The name has been rendered as versions of Atford and Atworth until settling on the latter in the second part of the 19th century. The name may refer to the farmstead of a Saxon called Ætta or may simply derive from Old English aet -meaning oats. There is no significant ford here, though the main Bath Road used to flood close to the garage after heavy rainfall.

Atworth lies in undulating country on the Forest Marble clays, Cornbrash limestones and Kellaways Beds, rising towards the hills of the north and west. The parish is bounded on the north by a straight border that follows the east-west line of the old Roman road from Londinium to Aquae Sulis (Bath); in the east are Broughton Gifford and Shaw, to the south is Holt, to the west is South Wraxall. The village of Atworth consists of two parts: an old settlement near the church (Middle Atworth) and a long narrow strip along the turnpike Bath Road (Atworth Magna). Bath Road (the A365) was for a while the main road from London to Bath, with several housing estates built during the 20th century.

The old original village centre contains the St Michael’s church building, Church Farm with a medieval barn, Manor Farm House, the former Foresters and Three Horseshoes pubs, primary school and the former Poplar Farm (now Atworth House). Bath Road has the White Hart Inn, the former New Inn and Red Lion Inn, Independent and former Ebenezer Chapels, and in past times several shops and small farms. A clock tower commemorates Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in 1897 and doubles as the village war memorial.

At the eastern end of the main road was Atworth Common, which was divided into allotments, but is now built over. South of the road at this end was the Mendip engineering company which became part of the Dowty company; it closed in 1991 and the land has been redeveloped.

Employment was once dominated by agriculture, the Neston Park estate (the house and most of the estate are in Corsham parish), stone quarrying north of the village and in Box and Corsham and by the Dowty engineering works. Now the village is largely a dormitory for workers in Bath, Melksham, Corsham, Chippenham and beyond. Atworth Business Park, on the site of the Dowty factory, contains several small businesses.

Cottles Estate, or Atworth Parva, is a rectangular area in the west, in which the only major features are Cottles House, currently occupied by Stonar School, and the Botanic Nursery. It is not clear whether this small area was a part of the Manor of Bradford that was given to Shaftesbury Abbey in 1001, but a narrow strip north of Cottles House was part of Bradford parish.

Great and Little Chalfield are small settlements in the south of the modern parish, once independent and centred around their respective manor houses.

The 2011 Census recorded the population of Atworth at 1,321 inhabitants.

Read a longer history of Atworth here.