HILPERTON, or HILPRINGTON, a village and a parish in Melksham district, Wilts. The village stands near the Somerset and Weymouth railway and the Kennet and Avon canal, 1½ mile NNE of Trowbridge; and has a post office under Trowbridge. The parish comprises 1, 078 acres. Real property, £3, 238. Pop. in 1851, 996; in 1861, 880. Houses, 209. The manufacture of cloth is carried on; and the decrease of pop. was caused by the substitution of power looms for hand looms. The property is divided among a few. The manor belongs to Walter Long, Esq. The living is a rectory, united with the rectory of Whaddon, in the diocese of Salisbury. Value, £418.* Patron, W. Long, Esq. The church is good, and has a tower. There are chapels for Baptists and Wesleyans, and a national school.

(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))