The site, whose exact location had not been publicly disclosed, became most famous for squid-like cephalopods and belemnites, complete with their phosphatized soft parts.

[7] A Congregational chapel named Shecaniah was built in 1836, near the main road on the western outskirts of the village, not far from the river bridge.

[9] Christian Malford is near a crossing point of the Avon, which in this area flows south from Malmesbury to Chippenham.

The centre of settlement is to the south of the main road, which in the past was the A420 from Chippenham to Swindon (via Lyneham and Royal Wootton Bassett).

The M4 motorway, built in 1971 and passing less than a mile north of the village centre, became the preferred route for traffic to and from Swindon, and in the late 1980s the A420 was redesignated as the B4069.

[10] Completed in 1810, the canal carried goods including Somerset coal to Wootton Bassett, Swindon and beyond; it was abandoned in 1914.

The Great Western Main Line, the railway from London to Bristol, followed a similar route to the canal but further west, passing between Christian Malford and Thornend.