Calne Visitors Hospitality Guide

Calne, in the lovely county of Wiltshire, is an excellent base for visitors wishing to enjoy and explore Calne and its surrounding area, which offers excellent lodgings ranging from fine hotels to basic bed and breakfast venues, as well as some great local hospitality, so whatever type of accommodation you require, you will find it in or around Calne.

Discover & explore Wiltshire's Calne, The wool trade used to be the main industry in this town; today it's bacon. Calne, which has a 1,000-year history, is still a market town with weekly markets. There are some beautiful Georgian structures, and the Perpendicular-style church is noteworthy. It features an enormous 12th-century nave, as well as a fine 17th-century Gothic tower that replaced one that fell in I638.

Surrounding villages are appealing. Three miles to the east, Compton Bassett boasts charming chalkstone houses and a well-restored 12th and 13th century church. Bremhill, three miles north of Calne, is a lovely village. Nearby is a memorial to Maud Heath, who sacrificed her entire estate to build a causeway between Wick Hall with Chippenham in 1474. Canon Bowles, a priest and poet in the ninth century, had a habit of keeping sheep with bells tuned in thirds and fifths.

Bowles was a big hit at Bowood House, the Marquess of Lansdown's residence two miles south of Calne. It is set in 1,000 acres of beautiful parks and woods, and Robert Adam reproduced a wing from Diocletian's palace in Yugoslavia in the 18th century.

Capability Brown designed the grounds in 1763. Though the grounds are private, you are welcome to walk the estate's major drives.
The 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne erected a column to honour an ancestor in the 19th century. It rises 125 feet above Cherhill, a lovely village two and a half miles east of Calne. Oldbury Settlement, a historic Iron Age camp perched high in the hills with a white horse carved in 1780 just below, lies just south. While the property is privately held in this area, there are some historic public routes that provide access.