Purton is a large village and civil parish in north Wiltshire, England, about 4 miles (6 km) northwest of the centre of Swindon.

[citation needed] Ringsbury Camp has evidence of settlement during the Neolithic period but is considered to be an Iron Age hill fort dating from about 50 BC.

[2] At The Fox on the east side of the village, grave goods and bodies from a pagan Saxon cemetery have been excavated.

They form part of the GHQ Line Red, along which an anti-tank trench also ran, between Ballards Ash near Royal Wootton Bassett and the River Ray near Blunsdon railway station.

Anti-tank devices (chains across the road, set in concrete blocks) were installed on the parish boundary across Tadpole Bridge that spans the River Ray.

Ridgeway Farm, a 700-house development of the early 21st century which extends Swindon's western suburbs, is in the east of the parish.

It was built in 1962 and caters for pupils from Purton parish, Lydiard Millicent, Cricklade, Ashton Keynes and West Swindon.

[24] In the east of the parish, Ridgeway Farm CE Academy (a primary school) was built in 2016 to serve the newly developed housing area.

The building is now used by the Jubilee Gardens Project, a charity which provides education and training for adults with learning difficulties.

[25] Village amenities include several shops, a sub-post office, a farm shop, a cafe, a dairy farm stand selling milk, meat and other local produce, a library with a small museum above, one Hair salon, public houses and takeaways, a GP's practice, dentist and veterinary surgery.

There are four Wiltshire Wildlife Trust nature reserves in the parish:[26] Restrop Farm and Brockhurst Wood is a Site of Special Scientific Interest.

Purton Youth Football Club caters for a wide range of ages and is based at Bradon Forest School.

[5] The Reverend Dr Nevil Maskelyne (1732–1811) was appointed Astronomer Royal in 1765, a position he held until death; his tomb is in the churchyard.

The Royalist statesman and author Edward Hyde, who was returned as MP for the nearby Wootton Bassett constituency in the 1630s, lived at College Farm in the centre of Purton.

Hyde's Whig arch-rival, Sir Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury, also had property in Purton parish.

Among these was James Henry Sadler, Esq., D.L., J.P., (1843–1929) who, though a Purton native, lived in nearby Lydiard House until his death.

A strict but generous benefactor, Sadler gave the cricket ground and Working Men's Institute to the village.

In 1859 or 1860[35] Dr Sadler had the Pump House built at Salt's Hole,[36] a natural mineral water spring near Purton Stoke, used for medicinal purposes since the Middle Ages and possibly earlier.

Under Dr Sadler and subsequent owners, attempts were made to develop this natural attraction as Purton Spa, and to market the spring waters for their healing qualities.