Colerne

Coordinates: 51°26′20″N 2°15′43″W / 51.439°N 2.262°W / 51.439; -2.262

Colerne is a village and civil parish in the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, in west Wiltshire, England. The village is about 3.5 miles (6 km) west of the town of Corsham and 6 miles (10 km) northeast of the city of Bath. It has an elevated and exposed position, 545 feet (166 m) above sea level, and overlooks the Box valley to the south (where Brunel's Box Tunnel is).

The parish includes the hamlets of Eastrip and Thickwood. It is bounded to the west by a stretch of the Fosse Way Roman road, which forms the county boundary with Gloucestershire, and to the east by the Bybrook River. Part of the northern boundary is the Doncombe Brook, a tributary of the Bybrook, and part of the southern boundary is the Lid Brook, another tributary.

History

Evidence of early settlement in the area includes three bowl barrows near Thickwood, overlooking the Bybrook valley, and an Iron Age hillfort from around 100 BC in the north of the parish, known as Bury Wood Camp, overlooking the Doncombe valley.