is one secondary school in the Melksham catchment area: Melksham Oak Community School opened in 2010 at Bowerhill, replacing The George Ward Technology College which served the community for over 50 years. Stonar School, an all-ages independent day and boarding school, is nearby at Atworth. Dinosaur Melksham is the namesake for a prehistoric crocodile species discovered in the town. Ieldraan melkshamensis, or the Melksham Monster, was 10 ft long and was an apex predator in the waters around the UK during the Jurassic period. The fossil had been in the possession of the Natural History Museum since 1875, until a team from the University of Edinburgh led by Davide Foffa classified it in 2017 as a distinct species. Notable people Edward Barnwell (1813–1887), schoolmaster, archaeologist and antiquarian, owned Melksham House from 1866 and financed the building of St Andrew's church in the Forest area of the town Matthew Bound, footballer Edmund Wright Brooks (1834–1928), Quaker philanthropist John Fowler (1826–1864), agricultural engineer Ken Gill (1927–2009), trade union leader and caricaturist, born and brought up in Melksham Sidney Goodwin (1910–1912), born in Melksham, child victim of the sinking of the Titanic together with his parents and five siblings James Hurn, cricketer Julia de Lacy Mann (1891–1985), economic historian, principal of St Hilda's College, Oxford; retired to Melksham, was president of the West Wilshire Historical Society Robert Martineau, Anglican bishop; curate in Melksham from 1938 Phil McMullen, writer, music critic, events organiser Henry Moule (1801–1880), pioneer of the earth closet Horace Newte, writer, born in Melksham Andy Park, known as "Mr. Christmas" Diana Ross, children's author, lived at Shaw for many years Brad Scott, MMA fighter John Dunlop Southern, cricketer George Thicknesse, 19th Baron Audley, died, and is buried, in Melksham Ann Yearsley (ca. 1753–1806), poet; died in Melksham References British Spas from 1815 to the Present: A Social History, Phyllis M. Hembry, Leonard W. Cowie, Evelyn E. Cowie, Social Science, 1997 Wiltshire Notes and Queries. Vol. IV 1903 External links The Well House Collection – a privately run museum of Melksham Towns in Wiltshire Civil parishes in Wiltshire English royal forests