Chippenham was believed to have been founded by Anglo Saxons around 600. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records the town as Cippanhamme and this could refer to Cippa who had his Hamm, an enclosure in a river meadow. An alternative theory suggests that the name is derived from the Anglo-Saxon word Ceap, meaning market. The name is recorded variously as Cippanhamm, Cepen, Cheppeham, Chippenham, Shippenham and Chippyngham.
Chippenham was a Saxon administrative centre by the 10th century and probably had a minster church by the 9th century as King Alfred’s daughter was married here. It had strategic significance for both Saxon kings and Viking invaders and, although comparatively low lying, was a good defensive site being surrounded on three sides by the river.
There could have been a mint in the town by the late 10th century as some coins of Ethelred II (978-1016) have the name Cepen on them.
The building of the western bypass brought about the development of land between the bypass and Hungerdown Lane and Hardenhuish Lane for Cepen Park South and Cepen Park North in the 1990s.