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NESTLED in the centre of Chippenham, Monkton Park has a little known royal history.

In 1150, the crown gave land at Cocklebury to the priory of Farleigh in Monkton Farleigh, which explains the origins of the name of the park.

But, following the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII, the priory's land was granted to Edward Seymour, brother of King Henry's third wife Jane Seymour.

The ambitious Seymour was anxious for a cut of the bargain basement prices the king was asking for the former monasteries.

He snapped up the main piece of land, which we now know as Monkton Park, and let it to lawyer William Bayliffe in 1567, who bought neighbouring land, including Cocklebury Farm.

At this time, the estate extended across the river and the area around St Andrew's Church.

Around 100 years later, the original tenant's descendant, also known as William Bayliffe, secured a 100 year lease of the manor, valued at £500, from the Seymour family.

On Mr Bayliffe's death in 1673, the farm house with its six ground floor rooms, seven bedrooms and a cheese loft, was left to his widow, Elizabeth, on condition that she did not remarry.

Arthur Esmeade, a clothier from Calne, and Thomas Goddard of Rudloe, bought the manor in 1686 and, by 1800, one of Mr Esmeade's descendants Esmeade Edridge, had rebuilt parts of the house into the Georgian style that is still recognisable today.

Until the mid 19th century, the area around the estate had changed very little from the Middle Ages.

The Berkshire and Wiltshire Canal in 1798 and the Great Western Railway in 1841 brought new industry.

But even as late as 1870, the diarist Francis Kilver noted: "I walked up by Cocklebury, the lanes and fields deliciously shady green and quiet."

Later, the engineering works of Saxby and Farmer, later to become Westinghouse Brake and Signal Company, were among the industrial development.

In 1919 the estate was broken up and sold by Miss Carrick Moore, a descendant of the Esmead Edridge family, and, in 1954, part of the estate was sold to create a cattle market on land next to Cocklebury Farm House.

By this time, the then owner, Lady Coventry, had left Monkton House and its surrounding parkland to the people of Chippenham in her will and the borough council bought the rest of the estate.

Three years later the council sold land for 800 homes on what is now known as the Monkton Park Estate. When finished in 1962, a three-bed semi cost just £2,850.

The council ploughed money into the park building an open-air swimming pool and a golf course.

The eagerly anticipated swimming pool was opened on May 28 1960 by the then town mayor, R Archard. More than 15,000 people used the pool in the few weeks of its opening but within 25 years it had been replaced with the Olympiad Leisure Centre.

Monkton House, now a Grade 11 listed building, was converted into flats. Cocklebury Farm House is a home for people with learning disabilities.

An exhibition on the history of Monkton Park is being launched today at the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre in Cocklebury Road.

The displays run until the end of June.

10:01am Friday 14th March 2008

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