Editing Trowbridge (section)

==History==

===Toponymy===

The origin of the name ''Trowbridge'' is uncertain; one source claims derivation from ''treow-brycg'', meaning "Tree Bridge", referring to the first bridge over the Biss,<ref name="guid">Town Official Guide, Trowbridge Town Council, 2008</ref><ref name=straburg>[http://www.strum.co.uk/twilight/trow2.htm Origins of the name Trowbridge]: ''Strum.co.uk'' website. Retrieved on 25 January 2008.</ref> while another states the true meaning is the bridge by ''Trowle'', the name of a hamlet and a [[Common land|common]] to the west of the town.<ref>{{cite book|last=Lewis|first=Harold|title=The Church Rambler, Volume 2|publisher=Hamilton, Adams & Co.|year=1978|pages=199–226}}
</ref> On [[John Speed]]'s map of [[Wiltshire]] (1611), the name is spelt ''Trubridge''.

===Early history===
In the 10th century, written records and architectural ruins begin marking Trowbridge's existence as a village. In the 1086 [[Domesday Book]] the village of Straburg, as Trowbridge was then known, was recorded as having 24 households, well endowed with land, particularly arable ploughlands, and rendering 8 [[pound sterling|pounds sterling]] to its [[feudal system|feudal]] lord a year.<ref>{{OpenDomesday|ST8558|trowbridge|Trowbridge}}</ref><ref name="straburg" /> Its feudal lord was an Anglo-Saxon named [[Brictric]], who was the largest landowner in Wiltshire.

===Castle===
{{Main|Trowbridge Castle}}
The first mention of [[Trowbridge Castle]] was in 1139 when it was besieged.<ref>[http://www.localauthoritypublishing.co.uk/councils/trowbridge/history.html First mention of Trowbridge Castle] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080828024531/http://www.localauthoritypublishing.co.uk/councils/trowbridge/history.html |date=28 August 2008 }}: ''Local Authority Publishing'' website. Retrieved on 25 January 2008.</ref> It was no longer in military use by the 14th century and by the 16th only ruins remained.<ref name=":1" />
The castle is thought to have been a [[motte-and-bailey]] castle, and its influence can still be seen in the town today. Fore Street follows the path of the castle ditch,<ref>{{cite book|last=Graham, Alan H.|first=and Susan M. Davies|title=Excavations in Trowbridge, Wiltshire, 1977 and 1986–1988: The Prehistoric, Saxon, and Saxo-Norman Settlements and the Anarchy Period Castle|year=1993|publisher=Wessex Archaeology|location=Salisbury|page=1}}</ref> and town has a Castle Street and the Castle Place Shopping Centre.

It is likely the Castle was built by [[Humphrey I de Bohun]]; his family dominated the town for over a hundred years.

The most notable member of the family was [[Henry de Bohun, 1st Earl of Hereford|Henry de Bohun]], born around 1176, who became lord of the manor when he was about 15 years of age. It was he who really began to shape the medieval town. In 1200 he obtained a market charter, arguably the earliest for a town in Wiltshire, and one of the earliest in England. His officials were to lay out [[burgage]] plots for traders, artisans, and shopkeepers. The outline of these plots can still be seen today in the footprints of some of the present shops in Fore Street.

Within Trowbridge Castle was a 10th-century Anglo-Saxon church. Henry de Bohun turned this to secular use and instead had a new church built outside the Castle; this was the first St James's Church. In the base of the tower of the present day church, below the subsequently added spire, can be seen the Romanesque architecture of the period.

In 1200 Henry de Bohun was created [[Earl of Hereford]] by [[John, King of England|King John]]. Like other barons, Henry was later threatened by King John and his caput of Trowbridge was taken from him. Henry then joined with the other barons to oppose John's arbitrary rule and forced him to seal [[Magna Carta]] (the Great Charter) at [[Runnymede]]; and was elected as one of the 25 enforcers of the charter. Some years after Runnymede, Henry regained control of Trowbridge.

