Highworth
Directory Information
Our Faringdon/Highworth/Shrivenham dentons directory (13th edition) is currently distributed to over 13,500 business and residential addresses in the Faringdon/Highworth/Shrivenham area. For more information on our directories, please click here.
About Highworth
Town centre, Highworth
Highworth is a hilltop market town (436ft above sea level) in north Wiltshire located about 6 miles north-east of Swindon town centre and was larger than Swindon. It is twinned with Pontorson in France. Highworth is often described as the “gateway to the Cotswolds” but only on its recently erected road information signs.
The town is also notable for its Queen Anne Style architecture and Georgian buildings dating from its pre-eminence in the 18th century.
John Betjeman, a former poet laureate wrote ‘Highworth is extraordinary because it has more beautiful buildings than ugly ones’, and ‘I have never seen Highworth given due praise in guide books for what it is one of the most charming and unassuming country towns in the west of England’
History
Highworth High Street
- A church in Highworth was mentioned in the Domesday survey of 1086 and in 1206.
- King John granted Highworth the right to hold a weekly Saturday market and an annual fair on the feast of St Michael.
- By the middle of the 17th century, Highworth’s cattle market was the largest in Wiltshire and at the time of the first census in 1801, Highworth was the most important township in north-east Wiltshire.
- The eventual decline in Highworth’s population can be partly attributed to the expansion of Swindon from the 1840s onwards with the arrival of the Great Western Railway works, this lead to fewer Victorian buildings being constructed and the preservation of the Queen Anne style properties.
Facts
- Population – 8,240 (2001)
- Unitary Authority – Swindon Borough Council
- Major Industries – Mixed Local Economy
- Post town – SWINDON
- Postcode district – SN6
- Dialling code – 01793
- Police – Wiltshire Police
- Fire – Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service
- Ambulance – Great Western Ambulance Service
Discover Highworth – useful links to town guides, what’s on and places to see
- http://www.highworth.co.uk
- http://www.highworthlink.co.uk
- http://www.highworthhistoricalsociety.co.uk
- http://www.bbc.co.uk/wiltshire/content/image_galleries/historic_highworth_photos_gallery1.shtml
- http://www.british-towns.net/en/level_4_display.asp?GetL3=943
- http://www.visitwiltshire.co.uk/
- http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/england/wiltshire/
Fox Inn, Highworth