born in Bromham on 19 July 1757. His father, John Collinson, was at the time curate of the parish church of St. Nicholas. Reginald St John Battersby was vicar of Chittoe from 1934 until his retirement in 1972. He had lost a leg while serving as a young officer in the First World War; in the Second World War he organised the Chittoe branch of the Home Guard. Local government Bromham is a civil parish with an elected parish council and is in the area of Wiltshire Council, a unitary authority. The councils are responsible for different aspects of local government. The village falls in 'Bromham, Rowde and Potterne' electoral ward. The ward starts in the north at Bromham and extends south to Rowde and eventually Potterne whilst avoiding Devizes. The population of the ward taken at the 2011 census was 4,850. Education St. Nicholas Church of England Primary School is in the village. For secondary education, Bromham is in the catchment area of Kingsbury Green Academy in Calne. For many years there were two schools in the village. The first school opened in 1832 and moved into a new building (still the site of the present school) near the church in 1867, becoming a National School. Children of all ages attended until 1938, when older pupils transferred to Calne; the school became Voluntary controlled in 1948. The building was extended in the 1960s and again in 2004. A Nonconformist school was established in 1843, and in the 1860s became a British School in a new building to the east of the village, near the Devizes road. The building was enlarged in 1901, then was transferred to Wiltshire County Council in 1907 and was known as Bromham County School. Pupil numbers declined until two schools were no longer necessary, resulting in closure of the county school in 1984. Its building is now a private house. Amenities Bromham has a village shop and a family butcher's shop. The village has two playing fields. The Pound Playing Field has the village's tennis court, a grassed football pitch, a play park and a hardcourt basketball and five-a-side football area. The Social Centre Playing Fields include Bromham F.C.'s football pitch and a smaller pitch that is used by the youth team. Just by the car park of the Social Centre is another children's play park which is overlooked by the Millennium Cross: a tall