Highworth, Wiltshire

Description
Highworth, a small town, a parish, and a hundred in Wilts. The town stands on high ground, commanding an extensive Tiew of the Thames valley and of the Cotswold Hills, 2 miles W of the river Coin and the boundary with Berks, and has a station on the G.W.R, 78 miles from London. It has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Swindon. Acreage of civil parish, 8399; population, 2570; of ecclesiastical, 2169. Highworth was known at Domesday as Wrde, had once the status of a borough, sending a member to Parliament, but lost the franchise by disuse, and possessed considerable importance as a seat of provincial trade, but lost much of this in consequence of the formation of the G.W.R. It consists chiefly of stone-built houses, and has two good inns, a temperance hotel, and a coffee tavern, a church, four dissenting chapels, a working-man's club, and some charities. The church was built in the time of Henry VI., includes two chapels, has a square tower with open parapet, and contains tombs of the Wamefords. It has been well restored. A cattle market is held on the fourth Wednesday of each month, and fairs are held on 13 Aug. and 11 Oct. There is a mat and matting manufactory in the town. The manor belonged at the Conquest to the Crown, and passed to Edmund de Langley and the St Johns. An ancient camp, supposed to have been Roman, was on Blunsdon Castle Hill, and a Roman road went past the W base of that hill. The living is a vicarage, united with the chapelry of Sevenhampton, in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol; gross value, £450 with residence. Patron, the Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol. Sevenhampton has a recently built church.