Steeple Ashton

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Steeple Ashton
The village, as seen from across a field
Steeple Ashton shown within Wiltshire
Population	939 (as of 2001)
OS grid reference	ST9056
Shire county	Wiltshire
Region	South West
Constituent country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	TROWBRIDGE
Postcode district	BA14
Police	Wiltshire
Fire	Wiltshire
Ambulance	Great Western
European Parliament	South West England
List of places: UK • England • Wiltshire

Coordinates: 51°19′N 2°08′W / 51.32, -2.14

Steeple Ashton is a village and a civil parish in Wiltshire, England. The village has approximately 1000 inhabitants, although it had twice as many according to the 1981 census [1]. It was also at that time the place of the main local market, the market cross for which still stands upon the Village Green. A great fire however destroyed the few mills within the small town and when it came to rebuilding the textile mills moved to the nearby town of Trowbridge where the river bis gave them better power. The Market was later moved to Market Lavington

The village is named partially after the church built there. The church was struck by lightning in the 17th century and the spire was rebuilt, only to be struck by lightning a second time. It was not rebuilt again, and the present day church has only a tower. Locals have it that a third spire was abandoned on the basis that the first two lightning strikes intimated divine disapproval of the steeple. Presumably a decent lightning conductor could have avoided the problem.

Steeple Ashton today is a busy village. It has an award winning local shop, run by volunteers, a thriving pub, a football team, an active Trust supporting the Church which organises many events, a day nursery, recently a 'screen in the sticks' local cinema and an informative village magazine published monthly, not to mention a number of special interest groups. The school closed about five years ago and children are now educated at nearby Keevil school.