GAZETTE & HERALD: Residents of Derriads House are celebrating the building's 100th birthday this year and have been researching the colourful history of the property.

The grade two listed building on Derriads Lane, Chippenham, is occupied by five flats but the site is originally believed to be a farm house.

Records list Derriads Farm as far back as 1167 and the old English word for Derriads means a compound of animals.

An Ordinance Survey map of 1853 shows a building on the site but this was extended in 1904. The older parts of the house suggest it was built in the Georgian period because of the narrow window bars.

Resident Gudrun Nakajiha said research into the house had revealed that the house was extended by the Goldney family at the turn of the century.

In 1900 there were two members of Parliament for Chippenham, one was a man called Neeld who lived at Grittleton House and Neeld Hall was named after him.

The second MP was Goldney who lived at Beechfield House in Corsham. Goldney Avenue in Chippenham was named after him.

Goldney's brother Peter lived at Derriads house and extended it in 1904.

It is believed that there is a connection between the Goldney family and the sea captain who rescued a castaway, which became the inspiration for Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe.

Derriads House remained in private hands until just after the Second World War.

Ms Nakajiha said: "It then became a children's home and there must have been lots of children and staff that lived here.

"We have photographs of it as a home before it was turned into flats."