High Street, Chippenham - 01249 665970 info@chippenham.gov.uk

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records the town as Cippanhamme and this could refer to Cippa who had his Hamm, (home) in a river meadow. An alternative theory suggests that the name is derived from the Anglo-Saxon word Ceap, meaning market. The name is recorded variously as Cippanhamm (878), Cepen (1042), Cheppeham (1155), Chippenham (1227), Shippenham (1319) and Chippyngham (1541). The Domesday Book listed Chippenham as Cepen, with a population of 600-700 people in 1086.

Chippenham is a market town in Wiltshire, England, located 21 km (13 miles) east of Bath and 163 km (96 miles) west of London. In the 2001 census the population of the town was recorded as 28,065.

The town was established on a crossing of the River Avon and is believed to have existed as some form of settlement since before Roman times. It was a royal vill, and probably a royal hunting lodge, under Alfred the Great. The town continued to grow when the Great Western Railway arrived in 1841, and while historically a market town the economy has changed to that of a commuter town.

Chippenham is twinned with La Fleche in France and Friedberg in Germany. The town motto is "Unity and Loyalty".

Chippenham is set on a prominent crossing of the River Avon and lies between the Marlborough Downs to the east, the Cotswolds to the north and west and Salisbury Plain to the south.

The town is surrounded by sparse countryside and there are several woodlands in or in close proximity to the town, for example, Bird's Marsh, Vincients Wood and Briars Wood

There are believed to have been settlements in the Chippenham region since before Roman times. Remains of Romano-British settlements are visible in the wall behind the former magistrates court and recent redevelopments of the town have shown up other evidence of the earliest settlements.

The town proper was believed to have been founded by Anglo Saxons around 600.

In AD 853, Ethelswitha (sister to Alfred the Great) married the King of Mercia in Chippenham. Alfred was then a boy of four and the wedding is believed to have been held on the site of St. Andrew's church. According to Bishop Asser's Life of King Alfred Chippenham was, under Alfred's reign, a royal vill; historians have also argued, from its proximity to the royal forests at Melksham and Barden, that it was probably a hunting lodge. Alfred's daughter was also married in Chippenham.

Chippenham was successfully besieged by Danish Vikings in 878, though Alfred escaped. Later that year Alfred decisively defeated the Danes at the Battle of Ethandun, whose forces then surrendered to Alfred at Chippenham (ushering in the establishment of the Danelaw).

In 1042 the Royal holding in Chippenham makes mention of a church.

In Norman times the Royal properties were separated into the manors of Cheldon, Rowden and Lowden. Records show that the town expanded into Langstret (now the Causeway) from 1245 onwards and in 1406 onwards the town pushed into Le Newstret (now the New Road) area of town. Throughout this period Chippenham continued to have a thriving market in the town centre.

The A4 that runs through Chippenham (from London to Bristol) incorporates parts of the 14th century medieval road network that linked London to Bristol through Chippenham. This was an important road for the English cloth trade and its upkeep was funded in part by cloth merchants from Bristol due to its importance to the trade.

Chippenham was represented in Parliament from 1295 onwards and Queen Mary granted the town a Charter of Incorporation in 1554.

Analysis of the wood used to build the Yelde Hall indicates that the market hall was built after 1458. The Shambles and Buttercross were built after 1570. The Shambles were destroyed in a fire in 1856, the Yelde Hall survived.

The parish of Chippenham Without encompasses the deserted medieval village of Sheldon, devastated by plague; all that remains today is Sheldon Manor, Wiltshire's oldest inhabited manor house, dating from 1282.

The wool industry took off in the 16th century due, in part, to the river. The plague hit the town hard in 1611 and 1636. This, a recession in the woolen industry, and a drop in corn production in 1622 and 1623, caused massive hardship for the town's population. The trade in cloth faced further problems during the English Civil War due to a Royalist proclamation that prohibited the sale of cloth to the Parliamentarian controlled London.

In 1747 a bribery and corruption scandal (involving two members of parliament for Chippenham) led to the downfall of Sir Robert Walpole's government.

A spur off the Wilts & Berks Canal was built to Chippenham in 1798 with a wharf at the current site of the bus station (Timber Street) with the main commodity traded being coal. Pewsham Way now follows the line of the old canal. The Great Western Railway arrived in Chippenham in 1841 which in turn attracted many new businesses to Chippenham. The arrival of these businesses required new housing which led to the expansion of Chippenham into the land north of the railway line, which in turn led to the growth of further industries to support the building work.

The arrival of the railway promoted the growth of industrial agricultural businesses. In the middle of the 19th century Chippenham was a major centre for the production of dairy and ham products this led, later, to Nestle and Matteson's to have factories in the town centre. The railway also led to the growth of railway engineering works in Chippenham. The first of these was the Rowland Brothers in 1842. A variety of companies then took over part or all of the business on the site until in 1935 Westinghouse Brake and Signal Company Ltd took over the business site fully. Until recently Westinghouse remained a major employer in the town.

The singers Eddie Cochran and Gene Vincent were involved in a car crash in Chippenham on 17 April 1960 on Rowden Hill. Cochran died as a result of the crash. A memorial sits near the crash site and Chippenham hosts an Eddie Cochran festival annually.

On 13 February 1998 two unexploded bombs from World War II were discovered in the field behind Hardens Mead during preparations for the building of Abbeyfield School. About 1,100 residents living in the east of Chippenham had to be evacuated for two nights to friends and relatives or emergency accommodation until the Army carried out a controlled explosion. The Army initially attempted to defuse the larger 750 kg (1,700 lb) device but it was decided that owing to the bomb's orientation in the ground it would be too dangerous.

The original Buttercross, a stone structure, was erected in c. 1570 and stood in the current location of Barclays Bank, where it served as the centre of the Shambles. The Buttercross was used for the sale of meat and dairy products. In 1889 Mr E.C. Lowndes bought the Buttercross for £6. He re-erected it as a gazebo in the kitchen garden of the Castle Combe Manor House, where it subsequently fell into disrepair. The Buttercross was re-erected in 1995 by the Chippenham Civic Society with funding provided by a wide range of local individuals and organisations. It currently stands as the centre-piece of the pedestrianised area of the town centre, where a market is held each Friday and Saturday.

The Yelde Hall is currently the site of the Tourist Information Centre in Chippenham. It is run jointly by Chippenham Town and North Wiltshire District Councils and is the largest Tourist Information Centre in North Wiltshire. The hall is one of very few remaining medieval timber framed buildings in the town. It was originally divided up internally for use as a market hall. Both the hall and its meeting room upstairs were used by the burgess and bailiff for a variety of meetings and trials as well as being used for Council meetings. The space under the Council Chamber was used as the town gaol. The hall was also used in this time for fund raising events for the local church. After the Council and Burgess (now Mayor) moved to the Town Hall (High Street, Chippenham) in 1841 the hall had many different uses:

• Chippenham Savings Bank
• Chippenham Volunteer Rifle Corps (stationed in Chippenham from 1846 to 1911)
• Chippenham Fire Station (from around 1910 until 1945 when they moved to their current location in Dallas Road) this led to substantial changes to the interior structure to accommodate the engines and the addition of two large doors to the end gable
• Chippenham Museum (the Borough Council started work on this in the 1950s but the museum didn't open until 25 October 1963. The museum outgrew the site and closed in this location in 1999)
• North Wiltshire Tourist Information Centre (since March 2003 following substantial restorations).