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The town of Melksham developed at a ford across the River Avon.
The name is presumed to derive from MEOLC, the Old English for milk
and from HAM, a village. It was a royal estate at the time of the
Norman Conquest. In the Domesday Book, Melksham was described as
having 8 mills, 130 acres of water meadows and 8 leagues of pasture
in length and breadth. There were 19 ploughmen, 189 landholders
and 35 serfs making up a population of several hundred. Adjoining
the farmland was the medieval forest of Melksham which, combined
with Chippenham Forest, covered 33 square miles. The forest, which
runs from Calne in the East to Semington in the West, was administered
by the Constable of Devizes Castle.
King John and the Forest .....
During the early 13th Century, King John visited Melksham Forest
several times in order to enjoy his favourite sport of hunting.
In 1220, oaks from the forest were used in the choir stalls of the
new Cathedral at Salisbury. Melksham had a connection with the Cathedral,
as part of the parish was endowed to support the Canons of the Cathedral.
In 1257, Henry III donated the main part of the Manor to the Abbey
of Amesbury, and from henceforth cattle, cheeses and fleeces from
Melksham were sent across the plain until the dissolution of Amesbury
Abbey in 1539.
The Market Charter.....
In 1219, Melksham was considered important enough to be granted
a Charter to hold a market every Friday and a fair on Michaelmas
Day. Later, the market was transferred to a Tuesday, and in 1491
the Prioress of Amesbury obtained a Charter for a two day fair in
July. In the late 19th Century, farm produce was sold on the first
day of the fair, and horses were tethered down King Street and in
the Market Place as far down as Bank Street. Up until 1910, a funfair
was held on the second day. The markets continued to be held on
alternate Tuesdays with Trowbridge, but were ended by the advent
of the Second World War. Recently there has been a move to re-establish
the street market.
Weaving, riots and hangings .....
By the middle of the 14th Century, Melksham was a busy weaving town,
the main product being white broad cloth. This industry provided
employment for spinners and weavers, fullers and shearmen. The wool
came from all over North Wiltshire and the Cotswolds; and the made-up
cloth was sent up to Blackwell Hall in London and from there all
over England and the Continent. The woollen trade was disrupted
by the Civil War in the middle of the 17th Century but recovered
and coloured cloth was produced in a dyehouse near the bridge.
In 1726, the piece rate paid for the cloth was cut so low that it
was impossible for the weavers to earn a living. Their application
to the magistrates for relief was refused and troops were called
in to disperse the rioters. Conditions did not improve, and in 1739
Henry Coulthurst, a clothier from Melksham, had his house ransacked,
his furniture destroyed and quantities of wool and yarn thrown into
the river Avon. Nine cottages as well as Henry Coulthurst's grist
and fulling mills were destroyed. Eventually the three ringleaders
were tried, found guilty and hanged.
The end of an era .....
There were several cloth mills beside the Avon, but by 1838 only
two remained, both operated by steam power and employing 162 workers.
The last working mill, the Matravers Mill, was auctioned off in
1888 and is now incorporated in the Cooper Tire & Rubber Factory.
Two wool drying houses remain in Melksham, the Roundhouse in Church
Street and an octagonal drying house in Lowbourne.
Sold for £1000 profit .....
After the dissolution of the monasteries, Henry VIII sold the Capital
Manor to Sir Thomas Seymour, Lord High Admiral and Adventurer, for
£28. 15s. 10d. Within a week Sir Thomas sold all the property,
which included Melksham, Inmarsh, Woodmarsh, Sevenoaks, Bowerhill
and Berryfield to Henry Brouncker of Erlestoke for £1737.
5s 10d.
Henry Brouncker was a Member of Parliament for Devizes and Sheriff
of Wiltshire in 1558, knighted in 1555. He was a founder member
of the Muscovy Trading Company, one of the original joint stock
companies, formed to exploit the trade with Persia and Russia. Sir
Henry Brouncker built himself a large manor house in the centre
of Melksham, known as Place House. After his death, his eldest son,
Sir William, who inherited his father’s property, became Sheriff
of Wiltshire in 1580 and a Member of Parliament in 1586. The second
son became Lord President of Munster (Ireland) and was grandfather
of Viscount Brouncker, the first President of the Royal Society.
