Corsham is a historic market community as well as civil parish in west Wiltshire, England. It goes to the south-western side of the Cotswolds, just off the A4 nationwide route, 28 miles (45 km) southwest of Swindon, 20 miles (32 kilometres) southeast of Bristol, 8 miles (13 km) northeast of Bath and also 4 miles (6 km) southwest of Chippenham. Corsham was historically a centre for farming as well as later, the woollen sector, and also remains a focus for quarrying Bath Stone. It consists of a number of remarkable historic structures, among them the manor house of Corsham Court. Throughout the 2nd World War as well as the Cold War, it became a major management and also manufacturing centre for the Ministry of Defence, with numerous facilities both over ground and also in obsolete quarry passages. The parish consists of 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 town. The community is referred in the Domesday publication as Cosseham; the letter 'R' shows up to have gone into the name later on under Norman impact (perhaps brought on by the recording of neighborhood pronunciation), when the town is reported to have actually 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 location at the time additionally had a big forest which was cleared to make way for further expansion. There is proof that the community had been known as "Corsham Regis" because of its reputed association with Anglo-Saxon Ethelred of Wessex, and also this name stays as that of a primary school. One of the towns that thrived greatly from Wiltshire's wool trade in medieval times, it maintained its prosperity after the decrease of that profession through the quarrying of Bath rock, with underground mining functions extending to the south and also west of Corsham. The major turnpike road (currently the A4) from London to Bristol travelled through the town. Numbers 94 to 112 of the High Street are Grade II * listed buildings known as the "Flemish Weavers Houses", nevertheless there is little cogent evidence to support this name and it appears more likely to originate from a handful of Dutch workers that got here in the 17th century. The Grove, opposite the High Street, is a case in point of timeless Georgian architecture.