History

Originally named Cosseha, there has been a settlement in Corsham since Anglo-Saxon times. Corsham Court has royal connections (Corsham Regis) dating back centuries. King Ethelred kept house on the site of this old manor.
 
Situated on a Roman Road from Bath to Silchester, Corsham is said to have thrived on sheep, stone and cloth and to have held markets and fairs.
 
By the14th century sheep farming begun by the Anglo Saxons, became a major source of wealth, with wool being exported.  Weavers’ cottages in the High Street are a reminder of the thriving spinning and weaving industry. 

Corsham sits on Oolitic limestone, quarried on a small scale since the 7th Century.  When Box Railway Tunnel, designed by the great engineer Brunel, was constructed, huge new deposits of ‘Bath Stone’ were discovered.  Navvies, engineers and tunnelers swelled the population to nearly 4,000.  By the 1900’s, 60 miles of quarrying galleries were connected to the Great Western Railway and stone transported widely. The paths the quarrymen used can still be walked today.

During the First and Second World Wars, the military used abandoned stone quarries to store ammunition. In the 1950’s part of the 35 acre Spring Quarry was developed as a Central Government War Headquarters site, to which the government could retreat in the event of a nuclear holocaust. Code-named “Burlington”, the radiation-proof bunker is 30 metres underground.   

As quarrying reduced, a number of small industries rose up to provide employment.  Hartham Park, Rudloe Manor, Spring Park and Neston are now home to high tech industries. Corsham has a busy High Street with specialist shops.  Corsham Court, with Italian, Flemish and Dutch masters collected by Sir Paul Methuen and a park designed by Capability’ Brown is open to the public alongside the 17th Century Alms Houses founded by Lady Margaret Hungerford.

The Parish Council, in existence since 1895, was made a Town Council in 2000 and is housed in the Town Hall, the site of the old Market Hall.