The Chippenham story
The historic Yelde Hall. Photo courtesy of Chippenham Museum Collection
Chippenham today
Chippenham is one of the fastest growing old market towns in the west country and has attracted many medium to small manufacturing and servicing industries on industrial estates on the outskirts of the town.
After the Second World War Chippenham began to expand around the core of the earlier medieval town. The population is now at its highest with many of the community living in Chippenham but commuting to other areas using the M4 motorway and the Great Western railway.
Future plans for the continued expansion of Chippenham are currently under review and consideration.
Canals and railways
The Chippenham traders and burgesses negotiated for a spur off the Wilts & Berks Canal in 1748. The principal commodity arriving at the wharf (now the bus station) was best Somerset coal. The few surviving records show that flour, bricks and tiles were the main commodities being shipped out. The canal was never very prosperous and it was used by the Great Western Railway company to move bricks around for the construction of the new railway.
The arrival of the Great Western Railway from London to Bristol at Chippenham in 1841certainly gave a much-needed stimulus to the local industries of weaving and cheese production. By the late 1840s the railway also attracted new industries ranging from butterchurn manufacturing, Nestles milk products and pork products. The major sector of Chippenham's industrial past grew up on the north side of the railway line with the arrival in 1842 of Rowland Brotherhood's railway engineering works. In 1894 Evans O'Donnell Limited built a new factory to the north of the old Brotherhood works and in 1904 they merged with Saxby & Farmer. During the First World War Saxby & Farmer was a major producer for the war effort and in 1920 they merged with Westinghouse. In 1935 the company was named Westinghouse Brake & Signal Co Ltd and was the major employer in Chippenham and area up to the mid 20th century.
Chippenham rail viaduct illuminated at night. Photo courtesy of Chippenham Museum Collection
Later parliamentary history and wealth
In 1747 Chippenham was at the centre of a parliamentary scandal involving the bribery and corruption of the two MPs for Chippenham, leading to election irregularities which brought down Sir Robert Walpole's government.
Records of the town in the late 17th and early 18th century and surviving burgesses' houses clearly show the wealth that was generated from agriculture and the growth of the weaving trade. In 1792 the chief cloth factor in England, Sir Samuel Fludyer, guaranteed to buy all supplies of wool and finished cloth. The cloth and weaving owners acquired great wealth and used this to improve their houses along the High Street, the Market Place and St Mary's Street using local stone and Bath stone, which led to Chippenham being called 'Little Bath'.
Weaving trade
The wool industry grew in the 16th century with the River Avon being used for fulling mills (where the cloth was cleansed to remove oils, dirt and other impurities) and the small islands used for drying the cloth on racks.
By 1604 there were 129 burgesses' houses which mainly fronted on to the High Street and Market Place. The plague struck in 1611 and 1636, combined with the recession in the wool industry, causing hardship to the town's population. During the Civil War Chippenham did not play a principal role and was only involved in small-scale skirmishes between the Royalists and Parliamentarians in 1643 and 1646. The main market for the Chippenham weavers, London, was severely disrupted as a result of a Royalist proclamation banning the export of cloth to the capital.
At the end of the Napoleonic wars, Chippenham's cloth trade began to decline due to the loss of military contracts for uniforms; and a series of bad harvests between 1815 and 1820 caused widespread distress in Chippenham. The arrival of the Great Western Railway gave a short stimulus to the weaving trade, but by the 1860s it was again in decline.
Parliamentary borough
As a parliamentary borough Chippenham was represented in 1295 and from 1320 under King Edward II who granted four fairs and two markets to the Lord of the Manor Edmund Gaselyn.
The Yelde Hall was constructed after 1458 in the middle of the market plain. In 1554 Queen Mary granted a charter of incorporation to the increasingly prosperous market town. After 1570 the Shambles was erected in the centre of the market plain backing on to the Yelde Hall.
The Normans
During the Norman period Chippenham, which had been Crown property, was split into the manors of Cheldon, Rowden and Lowden and was acquired by the barons and religious houses.
There are further references to the church in 1042; and in the Domesday survey of 1086 a population of about 300 people lived around the market place. The town may also have had an undocumented motte and bailey castle to the rear of where the museum is today.
The urban centre expanded in 1245 along Lang Street (which may be the Causeway) and further expansion is recorded in 1406 along Le Newstret (which is possibly New Road).
The Saxons
The earliest documentary evidence of Chippenham is in the 9th century, when the Anglo Saxon Chronicle records the town as Cippanhamme. This could be derived from the personal name of Cippa or meaning a trading or market place.
In 853 Ethelwitha, the sister of King Alfred, was married in the church in Chippenham, which had become a royal ville. There would probably have been a large hall, accommodation, a church and stables similar to excavated remains found at Cheddar in Somerset. In 878 the Danish army under King Guthrum occupied the royal ville, which may have had some form of fortification.
The town in later land charters is referred to as a villa regia and it remained under the Crown.
Geology and prehistory
Mother nature provided for the early settlers of Chippenham a spur of Oxford clay and stone surrounded on three sides by the River Avon.
This horseshoe-shaped loop of the river provided a natural defensive position and became attractive to prehistoric settlers. The continued expansion of Chippenham and ongoing town centre developments have given archaeologists the opportunity to show that, in the later prehistoric period and the Romano-British period, there was activity.
All the early finds point to farmers occupying and farming the rich agricultural soils around the Avon.