Corsham is a historic market town and also civil parish in west Wiltshire, England. It goes to the south-western side of the Cotswolds, just off the A4 national course, 28 miles (45 km) southwest of Swindon, 20 miles (32 kilometres) southeast of Bristol, 8 miles (13 kilometres) northeast of Bath and also 4 miles (6 km) southwest of Chippenham. Corsham was historically a centre for agriculture and later on, the woollen industry, as well as stays a focus for quarrying Bath Stone. It has numerous remarkable historic buildings, among them the manor house of Corsham Court. During the 2nd World War as well as the Cold War, it came to be a major management and manufacturing centre for the Ministry of Defence, with countless establishments both over ground and also in obsolete quarry tunnels. The church consists of the towns of Gastard as well as Neston, which is at the gates of the Neston Park estate. Corsham appears 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' appears to have actually entered the name later on under Norman influence (possibly caused by the recording of neighborhood pronunciation), when the community 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 area at the time additionally had a huge woodland which was removed to make way for additional development. There is evidence that the community had actually been referred to as "Corsham Regis" as a result 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 succeeded greatly from Wiltshire's woollen trade in medieval times, it kept its prosperity after the decline of that trade with the quarrying of Bathroom rock, with underground mining functions encompassing the south and west of Corsham. The main turnpike road (now the A4) from London to Bristol passed through the community. Numbers 94 to 112 of the High Street are Grade II * listed buildings referred to as the "Flemish Weavers Houses", however there is little cogent evidence to sustain this name as well as it shows up most likely to derive from a handful of Dutch employees who arrived in the 17th century. The Grove, opposite the High Street, is a case in point of traditional Georgian architecture.