Pictures of Wiltshire Pictures of Wiltshire Wiltshire Picture Tour , Recommended Towns , Recommended Attractions , Wiltshire Hotels , Wiltshire Facts , Wiltshire Map , Add pictures About the county of Wiltshire Wiltshire is a beautiful County situated in the South-Western parts of England, with much of the county designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Trowbridge is the vibrant, industrial and commercial county town. Salisbury is a stunning medieval city with the beautiful Salisbury Cathedral boasting the highest spire in England. Boating along the famous Kennet and Avon Canal is a popular and relaxing pastime. Wiltshire has a multitude of exciting attractions including, the worldwide famous ancient monument 'Stonehenge' symbolizing mystery, power and endurance. Other local places of interest are Swindon, the biggest town in the county, Chippenham, and the quaint old town of Devizes. The English Unitary Authority County of Wiltshire The English Unitary Authority County of Wiltshire Wiltshire Arms The Armorial Bearings (Arms) of the Unitary Authority of Wiltshire Adjust the Wiltshire map using controls or drag with mouse Map Centre Position: Lat , Long .

Map Zoom Level: - Icon Help (The external website above will open in a new window) Population and area summary of the County of Wiltshire The Unitary Authority of Wiltshire is located in The South Western Counties of England, it covers an administrative area of 3,255Km² and in 2001 was home to a population of 432,973 persons, that represents 0.88% of that of England and 0.01% of the population of the entire United Kingdom. More detailed information including visitor attractions and event venues in Wiltshire is available on this site by following the links below to the Historic Boroughs and/or Districts or follow this link to select a different County . Boroughs/Districts of the County of Wiltshire Unitary Authorities and Metropolitan Areas may be displayed here as they are locations are historically associated with this county/region. Unitary Authorities and Metropolitan Areas are however self-governing and are no longer responsible to the County/Regional Administration.

Unitary Authorities Historical notes about The English Unitary Authority County of Wiltshire WILTSHIRE in 1950 That great lover of the south country, Hilaire Belloc, once urged that "chalk should somewhere be warmly hymned and praised by every man who belongs to the south of England, for," he said, "it is the meaning of that good land." Indeed it is, and no county more than Wiltshire, for the chalk substratum underlies three-fifths of it, and has endowed the county not only with its characteristic appearance, but also with its characteristic appearance, but also with much of its history and a way of life. Here it is not a matter of a limb of chalk, of a mighty hill wave, as in Surrey or Sussex, but of a bulky upland mass, a whole sea of chalk. This great mass is split, if not entirely separated, by the wedge-shaped vale of Pewsey running and narrowing from west to east, pointing a finger at the pinnacle of Inkpen and its Beacon, which, rising to nine hundred and sixty feet in Walbury Hill, stands guard over the Hampshire and Berkshire borders.

The Vale, however, is never wide enough to constitute a real break in the chalk country. But when the chalk ceases, as it does with some abruptness towards the northern and western borders of the county, another Wiltshire is disclosed, different in looks, characteristics and, if we are able to believe some judges, in the temperament of its folk. To this other Wiltshire we shall come in due course. The chalk, the essential Wiltshire, makes a dry upland country of bare rolling hills and flying cloud-shadows. Little grows here but turf which is natural sheep-grazing and where sheep have, indeed, fed from a time beyond our history, keeping the grass, in the days of the great flocks, like a lawn with their teeth, and producing Lilliputian varieties of plant and flower by their close nibbling. The thorn and juniper are the only native trees, but the beech on its importation proved to be a lover of chalk, and nowadays it is impossible to think of the downs without imagining their great clumps of beech riding the swells.

To some minds this is a bleak country, empty and monotonous, where the rain can be pitiless and where, statistics report, it is sometimes as cold as on the north-east coast. The eighteenth century, which so reduced the terrors of travelling as to fill the country with tourists, has some uncomplimentary things to say about Wiltshire. One such traveller considered the views "naked," while the Rev. Mr Gilpin, who invented the word "picturesque," roundly declared that "the chalk spoils everything," and Marlborough Down he thought a "vast dreary scene." Search for the Remote The world of a hundred or two hundred years ago was a more cosy age, and its travellers recoiled from the forbidding "vastness" of the Plain, a description surprising perhaps to the modern motorist, who skims over it in an hour or so. Tastes have changed. The twentieth century emerging from its urban hives, shows a tendency to like its earth "undecorated." Moors, mountains and rocky coasts have now more attraction than the farmlands of work-a-day rural England.

Our search for the remote, at any rate in Wiltshire, has, however, been largely forestalled. For long Salisbury Plain has echoed to booms and bangs of an army in training or at exercise: the hideous "tin towns" of the military have become a feature of the district, and during the last war ever larger areas of the county were taken over. In these areas the green carpet of the Plain was gashed by the tracks of tanks or festooned with barbed wire and the litter of broken things which are the inevitable accompaniment of the modern exercise of the profession of arms, even in defence of freedom. Indifferent to Praise or Criticism Where the army has left it alone, there is a spaciousness about this high country, with only the clouds and the winds of God above it, which is indifferent to man's praise or criticism, and which enfolds his foolish mimic strife in its silence. It is a country which yields little to the casual traveller or the superficial glance. Its virtue is to introduce men to elemental things; it inspires meditation rather than appreciation. From his youth in its hills, Richard Jefferies drew enough of the raw materials of contemplation to last him his lifetime of writing.

The spirit is invaded rather than the eye charmed by this quality, which is, perhaps, why even the children of the downland become consciously aware of their affection chiefly when their souls are starved in exile. Edward Wyndham Tennant, overwhelmed by spring-time in Flanders fields, found all my soul was dancing . . . Dancing with a measured step from wrecked and shattered towns Away . . .upon the downs. Men such as Edward W. Tennant, Alfred Williams, Richard Jefferies and W. H. Hudson spoke not only for themselves: they spoke for all the men of Wiltshire Downs who are dumb, but who nevertheless share their feelings. Harmony of Vale and Downland Yet the impression of Wiltshire as nothing but a vast downland is far from accurate. The well-wooded Wiltshire valleys, and that subtle integration of vale and downland into a living harmony wrought by Nature and the generations of men, are too often missed by the hurrying traveller.

