Toponymy The origin of the name
Trowbridge is uncertain; one source claims derivation from
treow-brycg, meaning "Tree Bridge," referring to the first bridge over the Biss, while another states the true meaning is the bridge by
Trowle, the name of a hamlet and a
common to the west of the town. On
John Speed's map of
Wiltshire (1611), the name is spelt
Trubridge.
Early history Written records and architectural ruins began marking Trowbridge's existence as a village in the 10th century. In the 1086
Domesday Book, the village of Straburg, as Trowbridge was then known, was recorded as having 24 households, well-endowed with land, particularly arable ploughlands, and rendering 8
pounds sterling to its
feudal lord a year. By the 14th century, it was no longer in military use, and by the 16th century, only ruins remained. and the town has Castle Street and the Castle Place Shopping Centre. The Castle was likely built by
Humphrey I de Bohun, whose family dominated the town for over a hundred years. The most notable member of the family was
Henry de Bohun, born around 1176, who became lord of the manor when he was about 15 years of age. It was he who began to shape the medieval town. In 1200, he obtained a market charter, arguably the earliest for a town in Wiltshire, and one of the earliest in England. His officials were to lay out
burgage plots for traders, artisans, and shopkeepers. The outline of these plots can still be seen today in the footprints of some of the present shops in Fore Street. Within Trowbridge Castle was a 10th-century Anglo-Saxon church. Henry de Bohun converted it to secular use and built a new church outside the Castle, the first St James's Church. The Romanesque architecture of the period can be seen in the base of the tower of the present-day church, below the subsequently added spire. In 1200, Henry de Bohun was created
Earl of Hereford by
King John. Like other barons, Henry was later threatened by King John and his caput of Trowbridge was taken from him. Henry then joined with the other barons to oppose John's arbitrary rule and forced him to seal
Magna Carta (the Great Charter) at
Runnymede. He was elected as one of the 25 enforcers of the charter. Some years after Runnymede, Henry regained control of Trowbridge.
Woollen cloth industry Trowbridge developed as a centre for woollen cloth production from the 14th century. Thus, before the start of the
Tudor period, the towns of south-west Wiltshire stood out from the rest of the county with all the signs of increasing wealth and prosperity during the period of trade recovery led by exports begun under Yorkist
Edward IV and, still more, during expansion under
Henry VII, when England's annual woollen exports increased from some 60,000 to some 80,000 cloths of assize. During the 17th century, the production of woollen cloth became increasingly industrialised. However, workers resisted mechanisation in traditional trades; there were riots in 1785 and 1792, and again in the era of
Luddism (1811–1816) owing to the introduction of the
flying shuttle.
Thomas Helliker, a shearman's apprentice, became one of the martyrs of the
Industrial Revolution in 1803 when he was hanged at Fisherton Jail,
Salisbury. Nevertheless, at one point in 1820, Trowbridge's production was on such a scale that it was described as the "
Manchester of the West." It had over 20 woollen cloth producing factories, making it comparable to
northern industrial towns such as
Rochdale. The woollen cloth industry declined in the late 19th century with the advent of
ring-spinning, and this decline continued throughout the 20th century, although Trowbridge's West of England cloth maintained a reputation for excellent quality until the end. The last mill, Salter's Home Mill, closed in 1982 and is now the home of Boswell's Café and
Trowbridge Museum and Art Gallery, integrated into
the Shires Shopping Centre. There are also working looms on display. Clark's Mill is now home to offices; straddling the nearby
River Biss is the "Handle House," formerly used for drying and storage of
teazles used to raise the
nap of cloth. This is one of the few such buildings still known to exist in the United Kingdom. File:TrowbridgeClarksMill.jpg|Clark's Mill from Wicker Hill File:TrowbridgeHandleHouse.jpg|Handle House adjacent to Clark's Mill File:TrowbridgeAshtonMill.jpg|Ashton Mill, once a major employer File:ShiresTrowbridgeInterior.jpg|Salter's Mill, now the centrepiece of
the Shires Shopping Centre 1800s to present In its place, a bedding industry developed, initially using wool cast off from the mills; the company now known as
Airsprung Furniture Group was started in the town in the 1870s. Food production also developed in the town when
Abraham Bowyer started his business in 1805. Eventually, as
Pork Farms Bowyers, it became one of the largest employers in the town until its closure in April 2008, when production moved to the
Shaftesbury and
Nottingham factories. The town became the
county town of Wiltshire in 1889 when
Wiltshire County Council was formed and sought a place which representatives from Swindon and Salisbury, among others, could reach and return home from in one day. Trowbridge fulfilled this criterion by its railway connections and thus was chosen as the county town, further reinforced by the construction of
County Hall in 1939. The brewing company
Ushers of Trowbridge opened in 1824 and had a brewery in a central part of the town. This was shut in 2000 following several changes of ownership, and its equipment was sold to
North Korea, where it forms the core of the
Taedonggang brewery, just outside
Pyongyang.
21st-century redevelopment flowing under the Town Bridge, renovated in 2007 Since 2002, plans have been in place to redevelop significant town centre sites. Trowbridge Community Area Future (TCAF) produced a Community Area Plan in 2004 to guide future development. In the early 1990s, the supermarket chain
Tesco moved from St Stephen's Place to a site adjoining the A361 on County Way, and their former site remained dormant for a decade. The building was demolished, but a pile of rubble, nicknamed 'Mount Crushmore' by local media, remained.
Legal & General acquired the land, and construction of St Stephen's Place Leisure Park began in 2012. A seven-screen
Odeon cinema and
Nando's restaurant opened in October 2013. A
Premier Inn and food outlets, including
Frankie and Benny's and
Prezzo, followed in 2014. The former
Usher's brewery site has also undergone redevelopment over several years, with Newland Homes building town centre flats incorporating the frontage of the Usher's building. In April 2009, building work started on one of the town's biggest brownfield sites, the former Usher's bottling plant. This was developed into a
Sainsbury's supermarket, a public square and housing. ==Architecture==