Moving from Bath Road we come further into the town to look at one of Melksham's landmarks or at least a third of it.

We are looking at the former dye house chimney more associated with Wilts United Dairies near the Town Bridge. Wilts United Dairies, as the name suggests, was an amalgamation of the organised distribution of wholesale milk and condensed milk.

In the later 19th century some Melksham Farmers obtained the support of a Charles Maggs. He opened a collecting depot and butter factory for them at West End Farm in Semington Road. The business grew and the Melksham company moved to the site of the old dye works on the junction of the New Broughton Road.

The company amalgamated with North Wilts Dairy and a number of smaller firms to form Wilts United Dairies. The factory, on the three acre site, became WUD's chief depot with milk coming in from a 20 mile radius. Eventually, it became part of the Unigate Group with the business being transferred to Wootton Basset in the 1980s.

The chimney was taken down to a third of its original height in the 1990s by Wiltshire steeplejacks because the top was unsafe. I remember the day myself, having climbed the chimney to take a picture of Derek Silk and his son Paul taking off the first bricks from the top.

Today it is home to a mobile phone antenna, giving the chimney, which has stood at the heart of Melksham's industrial landscape, a new role. Our archive picture shows the site as Wilts United Dairies Today the area is more known as the Avon Enterprise Park. Gone is the old co-operative building on the corner, knocked down to give Avon Rubber company room to build a car park.