Cobbett, that shrewd Englishman with one eye on beauty and the other on usefulness, brought out a true picture of the Wiltshire scene in his Rural Ride of the Wiltshire Avon: - A most beautiful sight it was! Villages, hamlets, large farms, fields, meadows, orchards and very fine timber trees, scattered all over the valley. The shape of the thing is this; on each side downs very lofty and steep in some places, but each outside of the valley are downs. From the edge of the downs begin capital arable fields generally of very great dimensions, and in some places, running a mile or two back into little cross valleys formed by hills of downs. After the corn fields come meadows on each side down to the brook or river. The farm houses, mansions, villages and hamlets are generally situated in that part of the arable land which comes nearest to the meadow . . I delight in this sort of country. This "shape" is repeated all round the edges of the downs and in the riverless vale of Pewsey as well as in the river valleys. The valleys give to the chalk a rich diversity without breaking its homogeneity.

In the Marlborough Downs the shining Kennet, in the Plain its five rivers - the Ebble, Nadder, Wylye, Bourne and Avon - carve their beauty through the high chalk. All bear their train of villages, each of a similar type, yet all of infinite variety. Each has its measure of downland, arable, wood and pasture, for every English village was originally in large measure a self-supporting economic unit. In Wiltshire, save for the few upland villages such as Imber in the south and Aldbourne in the north, the position and shape of villages are determined by the conformation of the chalk and the need for water. Where the water leaves the chalk, forced out by some less porous material below, there are the villages. So we find them round the escarpments of the Downs or following the river valleys. Of the valley villages Enford-on-Avon stands for them all. The clear chalk stream runs under the bridge where I am resting on a May morning; around me lies the village, and the cuckoo's monotonous call comes to me across the flower-strewn meadows.

Streams in the Streets The five rivers of the Plain all run to Salisbury, "vulgarly," as an old traveller notes, "called the sink of the Plain." Vulgarly indeed of this city standing in its green cap amidst its bright waters. These once ran in its very streets, as old Speed pictures them in the inset in his map of Wiltshire and as Leland tells: "Al the streates in New Saresbyri hath little streamlettes and arms deribyd of Avon that runneth through them." The rivers have vanished from "al the streates," but they still run through and around Salisbury, "a red-brick and red-tiled town," as W. H. Hudson wrote, "set lower on that circumscribed space whose soft brilliant green is in lovely contrast with the pale hue of the downs beyond." It was in 1219 that Richard Poore, the then Bishop of Salisbury, removed from Old Sarum, the most ancient of British towns, and set up on the banks of the Avon to build a new city round the new cathedral which shelters in a bend of the river.

He planned well, and even our own times have not yet succeeded in spoiling the fine, straight run of streets north and south from market square and Close. Salisbury is a fair city, yet she is also a bustling market town with a variety of industries. Above all, she is a regional capital, drawing in her country children for business and pleasure, and held in wide affection. Salisbury is big enough to attract the best into her region: not so big as to drain its vitality. Salisbury Cathedral The heart of Salisbury is the cathedral, "standing upon its sweep of lawn - a silent beatitude." It was consecrated before Henry III in the year 1258, and Christopher Wren said of it in 1668, . . . it may be justly accounted one of the finest patterns of the architecture of the age in which it was built." But of the Close, the cathedral and spire I will not be tempted to write. "There are in England other cathedral's, there is no other Salisbury Close." So declares a gracious Wiltshire lady, Edith Olivier, and all who count themselves of Wiltshire share that same contented, propriety satisfaction which she expresses.

The spire, too, soaring more than four hundred feet above the meads of Avon, must be seen, for its beauty cannot be fully conveyed in the terms of any other art. Constable failed magnificently to put it into paint; others have failed less magnificently to put it into words. Never the same, it puts on glory or austerity at will. I remember it near against frosty stars, or riding the blue and white gustiness of a March sky; and, again, far off from the Downs south of the Nadder, a finger of light. Relics of Human History Yet Salisbury is very young by Wiltshire standards. Few people who live in the chalk country can be very far from some strange relic of human history. These confront even the traveller upon the main through roads, for if he makes for Exeter he will pass Stonehenge, or if for Bath he will pass Silbury Hill, whence a short detour brings him to Avebury, a temple earlier than Stonehenge, and more impressive in scope, if not in workmanship.

Around him everywhere are the grave mounds of a race long vanished, while the "earthworks," the hilltop "camps," frown down upon him from the high places. These "antiquities" had brought many visitors to Wiltshire even before John Aubrey escorted Charles II up Silbury or Pepys visited Old Sarum at nightfall - "prodigious," he declared it, "so as to the fright me to be in it alone and at that time of night." Some of these visitors are learned savants piecing together a remote past from flints, pottery shards, ornaments and the bones of animals and men. Man's most modern inventions are employed to discover his oldest secrets. Aeroplanes have been used to detect form the air traces and clues invisible from the ground. So the site of Woodhenge - the wooden counterpart of Stonehenge - was revealed, the post-holes still affecting the growth of the wheat. Others may be amateur explorers of the ancient roads which remain indelible on the hill-tops.

Of these, the Ridgeway, coming in from Berkshire and following the high arc of the Marlborough Downs to link with the other "green roads" of the Plain, was once the great arterial way. Today, silent and unravelled, the Ridgeway if perhaps the oldest road in the world. No other county has anything like the array of such relics of this lost age as are found in Wiltshire, and if any should wonder why this should be so, the answer is, briefly, the chalk. The relics are the works of men who came to England when the chalk hills gave the only foothold to human habitation. Below were forests and swamps; but upon the dry chalk hills which grew no more than a thin scrub, primitive man found his simple tools adequate to the task of establishing his homesteads. Here he kept his cattle and grew his grain, shaped his pottery and wove his cloth, here he traded with strangers who travelled the hill roads, and worshipped whatever gods impelled him to the enormous tasks of Avebury and Stonehenge. Around him he buried his dead with ceremony in the mounds we call barrows. And the chalk, by its nature, preserved his works.

A long time they lived in Wiltshire, the race of stone-tool users, ultimately giving place to men of the Bronze Age, whose time passed placidly away like a summer afternoon of long ago yet lasting a thousand years. They, in turn, were supplanted by other invaders, Iron Age Celts whom the Romans found and fought. But this ancient civilization, longer in time than our own, has bequeathed nothing living to the life of Wiltshire. Yet something intangible and imponderable may have come down from them to us. A generation or so ago Wiltshire folk talked with pleasing familiarity of "the old people"; and here and there you will still find a countryman whose imagination has been caught and held by the ancient story of the forgotten past and who is the repository of lore and legend. Wiltshire history is very largely prehistory. For though this high ground remained a strategic , and therefore disputed territory among the invaders who followed the Roman withdrawal from these islands, seeing many bloody battles in the Ages we call Dark, witnessing Alfred's defeat of the Danes, yet its later story is in "the rural works of dear domestic peace." Farming has made life of Wiltshire, and still does.

