Pewsham is a small village and former civil parish just south-east of the town of

Chippenham Chippenham is a market town A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village ...

on the A4 national route towards Calne in

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

, southwestern England.

Description

Although signposted as Pewsham on the main road at both ends, the original settlement does not appear on

Ordnance Survey , nativename_a = , nativename_r = , logo = Ordnance Survey 2015 Logo.svg , logo_width = 240px , logo_caption = , seal = , seal_width = , seal_caption = , picture = , picture_width = , picture_caption = , formed = , preceding1 = , di ...

maps, which instead apply the name to the southeastern outskirts of Chippenham. Spread along the road are a small business centre called Forest Gate, a car dealership and a pub named The Pewsham. Set back behind the pub is Pewsham House, built in red brick in 1892; it was designed in 17th-century style by the Wiltshire architect Charles Ponting. The Wilts & Berks Canal – abandoned in 1914 but under restoration since the 1990s – passed close to the village, with the three Pewsham Locks to the south and a road bridge at the main road. The Cocklemore Brook drains the farmland south of the A4, and flows into the Avon near Pewsham Locks. The closest neighbouring village is

Derry Hill Derry Hill is a village in the English county of Wiltshire, in the civil parish of Calne Without. It has an elevated position at the northern edge of the Bowood House estate, about south-east of the centre of the town of Chippenham. Geography De ...

, in particular the 'Old Derry Hill' area at the foot of the hill, just beyond the pub. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, when large housing developments spread across several towns, Pewsham was the name given to Chippenham's new residential district in the south-east of the town. The diverted A4 which formed the district's perimeter road was named Pewsham Way.

Forest and parishes

There was a royal forest in the area from the 13th century, sometimes called Chippenham forest, at other times Pewsham and Bowood forest. Pewsham was one of several areas that in 1842 formed the ecclesiastical parish for the newly consecrated Christ Church at Derry Hill; until then Pewsham was

extra-parochial In England and Wales, an extra-parochial area, extra-parochial place or extra-parochial district was a geographically defined area considered to be outside any ecclesiastical or civil parish. Anomalies in the parochial system meant they had no ch ...

, i.e. outside any parish, presumably because it had been largely uninhabited woodland or wood-pasture. The population of the Pewsham extra-parochial area peaked at 480 in 1841. It was made a

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

in 1858, at the same time as many other extra-parochial places. In 1884 Nethermore to the south-east (formerly a detached

tithing A tithing or tything was a historic English legal, administrative or territorial unit, originally ten hides (and hence, one tenth of a hundred). Tithings later came to be seen as subdivisions of a manor or civil parish. The tithing's leader or s ...

of Chippenham, with nine houses) was added to the parish, as was an area to the south; thus the parish extended as far south as the edges of the Lackham House and Bowden Park estates. The parish was enlarged further in 1934, taking an area from

Chippenham Without Chippenham Without is a civil parish in Wiltshire, England, created as a separate entity from the parish of Chippenham by the Local Government Act 1894 and largely consisting of farmland to the west of Chippenham, towards Biddestone. Of note wi ...

, so that it extended northwards beyond

Tytherton Lucas Tytherton Lucas is a hamlet in the civil parish of Bremhill in the ceremonial county of Wiltshire, England. Its nearest town is Chippenham, which lies approximately south-west from the hamlet. The River Avon passes to the west, and the Cat Brook ...

; the area transferred had a population of 260 at the 1931 census. Finally, Pewsham parish was abolished in 1984, its built-up area transferred to Chippenham parish and the rural remainder to

Calne Without Calne Without is a civil parish in Wiltshire, England. It is a rural parish surrounding the town of Calne, extending west to the Avon and south to the Roman road from London to Bath. Settlements in the parish are the village of Derry Hill; the sm ...

Council ward

Pewsham

electoral division An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, or (election) precinct is a subdivision of a larger state (a country, administrative region, or other poli ...

elects one member of Wiltshire Council, the unitary authority. It covers the southeastern extremity of Chippenham's built-up area, and the rural area to the south which is bounded by the river and the canal.

References

External links

Former civil parishes in Wiltshire Villages in Wiltshire Calne Without Chippenham {{Wiltshire-geo-stub