Wiltshire

Wiltshire

Geography
Status	Ceremonial & (smaller) Non-metropolitan county
Region:	South West England
Area - Total - Admin. council - Admin. area	Ranked 14th 2,165 miles² (3,485 km²) Ranked 13th 2,022 miles² (3,255 km²)
Admin HQ:	Trowbridge
ISO 3166-2:	GB-WIL
ONS code:	46
NUTS 3:	UKK15
Demographics
Population - Total (2005 est.) - Density - Admin. council - Admin. pop.	Ranked 34th 630,700 181 / km² Ranked 30th 446,700
Ethnicity:	97.5% White
Politics
Wiltshire County Council http://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/
Executive	Conservative
Members of Parliament	Michael Ancram James Gray Robert Key Andrew Murrison Anne Snelgrove Michael Wills
Districts
Salisbury West Wiltshire Kennet North Wiltshire Swindon (Unitary)

Wiltshire (short: Wilts) is an English county. It borders the counties of Hampshire, Dorset, Somerset, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire, and contains the unitary authority of Swindon. The county town is Trowbridge, in the west of the county at 51°19′11″N 2°12′32″W. The county covers 858,931 acres (3476 km²)

Settlements

Notable towns and cities in Wiltshire are:

• Bradford on Avon
• Calne
• Chippenham
• Devizes
• Malmesbury
• Marlborough
• Salisbury (city)
• Swindon
• Trowbridge
• Warminster
• Westbury

A full list of settlements is at List of places in Wiltshire.

Places of interest

Key
	Owned by the National Trust
	Owned by English Heritage
	Owned by the Forestry Commission
	A Country Park
	An Accessible open space
	Museum (free)
	Museum (charges entry fee)
	Heritage railway
	Historic House

Notable places of interest in Wiltshire are:

Ashcombe House Avebury, Neolithic stone circle Avebury Manor & Garden Avon Valley Path Barbury Castle Beckhampton Avenue Bentley Wood Bowood House Burlington, city-sized nuclear bunker Castle Combe Castle Hill, Mere Cherhill White Horse Chisbury Chapel Coate Water, East Swindon Corsham Court Cotswold Water Park Courts Garden Creative Planet, Science Museum, Wroughton Crofton Pumping Station Edington Priory Fonthill Abbey Great Chalfield Manor Iford Manor and gardens Kennet & Avon Canal Museum, Devizes King Alfred's Tower Lacock Abbey

Littlecote House Longleat Safari Park Ludgershall Castle, Ludgershall Lydiard Park and House, West Swindon. Malmesbury Abbey Maud Heath's Causeway Mompesson House Old Sarum, the former cathedral Old Wardour Castle Philipps House & Dinton Park Salisbury Cathedral Shearwater Lake Silbury Hill Stonehenge Stourhead Swindon Steam Railway Museum Trafalgar House Wardour Castle West Kennet Long Barrow Westbury White Horse Westwood Manor Woodhenge Wilton House Wilton Windmill Wilts and Berks Canal Part of Win Green (shared with Dorset)

Notable areas of countryside in Wiltshire are:

• Cranborne Chase
• Marlborough Downs
• Salisbury Plain
• Vale of Pewsey

Notable routes through Wiltshire are:

• A4 road
• M4 motorway
• A303 trunk road
• Fosse Way old Roman road
• Great Western Main Line railway
• Wessex Main Line railway
• Kennet and Avon Canal
• Swindon and Cricklade Railway
• Thames Path, a long-distance footpath
• Wiltshire Cycleway
• National Cycle Route 4

Wiltshire is "Mid-Wessex" in the novels of Thomas Hardy

• Wiltshire
• 
  Salisbury
• 
  Salisbury
• 
  Wiltshire
• 
  Avebury
• 
  Wilton House
• 
  Longleat
• 
  Stourhead
• 
  Stonehenge

Other websites

• Wiltshire County Council
• List of Councillors Archived 2008-12-21 at the Wayback Machine
• Wiltshire Constabulary Online Archived 2005-12-24 at the Wayback Machine
• BBC Wiltshire
• Wiltshire Tourist Office
• John Aubrey's The Natural History of Wiltshire
• White horses of Wiltshire Archived 2007-02-02 at the Wayback Machine
• Wiltshire Gazette & Herald
• Wiltshire Times & Chippenham News
• Geology map of Wiltshire (PDF)
• Wiltshire & Swindon Intelligence Network