This means that today the Wiltshire working life is in essence very much the same as the life of any other predominately rural county. It was not always so. For centuries Wiltshire had a highly distinctive manner of farming which produced a well-defined character in Wiltshire life. "The sheepfold must be the sheet anchor of its husbandry," declared the Board of Agriculture's Report on Wiltshire a hundred and fifty years ago. So it had been, and so it then was. The sight of great flocks spreading the Plain - for sheep were the backbone of old-style Wiltshire farming - apparently tickled the Arcadian fancy of gentlemen from London. Wiltshire, however, did not grow sheep to improve the landscape, but to dung the arable, to which the sheep were subsidiary. "Corn and sheep" were as much part of each other as the downland and vale into which they dovetailed. The doom of "corn and sheep" was prepared in far-off lands. The grain and mutton of the New World - "cheap food" which suited England's economic assumptions when she was the "workshop of the world" - knocked the bottom out of arable farming.

A few disastrous harvests did the rest, and Wiltshire arable, even in the fertile vale of Pewsey, the very centre of Wiltshire high farming, tumbled down to pasture. Yet English farming is pertinacious and resilient. Modern inventions came to the aid of Wiltshire. If sheep declined to a quarter of their previous numbers, cattle more than doubled. Piped water, wire (and now electric) fencing made possible this transformation, while the urban milk market kept farming alive. This was the period of "Down Corn, up Horn," representing the farmers' response to the purely commercial basis of our national economy. This policy profoundly affected life in the corn areas, of which Wiltshire was one, altering their farming and appearance and reducing their population. (Incidentally, a hundred acres of grazing maintains only fifteen people per annum compared with the hundred and fifty who can be maintained by the same area of arable.) This "Up Horn" policy meant that, for commercial reasons, we had ceased to be anything like self-supporting.

Wiltshire escaped the worst ravages of "depression" by turning over to milk production, assisted by foreign feeding stuffs - this is, by trying to do what every other county was doing, and so ceasing to be herself. Today, while five-sixths of the county is farmed, a large part of the area is permanent pasture. War-time ploughing was, however, considerable. Regret there must be at the passing of the old-style farming; for the end of the great flocks (even if Wiltshire-bred Hampshire downers still go to Europe, Australia and the Americas); for the silent sheep-bells and the departure from the scene of that traditional Wiltshire figure, "the shepherd of Salisbury Plain." Strands of wire and the growing roughness of downland freed from the sheep's "lawn mowing" are no compensation to the eye. At the moment it is almost impossible to write of a distinctly Wiltshire farming. Modern techniques are ubiquitous, and destroy local characteristics. Factory-made machinery replaces the old local instruments made by craftsmen from local material and according to local needs and tradition. Yet survival is the main thing.

Today, at least, the corn has come back in some measure, and the tractor plough and "artificials" have enabled the modern Wiltshire farmer to crop high land without the aid of the sheep's "golden hoof." There is some concern over a too ready use of "artificals" and a too wide-spread ploughing of the thin soils of the high lands. But I, for one, hope corn will stay in Wiltshire, for it belongs here, and I see the cornfield as Jefferies saw it, "a triumph of culture." Beauty will come again as the corn has come, not only as Nature's gift, but as the testament of those who love their place and can count upon their livelihood. The "works of domestic peace" have produced history enough. The enclosures of a hundred and fifty years ago fell with particular severity on Wiltshire. The peasant with some stake in the country became the landless labourer, the victim of the overthrow of the old subsistence economy and the wild scramble for profits. Incredible poverty and vicious poor laws eventually produced the Last Peasants' Revolt of 1830.

Conducted for the most part with restraint and dignity, it was, none the less, suppressed with "catastrophic vengeance." No fewer than one hundred and fifty-four men and boys were sent away for transportation. Today the rural worker is unrecognizably better off than he was then, but he is restless as his grandfather was not. He is less local in character, too. That dialect which refined ears in the past found "more grating even than that of their neighbours in Somerset" and "prevailing" even among the gentry, has largely disappeared. He is less and less "of" his place, and he dreams of urban migration for his children, if not for himself. How is this "drift from the country" to be arrested? How is that feeling of "belonging" to a place to be restored? Only, I am convinced, by "abolishing" the labourer, restoring to him something of his patrimony in England's soil, and giving back to him some measure of direct ownership and so of responsibility. Only so shall we rediscover local pride and local patriotism.

Wiltshire folk, incidentally, are supposed to be stupid, and they may, indeed, be a thought more taciturn and abrupt than their neighbours. But I doubt the stupidity, the legend of which derives from such stories as the moonrakers of Bishop Canning's pond, the essence and prototype of all Wiltshire stories. They replied to the stranger who asked what they thought they were doing with their hay-rakes in the dew-pond: "Zomebody bin and lost a cheese, and us be a-raking of un out o' thic thur pond." But the stranger was an excise man, who in due course was flattered by the roars of laughter which greeted his story at The Bear in Devizes, his audience knowing better than he that the Canning's dew-pond was a recognized dumping ground for smuggled liquor. The modern Wiltshireman is perhaps less rough and blunt than his forefathers: he is no less shrewd. Marlborough Down is the northern limit of the chalk.

It is a country much like the Plain, though the passage through it of the Bath road has left a legacy of fine inns from the days when the quality sped down it in the "machines" to take the fashionable waters, together with a sprinkling of petrol pumps from more modern days. To the south-east, too, there is a distinctive landmark - the ancient forest of Savernake. Few travellers along the Bath road which cuts its northern fringe recognize that the forest is new as well as old. Here at least extensive felling has been followed by extensive planting - and planting with an eye to the characteristic look of the place. The heart of this region is the old town of Marlborough, with its memories of spacious coaching days (to which its noble High Street bears ample witness), its great public school, its celebrated market and the Five Alls Inn. From the northern ramparts of the Downs we look out over the edge of the chalk country and its light soil upon a fat, flat land. Beeches have given place to elms, bit arable fields to small grazing meadows, the grey-green of the chalk grass t deeper and more luxuriant tones.

This is the dairy-country of Wiltshire, watered by the stripling reaches of the Upper Thames, the southern beginnings of the great midland plain of England, over which the eye is stretched even to the smoke of Birmingham. Its Wiltshire portion is unlike the rest of Wiltshire - as literally unlike as chalk is to cheese. Here they traditionally make this last substance, along with butter, in their dairy farms. A pleasant but not distinguished countryside is this, on the edge of which incongruously sits that slice of industrialism we call Swindon. Swindon is not a beautiful town. It was planned rather than allowed to grow - and to contrast it with the gracious market town of Devizes or the Stone towns of the Bristol Avon is to realize that all planning is not good. The chalk has forced the main line of the Great Western Railway to run to the northward, though a branch follows the Pewsey Vale, and so the chalk may perhaps be blamed for the vast railway workshops that have grown up in the town of Swindon. Yet Swindon is not wholly indifferent to the ideals of modern town-planning and the need of proper restraint towards and harmony with its own countryside.

