page_title: Seend
section_title: Economic history
hierarchical_section_title: Seend / Economic history
caption_attribution_description: English: View beside Turners Farm.
context_page_description: Seend is a village and civil parish about 3 miles southeast of the market town of Melksham, Wiltshire, England. It lies about 3.5 miles west of Devizes and 5.5 miles northeast of the county town of Trowbridge. The parish includes the sub-village of Seend Cleeve and the hamlets of Inmarsh, Martinslade, Seend Head, Sells Green and The Stocks.
  Seend village is on a hilltop more than 90 metres above sea level. The hill is bordered to the west and south by Semington Brook, a tributary of the River Avon, and to the east by Summerham Brook, which is a tributary of Semington Brook. The village's High Street is the A361 Trowbridge-Devizes road; the A365 links the A361 with Melksham and passes through Sells Green.
context_section_description: In 1666 the antiquarian John Aubrey observed an iron ore field at Seend and in 1684 he noted that Seend had a chalybeate well that attracted "much company". The ore field was evidently the source of the iron oxide in the chalybeate waters. A chalybeate spring at Seend was discovered or rediscovered in 1813. In 1815 a saline spring was discovered and a spa company was founded, which built a pump room and houses for visitors. The Spa prospered until 1822.
  The Kennet and Avon Canal was built between 1794 and 1810. It passes about 0.4 miles (640 m) north of Seend village and even closer to Seend Cleeve.
  The Great Western Railway opened the Devizes Branch Line in 1857, passing about 0.6 miles (970 m) north of Seend village, and in 1858 Seend station was built to serve the area. Bromham and Rowde Halt was opened in 1909 at Sells Green, close to the north bank of the canal; the name was chosen because freight was expected to come from the horticultural area around Bromham. The line and stations were closed in 1966.
  The opening of the railway encouraged quarrying of the iron ore field, which began in the middle of the 19th century and continued intermittently for the next century or so. 77,984 tons of brown haematite were quarried between 1855 and 1861 and a further 86,443 tons between 1871 and 1874. Quarrying was renewed during the Second World War and was still continuing in 1950. Seend Ironstone Quarry and Road Cutting is now a Geological Site of Special Scientific Interest.
caption: Farmland near Seend
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