self catering melksham
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
self catering melksham, accommodation wiltshire, hotel guesthouse, self catering uk, guest house, self catering melksham
The Chaloner Lodge of Freemasons (no.2644) was named after its first Worshipful Master Richard Godolphin Walmesley Chaloner, 1st Baron Gisborough, who, when not in London, resided at Melksham House. He was the brother of the 1st Viscount Long. The lodge was consecrated on 27 February, 1897, with the first meeting scheduled for 4 p.m. March 19, held at the town hall. Writing from London while attending his Parliamentary duties as MP for Westbury, he complained that this date was inconvenient due to his having to be at Melton Mowbray to ride in the House of Commons Point to Point Steeplechase the next day. Despite this, the meeting went ahead and Chaloner initiated 13 of the candidates, returning to London overnight by train, getting virtually no sleep before his ride in the steeplechase early the next morning, resulting in him twice falling heavily from his horse. Later while deciding what extra furniture the lodge required, he asked that he have a special footstool, as his chair was high and his feet "dangled unpleasantly". By November 1897 a new masonic lodge was built in Melksham at Church St.
In 1815 the Melksham Spa Company was formed by a group of 'respectable gentlemen', with names such as Methuen, Long and others, all of whom had done very well from the now declining textile industry. Their aim was to promote a spa, after abortive attempts to find coal had uncovered two springs. As a consequence they built six large three-storeyed, semi-detached lodging houses forming a crescent, a pump room and hot and cold private baths. This suburban area at the southern end of the town is now known as The Spa, belonging to the civil parish of Melksham Without. A plan for a similar crescent on the north side never materialised. Simultaneously an Act was obtained to 'improve the pleasing town of Melksham' by paving and improving its footways and cleansing, lighting and watching the streets. The spa was not as successful as had been hoped, due in part to the popularity of the waters at nearby Bath.
The most significant local government functions (including schools, roads, social services, recycling and emergency planning) are carried out by Wiltshire County Council.
The town fell within the area of West Wiltshire District Council, which dealt with leisure services, housing, development control and waste disposal, until April 2009 when the district and county councils were abolished and replaced by Wiltshire Council, a unitary authority.
The parish church of St. Michael and All Angels was built in the 12th centuryMelksham is a civil parish with an elected town council. This has a mostly consultative role, and the chairman of the town council has the title Mayor of Melksham. The outskirts of Melksham, and some surrounding communities, are administered by another parish council, Melksham Without.
Local elections generally return a mixture of Labour members, Liberal Democrats, Conservatives and Independents.
Melksham is in the Devizes parliamentary constituency, and its Member of Parliament since 1992 has been the front-bench Conservative Michael Ancram. From the 54th United Kingdom general election, which will occur by June 2010, Melksham will, instead, be in the re-created Chippenham constituency, which is a theoretical Liberal Democrat seat, based on 2005 figures.
The parish includes several villages and suburbs.
Melksham Forest,Bowerhill (a small residential satellite town generally considered as part of Melksham, housing a large industrial area.)
Berryfield (a village south of and adjacent to Melksham, often considered part of the town)
Beanacre (a village to the north, again often considered as a northern suburb of the town)
Hunter's Meadow (a relatively new district north of Bowerhill)
Based upon its overall road length, the shortest street in Melksham is aptly called "Short Street", this is situated at the top of Melksham Forest.
Out-migration of the talented and most able people has left the town with an elderly and predominantly working-class population, but despite this, the town is still growing, with major new developments expanding in the Bowerhill/Hunter's Meadow district to the southeast.