The Chippenham Area

The Bristol Avon flows southwards in its broad and undramatic valley through the claylands along the eastern edge of Chippenham community area, and Chippenham itself was established in one of the river's many meanders. Westward from Chippenham the landscape becomes more broken, taking on the typical Cotswold scenery of deep valleys and flatter high plains. Castle Combe, hiding in the dramatic By Brook Valley, is the most memorable of several handsome limestone villages, which include also Yatton Keynell and Kington St Michael. Communications run east-west across the area, the M4 motorway (with junctions north of Chippenham and at Tormarton, just beyond the boundary with South Gloucestershire to the west) replacing the old main road (A420) from Bristol to Chippenham, which then continued via Christian Malford and Sutton Benger towards Swindon. The potential growth in importance of the A350 north-south route, and its western bypass of the town, are seen by both County and District authorities as a key to economic development in western Wiltshire