Corsham Court & Park
Dating back as far as 1582, Corsham Court on the north-east edge of the town has been the seat of the Methuen family since 1745. The present house and grounds were built around the original Elizabethan mansion by 'Capability' Brown, John Nash and Thomas Bellamy.

Weavers' Cottages, Church Street
The gabled weavers' cottages are typical of the 18th century with the curved heads and volutes of their porches. The first floor door was used to take delivery of raw wool for the looms.

31 High Street
Inscribed '1703 ' on the gable and now housing the town's Tourist Information Centre, the house was rerstored by the wealthy 18th century cloth merchant from Lacock, William Arnold, who established his business in the town. Before the industrial revolution centralised production, weaving was a cottage industry and Arnold supplied local weavers with spun wool, collecting the woven cloth for cleaning and finishing before its sale in London   see also: The Wool Industry.

'The Porch ', 33 High Street
The house is a mixture of 17th, 18th and 19th century styles.

42 High Street
The former home of the Spackman family, the building was used for storing gunpowder to blast Brunel's record-breaking Box Tunnel of the GWR and for subsequent quarrying operations. The block of shops caught fire in 1849 and the heat of the conflageration was so intense that paint inside the opposite houses in High Street blistered - the explosions of the gunpowder were heard ten miles from the town.

'Cheviot House ', 76 High Street
The house is a monument to the prosperity brought to Corsham by the arrival of the Great Western Railway and the consequent expansion of the local quarrying industry. The older core of the building (the original rubble wall of the house is still visible on its right-hand-side) was faced with ashlar with moulded cornices and parapets.

'The Old Malt House' standing behind Cheviot House, served as Corsham's cinema during World War I. In the 1930s it was used as a laundry and, following World War II, it was converted into three studio dwellings by the artist Paul Methuen (the 4th Baron).

78 High Street
The gabled house with its mullioned windows is typical of a house in the High Street in the 17th century.

'Royal Oak ', High Street
The public house dates from the mid-19th century.

William Arnold
The wealthy 18th century cloth merchant from Lacock established his business in the town and refurbished his house at 31 High Street which is now the town's Tourist Information Centre.

The Roman road from Silchester to Bath ran along what is now the southern boundary of the parish, as does the enigamtic Wansdyke, a vast ditch running from Somerset to Savernake Forest on the Marlborough Downs, which appears to be post-Roman and may have been a defensive structure built for defence by the Saxons of Wessex against attacks from Mercia.

Corsham was a royal manor before the Norman Conquest of 1066 and King Ethelred the Unready (978-1017) is recorded as staying at the manor house at Corsham while hunting in Melksham Forest. The Confessor (1042-1066) gave the manor to Tostig, his brother-in-law and the 4th son of the powerfull Earl Godwin, but Tostig's villiany resulted in his banishment and the forfeiture of his estates and their reversion to the Crown.

When The Conqueror came into possession of the manor, he gave the church and its lands to the Abbey of Cean as a thanksgiving for his victory at Hastingswhile the secular manor was was granted on terms to various of his feudal vassals. Henry III (1216-72) granted the manor to his brother Richard, Earl of Cornwall, who farmed it out at an annual rent.

The manor frequently became part of the dowery of English queens in the 14th and 15th centuries - so much so that it was named, for a time, 'Corsham Reginae' (see also:   Cricklade). During the reign of King Henry VIII (1509-1547), the manor became the property of two of his wives; Catherine of Aragon (until 1536) and Katherine Parr (until 1548).

The estate passed out of royal hands during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558-1603) who sold it to her Lord Chancellor and favourite, Sir Christopher Hatton (1540-91), for �5,000. Later, Hatton fell out of the monarch's favour and had to sell the manor at a loss.

The manor passed through various hands, notable amongst them was Sir Edward Hungerford who was a prominent Parliamentarian during the Civil War of (1640-1645). It was Sir Edward's widow who built the Almshouse adjacent to Corsham's Cricket Ground.

In 1745, the manor was purchased by Paul Methuen to house his art collection and has remained in the Methuen family since then.

The building of Isambard Kingdom Brunel's (1806-1859) broad-guage Great Western Railway from Corsham to Box involved the cutting of the record-breaking Box Tunnel - at two miles long, the longest railway tunnel in Europe. Work on the tunnel commenced in 1836 but the human cost of its 5-year construction was so awful - no less than a hundred men dead - that it was opened without ceremony on June 30th, 1841.

A ton of gunpowder a week was used at the height of the tunnel's construction and this was stored at No. 42 High Street, after the completion of the tunnel, powder was stored there for quarrying. The building caught fire in 1841 and the explosions could be heard ten miles away.

The church of St Bartholomew, Corsham, Wiltshire
  by Harold Brakspear, publisher British Publishing Co.

The church of St Bartholomew, Corsham, Wiltshire: A short history of the building
  by Harold Brakspear, publisher British Publishing Co.

Corsham, Wiltshire, the official guide
  , publisher British Publishing Co.

Wiltshire Pew Rents: Westbury, Wilton, Corsham
  , ed. Beryl Hurley, publisher Wiltshire Family History Society, 1996

The church of St. Bartholomew, Corsham, Wiltshire: A short history of the building abridged from the larger work written by the Late Sir Harold Brakspear
  by Harold Brakspear, publisher British Publishing Co.

Lady Margaret Hungerford Almshouse and Free School,Corsham,Wiltshire,1668-1968
  by Ernest Hird, 1997

The Wiltshire Woollen Industry in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries
  by GD Ramsay, 1943

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