Corsham is a historic market town as well as civil parish in west Wiltshire, England. It is at the south-western edge of the Cotswolds, simply off the A4 national route, 28 miles (45 kilometres) southwest of Swindon, 20 miles (32 km) southeast of Bristol, 8 miles (13 km) northeast of Bath and also 4 miles (6 kilometres) southwest of Chippenham. Corsham was historically a centre for farming and also later, the woollen sector, and also continues to be an emphasis for quarrying Bath Stone. It contains a number of remarkable historic structures, amongst them the stately home of Corsham Court. During the Second World War as well as the Cold War, it came to be a significant management and production centre for the Ministry of Defence, with countless facilities both over ground and in obsolete quarry passages. The church consists of the villages of Gastard as well as Neston, which is at the gates of the Neston Park estate. Corsham shows up to obtain its name from Cosa's ham, "ham" being Old English for homestead, or town. The town is referred in the Domesday book as Cosseham; the letter 'R' shows up to have gone into the name later under Norman influence (possibly caused by the recording of neighborhood enunciation), when the town is reported to have remained in the property 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 location came from the King in Saxon times, the area at the time additionally had a big woodland which was gotten rid of to give way for further development. There is proof that the town had been referred to as "Corsham Regis" as a result of its reputed association with Anglo-Saxon Ethelred of Wessex, and also this name remains as that of a primary school. One of the communities that prospered considerably from Wiltshire's woollen trade in medieval times, it maintained its prosperity after the decrease of that profession with the quarrying of Bath stone, with underground mining works reaching the south and west of Corsham. The major turnpike road (now the A4) from London to Bristol passed through the town. Numbers 94 to 112 of the High Street are Grade II * listed structures referred to as the "Flemish Weavers Houses", nevertheless there is little cogent evidence to support this name and also it appears more likely to derive from a handful of Dutch employees that got here in the 17th century. The Grove, opposite the High Street, is a case in point of classic Georgian design.