Its town plan, if implemented, will be a model. In the people of this country north and west of the chalk John Aubrey detected a great difference of temperament. There are today no such discernible differences between the people of the Wiltshire high and low lands. But, though they are distinctive countrysides, they have a symbol of unity. This is the pig - the large white variety of which made Wiltshire bacon the best in the world. Reared on the milk wastes remaining after butter and cheese-making, fattened on corn form the arable lands, there was once no pig like him. Chippenham and Calne, west of the chalk, still support bacon-curing - one of the oldest surviving regional industries in Wiltshire. Yet it is doubtful whether the Wiltshire bacon of today is very much different from any other. Farther west still, in a land watered by the Bristol Avon, lies yet another Wiltshire - a region somewhat apart and with a very distinctive character; for here are little towns of stone sprung from the great Bath stone quarries beneath them. A golden stone this, breeding its generations of craftsmen as the downland bred its shepherds.

Perhaps the most interesting example of their works, both old and new, is to be found in Corsham Church, where there are two stone screens, both of excellent workmanship, both of local stone, one of the twentieth, the other of the fifteenth century. Yet these stone towns were once linked to Wiltshire by the sheep, for they were the homes of the West of England woollen industry before it was killed by the Industrial Revolution. But now the woollen industries are dead, and replaced by others less local in character, which might as well be anywhere else. The cloth trade still survives at Trowbridge and Chippenham, but these two, like Malmesbury, Bradford-on-Avon and Melksham, are now chiefly agricultural centres where malting and flour-milling offer minor competition to cattle and cheese markets. Quarrying of the fine, white local stone is still extensive, the main centre being Bradford-on-Avon. Yet there are new regional industries in Wiltshire which are really part of its characteristic life - for example, the milk factories at Chippenham, Salisbury and Wootton Bassett. In the growth of such rural and regional industries as these lies hope for the future.

Generations ago the countryside was full of industry - the industry of the craftsman. It was drained into the new urban areas by the Industrial Revolution and the factory system. One local industry, carpet-making, has survived, and still flourishes in the town of Wilton, the third oldest borough in England, the ancient capital and the town from which the county derives its name. Electricity and modern transport have given industry a new mobility and made possible its dispersal, with a consequent possibility of the restoration of variety of occupation to the countryside. Country industries must, however, not merely be in, they must be of the countryside. Wiltshire possesses a good example of a modern regional factory in the Devizes flax factory, where real skill is fostered in the revival of a once-dead industry, now again in living relationship with its region. Wiltshire is rich in noble manors, if poor in castles. Only the ruins of Wardour Castle, near Tisbury, are of any significance.

For, after the wars with the Danes were ended, Wiltshire settled down to a period of peacefulness probably unrivalled by any other English county - until the military, jealous perhaps of so much calm, took it for their own in their mimic wars. Even the ruins of Wardour are less prized than is the fine manor of that name that stands nearby. Of other manors, I can only mention, besides Wilton House, which Inigo Jones partly rebuilt in the late seventeenth century, and where Sir Philip Sidney wrote his Arcadia and William Shakespeare acted his plays before James I, the Elizabethan house of Longleat, near Warminster, with its vast park of trees, Littlecote Park, mentioned by Sir Walter Scott in his poem Rokeby, Stourhead, near Zeals on the Somerset border, famous for its beautiful gardens, Corsham Court on the Bath Road, once part of the dowry of the early English queens, and Fonthill Abbey, built by William Beckford the younger, which is not, as its name implies, a religious foundation. Of such foundations in Wiltshire, those at Malmesbury, Wilton and Amesbury are pre-Norman.

Amesbury was once a leading town of the ancient Kingdom of Wessex; here in the year 932, the parliament or witenagemot of that kingdom met. Most celebrated of monastic houses, however, is Lacock Abbey, not far from Chippenham. Part of the thirteenth century buildings and the fifteenth century cloisters still survives. In this account of Wiltshire I have deplored the passing of that regionalism which gave distinct character to the life and work of particular places, though these did not necessarily conform to county boundaries. Today, although the richness of that local, characteristic work and life has largely disappeared before the onrush of modern scientific and "progressive" industrialism, there are signs of a reviving sense of importance of regions. Throughout the countryside Women's Institutes and Young Farmer's Clubs are doing something to revitalize interest in, knowledge of and pride in one's own place. And they are only two symptoms of a returning mood. Even if, then, the old Wiltshire is disappearing, there may be hope that it will express itself realizing anew its own essential nature, and remaining "fertile and plentiful of all things . . .

pleasant and delightsome," as old Camden found it so many years ago. [Your user agent does not support frames or is currently configured not to display frames.] The books displayed above are returned using the search terms 'Wiltshire'. *If nothing is found relating to these terms Amazon will display a selection of books from the general Best Seller list. Selected UK Retailers Stonehenge prehistoric monument - English county of Wiltshire - YouTube Stonehenge prehistoric monument - English county of Wiltshire Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Uploaded on Apr 18, 2011 Wikipedia: Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument located in the English county of Wiltshire, about 3.2 kilometres (2.0 mi) west of Amesbury and 13 kilometres (8.1 mi) north of Salisbury. One of the most famous sites in the world, Stonehenge is composed of earthworks surrounding a circular setting of large standing stones.

It is at the centre of the most dense complex of Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments in England, including several hundred burial mounds.[1] Archaeologists have believed that the iconic stone monument was erected around 2500 BC, as described in the chronology below. One recent theory however, has suggested that the first stones were not erected until 2400-2200 BC,[2] whilst another suggests that bluestones may have been erected at the site as early as 3000 BC (see phase 1 below). The surrounding circular earth bank and ditch, which constitute the earliest phase of the monument, have been dated to about 3100 BC. The site and its surroundings were added to the UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites in 1986 in a co-listing with Avebury Henge monument. It is a national legally protected Scheduled Ancient Monument. Stonehenge is owned by the Crown and managed by English Heritage, while the surrounding land is owned by the National Trust. Category BeenThere-DoneThat: The county of Wiltshire (Wilts).

