The village is about 2.2 miles (3.5 km) south of Swindon town centre on the edge of the Marlborough Downs, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

The parish includes North Wroughton, formerly a small settlement on the road towards Swindon but now part of the built-up area; and the hamlets of Elcombe and Overtown.

[2] More significant evidence of settlement and occupation in the area is available for the Neolithic period, most notably due to the extensive ritual complex at Avebury and scattered finds in the locality.

In the 20th century the village grew but largely avoided the effects of suburbanisation while its larger neighbour Swindon expanded rapidly to the immediate north.

The construction of the M4 motorway prevented Swindon from enveloping Wroughton, which has retained a village identity, albeit with the population of a small market town (approximately 8,000 residents) in the early 21st century.

[4] The horse and its trainer, Tom Leader, who was born in Wroughton, were escorted from Swindon railway station by a brass band and received in the village which had declared all of its pubs to be open houses and provided free beer for the occasion.

Events included "A Programme of Horse, Pony, Donkey and Foot racing; climbing the greasy pole ..." the prize being a leg of mutton at the end.

[5] Frederick Large, in his book A Swindon Retrospect 1855–1930 comments: "At Wroughton Feast, an annual festival lasting a week, it was the custom for many years for "the champion gip" to fight the best man who could be produced, for a purse of gold.

A miniature grand stand was erected for Feast Week in an orchard adjoining the paddock, upon which many of the elite of the neighbourhood, both ladies and gentlemen, occupied seats, and indulged freely in choice fruits and refreshments.

A greyhound racing track was opened in the fields opposite the Black Horse Hotel and Inn in North Wroughton on 26 July 1930.

Some Saint-Germinois would come from the twin-town to play on Wroughton's boulodrome (pétanque terrain) and some Wroughtonians would return the compliment on St Germain's bowling green.