===Woollen cloth industry===
Trowbridge developed as a centre for woollen cloth production from the 14th century. Thus before the start of the [[Tudor period]], the towns of south-west Wiltshire stood out from the rest of the county with all the signs of increasing wealth and prosperity during the period of trade recovery led by exports begun under Yorkist [[Edward IV of England|Edward IV]] and, still more, during expansion under [[Henry VII of England|Henry VII]], when England's annual woollen exports increased from some 60,000 to some 80,000 cloths of assize.{{clarify|date=October 2016}}<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/wilts/vol4/pp115-147 |series=[[Victoria County History]] |title=A History of the County of Wiltshire, Volume 4 |chapter=The woollen industry before 1550 |pages=115–147 |editor-first=Elizabeth |editor-last=Crittall |date=1959 |via=British History Online |publisher=University of London |access-date=28 March 2022}}</ref>

During the 17th century the production of woollen cloth became increasingly industrialised. However, mechanisation was resisted by workers in traditional trades; there were riots in 1785 and 1792, and again in the era of [[Luddite|Luddism]] (1811–1816) owing to the introduction of the [[flying shuttle]].<ref>{{cite journal|author=Jeff Horn|date=Spring 2005|title=Machine-breaking in England and France during the Age of Revolution|journal=Labour / Le Travail|publisher=Canadian Committee on Labour History|volume=55|pages=143–166|jstor=25149563}}</ref> [[Thomas Helliker]], a shearman's apprentice, became one of the martyrs of the [[Industrial Revolution]] in 1803 when he was hanged at Fisherton Jail, [[Salisbury]]. Nevertheless, at one point in 1820, Trowbridge's scale of production was such it was described as the "[[Manchester]] of the West". It had over 20 woollen cloth producing factories, making it comparable to [[Northern England|northern]] industrial towns such as [[Rochdale]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Economic History|url=http://www.trowbridge.gov.uk/business.asp?id=222|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080410071017/http://www.trowbridge.gov.uk/business.asp?id=222|archive-date=10 April 2008|access-date=16 March 2008|website=Trowbridge Town Council}}</ref>

The woollen cloth industry declined in the late 19th century with the advent of [[Ring spinning|ring-spinning]], and this decline continued throughout the 20th century, although Trowbridge's West of England cloth maintained a reputation for excellent quality until the end. The last mill, Salter's Home Mill, closed in 1982 and is now the home of Boswell's Café and [[Trowbridge Museum]] and Art Gallery,<ref>''The Trowbridge Woollen Industry as Illustrated by the Stock Books of John and Thomas Clark, 1804–1824'', John Clark & Thomas Clark & R. P. Beckinsale, Wiltshire Record Society/Biddles Ltd, 1973.</ref> integrated into [[the Shires Shopping Centre]]. There are also working looms on display. Clark's Mill is now home to offices; straddling the nearby [[River Biss]] is the "Handle House", formerly used for drying and storage of [[Dipsacus|teazles]] used to raise the [[nap (textile)|nap]] of cloth. This is one of very few such buildings still known to exist in the United Kingdom.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://apps.wiltshire.gov.uk/communityhistory/Question/Details/507|title=Wiltshire History Questions |date=26 April 2007|publisher=Wiltshire Council|access-date=8 November 2010}}; another example is at [[Bowlish]] near [[Shepton Mallet]].</ref>

<gallery caption="Buildings associated with the textile industry">
File:TrowbridgeClarksMill.jpg|Clark's Mill from Wicker Hill
File:TrowbridgeHandleHouse.jpg|Handle House adjacent to Clark's Mill
File:TrowbridgeAshtonMill.jpg|Ashton Mill, once a major employer
File:ShiresTrowbridgeInterior.jpg|Salter's Mill, now the centrepiece of [[the Shires Shopping Centre]]
</gallery>

===1800s to present===

In its place a bedding industry developed, initially using wool cast off from the mills; the company now known as [[Airsprung|Airsprung Furniture Group]] was started in the town in the 1870s. Food production also developed in the town when [[Abraham Bowyer]] started his business in 1805 which eventually, as [[Pork Farms]] [[Bowyers (company)|Bowyers]], became one of the largest employers in the town until closure in April 2008 when production moved to the [[Shaftesbury]] and [[Nottingham]] factories.

