Rowde () is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of Parish (administrative division), administrative parish used for Local government in England, local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below district ...

in the English county of

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, Gloucestershir ...

, on the

A342 The A342 is an A road in England that runs from Pewsham near Chippenham, Wiltshire to Andover, Hampshire. Route The road begins at the A4 junction just outside the small village of Pewsham, to the east of Chippenham. It heads south past ...

about northwest of

Devizes Devizes is a market town and civil parish in Wiltshire, England. It developed around Devizes Castle, an 11th-century Norman castle, and received a charter in 1141. The castle was besieged during the Anarchy, a 12th-century civil war between St ...

. The parish includes the hamlet of Tanis.

History

The village now mainly consists of modern brick-built houses, but a number of 17th-century buildings still remain in the centre of the village, including the ''George & Dragon''

public house 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 wa ...

. This was pre-dated in the village by another pub, a timber framed and

thatched Thatching is the craft of building a roof with dry vegetation such as straw, water reed, sedge (''Cladium mariscus''), rushes, heather, or palm branches, layering the vegetation so as to shed water away from the inner roof. Since the bulk of ...

building that was destroyed by fire in 1938; a replacement, the ''Cross Keys'' now stands in its place. On the outskirts of Rowde are the Caen Hill flight of locks of 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 navigable river linked by a canal. The name is used to refer to the entire length of the navigation rather than solely to the c ...

. The canal rises 237 feet by means of 29 locks, 16 of them in a straight line at Caen Hill. The canal was constructed between 1794 and 1810 and served to link Devizes with

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city i ...

and London. It fell into disuse after the coming of the railway but has been restored, and is now used for leisure purposes. The small unsignposted hamlet of Rowde Hill, consisting of around 10 houses, lies around west of the village towards

Sells Green Sells may refer to: People * Cato Sells (1859–1948), American politician * Charles Harvey Sells (1889–1978), American politician * Chris Sells (born 1963), American politician * Dan Gillespie Sells (born 1978), British singer-songwriter * Da ...

and

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 af ...

, at the junction of The Common and Berhills Lane.

Amenities

The parish has a village hall, built in 1887 as Rowde Reading Room and Coffee Tavern. Rowde C of E Primary Academy serves Rowde and nearby villages. Built in 2006, it replaced a school in Marsh Lane which was built in 1841 and extended in 1907. Silverwood School, to the north of the village, is a Special Needs school built around a country house of 1812. The

Church of England parish church A parish church in the Church of England is the church which acts as the religious centre for the people within each Church of England parish (the smallest and most basic Church of England administrative unit; since the 19th century sometimes ca ...

is dedicated to St. Matthew and has a 15th-century tower, the rest having been rebuilt in 1832–3 to designs of

Henry Goodridge Henry Edmund Goodridge (1797, Bath – 26 October 1864) was an English architect based in Bath. He worked from the early 1820s until the 1850s, using Classical, Italianate and Gothic styles. Life He was born in Bath in 1797 the son of James Goo ...

. It has a font designed in 1850 by Sir Matthew Digby Wyatt, architect, who was born in Rowde and lived for a time at Rowdeford House (now the home of Silverwood School). The six bells in the tower were cast in 1870 by John Taylor & Co. The building was

Grade II* listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern I ...

in 1962. Today the parish is part of the Rowde and Bromham benefice, which also covers Sandy Lane.

Local government

Rowde is a

with an elected parish council. It is in the area of the

Wiltshire Council Wiltshire Council is a council for the unitary authority of Wiltshire (excluding the separate Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority of Borough of Swindon, Swindon) in South West England, created in 2009. It is the successor authorit ...

unitary authority A unitary authority is a local authority responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are usually performed by a higher level of sub-national government or the national governme ...

, which is responsible for all significant

local government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-lo ...

functions. In the 2001 census, the district ward of Bromham & Rowde had a

population Population typically refers to the number of people in a single area, whether it be a city or town, region, country, continent, or the world. Governments typically quantify the size of the resident population within their jurisdiction using ...

of 2,880 persons.

Former railway

The Devizes Branch Line was built through the parish in 1857 and a small station – Bromham and Rowde Halt – was added in 1909 at Sells Green, to the west just outside the parish. The line was closed in 1966.

References

External links

Village website

Photos of Rowde and surrounding area at Geograph
{{authority control Villages in Wiltshire Civil parishes in Wiltshire