Calne

Calne is a town in Wiltshire, England. It lies on the River Marden, the Wilts and Berks Canal and the A4 road about 25 miles east of Bath or 95 miles West of London. It is a small (though expanding) town with a population of 13,606 according to the 2001 Census.

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Calne is located in the Devizes constituency and governed by Calne Town Council http://www.calne.gov.uk/, North Wiltshire District Council http://www.northwilts.gov.uk and Wiltshire County Council http://www.wiltshire.gov.uk

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Calne's best known industry was Harris Pork factory that dominated the town architecturally and provided employment directly and indirectly to many of the residents until the early 1980s - at its closure in 1983 for example it employed over 2,000 people out of a town population of 10,000. It is said that the pork curing industry developed because pigs reared in Ireland were landed at Bristol and then herded to London through Calne. The factory started in the second half of the 18th century when brothers John and Henry Harris started businesses which joined together in 1888 as C. & T. Harris & Co. The factory has now been fully demolished and the area where it used to be located redeveloped as shops, housing and a library. As a result of the closure of the factory unemployment in the town increased and for much of the 1980s Calne suffered many of the problems more normally associated with large cities.

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Calne railway station opened in 1863 on a branch line from Chippenham but the station was closed as a result of Beeching Axe in 1965.

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The country estate of Bowood House lies near Calne. It was here that Joseph Priestley discovered oxygen in 1774; there is a plaque in the town centre commemorating this.

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Notable people from Calne include Saint Edmund and John Pym.

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Notable buildings in the town include St Mary's Church and the houses on the Green.

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St Mary's School http://www.stmaryscalne.org/ is a noted independent school in Calne

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Town: In American English, a town is usually a municipal corporation that is smaller than a city but larger than a village. In some cases, "town" is an alternate name for "city" or "village" (especially a larger village). Sometimes, the word "town" is short for "township."...

Wiltshire: Wiltshire (abbreviated Wilts) is a large southern English county. Considered as a ceremonial county, it is landlocked and borders the counties of Hampshire, Dorset, Somerset, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire, and contains the unitary authority of Swindon. The county town is Trowbridge, si...

England: :For an explanation of often confusing terms like England, (Great) Britain and United Kingdom see British Isles (terminology)....