Trowbridge (St. James)
The town is situated upon a rocky hill, near the river Biss, across which is a stone bridge. It is very irregularly built, mostly of stone; the principal street is spacious, and contains some excellent houses, but the other streets are generally narrow, the buildings old, and of rather a mean appearance. The town is paved, lighted with gas, and tolerably well supplied with water. The manufacture of woollen-cloth was introduced at an early period, and must have very soon become a thriving branch of trade, as Camden mentions that Trowbridge was famous for the clothing business; the articles made are chiefly kerseymeres, with some superfine broad cloth. The Kennet and Avon canal passes about a mile on the north, by which a communication is opened with London and Bristol. An act was passed in 1845 for a railway from near Chippenham to Salisbury and to Weymouth, passing by Trowbridge. The markets are on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, the last being the principal, and are well supplied with provisions: there is a fair on the 5th of August, for cattle, cheese, woollen goods, &c. A petty-session takes place on the first Tuesday in the month; and a court leet and court baron are held at Easter, at the former of which constables, tythingmen, a crier, and cornets of the market, are appointed. The powers of the county debt-court of Trowbridge, established in 1847, extend over the parishes of Trowbridge and Hilperton.
The living is a rectory, valued in the king's books at £20. 12. 8½., and in the gift of the Duke of Rutland: the tithes have been commuted for £600; there is a parsonage-house, and the glebe comprises 54 acres. A rent-charge of £16. 16. is paid to the lay impropriator of Staverton, and a modus of £25. 15. out of the same hamlet to the rector. The parochial church, called the New church in consequence of a more ancient one having existed about 70 yards to the south-east, is a large building, with a tower at the west end, surmounted by a lofty spire; the walls of the nave and aisles are crowned with battlements and crocketed pinnacles. In some of the windows are fragments of painted glass; the font is lofty, and covered with a profusion of tracery and paneling. Attached to the eastern extremities of the aisles are chapels, that on the south belonging to the lord of the manor, and that on the north to John Clark, Esq., as owner of Wick House and estate. Holy Trinity district church, of which the first stone was laid April 8th 1837, was consecrated November 1st 1839; it contains 1000 sittings, half free, and the living is a perpetual curacy, in the Rector's gift, with a net income of £150. At Staverton is a district chapel; and in the town are places of worship for Particular Baptists, General Baptists, Independents, Wesleyans, Presbyterians, and Irvingites. George Keate, a poetical and miscellaneous writer of some celebrity, was born here in 1730; Crabbe, the poet, was instituted to the rectory in 1814, and held it till his death in 1832. Trowbridge formerly gave the title of Baron to the Seymour family, dukes of Somerset, one of whom is buried here.
Transcribed from A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858.