Bradford-on-Avon (sometimes Bradford on Avon) is a town and civil parish in west Wiltshire, England, near the border with Somerset.

The town's canal, historic buildings, shops, pubs and restaurants make it popular with tourists.

It has several buildings dating from the 17th century, when the town grew due to the thriving English woollen textile industry.

In particular, archaeological digs have revealed the remains of a large Roman villa with a well-preserved mosaic on the playing fields of St Laurence School.

[3] On 2 July 1643 the town was the site of a skirmish in the English Civil War, when Royalists seized control of the bridge on their way to the Battle of Lansdowne.

The weathervane on top takes the form of a gudgeon[2] (an early Christian symbol), hence the local saying "under the fish and over the water".

Daniel Defoe visited Bradford-on-Avon in the early 18th century[2] and commented: "They told me at Bradford that it was no extra-ordinary thing to have clothiers in that country worth, from ten thousand, to forty thousand pounds a man [equivalent to £1.3M to £5.3M in 2007], and many of the great families, who now pass for gentry in those counties, have been originally raised from, and built up by this truly noble manufacture.

Around thirty such mills were built in Bradford-on-Avon alone, and these prospered further until the English woollen industry shifted its centre of power to Yorkshire in the late 19th century.

One of the few is The Swan, a public house and hotel set in the centre of town; the building is 17th century and retains many original features, in particular the stone flag floors.

It was rediscovered by the Anglican priest, antiquarian and author William Jones in 1856, having been used for secular purposes (apparently becoming a house, a school and part of a factory).

The elaborate ornamentation of the exterior consists of pilaster-strips, a broad frieze of two plain string-courses between which is a blind arcade of round-headed arches whose short vertical pilasters have trapezoidal capitals and bases, while on the eastern gable and the corners adjacent there is a series of mouldings as vertical triple semicylinders.

[11] Inside the church, high in the wall above a small chancel arch, are the carved figures of two flying angels, the right-hand figure reportedly "intended to be clothed in transparent drapery ... the legs from the knee downward are depicted as showing through the transparent robe" which is referred to as a "quaint fancy".

[15] The Catholic church, dedicated to St. Thomas More, occupies a Grade II listed building, dating from 1854, that used to be the town hall.

[16] There is also a Buddhist monastery in the town, under the auspices of the Aukana Trust; it comprises a monastic building each for men and for women, and a meditation hall.

[17] Today, the town is the headquarters of the Alex Moulton bicycle company and has several other small-scale manufacturing enterprises.

The town's main business is shopping, tourism and day-to-day servicing of a population largely made up of families, commuters and the retired.

The town has one mid-sized supermarket on the Elms Cross industrial estate, a short walk from the canal lock, and five convenience stores.

[35] Bradford on Avon rugby club, whose first team played in Dorset & Wilts 1 North in 2019–20, have their ground at Winsley, just west of the town.

[36] Wiltshire Music Centre is a purpose-built, 300-seat concert hall within the grounds of St Laurence School that attracts internationally renowned musicians.