The County of Wiltshire is probably known for its most famous monument - Stonehenge but another of its monuments, Avebury Stone Circle, is older and larger than Stonehenge. The city of Salisbury is the county's only city featuring Salisbury Cathedral with the tallest spire in England. The county town is the town of Trowbridge. Wiltshire is a mainly rural landscape with the majority being on high chalk downland and most of that is on Salisbury Plain which shows evidence of Man's occupation over 5000 years or more. GENUKI: Wiltshire Wiltshire Report problems or contribute information 1 Introduction 2 Message details 3 Upload file 4 Submitted Help and advice for Wiltshire If you have found a problem on this page then please report it on the following form. We will then do our best to fix it. If you are wanting advice then the best place to ask is on the area's specific email lists . All the information that we have is in the web pages, so please do not ask us to supply something that is not there. We are not able to offer a research service. If you wish to report a problem, or contribute information, then do use the following form to tell us about it.

Leave this field blank We are in the process of upgrading the site to implement a content management system. Wiltshire Voting Registers "This county is situated in the province of Canterbury, in the diocese of Salisbury, and contains 29 hundreds, one city, 15 boroughs, and 10 other market-towns. On the north and west side of it lies Gloucestershire; its western boundary is Somersetshire; Dorsetshire confines its southern extremity; and Hampshire and Berkshire inclose it on the east. Its extreme length is 54 miles, and breadth 34, and its area measures about 878,000 acres. The air of Wiltshire like that of other counties, is various, according to the different parts of it, but on the whole it is agreeable and salubrious. On the downs and higher parts, it is sharp and clear; in the vallies mild, even in winter. Over the extensive wilds, called Salisbury plain, roam immense flocks of sheep, who with their shepherds, are the sole tenants, if the bustard, the wheatear, and a few other solitary birds be excepted, which avoid the haunts of men.

The summer stock of sheep on these plains and downs, is computed to be 500,000. The rivers of this county are the Lower Avon; the Thames or Isis; the Cole; the Kennet; the Bourne; the Upper Avon; the Willey; and the Nadder." [Extract from Pigot & Co's London & Provincal New Commercial Directory, 1822-3] Archives and Libraries The record office (now named Wiltshire and Swindon Archives) and Wiltshire Local Studies Library moved from Trowbridge to the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre at Chippenham, opened on 31st October 2007. It includes Archaeology, Conservation, Museum services and the Wiltshire Buildings Record. Some of our text may still mention the record office and library at Trowbridge; we will update these in due course. The address is Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre, Cocklebury Road, Chippenham, Wiltshire SN15 3QN. For map, phone, email, opening times see their menu for "Visiting the History Centre" .

Below is a list of the major, and some less well known, repositories. Wiltshire and Swindon Archives . The archives web site has been greatly expanded and now includes the information from their printed leaflets which was previously on-line within GENUKI. Research Guides include Family History, House History , a list of family and estate archives, Diocesan Archives on clergy and buildings, also a Newsletter.​ Wiltshire County Council Library Service has a searchable Wiltshire Library Catalogue . Wiltshire Studies has information on the local studies library in the new History Centre, and information on other local studies material in Wiltshire. Wiltshire Libraries and Heritage also provides online Wiltshire Community History with information on 261 communities, covering the whole of the Wiltshire County Council administered area of the county; having been compiled by Wiltshire Libraries & Heritage. Every community page already has certain basic information, such as local administrative bodies, population from 1801, newspapers for the area, lists of maps, registration district, and links to other sites of interest. Between 2002 and 2007 they will be adding much more detailed information for each community.

This will include a map, an historical thumbnail sketch, information on churches and schools, a booklist and the texts of some books and articles, information about listed buildings, local authors and literary associations and access to old photographs. The Swindon Collection also has a free online history gallery of the Swindon Borough. For more details please see our GENUKI page for the Swindon Collection . Wiltshire Heritage Library and Museum , of the Wiltshire Archaeological & Natural History Society, at 41 Long Street, DEVIZES, SN10 1NS. Bibliography Wiltshire Record Society publishes a volume each year with the text of a set of documents, an introduction and an index. 56 Volumes have been published. It also has an annual meeting. For details contact the Honorary Secretary, Wiltshire Record Society, c/o Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre, Cocklebury Road, Chippenham, Wiltshire SN15 3QN. Many of the volumes are available second-hand from Ambra Books . Victoria County History of Wiltshire . This site includes an A-Z index of volumes which lists all the topics covered in the general volumes of the Wiltshire V.C.H.

as well as all the parish articles published so far. Chris Phillips on his Medieval Genealogy site provides a list of the contents of Wiltshire volumes of the Victoria County History, and also an index to places listed in the volumes for all counties. Extracted from the VCH, with additional illustrations, there is a "History of Amesbury, Bulford and Durrington" published by Wiltshire County Council and Wiltshire Family History Society. Chandler - John - Marlborough and Eastern Wiltshire, Sept 2001, 288 pages, is the first part (of seven) of his planned county history, which will go under the series title: Wiltshire: a History of its Landscape and People. "It offers succinct but informative and well-researched histories of 34 Wiltshire parishes, from Aldbourne in the north to Tidworth in the south and Avebury in the west, including Marlborough, Ramsbury and Ludgershall". There are specially commissioned illustrations by Michael Charlton, as well as facsimiles of historic maps.

Published by Hobnob Press , PO Box 1838, East Knoyle, Salisbury SP3 6FA, who also publish other local books. The County Local Studies Library has copies of transcriptions by Wiltshire Family History Society . FFHS Online also has this Wiltshire Memorial Inscription Index. Census Church History Mandy and Duncan Ball have photos of churches in North Wiltshire. Their website now has over 28,000 photographs of 185 (mainly) Wiltshire churches. They said "We were given permission to go inside some of the churches and have taken photos of all the memorials; at a few churches we also took photos of graves. There are some churches listed which only have one or two pictures, although others have well over a hundred. A few churches have allowed us to copy the church history leaflet (found inside the church)." The Clergy Database already includes details of clergy and schoolmasters in Salisbury Diocese 1660-1740, and more is being added. The Church of England website A Church Near You gives boundary maps and contacts for modern parishes.

Search by place name or Postcode, click on resultant map to show which parish a point is in. Clergy of the Church of England Database "makes available and searchable the principal records of clerical careers from over 50 archives in England and Wales with the aim of providing coverage of as many clerical lives as possible from the Reformation to the mid-nineteenth century". Search Clergy Database by person, location, bishop, etc. For an example see person ID 22718, Paul Latham, vicar of Warminster 1660-1687. Or browse by location - choose Salisbury Diocese - then parish - for example Warminster is location 1925 and gives vicars, curates, etc from 1550 to 1835. Civil Registration Civil Registration of Births, Marriages and Deaths in England and Wales began on July 1st 1837. Copies of certificates may be obtained from either the General Register Office (GRO), or from a Superintendent's Registrar's Office of the District at which the event was first registered. If the District no longer exists, this would be the Office to which its registers have been moved.

