Bradford on Avon, United Kingdom Hotels, Vacations, Tourism

With its buildings of mellow auburn stone, reminiscent of the townscapes just over the county border in Bath and the Cotswolds, BRADFORD ON AVON is the most appealing town in the northwest corner of Wiltshire. Sheltering against a steep wooded slope, it takes its name from its "broad ford" across the Avon, though the original fording place was replaced in the thirteenth century by a bridge that was in turn largely rebuilt in the seventeenth century. The domed structure at one end is a quaint old jail converted from a chapel. The local industry, based on textiles like that of its Yorkshire namesake, was … more »