In 1634, Place House was sold to Sir John Danvers of West Lavington.
Sir John leased Place House as he already had large houses in Wiltshire
and Chelsea. He was notorious for signing King Charles death warrant
despite having accepted a knighthood from James I. He died in disgrace,
shunned by both Parliamentarians and Royalists. Isaac Selfe, a prosperous
clothier from Beanacre purchased Place House from Sir John Danvers’
son in 1657, and it remained in his family until the 19th century.
Unfortunately, it gradually fell into a state of disrepair. At one
time it was rented by Charles Maggs and the garden used as a rope
walk. Eventually in 1859, the house was sold to a building company
and demolished in 1864.
The staging post .....
In the early 18th Century, stagecoaches from London passed through
Melksham on their way to Bath, Bristol, Exeter and Devonport. By
1830, there were six coaches each day carrying passengers to London.
The Royal Mail and the Emerald called at the Kings Arms, the Royal
Blue and the Regulator called at the Bear, and the Old Company's
Coach and the White Harte Coach called at both. Because the four
coach horses were changed every ten miles, there were commodious
stables behind these hostelries. The fare was 24 shillings for those
travelling inside and 12 shillings for those unfortunate enough
to be travelling outside.
The Melksham Turnpike Trust was responsible for five gates, at Kings
Street, Lowbourne, Shaw, Atworth and one adjoining Melksham Marketplace.
The tolls from the turnpike were used to keep the roads in repair.
The Navvies are coming! .....
In 1812, the Wilts and Berks Canal was excavated. Designed as a
feeder canal for the Kennet and Avon Canal, it ran from Semington
to Chippenham and linked up with the Thames and Severn Canal joining
the River Thames at Abingdon. It ran through the centre of Melksham
and traces remain e.g. the Wharf House adjoining the hump in Spa
Road, and the relics of a bridge at the junction of Forest and Sandridge
roads. Although the canal was abandoned in 1914, there are moves
afoot to re-establish it.
And the Spa came and went .....
In 1813, several local gentry who had made money from the woollen
industry, the Awdrys, the Longs, the Methuens and the Phillips,
formed the Melksham Spa Company with a capital of 7000 guineas,
in order to exploit the Chalybeate Spring discovered in 1770 to
the south of Melksham. A well was sunk more than 300 feet deep and
six large semi-detached boarding houses and a hotel were built.
The Spa was intended to rival Bath but unfortunately, after a few
years of prosperity, it rapidly declined.
Brunel's branch line .....
The 1840s saw the fast growth of railways; one of the first was
the Great Western, designed by Brunel, which went from London to
Bristol, via Swindon and Chippenham. It was completed by June 1841.
This railway was seen to be very profitable and a committee was
formed, chaired by Walter Long of Rood Ashton, to raise money to
build a line from Chippenham to Salisbury via Melksham, Trowbridge,
Westbury and Warminster, with branch lines to Bath and Frome. Also
designed by Brunel, it was to be known as the Wilts and Somerset
Railway, and the land was acquired, the lines laid and the stations
built, all for £1 million.
In February 1846, the railway contractors erected workshops in Melksham
and on the 5th September 1848 came the great day when the line was
opened to the public. The cheese market at Melksham was a particular
attraction. Unfortunately, previous monopolies prevented the line
actually entering Chippenham and passengers were obliged to alight
at Thingley. This problem was solved in 1850 by amalgamating the
Wilts and Somerset Railway with the Great Western.
Rope, matting and tarpaulins .....
The 19th Century also saw the growth of many industries in Melksham.
