Calne - History

History

In AD 978 Anglo Saxon Calne was the site of a two-storey building with a hall on the first floor. It was here that St Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury met the Witenagemot in order to justify his controversial Church reforms, which involved the secular priests being replaced by Benedictine monks and the influence of landowners over churches on their lands being taken away. According to legend, at one point Dunstan called upon God to support his cause, at which point the floor collapsed killing most of his opponents, whilst Dunstan and his supporters were in the part that remained standing. This was claimed as a miracle by Dunstan's supporters.

Calne had a significant woollen broadcloth industry in the 18th century, and evidence of this can be seen on The Green, where many buildings remain, such as Georgian era clothiers' houses and some of the 20 original cloth mills along the River Marden. St Mary's parish church was built by the generous donations of rich clothiers and wool merchants in the 15th century.

Subsequently, Calne's best known industry was the Harris pork processing factory that dominated the town architecturally and provided employment directly and indirectly to many of the residents until the early 1980s - at its closure in 1983 for example it employed over 2000 people out of a town population of 10,000. It is said that the pork curing industry developed because pigs reared in Ireland were landed at Bristol and then herded across England on drovers' roads to Smithfield, London, passing through Calne. The factory started in the second half of the 18th century when brothers John and Henry Harris started businesses which merged in 1888 as C. & T. Harris & Co. The factory has now been fully demolished and its site redeveloped as shops, housing and a library. As a result of the closure, unemployment in the town increased considerably and during much of the 1980s Calne suffered many of the economic restructuring problems more usually associated with large cities.

The Porte Marsh Industrial Estate on the north side of the town now provides the bulk of the town's internal employment. It is home to around 100 companies in predominantly light industries and information technology. The Belgian company Deceuninck has invested considerably in this area and operates two large facilities at Porte Marsh, notably a modern production and distribution centre which now dominates the industrial area. Another significant employer is the Exception Group, a large electronics company. In 2006 plans to build a sizeable cement production plant on the Porte Marsh site were vigorously opposed by local residents and planning permission was refused by the council.