History and Heritage
Corsham, Wiltshire, England
With Royal Saxon origins, Corsham features the unique 1668 Schoolroom and Almshouses, Corsham Court (based on a 1582 Elizabethan manor house), and the High Street consisting mostly of properties from the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries where peacocks wander freely.
The town owes its prosperity to the wool trade and quarrying of golden Bath stone, brought to life in the town's heritage centre.
Nearby is the village of Box from where stone was quarried from the 8th century. The quarries became the most productive in the world after massive deposits of Bath Stone were discovered when the Tunnel for the Great Western Railway was completed in 1841 by Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Some of his first timid travellers left the train before it entered the long tunnel and rejoined it at the other end!
The town owes its prosperity to the wool trade and quarrying of golden Bath stone, brought to life in the town's heritage centre.
Nearby is the village of Box from where stone was quarried from the 8th century. The quarries became the most productive in the world after massive deposits of Bath Stone were discovered when the Tunnel for the Great Western Railway was completed in 1841 by Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Some of his first timid travellers left the train before it entered the long tunnel and rejoined it at the other end!
Corsham Area Heritage & Information Centre
Arnold House
31 High Street
Corsham
Wiltshire SN13 0EZ
Tel: 01249 714660
Email: enquiries@corshamheritage.org.uk
The Corsham Area Heritage & Information Centre provides a wide range of information, gifts, accommodation booking and travel services including National Express tickets. The Centre has recently undergone a major refurbishment and now has disabled access.
Opening hours (January-March 2012):
10.00am - 2.00pm Monday to Friday
10.00am - 1.00pm Saturday.
A programme of changing exhibitions relating to aspects of local history runs throughout the year. Admission is free.
10.00am - 1.00pm Saturday.
A programme of changing exhibitions relating to aspects of local history runs throughout the year. Admission is free.
The Wool Room
Set in the downstairs rooms of a clothier’s mediaeval house, this tells the tale of Corsham’s rise in prosperity, based on the spinning of wool for weaving cloth. There are interactive displays suitable for children. By the way, the 17th Century clothier was called William Arnold and he became a major landowner and one of the wealthiest people in Corsham.
The Heritage Room
Corsham’s second economic boom happened after the engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel completed the Box Tunnel for the Great Western Railway in 1841. About 2 miles long, the excavation revealed large deposits of limestone (“Bath Stone”) under Box Hill and a vast expansion in underground quarrying took place. These workings were taken over by the Government at the outbreak of WW2 for secure underground ammunition storage as well as underground engineering factories, including an aircraft engine assembly line! In 1956 the Ministry of Defence developed it into a Regional Seat of Government in anticipation of a nuclear war. Home for 4000 personnel it was decommissioned in 1991 and declassified in 2004.
Corsham Timeline
Below is a record of the major historical dates affecting Corsham and the surrounding area drawn up for the Corsham Civic Society by Dr. Negley Harte, FSA, FRHistS.
The complete list can be viewed on the Corsham Civic Society’s website at www.corsham-civic-society.co.uk.
Although historical, it is intended to be a living record. You are invited to comment on any errors, omissions that you find and notify the Civic Society where any necessary research will be undertaken.
The complete list can be viewed on the Corsham Civic Society’s website at www.corsham-civic-society.co.uk.
Although historical, it is intended to be a living record. You are invited to comment on any errors, omissions that you find and notify the Civic Society where any necessary research will be undertaken.
