Broad Town, Wiltshire

Broad Town is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, about 3mi southeast of Royal Wootton Bassett and 6mi southwest of Swindon. The parish includes the hamlet of Thornhill and the farming hamlet of Cotmarsh.Since 1996 the village and surrounding landscape have been the subject of an archaeological project supported by the University of Bath, Swindon College and QinetiQ Archaeology. Results have been published in a number of journals and a final report is anticipated in 2015/2016.The parish is the site of a chalk horse, believed to have been cut in 1864 and known as the Broad Town White Horse.Local governmentThe civil parish elects a parish council. It is in the area of Wiltshire Council unitary authority, which performs most significant local government functions.The civil parish of Broad Town was created in 1884 by combining parts of Clyffe Pypard and Broad Hinton parishes. Until then, Broad Town and Thornhill were tithings of Clyffe Pypard.Parish churchThe parish church, Christ Church, was built in 1844-45 with funding from the Marchioness of Ailesbury (who later provided the estate church, St Katherine's, at Tottenham House) and from the local Goddard family. Until the church was built, Broad Town was a tithing of Clyffe Pypard; the area served by the new church comprised parts of the ecclesiastical parishes of Clyffe Pypard and Broad Hinton.