The present village lies entirely on Lower Greensand although much of the parish is gault and the light soils of the village attracted market gardening to the area in the late 19th century.
The village is in the centre of its parish but to the west of the Rowde Ford Stream which rises near Roundway Down, on the Rowde and Bromham boundary.

Rowde covers and area of 1050 hectares and has a population of 1190. Most land in the parish is below 70 metres, only on Caen Hill and near Roundway Down is the land substantially higher. The Kennet and Avon Canal was built through the southern part of the parish and most of the famous Caen Hill flight of 29 locks, opened in 1810, are within Rowde. Caen Hill itself does not refer to the French town famous for its stone, but is a corrupted spelling of Cane Hill, which was its name from at least 1612 until the early 20th century.

A distinguished architect and writer on art had been born in Rowde in 1820. Sir Matthew Digby Wyatt designed the Adelphi Theatre and Paddington Station and was the first Slade Professor of Fine Art at Cambridge. Whilst a schoolboy at Mr Bigg's school in Devizes he may have watched Rowde church being rebuilt in 1833 and decided to follow his elder brother, Thomas Henry, into architecture.