Sherston is a village and civil parish about west of Malmesbury in Wiltshire, England. The parish is bounded to the north by the county boundary with Gloucestershire, and to the southeast by the Fosse Way, a Roman road. The parish includes the hamlets of Easton Town, immediately east of Sherston; Pinkney, further east along the Malmesbury road; and Willesley, to the north. The infant River Avon passes Sherston, Easton Town and Pinkney, on its way to Malmesbury. The parish lies within the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. History The Fosse Way, a major Roman road, passes nearby and forms the southeastern boundary of the modern parish. A Romano-British farmhouse from around 350 was discovered at Vancelettes Farm, north of Sherston village. The earliest surviving record of Sherston, then called Scorranstone, is an Anglo-Saxon document of 896. In 1016, a battle between Cnut the Great and a West Saxon army on the hills around Sherston may have involved a local hero known as Rattlebone; his name is celebrated in a local pub, The Rattlebone Inn. The parish church was built or rebuilt in the 12th century, and at some point a borough was laid out south of the church, with a broad market place where a weekly market was held from 1241 or earlier. In 1511 a fire destroyed most of the buildings. Later in that century Sherston had two inns, the Swan and the Angel; there was much rebuilding in the 17th century. Industry came to the village in 1872 when a silk mill was opened by Joseph Davenport and Sons, weaving silks and ribbons, and later cotton; the mill closed in 1922. For a while after the Second World War, the Plant Engineering Co of Birmingham had a factory in the former silk mill. Most of Sherston village was designated as a Conservation Area in 1973. Sherston Software, makers of educational games, was established in 1984 and continued in business in the village until 2015. Pinkney was also called Sherston Parva, meaning Little Sherston. The Ordnance Survey map from the 1890s has "Great Sherston" and "Sherston Parva or Pinkney"; by 1951 Great Sherston had become Sherston but both names were still shown for the smaller place. Landowners The Estcourt family of Pinkney were influential at Malmesbury in the 17th century, for a time holding the post of high steward of the borough. Notable members included Sir Thomas Estcourt