In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Bromham like this:
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.
Bromham through time
Bromham is now part of Kennet district. Click here for graphs and data of how Kennet has changed over two centuries. For statistics about Bromham itself, go to Units and Statistics.
GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, History of Bromham, in Kennet and Wiltshire | Map and description, A Vision of Britain through Time.
URL: https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/11643
Date accessed: 25th April 2024
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