Obtaining a certificate from a Superintendent Registrar's Office. The original records of events, completed by the Registrar of the time, have always been retained by the District Registrar. In Wiltshire, these records were held in several different locations within the county, and in the past an application would be made to the Superintendent Registrar at one of these locations to search the local indexes he or she holds to the registers, and produce a certificated copy from the original record of the event. However in recent years all registers have been moved to the Wiltshire & Swindon History Centre in Chippenham, and applications should now be made to that office. The details required for such a request are name and surname, the event type (ie birth, marriage or death), and the year the event took place, and a search will be made of 5 years either side of that year, if an entry for that year isn't found. Please consult the Wiltshire BMD service for more details. This also provides details of a collaborative venture between the Registration Service, Family History Societies, and independent volunteers to index all births, marriages and deaths in Wiltshire from 1837 to the present, to provide an online searchable index.

The cost of a certificate obtained this way is £9.00. Details of all districts to handle Wiltshire registrations prior to centralisation may be found in Brett Langston's list of Wiltshire Registration Districts (1837-1974) . Obtaining a certifcate from the GRO Certificates from the GRO are issued from copies of the original records; however there is considerable advantage in being able to search indexes to the whole country in one place, so many people prefer to do this, rather than risk a protracted search locally. The first step is to obtain a GRO reference to the event. You can then order certificates online via the Certificate Ordering Service of the General Register Office website. From 6th April 2010, the cost of a certificate obtained this way is £9.25. You can obtain a GRO reference in several ways:- Searching microfilm or fiche at a Library or LDS Family History Centre. FreeBMD is an ongoing project to make the General Register Office (GRO) Indexes freely available online. More volunteers are needed and details of how you can help are available on-site.

findmypast.co.uk (formerly 1837online) - images of the complete BMD indexes from the GRO online. Fee payable The images are also available on Ancestry.co.uk for which a subscription provides access to a wide range of other records. Obtaining a certificate for a recent event The cost of a certificates issued at the time of registration of a current birth, death or marriage is £3.50 for each copy. After registration (for instance, the following day) the cost is £7.00, providing the register is still current (within 28 days of the last entry in the register) After a registration book is complete, 28 days later, the register is deposited with the Superintendent Registrar of the district. Until recently, this was one of the district offices referred to above, but there is now just one district for the whole of Wiltshire, and the Office to apply to is the Wiltshire & Swindon History Centre in Chippenham. From that point onwards, certificates will cost the same as any 'old' certificate obtained locally - £9.00. Description and Travel This is Wiltshire is a website with current information about news, travel and services.

Wiltshire-web is similar with an outline map and descriptions of places on the map. The Badger's Heritage website features many pen and ink drawings of Wiltshire churches, schools, pubs, hotels, bridges, locks, mills, cottages & villages. All The Cotswolds includes photographs and brief descriptions of places in North Wiltshire - for example Malmesbury and Cricklade, extending just down to Lacock. Southern Life had descriptions and histories and photos of villages and churches, obtained from a variety of sources. At May 2006 their website is being reorganised. Engravings by email from Heatons of Tisbury : this shop has many views and maps of places in Wiltshire as images on its website; larger copies can be sent by email, some maps and prints are for sale. West Country Photographs from Mike Matthews includes Bremhill Parish Church, The Courts and Forde Abbey, Stourhead, Malmesbury and Lacock Abbeys.

Nadder Valley Focus from the Nadder Valley Team Ministry has information about villages and Anglican churches in the area, including (in groups from west to east) Chicklade, Hindon, Fonthill Gifford, Tisbury, Ansty, Fonthill Bishop, Chilmark, Teffont Evias, Teffont Magna, Swallowcliffe, Dinton, Sutton Mandeville, Directories Pigot's Wiltshire Directory of 1830 is made available on-line with a surname index and search across all directories by Sue O'Neill . These indexes are taken from the facsimile edition produced by the Society of Genealogists in 1992 and distributed on microfiche. As these are indexes they only include the Name, Place and Page for reference. Further information must be obtained from the original documents or microfiche facsimile. Direct Resources have surname indexes to 19th Century trade directories on-line; see their list of counties and directories. Note there are text and spreadsheet formats available.

Their 1848 Post Office Directory for Wiltshire text file is split into 1848 Directory for Bradford, Calne, Chippenham, Devizes, Malmesbury, Marlborough, Melksham and 1848 Directory for Salisbury, Swindon, Trowbridge, and Warminster. Note that the list of surnames is alphabetical within each town. Rod Neep's Archive CD Books published on CD a number of directories. The UK activities of Archive CD Books have been closed, so the CDs cannot be ordered, but they are available in some libraries. The Wiltshire ones include: The Universal Directory of Great Britain 1791; Pigots 1822 Wiltshire and Gloucestershire Directory, covers main towns only (Bradford, Calne, Chippenham, Devizes, Marlborough, Salisbury, Trowbridge, Warminster, Westbury); 1830 Pigot's Directory of Wiltshire; 1831 Pigot's Topography and Gazetteer of England (Vol.

1) with historical and statistical description, includes Wiltshire; 1842-4 Pigot's Directory of Wiltshire; 1865 Dorset and Wiltshire directory from Harrod and Co; 1877 Return of Owners of Land ; 1903, 1920, 1927, 1939 and 1895 Wiltshire Kelly's Directory; 1849 Kelly's Dorset and Wiltshire. Emigration and Immigration The Wiltshire Emigration Database of Robin Holley is made up of people and families that emigrated, transported or bounded from the county of Wiltshire over the years. There are now 10,000 entries on the database. The information is free to anybody who contacts him and he is also interested in receiving any other information about persons that emigrated from Wiltshire. (We have no web or email link for this item at present) Ship "Marion" 1851 Stranding in South Australia . In 1851 the ill-fated emigrant ship "Marion" took some hundreds of Wiltshire people to South Australia.

The ship was grounded when entering local waters. Amazingly, no lives were lost during the sinking. History The Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment (Salisbury) Museum is in a historic house called The Wardrobe, in the Cathedral Close at Salisbury. The website has on-line transcriptions of regimental World War 1 war diaries. Twelve of the 15 battalions that were in the Royal Berkshire Regiment and Wiltshire Regiment are now available for searching, by date or free text. Over 12,000 records have been input by volunteers. The other 3, and the first of the WW2 diaries should be included by May 2002. In addition it offers over 2000 catalogued images of items in the museum's collection, including 1200 photographs. These relate to both regiments. Salisbury Plain was the main area for the training of soldiers in the 1914-18 war. Some training had started in 1871, and a major area was purchased by the government for training in 1897. During the Great War soldiers made up a third of the population of Wiltshire.

