Your home town as others really (really?) see it.

[whole diary]

[grahame]

What do people think of YOUR home town?    A review of Melksham from WikiVoyage

Melksham is a small town in Wiltshire. It is not most people's idea of a tourist destination. Originally an Anglo-Saxon settlement (milk town) Melksham became one of Wiltshire's industrial towns and grew on the back of the Avon (locally pronounced as Avun) rubber factory.

Most of the interesting buildings in the area where demolished when the Avon factory expanded and in the re-development of the town centre in the 1960s, which has left Melksham a pretty bleak place.

It is by population (23,000) the 5th largest town in Wiltshire after Swindon, Salisbury, Chippenham & Trowbridge, but it has few amenities

Nice.   So how do we get there and around?

Get in
By road
Melksham is situated on the main North/South A350 trunk road. It can be reached by leaving the M4 at J17 and following the A350 south for approx 10 miles (16 km).

By train
Melksham station is served by 2 trains per day on the Swindon - Southampton line. The train station is commonly known as 'the bus stop' due to its small size and appearance of a bus shelter.

By bus
Melksham is served by buses from Bath, Chippenham, Trowbridge & Devizes on a regular basis.

By plane
The nearest airport to the town is 2 Bristol Airport (BRS^▸ (Business Rates Supplement) IATA). 3 Heathrow Airport (LHR IATA) is 1 hr 30 min away.

Get around
The town centre is small enough to walk around.

Go next
Nearby you have the National Trust Village of Lacock.
Tourists who find themselves in Melksham by mistake would do well to head for nearby Lacock, Bradford on Avon or Devizes.

Where can we be fed, watered, stay?

Eat
1 The Fisheries, Union Street (located close to the main shopping street), An excellent example of a good quality English chippy. edit
2. The Kings Arms, Market Place. Good quality 'pub grub' although the beer is a bit pricey
3.  Lee's Chinese
Melksham also has 3 Indian restaurants, 2 Chinese restaurants (Lee's Chinese on Beanacre Road is excellent) and countless kebab shops, etc.

Drink
Beware of drunken idiots on weekend nights as Melksham is famous for it. The town was once named in a list of the top 10 most violent places in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom).
1 The Bear, 3 Bath Rd, SN12 6LL
2 The Grapes, 31 Bank St, SN12 6LE.
3 The Tavern, 18 Market Pl, SN12 6EX
4 The Parsons Nose, 30 High St, SN12 6LA
5 The Foresters Arms, 87 Sandridge Rd, SN12 7BN

Sleep
1 The King Arms, Market place.
2 Beechfield House Hotel, Beanacre SN12 7PU. Accommodation comprises 24 bedrooms, which can accommodate families of up to five. Has a fine restaurant offering a private menu, with a selection of private dining rooms catering for special occasions. There are four fully-equipped meeting rooms, The Garden room, The Music room, The Library and The Card room, all of which can be set up as 'boardrooms' or as presentation 'theatres', the largest of which can accommodate up to 80 people standing or 70 dining. A beauty treatment room, outdoor heated swimming pool and its own small arboretum of rare trees in the grounds. Free Wifi available throughout the hotel. Has excellent if rather expensive rooms and a fantastic restaurant. It has the added benefit of being on the main A350 trunk road out of the town for a quick getaway! Rooms from £125. edit
There are also several B & Bs located in the town.

[rogerw]

A few inaccuracies in that regarding the train service and the status of the A350 (not a trunk road). I am not an expert on the pubs and eating places so cannot comment on those. In my view Melsham is not as black as it's painted