Ashton Keynes is a village and civil parish in north Wiltshire, England which borders with Gloucestershire. The village is about south of Cirencester and west of Cricklade. At the 2011 census the population of the parish, which includes the hamlet of North End, was 1,400. The village lies within the Cotswold Water Park and is the only settlement substantially on both sides of the River Thames, which has many channels here, centred from its source at Thames Head. History A Romano-British settlement and field system was west of the present-day village, spanning the county boundary; it was investigated in 1971 before it was destroyed by gravel extraction. 'Ashton' comes from the Old English Æsctūn, meaning 'place or settlement where ash trees grew'. In 1086, land at Essitone held by Cranborne Priory (Dorset) was recorded in the Domesday Book within Cricklade hundred. The land was transferred to the recently founded Tewkesbury Abbey (Gloucestershire) in 1102. Ashton Keynes Castle (or Hall's Close) was a 12th-century moated ringwork and bailey, just north of the village. The manor was held by the de Cahaignes or Keynes family, and this was incorporated into the village name. Land at Leigh, to the southeast, was part of Ashton Keynes manor until 1584 when Leigh became a separate manor. Ashton House was built in the 18th century and is Grade II listed. In 1851 in the 35 homes in Gosditch were living a tailor, saddler, tallow chandler, stonemason, many glove makers and a cobbler. The Horse and Jockey (now closed) was a "scrumpy house", selling cider made from the apples from the orchards in the village. Leigh became a separate civil parish in 1884. The Swindon to Stroud railway, opened in 1841 and today known as the Golden Valley line, passes close to the southwest of Ashton Keynes parish. The station at Minety was renamed Minety and Ashton Keynes in 1905; it closed in 1964 on the withdrawal of stopping services. Another railway, the Swindon, Marlborough and Andover Railway opened their extension from Swindon to Cirencester in 1883, passing through South Cerney parish to the northeast of Ashton Keynes; there was a station at South Cerney called Cerney and Ashton Keynes. By 1892 the line, now the Midland and South Western Junction Railway, was completed as far as Cheltenham and thus connected the Midlands with the docks at Southampton. The line closed to passengers in 1961 and the