Corsham is a historical market community and civil parish in west Wiltshire, England. It is at the south-western edge of the Cotswolds, just off the A4 nationwide route, 28 miles (45 kilometres) southwest of Swindon, 20 miles (32 kilometres) southeast of Bristol, 8 miles (13 kilometres) northeast of Bath and 4 miles (6 kilometres) southwest of Chippenham. Corsham was historically a centre for farming and also later on, the woollen sector, and remains an emphasis for quarrying Bath Stone. It includes numerous notable historical buildings, amongst them the stately home of Corsham Court. Throughout the Second World War and also the Cold War, it ended up being a significant administrative and production centre for the Ministry of Defence, with countless facilities both above ground and also in obsolete quarry passages. The parish includes the villages of Gastard as well as Neston, which is at evictions of the Neston Park estate. Corsham appears to derive its name from Cosa's ham, "ham" being Old English for homestead, or village. The town is referred in the Domesday publication as Cosseham; the letter 'R' appears to have actually gone into the name later on under Norman influence (possibly brought on by the recording of neighborhood enunciation), when the town is reported to have been in the belongings of the Earl of Cornwall. Corsham is recorded as Coseham in 1001, as Cosseha in 1086, and as Cosham as late as 1611 (on John Speed's map of Wiltshire). The Corsham area came from the King in Saxon times, the area at the time also had a large forest which was gotten rid of to give way for more expansion. There is proof that the town had been referred to as "Corsham Regis" due to its reputed association with Anglo-Saxon Ethelred of Wessex, and also this name remains as that of a primary school. One of the towns that flourished substantially from Wiltshire's wool trade in middle ages times, it kept its success after the decrease of that profession through the quarrying of Bathroom stone, with below ground mining functions reaching the south as well as west of Corsham. The main turnpike road (currently the A4) from London to Bristol travelled through the community. Numbers 94 to 112 of the High Street are Grade II * listed structures known as the "Flemish Weavers Houses", however there is little cogent evidence to sustain this name and also it appears more probable to derive from a handful of Dutch employees who got here in the 17th century. The Grove, opposite the High Street, is a case in point of traditional Georgian architecture.