A recent book with accounts, plentiful illustrations and a bibliography is "Wiltshire and the Great War" by T S Crawford, ISBN 9781847973559, a revised edition was published in May 2012 by Crowood Press. It refers in particular to two books by N D G James, "Plain Soldiering" (Hobnob, 1987) and "Gunners at Larkhill" (Gresham 1983). Terry Crawford has also written another new book "The Canadian Army on Salisbury Plain", from Halsgrove Publishing, ISBN 97808570415555, published in June 2012. Manors Some Notes on Medieval English Genealogy includes Wiltshire material, for example showing Manors of the Abbey of Bec: 1246-1247 , (Internet Medieval Sourcebook, Fordham University) as including Ogbourne, the source being English translations, from F.W.

Maitland, ed., Select Pleas in Manorial and Other Seignorial Courts: Volume 1 -- Reigns of Henry III and Edward I (1889). Maps Old Maps provides free access to first edition historical maps of Great Britain dated between 1846 and 1899. This site allows you to view historical maps simply by entering a place name, an address (which can be just a Postcode) or a grid reference. There is sometimes heavy demand on this web-site; try again later if you don't get a map. Ordnance Survey Get a Map shows grid references as you move a pointer over the map. Probate Records The Wiltshire Wills Project at the record office aims to re-index, digitise and microfilm the wills. The catalogue of wills (which also covers Berkshire, Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire, and Hampshire) is now available on-line . In addition to the comprehensive database of over 300,000 probate records, there are digital images of about 25% of the records.

Nick Hidden has provided abstracts, and an index of names of all persons mentioned in about 1000 Probate Documents from Hungerford and Wantage in Berkshire covering the period 1500-1858, include many relating to parts of Wiltshire. Wiltshire Wills Indexes and Transcripts was provided by David Church, from transcripts by himself and other contributors. Most of those indexed were from areas between Trowbridge and Westbury, and around Salisbury. At Dec 2009 the website formerly on Geocities is not available. A Wills Beneficiaries Index 1800-1858 has been given by Pat Wilson to the Society of Genealogists . County of Wiltshire | Article about County of Wiltshire by The Free Dictionary County of Wiltshire | Article about County of Wiltshire by The Free Dictionary Related to County of Wiltshire: Wiltshire County Council Wiltshire (wĭlt`shĭr, –shər) or Wilts, county (1991 pop.

553,300), 1,345 sq mi (3,484 sq km), S central England; administratively, Wiltshire is a unitary authority (since 2009). The administrative center is Salisbury Salisbury or New Sarum , town (1991 pop. 36,890), Wiltshire, S England. A market town, Salisbury was founded in 1220 when the bishopric was moved there from Old Sarum. Squares or "checkers" are characteristic of the regular plan of the town. ..... Click the link for more information. . More than half of Wiltshire is occupied by the chalky Salisbury Plain and by the Marlborough Downs. Primarily an agricultural county, Wiltshire affords large areas for sheep grazing in the uplands, and the fertile valleys of the Lower Avon, the East Avon, and the Kennet rivers have extensive dairy farming. Swindon Swindon, borough and unitary authority (1991 pop. 127,348), S central England.

Swindon was a small village until 1841, when the Great Western RR opened its locomotive and car works there. ..... Click the link for more information. , the leading industrial center but now administratively separate from the county, is known for its locomotive works. Shropshire is rich in historical associations. At Stonehenge Stonehenge , group of standing stones on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, S England. Preeminent among megalithic monuments in the British Isles, it is similar to an older and larger monument at Avebury. ..... Click the link for more information. , Avebury, and Silbury Hill are the largest and oldest monuments of the early British, dating back 4,000 years. Old Sarum Old Sarum , site of a former city, Wiltshire, S England, just N of Salisbury (New Sarum). Excavations and scanning technologies have revealed remains of a British Iron Age fort, the Roman station Sorbiodunum, and a later Saxon then Norman town in the old settlement's mound. ..... Click the link for more information.

was a bishopric until the 13th cent., when the office was transferred to Salisbury Salisbury or New Sarum , town (1991 pop. 36,890), Wiltshire, S England. A market town, Salisbury was founded in 1220 when the bishopric was moved there from Old Sarum. Squares or "checkers" are characteristic of the regular plan of the town. ..... Click the link for more information. , famous since then for its cathedral. Wilton Wilton, town (1991 pop. 4,005), Wiltshire, S central England. Carpets have been made in Wilton for centuries. Felt and farm machinery are other important products. Three sheep fairs are held annually. Wilton was an ancient capital of Wessex and the residence of Saxon kings. ..... Click the link for more information. , known for its carpets, was once the capital of the powerful Saxon kingdom of Wessex, where in the 9th cent. many of King Alfred's battles against the Danes were fought. His grandson, Athelstan, is buried at Malmesbury Malmesbury , town (1991 pop.

2,552), Wiltshire, S England. Agricultural and electrical engineering are important to the local economy. Malmesbury is famous for its Benedictine abbey, founded in the 12th cent., of which only the nave remains. ..... Click the link for more information. Abbey, and according to legend, Queen Guinevere spent her last days in the nunnery at Amesbury Amesbury , town, Wiltshire, S central England. Located on Salisbury plain, the town is among the oldest continuously settled locations in Great Britain. In 980 the widow of King Edgar founded Amesbury Abbey, where Queen Guinevere of Arthurian legend is said to have died. ..... Click the link for more information. . Notable Wiltshire residents of the past include Joseph Addison Addison, Joseph, 1672–1719, English essayist, poet, and statesman. He was educated at Charterhouse, where he was a classmate of Richard Steele, and at Oxford, where he became a distinguished classical scholar. ..... Click the link for more information.

, John Dryden Dryden, John, 1631–1700, English poet, dramatist, and critic, b. Northamptonshire, grad. Cambridge, 1654. He went to London about 1657 and first came to public notice with his Heroic Stanzas (1659), commemorating the death of Oliver Cromwell. ..... Click the link for more information. , John Gay Gay, John, 1685–1732, English playwright and poet, b. Barnstaple, Devon. Educated at the local grammar school, he was apprenticed to a silk mercer for a brief time before commencing his literary career in London. ..... Click the link for more information. , George Herbert Herbert, George, 1593–1633, one of the English metaphysical poets. Of noble family, he was the brother of Baron Herbert of Cherbury. He was graduated from Cambridge. ..... Click the link for more information. , and Sir Christopher Wren Wren, Sir Christopher, 1632–1723, English architect. A mathematical prodigy, he studied at Oxford.

