The famous chemist Joseph Priestley did experiments at Doctor's Pond in Calne.
This bend in the River Marden owes its name to Priestley's practice of collecting gasses that bubble up through the water at this place. He invented Soda water, and prepared new gasses, especially Oxygen, and new forms of apparatus for handling gasses, 1774. He himself called Oxygen DEPHLOGISTICATED air. Priestley entered the service of Lord Shelburne in 1773 at Bowood Estate near Calne. He lived in Calne for 7 years. His job was librarian at Bowood and tutor to the Shelburne sons. Priestley's written work is called "Experiments and Observations on different kinds of Air". He was awarded the Copley Medal.
The Little Bridges series was started by Stanthews in 2009 to highlight small footbridges in remote parts of Wiltshire. Since then the series has been expanded by others all over the country and starting to spread fast, Damian from Winter Foxes has created and updates a list of cachers who has found 10 or more little bridges and can be found here, if you would like to add to the series, please contact Stan here and he will give you a number for your bridge, to qualify, the bridge must be a foot bridge too small for vehicles, please make sure your title exactly matches “Little Bridges # xx then name” including spaces so it will get picked up and added to Damian’s list.