Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for BROMHAM

BROMHAM, a village, a parish, and a subdistrict, in Devizes district, Wilts. The village stands 1½ mile N of the Kennet and Avon canal, 1¾ S of the Roman road to Bath, 2 miles N by E of Seend r. station, and 3½ NW of Devizes; and has a post office under Chippenham, and an hostelry. The parish comprises 3,593 acres. Real property, £6,894. Pop., 1,402. Houses, 314. The property is divided among a few. The manor was held, in the time of Edward the Confessor, by Earl Harold; belonged, in the time of Henry VI., to Lord St. Amand; and passed from him to the Bayntons. Bromham House was destroyed in 1645. Spy Park house was built in 1650 by the Bayntons; is an interesting embattled edifice, on the verge of a fine hill; was occasionally visited, in the time of Charles II., by the witty but profligate Earl of Rochester; and is now the seat of J. Baynton Starky, Esq. Sloperton Cottage, in the north, near Bowood Park, was long the residence and eventually the death-place of the poet Moore. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Salisbury. Value, £698.* Patron, the Rev. E. Edgell. The church is decorated English, richly sculptured; has a handsome spire; was restored in 1869; and contains tombs of the Bayntons, an alabaster tomb of a Beauchamp, and a monumental tablet to Dr. Season, who wrote "Season on the Seasons." The churchyard contains the grave of the poet Moore. There are a Baptist chapel, a Wesleyan chapel, and alms-houses, the latter with £20 a year. Bishop Webb, the Somerset county historian Collinson, and Dr. Season were natives. The subdistrict contains four parishes and part of another. Acres, 13,903. Pop., 4,884. Houses, 1,103.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a village, a parish, and a subdistrict"   (ADL Feature Type: "populated places")
Administrative units: Bromham AP/CP       Bromham SubD       Devizes RegD/PLU       Wiltshire AncC
Place: Bromham

Go to the linked place page for a location map, and for access to other historical writing about the place. Pages for linked administrative units may contain historical statistics and information on boundaries.