Baptists. A Methodist chapel was built on the High Street in 1872, its two-storey front having four large Corinthian columns and a cornice with oculus. This became the United Church after the union of the Methodists and Congregationalists in 1976, and the Congregational church off the Market Place closed. A Catholic church, St Anthony of Padua, was built in pale brick to the south of the town centre and opened in 1939. An independent congregation built Queensway Chapel in the eastern suburbs in 1967. Melksham has a long history of Quakerism, beginning with meetings nearby at Shaw in the 17th century. A meeting-house was built in 1698 at what is now King Street, and rebuilt on the same site around 1777 (or 1734). Quakerism declined in the 19th century but the Melksham meeting continued until 1950. The meeting-house was sold in 1958 and was used as a Spiritualist church for a time; in 2015 the building was restored and converted into offices. Governance Until 1974 the town was managed by Melksham Urban District Council, based at Melksham Town Hall. It was then managed by West Wiltshire District Council, but since the abolition of West Wiltshire in 2009, the most significant local government functions (including schools, roads, social services, recycling, emergency planning, leisure services, housing, development control and waste disposal) have been carried out by Wiltshire Council, a unitary authority. Melksham civil parish has a town council, with fifteen members elected by four wards: East, Forest, North and South. The councillors elect one of their number as Mayor of Melksham for a one-year term. As well as having a consultative role, the town council runs the Assembly Hall events venue. Since 2019–2020 it is responsible for the town's play areas and King George V playing field, after transfer of ownership from Wiltshire Council. The outskirts of Melksham, and most of the surrounding rural communities, are administered by another parish council, Melksham Without. Melksham is in the Chippenham parliamentary constituency, which since 2015 has been represented in the House of Commons by Michelle Donelan, a Conservative. Geography The civil parish of Melksham includes Melksham Forest, formerly a separate settlement to the northeast and now a suburb of the town. It has an Anglican church (St Andrew's, 1876) and had a Methodist chapel (1905 to before 2010). The parish of Melksham Without includes several villages and suburbs of Melksham: Bowerhill, a large residential