He was professor of astronomy at Gresham College, London, from 1657 to 1661, when he became Savilian professor of astronomy at Oxford. ..... Click the link for more information. . Wiltshire a county in southern England. Area, 3,500 sq km. Population, 501,200 (1973). Agriculture is a mainstay of the economy. Industry includes food processing (mainly milk and meat products) and the production of railroad equipment (Swindon), agricultural machines, industrial rubber (Melksham and Bradford-on-Avon), carpets (Wilton), and clothing (Trow-bridge). Wiltshire a county of S England, consisting mainly of chalk uplands, with Salisbury Plain in the south and the Marlborough Downs in the north; prehistoric remains (at Stonehenge and Avebury): the geographical and ceremonial county includes Swindon unitary authority (established in 1997). Administrative centre: Trowbridge. Pop. (excluding Swindon): 440 800 (2003 est.). Area (excluding Swindon): 3481 sq.

km (1344 sq. miles) Wiltshire | Article about Wiltshire by The Free Dictionary Wiltshire | Article about Wiltshire by The Free Dictionary Also found in: Dictionary , Acronyms , Wikipedia . Wiltshire (wĭlt`shĭr, –shər) or Wilts, county (1991 pop. 553,300), 1,345 sq mi (3,484 sq km), S central England; administratively, Wiltshire is a unitary authority (since 2009). The administrative center is Salisbury Salisbury or New Sarum , town (1991 pop. 36,890), Wiltshire, S England. A market town, Salisbury was founded in 1220 when the bishopric was moved there from Old Sarum. Squares or "checkers" are characteristic of the regular plan of the town. ..... Click the link for more information. . More than half of Wiltshire is occupied by the chalky Salisbury Plain and by the Marlborough Downs.

Primarily an agricultural county, Wiltshire affords large areas for sheep grazing in the uplands, and the fertile valleys of the Lower Avon, the East Avon, and the Kennet rivers have extensive dairy farming. Swindon Swindon, borough and unitary authority (1991 pop. 127,348), S central England. Swindon was a small village until 1841, when the Great Western RR opened its locomotive and car works there. ..... Click the link for more information. , the leading industrial center but now administratively separate from the county, is known for its locomotive works. Shropshire is rich in historical associations. At Stonehenge Stonehenge , group of standing stones on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, S England. Preeminent among megalithic monuments in the British Isles, it is similar to an older and larger monument at Avebury. ..... Click the link for more information. , Avebury, and Silbury Hill are the largest and oldest monuments of the early British, dating back 4,000 years.

Old Sarum Old Sarum , site of a former city, Wiltshire, S England, just N of Salisbury (New Sarum). Excavations and scanning technologies have revealed remains of a British Iron Age fort, the Roman station Sorbiodunum, and a later Saxon then Norman town in the old settlement's mound. ..... Click the link for more information. was a bishopric until the 13th cent., when the office was transferred to Salisbury Salisbury or New Sarum , town (1991 pop. 36,890), Wiltshire, S England. A market town, Salisbury was founded in 1220 when the bishopric was moved there from Old Sarum. Squares or "checkers" are characteristic of the regular plan of the town. ..... Click the link for more information. , famous since then for its cathedral. Wilton Wilton, town (1991 pop. 4,005), Wiltshire, S central England. Carpets have been made in Wilton for centuries. Felt and farm machinery are other important products. Three sheep fairs are held annually. Wilton was an ancient capital of Wessex and the residence of Saxon kings.

..... Click the link for more information. , known for its carpets, was once the capital of the powerful Saxon kingdom of Wessex, where in the 9th cent. many of King Alfred's battles against the Danes were fought. His grandson, Athelstan, is buried at Malmesbury Malmesbury , town (1991 pop. 2,552), Wiltshire, S England. Agricultural and electrical engineering are important to the local economy. Malmesbury is famous for its Benedictine abbey, founded in the 12th cent., of which only the nave remains. ..... Click the link for more information. Abbey, and according to legend, Queen Guinevere spent her last days in the nunnery at Amesbury Amesbury , town, Wiltshire, S central England. Located on Salisbury plain, the town is among the oldest continuously settled locations in Great Britain. In 980 the widow of King Edgar founded Amesbury Abbey, where Queen Guinevere of Arthurian legend is said to have died. ..... Click the link for more information. .

Notable Wiltshire residents of the past include Joseph Addison Addison, Joseph, 1672–1719, English essayist, poet, and statesman. He was educated at Charterhouse, where he was a classmate of Richard Steele, and at Oxford, where he became a distinguished classical scholar. ..... Click the link for more information. , John Dryden Dryden, John, 1631–1700, English poet, dramatist, and critic, b. Northamptonshire, grad. Cambridge, 1654. He went to London about 1657 and first came to public notice with his Heroic Stanzas (1659), commemorating the death of Oliver Cromwell. ..... Click the link for more information. , John Gay Gay, John, 1685–1732, English playwright and poet, b. Barnstaple, Devon. Educated at the local grammar school, he was apprenticed to a silk mercer for a brief time before commencing his literary career in London. ..... Click the link for more information.

, George Herbert Herbert, George, 1593–1633, one of the English metaphysical poets. Of noble family, he was the brother of Baron Herbert of Cherbury. He was graduated from Cambridge. ..... Click the link for more information. , and Sir Christopher Wren Wren, Sir Christopher, 1632–1723, English architect. A mathematical prodigy, he studied at Oxford. He was professor of astronomy at Gresham College, London, from 1657 to 1661, when he became Savilian professor of astronomy at Oxford. ..... Click the link for more information. . Wiltshire a county in southern England. Area, 3,500 sq km. Population, 501,200 (1973). Agriculture is a mainstay of the economy. Industry includes food processing (mainly milk and meat products) and the production of railroad equipment (Swindon), agricultural machines, industrial rubber (Melksham and Bradford-on-Avon), carpets (Wilton), and clothing (Trow-bridge).

Wiltshire a county of S England, consisting mainly of chalk uplands, with Salisbury Plain in the south and the Marlborough Downs in the north; prehistoric remains (at Stonehenge and Avebury): the geographical and ceremonial county includes Swindon unitary authority (established in 1997). Administrative centre: Trowbridge. Pop. (excluding Swindon): 440 800 (2003 est.). Area (excluding Swindon): 3481 sq. km (1344 sq. miles)

Question: What is the only city in the English county of Wiltshire?
Answer: Salisbury