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Wiltshire
Wiltshire (; abbreviated to Wilts) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It borders Gloucestershire to the north, Oxfordshire to the north-east, Berkshire to the east, Hampshire to the south-east, Dorset to the south, and Somerset to the west. The largest settlement is Swindon, and Trowbridge is the county town. The county has an area of and a population of 720,060. The county is mostly rural, and the centre and south-west are sparsely populated. After Swindon (183,638), the largest settlements are the city of Salisbury (41,820) and the towns of Chippenham (37,548) and Trowbridge (37,169). For local government purposes, the county comprises two unitary authority areas: Swindon and Wiltshire. Undulating chalk downlands characterize much of the county. In the east are Marlborough Downs, which contain Savernake Forest. To the south is the Vale of Pewsey, which separates the downs from Salisbury Plain in the centre of the county. The south-west is also downland, ...
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Wiltshire Police
Wiltshire Police, formerly known as Wiltshire Constabulary, is the territorial police force responsible for policing the county of Wiltshire (including the Borough of Swindon) in South West England. The force serves 722,000 people over an area of . In terms of officer numbers, it is the second smallest force in the United Kingdom (after the City of London Police). History Before 1830s Prior to the 1830s, policing in Wiltshire was the responsibility of petty and parish constables, who were supervised by Magistrate (England and Wales), magistrates. This was largely ineffective as they were unpaid and untrained, and so independent and forces made up of private citizens such as the Devizes Prosecution Society emerged, and these did not immediately disappear when professional police forces came into being. The Yeomanry Cavalry was active in Wiltshire during this period and utilised as a quasi-police force. 1830s The Municipal Corporations Act 1835 standardised the structure and ...
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Wiltshire Numbered Districts
Wiltshire (; abbreviated to Wilts) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It borders Gloucestershire to the north, Oxfordshire to the north-east, Berkshire to the east, Hampshire to the south-east, Dorset to the south, and Somerset to the west. The largest settlement is Swindon, and Trowbridge is the county town. The county has an area of and a population of 720,060. The county is mostly rural, and the centre and south-west are sparsely populated. After Swindon (183,638), the largest settlements are the city of Salisbury (41,820) and the towns of Chippenham (37,548) and Trowbridge (37,169). For local government purposes, the county comprises two unitary authority areas: Swindon and Wiltshire. Undulating chalk downlands characterize much of the county. In the east are Marlborough Downs, which contain Savernake Forest. To the south is the Vale of Pewsey, which separates the downs from Salisbury Plain in the centre of the county. The south-west is also downland, and co ...
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List Of Parliamentary Constituencies In Wiltshire
The ceremonial county of Wiltshire, England, which includes the Borough of Swindon, is divided into eight Parliamentary constituencies – one borough constituency and 7 county constituencies, including one which crosses the county boundary with Gloucestershire. South Cotswolds is a cross-county boundary constituency between Wiltshire and Gloucestershire. Constituencies Boundary changes 2024 ''See 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies for further details.'' For the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, which redrew the constituency map ahead of the 2024 general election, the Boundary Commission for England opted to combine Wiltshire with Gloucestershire as a sub-region of the South West Region, with the creation of the cross-county boundary constituency of South Cotswolds, resulting in a major reconfiguration of Chippenham. Devizes and North Wiltshire were abolished and new constituencies, named East Wiltshire, and Melksham and Dev ...
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Wiltshire Council
Wiltshire Council, known between 1889 and 2009 as Wiltshire County Council, is the Local government in England, local authority for the non-metropolitan county of Wiltshire (district), Wiltshire in South West England, and has its headquarters at County Hall, Trowbridge, County Hall in Trowbridge. Since 2009 it has been a Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority, being a county council which also performs the functions of a non-metropolitan district, district council. The non-metropolitan county is smaller than the ceremonial county, the latter additionally including Borough of Swindon, Swindon. The council went under no overall control in May 2025, after being controlled by the Conservative Party (UK), Conservative Party since 2000. History Elected county councils were established in 1889 under the Local Government Act 1888, taking over administrative functions previously carried out by unelected magistrates at the quarter sessions.John Edwards, 'County' in ''Chambe ...
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Chippenham
Chippenham is a market town in north-west Wiltshire, England. It lies north-east of Bath, Somerset, Bath, west of London and is near the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The town was established on a crossing of the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, where some form of settlement is believed to have existed since before Roman Britain, Roman times. It was a royal vill and probably a royal hunting lodge, under Alfred the Great. The town continued to grow when the Great Western Railway arrived in 1841. It had a population of 36,548 in 2021. History Etymology The ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' records the town as ''Cippanhamme'': this could refer to a person called Cippa who had his hamm, an enclosure in a river meadow. An alternative theory suggests that the name is derived from the Anglo-Saxon word ''ceap'', meaning 'market'. The name is recorded variously as Cippanhamm (878), Cepen (1042), Cheppeham (1155), Chippenham (1227), Shippenham (1319) and Chippyngham (1541). In ...
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Trowbridge
Trowbridge ( ) is the county town of Wiltshire, England; situated on the River Biss in the west of the county, close to the border with Somerset. The town lies south-east of Bath, Somerset, Bath, south-west of Swindon and south-east of Bristol. The parish had a population of 37,169 in 2021. Long a market town, the Kennet and Avon canal to the north of Trowbridge played an instrumental part in the town's development, as it allowed coal to be transported from the Somerset Coalfield; this marked the advent of steam-powered manufacturing in woollen cloth mills. The town was the foremost centre of woollen cloth production in south west England in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, by which time it held the nickname "The Manchester of the West". The parish encompasses the settlements of Longfield, Lower Studley, Upper Studley, Studley Green and Trowle Common. History Toponymy The origin of the name ''Trowbridge'' is uncertain; one source claims derivation from ''treow-bryc ...