The town became the [[county town]] of Wiltshire in 1889 when [[Wiltshire County Council]] was formed and sought a place which representatives from Swindon and Salisbury, among others, could reach and return home from in one day. Trowbridge fulfilled this criterion by virtue of its railway connections and thus was chosen as the county town, further reinforced by the construction of the county hall in 1939.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://apps.wiltshire.gov.uk/communityhistory/Question/Details/51 |title=Wiltshire Community History Questions |publisher=Wiltshire Council|access-date=7 May 2011 }}</ref>

The brewing company [[Ushers of Trowbridge]] opened in 1824, and developed the brewery in the town. This was finally shut in 2000 following several changes of ownership and its equipment was sold to [[North Korea]], where it forms the core of the [[Taedonggang]] brewery, just outside [[Pyongyang]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.wiltshiretimes.co.uk/news/4475589.How_Ushers__Trowbridge_brewery_is_now_the_toast_of_North_Korea/|title=How Ushers' Trowbridge brewery is now the toast of North Korea|newspaper=Wiltshire Times|date=2009-07-05|access-date=2009-11-21}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/features/kim-jong-ale-how-did-ushers-brewery-of-trowbridge-end-up-in-north-korea-producing-pyongyangs-number-9268051.html |title=Kim Jong-ale: How did Ushers brewery of Trowbridge end up in North Korea producing Pyongyang's number one beer - and what did it take to set up a taste test back in Wiltshire? |newspaper=independent.co.uk |date=18 April 2014 |access-date=2016-10-08}}</ref>

===21st-century redevelopment===
[[File:BissTrowbridge.jpg|thumb|The [[River Biss]] flowing under the Town Bridge, renovated in 2007]]
Since 2002, there have been plans in place to redevelop significant town centre sites.<ref>[http://www.transformingtrowbridge.org.uk/index/about-transforming-trowbridge.htm Redevelopment plans] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080616214602/http://www.transformingtrowbridge.org.uk/index/about-transforming-trowbridge.htm |date=16 June 2008 }} (since 2002): ''Transforming Trowbridge'' website. Retrieved on 25 January 2008.</ref> Trowbridge Community Area Future (TCAF) produced a Community Area Plan in 2004, to guide future development.<ref>{{cite web|title=Trowbridge Community Area Plan|url=http://www.trowbridge.gov.uk/trowfuture.asp?id=164|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100820065832/http://trowbridge.gov.uk/trowfuture.asp?id=164|archive-date=20 August 2010|access-date=26 August 2010|publisher=Trowbridge Town Council}}</ref>

In the early 1990s the supermarket chain [[Tesco]] moved from St Stephen's Place to a site adjoining the A361 on County Way, and their former site remained dormant for a decade. The building was demolished but a pile of rubble, nicknamed 'Mount Crushmore' by local media, remained. [[Legal & General]] acquired the land and construction of St Stephen's Place Leisure Park began in 2012. A seven-screen [[Odeon Cinemas|Odeon]] cinema and [[Nando's]] restaurant opened in October 2013. A [[Premier Inn]] and food outlets including [[Frankie and Benny's]] and [[Prezzo (restaurant)|Prezzo]] followed in 2014.

The former [[Ushers Best Bitter|Usher's brewery]] site has also undergone redevelopment over a number of years, with Newland Homes building town centre flats incorporating the frontage of the Usher's building.

In April 2009, building work started on one of the town's biggest brownfield sites, the former Usher's bottling plant. This was developed into a [[Sainsbury's]] supermarket, a public square and housing.<ref>[http://www.thisiswiltshire.co.uk/mostpopular.var.1258369.mostviewed.supermarket_plan_for_ushers_site.php Ushers Brewery site], proposed plans for redevelopment: Wiltshire Times website. Retrieved 25 January 2008.</ref>