Steeple Ashton is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, 3 miles (4.8 km) east of Trowbridge.
[2] The first element of the village's name derives from the former steeple of the church built c. 1480–1500, which, when it was measured in 1606, was found to be 32 yards higher than the tower, making together the remarkable height of about 186ft.
Two men working on it were killed, and the body of the church severely damaged, so that no attempt to rebuild the spire was made.
[2] The road through the village, connecting Edington in the southeast to Trowbridge in the northwest, formed part of a route from Salisbury which fell out of use in the later 18th century.
[7] There was already a long-standing church at Steeple Ashton in 1252, held by Romsey Abbey, a link which remained in place until the dissolution.
[2] Soon after the church of St John the Evangelist was built at West Ashton tithing in 1846, an ecclesiastical district was created for it.
[16] Today, Steeple Ashton parish is part of the benefice of North Bradley, Southwick, and Heywood.
The manor house, northeast of the church, was built in 1647 for the Bennett family, in brick with a three-gabled limestone ashlar front.
The manor was offered for sale in mid 2020, after being upgraded over the previous decade; for example, an atrium was added, "linking the main body of the house to an adjoining courtyard", according to Country Life.
[32] A war memorial in the form of a cross stands on the High Street,[33] and in the churchyard is a small green village pump manufactured by Lee Howl.
[35] The village abuts Keevil Airfield, a former Royal Air Force station which served during World War Two as home to squadrons of the United States Army Air Forces, and later as a launch site for gliders taking part in the Normandy invasion of France and Operation Market Garden.
[37] Fields to the south-east of Steeple Ashton, at grid reference ST 914558, contain a bed of Jurassic coral limestone.