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Salisbury
Salisbury ( , ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parish in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers River Avon, Hampshire, Avon, River Nadder, Nadder and River Bourne, Wiltshire, Bourne. The city is approximately from Southampton and from Bath, Somerset, Bath. Salisbury is in the southeast of Wiltshire, near the edge of Salisbury Plain. An ancient cathedral was north of the present city at Old Sarum Cathedral, Old Sarum. A Salisbury Cathedral, new cathedral was built near the meeting of the rivers and a settlement grew up around it, which received a city charter in 1227 as . This continued to be its official name until 2009 structural changes to local government in England, 2009, when Salisbury City Council was established. Salisbury railway station is an interchange between the West of England line, West of England Line and the Wessex Main Line. Stonehenge, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is northwest o ...
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Swindon
Swindon () is a town in Wiltshire, England. At the time of the 2021 Census the population of the built-up area was 183,638, making it the largest settlement in the county. Located at the northeastern edge of the South West England region, Swindon lies on the M4 corridor, 84 miles (135 km) to the west of London and 36 miles (57 km) to the east of Bristol. The Cotswolds lie just to the town's north and the North Wessex Downs to its south. Recorded in the 1086 Domesday Book as ''Suindune'', the arrival of the Great Western Railway in 1843 transformed it from a small market town of 2,500 into a thriving railway hub that would become one of the largest Swindon Works, railway engineering complexes in the world at its peak. This brought with it pioneering amenities such as the UK's first lending library and a 'cradle-to-grave' healthcare centre that was later used as a blueprint for the NHS. Swindon's railway heritage can be primarily seen today with the grade 2 listed Railway Villag ...
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South West England
South West England, or the South West of England, is one of the nine official regions of England, regions of England in the United Kingdom. Additionally, it is one of four regions that altogether make up Southern England. South West England consists of the counties of Cornwall (including the Isles of Scilly), Dorset, Devon, Bristol, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire. Cities and large towns in the region include Bath, Somerset, Bath, Bristol, Bournemouth, Cheltenham, Exeter, Gloucester, Plymouth and Swindon. It is geographically the largest of the nine regions of England with a land area of , but the third-least populous, with an estimated residents in . The region includes the West Country and much of the ancient kingdom of Wessex. It includes two entire national parks of England and Wales, national parks, Dartmoor and Exmoor (a small part of the New Forest is also within the region); and four List of World Heritage Sites in the United Kingdom, World Heritage Sites: Ston ...
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Wiltshire (district)
Wiltshire is a Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in the ceremonial county of Wiltshire, South West England. It was formed in April 2009 following the abolition of Wiltshire County Council and the districts of Kennet District, Kennet, North Wiltshire, Salisbury District, Salisbury, and West Wiltshire. They were all replaced by Wiltshire Council, which is based at County Hall, Trowbridge, County Hall in Trowbridge. The remaining part of the ceremonial county is the Borough of Swindon, administered by a separate unitary authority. In 2022 it had a population of 515,885. Salisbury is the only city in the district and its largest settlement. After the city, the next largest urban areas are Chippenham and Trowbridge. History Until 2009, Wiltshire had four districts – Kennet District, Kennet, North Wiltshire, Salisbury District, Salisbury, and West Wiltshire – together with the Borough of Swindon which had been made a separate Unitary authorities of England, u ...
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Vale Of Pewsey
The Vale of Pewsey or Pewsey Vale is an area of Wiltshire, England to the east of Devizes and south of Marlborough, centred on the village of Pewsey. Geography The vale is an extent of lower lying ground separating the chalk downs of Salisbury Plain to the south from the Marlborough Downs to the north. It is around long and around wide. At the western end is the town of Devizes. Larger settlements in the vale include Pewsey and Burbage with many smaller villages, the larger ones including Bishops Cannings, Etchilhampton, Urchfont, Chirton, Alton Priors, Woodborough, Milton Lilbourne, Easton Royal and Wootton Rivers. Although not itself part of the downs, the vale is included as part of the North Wessex Downs AONB (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty). The vale is a major east–west feature opening to the west towards the Bristol Channel, but is drained by the headwaters of the Salisbury Avon, rather than the westward-flowing Bristol Avon. The river cuts through ...
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Savernake Forest
Savernake Forest stands on a Cretaceous chalk plateau between Marlborough and Great Bedwyn in Wiltshire, England. Its area is approximately . Most of the forest lies within the civil parish of Savernake. It is privately owned by the Marquess of Ailesbury and his son the Earl of Cardigan, and is administered by trustees. Since 1939 the timber of the forest has been managed by Forestry England on a 999-year lease. The private status of Savernake Forest is maintained by shutting the forest to the public one day per year. Geography Savernake's landform is rolling downland, dissected by both dry and wet valleys. The valleys within the forest, of which there are four, are all dry, and the presence of Cretaceous deposits of Clay-with-Flints creates the damp, heavy soils suited to dense cover of oak and beech. There are patches of poor drainage and wet soil. History The first mention of a woodland ''"Safernoc"'' was made in AD 934 in the written records of King Æthelstan, but th ...
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