Corsham, Wiltshire

Description
Corsham, a small town and a parish in Wiltshire. The town stands 4 miles from Chippenham, with a station on the G.W.R., 98 miles from London. It was a residence of the Saxon kings, afterwards of the Earls of Cornwall, and was long called Corsham-Eegis. It had formerly a jail, a court-house, a market-cross, and some ancient buildings, which have been swept away; it forms now one long street of stone houses; and it has a post, money order, and telegraph office (R.S.O.), a bank, a parish church, and ten dissenting chapels. The church is a large edifice with spire, comprises parts from Norman to Late English, and has a richly carved screen and two altar-tombs. It was thoroughly restored in 1878. A chapel of ease is at Hartham, and a church at Corsham-Side; the latter was built in 1866 and is a separate charge. A Gothic almshouse and free school, founded in 1672, has £60 a year from endowment, and there are other large charities. The Town Hall, a good building of Bath stone, was almost entirely rebuilt in 1882, and contains a library and assembly-room. The petty sessions for the Chippenham division are held here. A weekly market was formerly held on Wednesday, and fairs are still held on 7 March and 4 Sept. The parish includes also Pickwick and Easton tithings and Corsham-Side hamlet. Acreage, 6605; population of the civil parish, 3931; of the ecclesiastical, 3075. The manor belonged at Domesday to Earl Tosti; passed to the Earls of Cornwall and to the Hungerfords; and belongs now to the Methuen family. Corsham Court, Lord Methuen's seat, has a fine south Tudor front of 1582 and a new north front in good Italian by Bellamy, and contains a rich collection of paintings, founded by Sir Paul Methuen, the framer of the " Methuen Treaty " of Portugal. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol; value, £180 with residence. Patron, Lord Methuen.< Edward Hasted, the historian of Kent, was for some years master of the free school, and Sir Eichard Blackmore, physician to William III. and a poet, was a native. Two alien priories were in the parish, the one a cell to Caen Abbey, the other to Marmonstier. There are some large Bath stone quarries in the neighbourhood.