Corsham is a historic market community and civil parish in west Wiltshire, England. It goes to the south-western side of the Cotswolds, simply off the A4 nationwide route, 28 miles (45 km) southwest of Swindon, 20 miles (32 km) southeast of Bristol, 8 miles (13 kilometres) northeast of Bath as well as 4 miles (6 kilometres) southwest of Chippenham. Corsham was historically a centre for agriculture as well as later on, the woollen market, and remains a focus for quarrying Bath Stone. It has a number of significant historic buildings, among them the manor house of Corsham Court. Throughout the Second World War as well as the Cold War, it came to be a major administrative and production centre for the Ministry of Defence, with countless facilities both over ground and in disused quarry passages. The church includes the towns of Gastard and Neston, which is at the gates of the Neston Park estate. Corsham shows up to acquire its name from Cosa's ham, "ham" being Old English for homestead, or village. The town is referred in the Domesday book as Cosseham; the letter 'R' appears to have gone into the name later on under Norman influence (possibly caused by the recording of local pronunciation), 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 belonged to the King in Saxon times, the area at the time likewise had a big forest which was removed to make way for additional expansion. There is evidence that the town had actually been called "Corsham Regis" due to its reputed organization with Anglo-Saxon Ethelred of Wessex, and also this name remains as that of a primary school. One of the towns that thrived substantially from Wiltshire's wool sell middle ages times, it preserved its success after the decline of that profession via the quarrying of Bath rock, with underground mining works reaching the south as well as west of Corsham. The primary 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 buildings referred to as the "Flemish Weavers Houses", nonetheless there is little cogent evidence to support this name and it appears most likely to originate 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 architecture.