Wiltshire has played a significant role in the history of Wessex. Wilton, near Salisbury, was once the “heade town of Wessex and Wileshire” and it is said that the county originally grew out of Wilton. The nearby village of Old Sarum has also played a significant role in the county’s history, being popular with both the Saxons and the Normans. It was also the site of the original Cathedral in the southern part of Wiltshire, preceeding Salisbury Cathedral.
The county has been host to a number of notable battles, including Alfred`s defeat of the Danes at Ethandune where despite tremendous odds and a seamingly impregnable hill-fort, he used all his guile and cunning to win a famous victory. The civil war battle of Roundway Hill near Devizes also figures prominantly in our ‘warrior’ history.
In more recent times, the county, especially Trowbridge in the west, was renowned the world over for its quality woollen products. Alas, all mills are now confined to memory and text, although Trowbridge now hosts a museum where details of this aspect of the county’s past can be explored.
Swindon, which means ‘pig hill’ to the north, was once the centre of Brunel’s Great Western Railway and until quite modern times produced trains and rolling stock for British Railways. Sadly, this trade has also been lost but Swindon now boasts a number of hi-tech industries and the GWR name lives on, albeit in the form of an extremely popular commercial radio station.
