Christian Malford

Christian Malford is a small village in the county of Wiltshire in England. The unusual name is evidently a corruption of Christ mal Ford, Old English moel, mal being a mark: "Christ’s mal" is Christ’s mark or sign, the cross. The name signified "Cross Ford". Deeds from Glastonbury Abbey cartulary relate to Christmalford Manor: in AD 940 King Edmund granted Christmalford to St. Dunstan, Abbot of Glastonbury. Christian Malford School recently celebrated its 150-year anniversary and the building of the school was closely linked with the building of the Great Western Railway.

The village is known to palaeontologists as the rediscovered Lagerstätte, a site of remarkably preserved fossils, in this case in the Middle Jurassic Oxford clay, in which a chance discovery in the 19th century uncovered thousands of exquisitely preserved ammonites, fish and crustaceans. The site, whose exact location had not been publicly disclosed, became most famous for squid-like cephalopods and belemnites, complete with their phosphatized soft parts. The site was rediscovered in 2008.