Broughton Gifford, Wiltshire

Description
Broughton-Gifford, a parish in Wilts, on the river Avon, near the Kennet and Avon Canal, 1 1/2 mile SW of Melksham station on the G.W.R., and 4 miles ENE of Bradford. It has a post office under Melksham; money order and telegraph office, Holt. Acreage, 1629 ; population, 667. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Salisbury; net value, £350 with residence. Patron, the Lord Chancellor. The church is of the time of Henry VII., was restored in 1878, and has a brass of 1620. There are Wesleyan and Baptist chapels. Roman coins have been found in the neighbourhood. In this parish Monkton farm was once a small monastery, Little Broughton, which was given by Henry VIII. to the Duke of Somerset, who was subsequently beheaded.

Transcribed from The Comprehensive Gazetteer of England and Wales, 1894-5