In 1742 when the House of Commons was prepared to determine the validity of an allegedly rigged by-election in Chippenham, Walpole and others agreed to treat the issue as a Motion of No Confidence.

There were several reasons for positioning a new station at Stoke Gifford: trains to London were quicker than on the longer route from Temple Meads, via Bath and Chippenham before reaching Swindon ; a larger car park than at Temple Meads could be provided ; the population on the northern fringes of the city was growing, especially with the building of a new town at Bradley Stoke ; and it was within easy access of the M4 and M5 motorways.

Talbot was the only child of William Davenport Talbot, of Lacock Abbey, near Chippenham, Wiltshire, and of Lady Elisabeth Fox Strangways, daughter of the 2nd Earl of Ilchester.

Brown Road and Belleau Drive each follow portions of the old Warwick Road which are now west of Chippenham Parkway, which severed the old route in the mid-1960s when it was built between present-day Jahnke Road and Midlothian Turnpike.

In 1788 the so-called " Western Canal " was proposed to improve trade and communication links to towns such as Hungerford, Marlborough, Wiltshire, Calne, Chippenham and Melksham.

Among professional trades boatmen, the canal was nicknamed the Ippey Cut, possibly short for Chippenham.

The main canal was long, with branches totalling to Chippenham, Calne, Wantage and Longcot.

Their first British operation was opened at Chippenham, Wiltshire, in 1873.

Further Danish forces had settled on the land before Guthrum attacked Wessex: in East Anglia, and in Mercia between the treaty at Exeter and the attack on Chippenham ; many others were lost in a storm off Swanage in 876-7, with 120 ships wrecked Internal disunity was threatening to tear the Danes apart, and they needed time to reorganize.

Kings lodge school, a primary school in Chippenham was named after King Alfred's Hunting lodge.

The Buttercross was re-erected in 1995 by the Chippenham Civic Society with funding provided by a wide range of local individuals and organisations.

According to Wiltshire Council population projections for 2012 was estimated at 44, 820, making Chippenham the highest town population in Wiltshire.

According to Bishop Asser's Life of King Alfred Chippenham was, under Alfred's reign, a royal vill ; historians have also argued, from its proximity to the royal forests at Melksham and Barden, that it was probably a hunting lodge.

Alfred's daughter was also married in Chippenham.

Chippenham was represented in the Parliament of England from 1295 onwards and Queen Mary granted the town a Charter of Incorporation in 1554.

A spur off the Wilts & Berks Canal was built to Chippenham in 1798 with a wharf at the current site of the bus station ( Timber Street ) with the main commodity traded being coal.

In the middle of the 19th century Chippenham was a major centre for the production of dairy and ham products ; this led, later, to Nestle and Matteson's to have factories in the town centre.

The signalling side of the business remains at the Chippenham site and is now owned by Invensys Rail Group ; the brakes business was taken over by the German company Knorr-Bremse, and is based at a site in nearby Melksham.

The office of Town Mayor was established in 1835: prior to that Chippenham was governed by a Bailiff supported by Burgesses.

Until 2010, the town of Chippenham was within the parliamentary constituency of North Wiltshire.

North Wiltshire, which was also known as Chippenham, is a traditionally Conservative seat although in the 19th century, Liberal members were also elected.

They withdrew to Mercia, but, in January 878, made a sudden attack on Chippenham, a royal stronghold in which Alfred had been staying over Christmas, " and most of the people they killed, except the King Alfred, and he with a little band made his way by wood and swamp, and after Easter he made a fort at Athelney in the marshes of Somerset, and from that fort kept fighting against the foe ".

Two years later, Guthrum again attacked Alfred, surprising him by attacking his forces wintering in Chippenham.

After the two rivers merge, the Avon then turns south east away from the Cotswolds and then quickly south into the clay Dauntsey Vale, where it is joined by the River Marden, until it reaches the biggest town so far, Chippenham.

The fact that his army could not defend the fortified Chippenham, even in " an age ... as yet untrained in siege warfare " casts great doubt on its ability to defeat the Danes in an open field, unaided by fortifications.

The town is bypassed to the west by the A350, which links the M4 motorway with Chippenham and nearby towns to the south, such as Melksham and Trowbridge.

Chippenham railway station is on the Great Western Main Line and is served by services between London Paddington and the West Country and is famous for its railway arches and other buildings engineered by Isambard Kingdom Brunel as part of the Great Western Railway development.

The parish of Chippenham Without encompasses the deserted medieval village of Sheldon, devastated by plague ; all that remains today is Sheldon Manor, Wiltshire's oldest inhabited manor house, dating from 1282.

The Mayor is nowadays elected annually by the Town Council The Mayor is generally appointed to office in May of each year ( at the " Mayor Making " ceremony ) and acts as the first citizen of the town acting in a promotional way representing Chippenham.

Southwards, the line is joined by the minor Melksham branch from Chippenham shortly before Trowbridge.

The communities served by the Great Western Main Line include: West London ( including Acton, Ealing, Hanwell, Southall, Hayes, Harlington and West Drayton ); Iver ; Langley ; Slough ; Burnham ; Taplow ; Maidenhead ; Twyford ; Reading ; Tilehurst ; Goring-on-Thames ; Streatley ; Cholsey ; Didcot ; Swindon ; Chippenham ; Bath ; Keynsham ; and Bristol.

Guthrum agreed to leave Wessex and a " Treaty of Wedmore " ( sometimes called the " Treaty of Chippenham ") is often assumed by historians to have existed.

James Harker, writing in The Guardian, considered that the Gardner books were " dogged by silliness ", giving examples of Scorpius, where much of the action is set in Chippenham, and Win, Lose or Die, where " Bond gets chummy with an unconvincing Maggie Thatcher ".

As such it is Wiltshire's fifth-largest town by population after Swindon, Salisbury, Chippenham and Trowbridge.

The town has a thriving business district and is also close to the retail centres of Bath, Bristol, Chippenham, Trowbridge and Swindon and is surrounded by beautiful villages such as Lacock, Holt, Seend and Semington.

The town is served by Melksham railway station, on the branch of the Wessex Main Line from Chippenham to Trowbridge, and currently it is served by two trains in either direction each weekday, operated by First Great Western.

878 In January Guthrum led an attack against Wessex that sought to capture Alfred while he wintered in Chippenham.

On Epiphany, 6 January 878, Guthrum made a surprise night-time attack on Alfred and his court at Chippenham, Wiltshire.

The Danes attacked Chippenham " in midwinter after Twelfth Night ", probably during the night of January 6 – 7, 878.

The name is recorded variously as Cippanhamm ( 878 ), Cepen ( 1042 ), Cheppeham ( 1155 ), Chippenham ( 1227 ), Shippenham ( 1319 ) and Chippyngham ( 1541 ).

Moreover, Wiltunscire is mentioned by Asser in 878, in which year the Danes established their headquarters at Chippenham and remained there a year, plundering the surrounding country.