager, was born in Bradford-on-Avon. * Andy Pearce (born 1966), footballer, born in Bradford-on-Avon with 221 club caps. * Fitzroy Simpson (born 1970), footballer, was born in Bradford-on-Avon; 486 club caps and 43 for

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

Twin towns

Bradford-on-Avon is twinned with: * Sully-sur-Loire, France *

Norden Norden is a Scandinavian and German word, directly translated as "the North". It may refer to: Places England * Norden, Basingstoke, a ward of Basingstoke and Deane * Norden, Dorset, a hamlet near Corfe Castle * Norden, Greater Manchester, a vill ...

, Germany

References

External links

Bradford on Avon Town Council

Explore BOA
– visitor information
Historic Bradford-on-Avon photos
at BBC Wiltshire
''Six English Towns: Bradford-on-Avon''
– a 35-minute 1981 BBC TV programme examining Bradford-on-Avon's Georgian buildings and architecture
''Day Out: Bradford-on-Avon''
– a 30-minute 1978 BBC TV programme of a day spent exploring Bradford-on-Avon {{DEFAULTSORT:Bradford-on-Avon Civil parishes in Wiltshire Kennet and Avon Canal Towns in Wiltshire