Melksham

Melksham is a town and civil parish on the River Avon in Wiltshire, England, about 4.5 miles northeast of Trowbridge and 6 miles south of Chippenham.

At the 2021 census, the parish had a population of 18,113. Excavations in 2021 in the grounds of Melksham House found fragments of locally made pottery from the early Iron Age (7th to 4th centuries BC). There is evidence of settlement continuing into the later Iron Age and Roman periods, including Roman clay roof tiles.

Melksham developed at a ford across the River Avon. The name is presumed to derive from "meolc", the Old English for milk, and "ham", a village. On John Speed's map of Wiltshire (1611), the name is spelt both Melkesam (for the hundred) and Milsham (for the town itself).
Melksham is also the name of the Royal forest that occupied the surrounding of the area in the Middle Ages