Froxfield is a village and civil parish in the English county of Wiltshire. The parish is on the Wiltshire-West Berkshire border, and the village lies on the A4 national route about west of Hungerford and east of Marlborough.
Froxfield village is on a stream that is a tributary of the River Dun. The road between London and Bristol follows the valley of the stream and passes through the village, having followed this course since at least the 13th century.
The Kennet and Avon Canal follows the Dun valley through Froxfield parish, passing within of the village. The canal has a series of locks in the parish, from Oakhill Down Lock to Froxfield Bottom Lock. The Reading to Taunton railway line also follows the river through the parish below the village.
Archaeology
There used to be three bowl barrows in the south-west part of the parish, close to the boundary with Chisbury parish. Remains excavated on the site include a Roman mosaic floor depicting the figure of a man, coins, human burials, a stone statuette of Attis and a champlevé-enamelled bronze bowl known as the Rudge Cup, that appears to depict Hadrian's Wall, and lists its five westernmost forts. There are two bells, one cast c.1699 and the other in 1887.
In 1891–92 All Saints' was restored under the direction of the Gothic Revival architect Ewan Christian. His alterations included replacing the bell-turret with a more elaborate one, replacing a plain south window in the nave with an elaborate one in 15th-century style and replacing the vestry with a larger vestry and organ chamber in the style of a north transept. and today is part of the Whitton Team, a group of six churches.
A Methodist congregation was established in Froxfield by 1834, when two houses in the village were licensed for Wesleyan Methodist worship. A small red-brick Primitive Methodist chapel was built on Brewhouse Hill in 1909; it closed for worship in about 1962. The Broad Town charity was to help young men with their education or to enter apprenticeships.
The Duchess also willed that almshouses and a chapel be built at Froxfield for 30 widows from Berkshire, Somerset, Wiltshire, London and Westminster, of whom half were to be widows of clergy. She willed that the Rector of Huish was to either serve as chaplain or provide another clergyman to do so; in practice the parish priest of Froxfield has usually served the hospital in his place. One of the trustees of the Duchess's will was her brother-in-law, Sir Samuel Grimston, 3rd Baronet, who refused to convey the prescribed lands and income to the hospital until he was ordered to do so by the Court of Chancery. presumably larger one built in its place, designed by the architect Thomas Baldwin of Bath. The gateway and chapel are of ashlar masonry in a Georgian Gothick style.
School
In the early part of the 19th century, most children from Froxfield who attended school did so in Little Bedwyn, Hungerford or Great Bedwyn. By 1871 a school had opened in Froxfield, but in 1884 it served only as an infants' school for children under six. It was rebuilt in 1885 to accommodate older children but was closed in 1907. A new school was built near the parish church and opened in 1910, taking children of all ages from five upwards, until 1948 when those over 11 were transferred to Marlborough Secondary Modern School. Falling pupil numbers led to closure of the school in 1963.
Amenities
The village has a public house, the Pelican Inn; the 18th-century building to the east of the village was originally a terrace of three cottages. There is a village hall.
Notable people
Lewis Evans (1755–1827), vicar of Froxfield from 1788 until his death, was also a mathematical master at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, and was recognised by the Royal Astronomical Society as an astronomical observer.
Constance Savery (1897–1999), a prolific writer of novels and children's books, was born at Froxfield while her father was the vicar.