Holt

"HOLT, a chapelry in the parish and hundred of Bradford on Avon, county Wilts, 2½ miles N. of Trowbridge, its post town, 2 N.E. of Bradford, and 3 S.W. of Melksham. It has a station at Holt Junction, on the Devizes branch of the Wilts, Somerset, and Weymouth section of the Great Western railway. It is a small village situated on the river Avon, near the Kennet and Avon canal.

A considerable business is done in the woollen trade. In the neighbourhood is a mineral spring, which formerly belonged to Arnot, the antiquary, and author of the "Commercial Tables". The living is a perpetual curacy in the diocese of Sarum, value £105, in the patronage of the Dean and Chapter of Bristol. The church is an ancient edifice, with a square tower containing five bells, and is dedicated to St. Catherine. Colonel Foster Bowen, who weighed 34 st. 4 lbs., and resided at Holt House, died here in 1763. Here is a National school, and a place of worship for the Independents. Burton Foster, Esq., is lord of the manor."

[Description(s) from The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868) - Transcribed by Colin Hinson ©2003]