Bencroft Hill Meadows, in the south of the parish, is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest.

[2] At the time of the 1086 Domesday Book, a large population of 79 households was recorded in Breme in the ancient hundred of Chippenham.

[7] The Wilts & Berks Canal, opened in full in 1810, passed through the parish from southwest to northeast, with a junction near Stanley for its branch to Calne, which followed the Marden valley.

Partial collapse of the Stanley Aqueduct over the Marden made the canal unusable and it was formally abandoned in 1914.

In 1863 a railway, the Chippenham and Calne branch line, crossed the parish, also following the Marden valley, with an intermediate stop at Stanley Bridge Halt.

The line was busy in the first half of the 20th century with goods to and from the Harris pork processing factory at Calne, and later with RAF personnel.

The church was restored and all pews modified by Manners & Gill of Bath 1849–1851,[citation needed] and William Butterfield altered the west window in 1862–63.

[11] Today the parish is part of the Marden Vale benefice, alongside St Mary and Holy Trinity at Calne, and the churches of Blackland, Derry Hill and Foxham.

[17] The house was bought by preacher John Cennick in 1742 and the Moravian community was founded in 1745; the manse and chapel were rebuilt in 1792–3 and the schoolroom added 1793–4.