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Corsham is thought to be an Anglo-Saxon settlement, as suggested
by its name which would seem to signify the “home or village”
of someone called “Cossa”, and as the Saxons of  England
united under the leadership of Wessex, Corsham took on a prominent
role as a royal manor. Its site, being near the convergence of two
great Saxon forests with extensive deer parks, made it a favourite
hunting ground for kings and from Saxon times a royal lodge existed
on, or close to, the present site of Corsham Court. The Court Roll
of Ethelred the Unready (978-1017) mentions the King staying at
his Manor House in Corsham when hunting in Melksham Forest.
After the Norman Conquest, which began in 1066, William the Conqueror
split off the church and its lands from Corsham Manor and awarded
them to Caen Abbey near his home in Normandy. In the 13th Century
there was a small cell of French monks from Marmoutier based in
Corsham, probably at a site in the grounds of what is now Heywood
Preparatory School. The secular part of the manor was leased by
the monarch to a succession of noblemen, although ownership was
in royal hands for centuries and formed part of the dowry of the
queens of England.
In 1242 Henry III granted it to his brother Richard, Earl of Cornwall,
who decided to break up the manor  into
a number of smaller tenancies, each with limited manorial rights.
Ultimate ownership, however, remained in royal hands until the time
of Queen Elizabeth I, who sold the entire manorial rights to her
Lord Chancellor, Sir Christopher Hatton, for £15,000. His
eventual financial problems, though, forced him to sell his manor
at a loss. Among the later owners of the Lordship was Sir Edward
Hungerford, a prominent Parliamentarian at the time of the Civil
War. His widow, Dame Margaret, built the Corsham Almshouses.
In 1745, the manor of Corsham which had, over the centuries, become
divided geographically, was bought by Paul Methuen. Even though
manorial rights are these days little more than in name, the Methuen
family still lives in the official Manor House, Corsham Court.
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