Where is Wiltshire?

Wiltshire is a county located in southern England about 80 miles west of London and is approximately equal distance from the major cities of Bristol, Oxford, Reading, Gloucester and Cheltenham. Nearby counties are Berkshire, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Oxfordshire and Somerset.

Major Towns in Wiltshire

Although historically a very rural county there is now a lot of industry in the major towns. Major towns include Swindon (the largest), Salisbury, Chippenham and Trowbridge.

Swindon is the largest and most industrialised town in Wiltshire with well known companies such as Honda, Intel, Motorola, BMW and Zurich having a major presence there.

Historically Salisbury has been an important town and is the second largest town in Wiltshire but has become overshadowed by Swindon (now the largest town) and Trowbridge (now the administrative centre for Local Government).

Chippenham has the County Records office (although a lot of the information is available in Swindon on microfiche).

Smaller but historically important towns include Devizes, Melksham, Calne and Wilton..

Wiltshire for Family Historians

The Family History Society for this area is the Wiltshire Family History Society

The County Records Office is open to the public and holds historical records which may be useful to family historians including papers from local businesses, parish registers and census indexes.

The Swindon Central Library has records relating to Swindon and the surrounding area in North Wiltshire.

Wiltshire Historical Monuments

Stonehenge (nearest town Salisbury) is perhaps the best know of the ancient monuments. However, equally impressive is Avebury Stone Circle and Silbury Hill (nearest town Swindon). Wiltshire is well know for its White Horses carved into the chalk hills around the county.