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Box, Wiltshire

Historical Description

Box, a village and a parish in Wilts. The village stands on the Box river and G.W.R., 102 miles from London, and 5 NW by W of Bath, and has a station on the railway, and a post, money order, and telegraph office under Chippenham. It contains numerous old houses, and is supposed to occupy the site of Roman baths. Numerous relics have been found in the vicinity, including a Roman pavement and other remains. About a mile from the village there is a very curious little chapel or shrine, which used to be the resting-place for pilgrims on their way to Glastonbury, with a great deal of 15th century work about it. In the centre of the parish there is a handsome fountain. The parish includes also the hamlets of Wadswick, Box-Quarries, Ashley, Kingsdown, Washwell, and Middle-Hill, and the manor of Hazelbury. Acreage, 4647; population of the civil parish, 2360; of the ecclesiastical, 2236. The surface is a picturesque assemblage of hill and dale. Box Hill has three curious quarries of bath-stone, one of them subterranean. Box Tunnel, in the course of the railway, is 3195 yards long/and in some parts 300 feet below the surface, and was formed at a cost of £500,000. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol; gross value, £408. The church is variously Early English, Decorated, and Perpendicular, with central tower and spire. There are Free Methodist and Wesleyan chapels, and a cemetery occupying about an acre, with a pretty mortuary chapel. There are extensive stone quarries, and some brewing and malting are done.

Transcribed from The Comprehensive Gazetteer of England & Wales, 1894-5

Administration

The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.

Ancient CountyWiltshire 
Ecclesiastical parishBox St. Thomas à Becket 
HundredChippenham 
Poor Law unionChippenham 

Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.


Cemeteries

A cemetery of about 11 acres was formed in 1858 and has a mortuary chapel.


Church Records

The parish register dates from the year 1580.

Findmypast, in association with the Wiltshire Record Office, have the following parish records online for Box:

BaptismsBannsMarriagesBurials
1538-19171654-18231538-19331538-1951

Churches

Church of England

St. Thomas à Becket (parish church)

The church of St. Thomas à Becket, erected in 1200, is a building of stone, consisting of chancel, nave of four bays, aisles and an embattled western tower with pinnacles and spire containing 5 bells: the east window is stained: the church was restored in 1713, and again in 1897 at a cost of £2,800: there are sittings for 500 persons.

Methodist

United Methodist Chapel, Box Hill
Wesleyan Chapel

Civil Registration

For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.


Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Box from the following:


Maps

Online maps of Box are available from a number of sites:


Newspapers and Periodicals

The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Wiltshire papers online:

CountyWiltshire
RegionSouth West
CountryEngland
Postal districtSN13
Post TownCorsham

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