In 1803, Charles Maggs bought a former cloth mill adjoining Spa
Road and used it for making rope, matting and tarpaulins (the present
Rope Walk area). A subsidiary factory was built at Alleppey in southern
India and as the business flourished two ship loads of matting coir
were sent to Melksham every month. The business continued to succeed
through two World Wars but eventually declined.
100 years of milk .....
Charles Maggs' grandson, another Charles Maggs, was the originator
of the Wiltshire United Dairies at the West End Farm on Semington
Road. It began as a collecting depot and butter factory in 1897
amalgamating with the North Wilts Dairy Company, and in 1900 moved
to a site covering 3 acres adjoining the Avon Bridge. Eventually
it became part of the Unigate Group with the business being transferred
to Wootton Bassett in the 1980s, but the remains of the large chimney
for the condensery can still be seen.
From Cheese Market to Town Hall .....
The Melksham Market Company, formed in 1847, acquired an orchard
from the owners of Place House and erected a Cheese Market, which
eventually became the Town Hall.
England's trellis .....
Another family business founded in the middle of the 19th Century
was Hurn Brothers, which started with a timber mill near the railway
station. After 1900 the firm moved to the Ark Saw Mills across the
river from the United Dairies. At one time they were the largest
manufacturer of garden trellises in England, but sadly this firm
has closed.
From feathers to first homes .....
In 1882, Messrs. Sawtell and Sons had a factory dealing in straw
in Old Broughton Road, but 10 years later, in 1892, they began purifying
feathers for pillows and eiderdowns. Feathers were imported from
all over the world and in the 1960s it was one of the largest feather
firms in the country. However when man-made fibres replaced feathers,
the factory had to close down and Weavers Croft, a housing estate,
was erected in its place.
Spencers & GEC .....
Melksham also had an industrial and agricultural engineering firm
which originated in a workshop at the corner of Union Street and
Bank Street. The business grew and Mr C J Spencer joined the company
in 1878 and they moved to Beanacre Road in 1903. The firm was taken
over by Elliot Automation in 1962, which later became GEC Mechanical
Handling. The business closed in 1990 and part of the site is now
a retail centre and housing development.
The age of the tyre (or tire) .....
The largest employer in the town is Cooper Tire & Rubber Company
Europe Ltd. This started as a rubber company in 1885 at Limpley
Stoke and the premises in Melksham were purchased in 1890. The factory
buildings now cover more than 28 acres. There used to be a fine
house and garden on an island in the middle of the river but when
the weir was built to avoid flooding the house was demolished and
the area filled in and it now forms part of the Cooper car park.
Grain, Grain, Grain .....
The large silos which used to stand adjoining the roundabout on
the Bradford-on-Avon road were built in 1942 for storing grain and
the original milling machinery was made by Messrs. Spencer. They
were owned by West Midland Farmers who took over a company which
started in Atworth in 1916 originally called the Atworth and District
Agricultural Society and later the Wiltshire Farmers Ltd. The large
new mills were erected during the 1980s and the company is now known
as Countrywide Farmers.
The hospital .....
Melksham has had a hospital since 1868. In 1895, it was transferred
from Lowbourne to a site in Bank Street. The present hospital in
Spa Road was opened in 1938, the entire cost of which was met by
a bequest from Mrs Ludlow Bruges. It is now administered by the
Wiltshire Primary Care Trust.
Rachel Fowler .....
In 1858 the Fowler Almshouses located in Bath Road, were founded
and endowed by Rachel Fowler, a charitable Quaker who lived at 1
Bank Street, now Gompels, the Chemist. She also gave money for the
New Hall, adjoining the Market Place. Her name is commemorated in
the Rachel Fowler Centre now used as a hall for community use, which
was previously a congregational church.
The Quakers .....
Melksham was at one time an important centre of the Society of Friends.
From 1669 onwards 80 Quakers met at the house of Robert Marchment.
There was a Quaker School in Melksham from 1695 to 1721. A Friends
Meeting House was built in 1734 in Kings Street behind which is
a burial ground. Its use as a meeting house was discontinued in
1950 and is now used as a Spiritualist Church.
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