Bowerhill

Bowerhill
Falcon Way
OS grid reference	ST9162
Shire county	Wiltshire
Region	South West
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	MELKSHAM
Postcode district	SN12
Police	Wiltshire
Fire	Dorset and Wiltshire
Ambulance	South Western

Bowerhill is an outer suburb of Melksham, belonging to the civil parish of Melksham Without. Central Bowerhill is approximately 1.75 miles (2.75 km) south of Melksham town centre. Bowerhill has a sizable industrial estate to the west of its residential area. This industrial area had been developed from a former Royal Air Force military base.

Bowerhill has a population of approximately 6,000 inhabitants and is effectively a small satellite town of Melksham. In the early-2000s (decade), new residential developments such as Hunter's Meadow boosted Bowerhill's population further.

It is home to the Wiltshire Gymnastics Centre and the Christie Miller Leisure Centre.

History

Bowerhill was a rural area until early in 1940 when building work began on a new RAF station. In July the RAF School of Instrument Training moved here from Cranwell and later a branch of the RAF Armament School also moved here. In the following years other courses were run and in 1942 the Armament School moved out and was replaced by the RAF Electrical School from Hereford. Much specialised training was undertaken at RAF Melksham with not only RAF personnel but Polish, Free French and American members of the Allied Air Forces.

Towards the end of the Second World War a large number of Royal Naval Air Service Mechanics were trained here and many transport drivers also received instruction. From the end of the war, RAF Melksham resumed its role in Electrical and Instrument courses and continued with this and other education programmes until the early-1970s. The station was then decommissioned and used for a mixture of industrial, commercial and residential use, with much development in the 1980s.

This legacy is remembered in the area's street names, many of which are taken from historical aircraft of the RAF. These includes Falcon Way, Lancaster Road and Fulmar Close. The local pub is called The Pilot, and was formerly named The Harrier.

The village had been bounded from south by GWR Devizes Branch Line, until its closure in 1966. The land formerly occupied by the railway has only begun being developed for new buildings in 2007.

Source

Wiltshire County Council - Wiltshire Community History

External links

Media related to Bowerhill at Wikimedia Commons