The coffin lining was discovered in 1999 at the St Swithuns' Yard site on Walcot Street, Bath. The original excavation and conservation work was undertaken by the Museum of London and the project was filmed as part of the BBC series ‘Meet the Ancestors’ with Julian Richards.

Two coffins were found at the site. They were buried by the side of an alley way in the late 4th century. One coffin belonged to a male, 45 years of age and a height of 5”8. He was buried next to a female who was local to the area. She was approximately 25 years old and had been buried in a wooden coffin. Unfortunately the female skeleton was not well preserved.

Coffin lining before treatment

The coffin lining and the skeleton were taken to the Museum of London where a number of tests were carried out. Analysis revealed that there was no obvious cause of death. DNA results showed that his maternal ancestors came from the eastern Mediterranean and further analysis of his bones and teeth suggested he had probably spent his youth in Syria.  Please 'read more' to find out about the conservation work taking place...
 

Comment (0) Read More...

You can learn a lot just by walking around a village, thinking about how it evolved and picking up clues from remains on the ground and in buildings. If you looked at both old and new maps before your walk you’ll make even more deductions. Most of our Wiltshire villages date from Saxon times, although some are on earlier settlements; again most have Saxon names and the study of street and field names can also be very rewarding. (see The Place-names of Wiltshire by J.E.B. Gover, 1939; and English Field Names by the appropriately named John Field, 1989)

On 18^th March at 2.15 the History Centre afternoon lecture will be Looking at Villages with Michael Marshman, who will talk about some of the skills that help you to become a landscape detective. Apart from his day job at the History Centre Michael has been writing the Village Life articles for Wiltshire Life for the last eight years! Some tickets are still available (Tel. 01249 705500).


Lacock [F0018] A 15^th century cruck building showing where the roof was later raised to allow the insertion of an upper floor.
 
All our villages are different and can be one of a number of types apart from the nucleated, linear or agglomerated that we may remember from geography lessons. Some villages, such as Shrewton, can be several medieval villages that have grown into one; these are known as polyfocal villages but others, such as Inglesham, may have shrunk and be much smaller than they were in earlier times. In others, like West Ashton, a landowner has cleared the original village from the proximity of his manor house and rebuilt it further away.

 
Steeple Ashton [F0045] The village green contains the market cross of 1679, when an attempt was made to revive the market, and the blind house (lock up) of 1773. Indications of the market site and of the hundred court of Whorwellsdown
To find out more, please 'read more'...

Comment (0) Read More...

The story of how archives have survived can be almost as interesting as the documents themselves; but not quite. Last year a furniture restorer in Sussex sent some papers of the Hazland family of Woodborough which he found in a drawer in an antique chest that he was working on. We recently received a document written in 1804 that had been found in a wall in a cottage in Tetbury, Glos, in 1949. This find was of particular interest because it illustrates the social structure the parish of Charlton near Malmesbury around the time that Nelson was killed at Trafalgar.
The Schedule

It is a schedule of Assessed Taxes which included duties on houses, windows, carriages and servants. 93 people, of whom 52 are described as poor, are listed with their occupation or status. The completeness of the picture is confirmed by the 1801 census (for which no personal details were kept), which counted 88 families. The document suffered somewhat by its immuration, and subsequent treatment with adhesive tape, but the paper of the time, made from rags as opposed to wood pulp, is very durable and only one name is lost. 

By a strange coincidence a few weeks after this document was deposited we received a similar for Tisbury, dated 1825, which was found in a wall space in a house in the village, lived in by one of the assessors. It seems that filing away tax returns was taken to rather extreme lengths...

Comment (0) Read More...

February. A month which hides between the excitement and liveliness of the New Year and the impending delights of spring. Often grey, rather dull, with only Valentine’s Day to cheer up the lucky few. However, if you are bored with the weather, frustrated with the new diet or already given up that New Year’s resolution, then a visit to one of Wiltshire’s many museums will light up the month for you. Within their varied collections lie many a fascinating item, and with that in mind, I have compiled a ‘February’ list to entice you to discover them.

February does seem to have a historical link with gloom, but how fascinating to travel to Mere Museum in south-west Wiltshire to discover the February 6^th souvenir copy of the Illustrated London News commemorating the state lying-in of Sir Winston Churchill, or the photographs showing the stone memorial built by local labour in 1999 and dedicated to the airmen killed in a Dakota crash at Beech Knoll, Stourton, on 19^th February 1945. On a lighter note, you may like to read the handwritten rules of the fife and drum band belonging to the Mere Temperance Society, February 1874 and while you are at the museum why not take a look at their six volumes of old local photographs and the local history collection.

Dakota crash memorial

Travel northwards to Warminster Dewey Museum and you will discover a wide range of local history material, including the Victor Manley collection of geology, and various Valentine dance tickets, such as the Frome Young Farmers dance (please contact our blog if any romance was found at the Longleat Restaurant, Horningsham, February 1969!). Whilst at the museum you might  be interested in the 78 rpm gramophone record of bell-ringing at St Denys Church, Warminster, 25^th February 1960, or the scrapbook donated by Barbara Norris containing details of local events, drama festivals, Women’s Institute and Girls Training Corps, compiled from 20^th February 1946 to 8^th June 1948. 'Read more' to find out which other Wiltshire museums have items associated with the month of February...

Comment (0) Read More...

Whilst the snow still lay on the ground I, and a couple of volunteers, made a trip out to the east of Wiltshire, almost on the Berkshire border, to Shalbourne. Our job this time was not to look at any listed buildings, but to scrutinize a couple of barns at Ropewind Farm on the Rivar Road.
Shalbourne is a quiet village mostly filled with neat, detached houses set back on leafy lanes. The agriculturalist Jethro Tull lived here at Prosperous Farm, but Shalbourne was also briefly the home of Karl Parson, a stained glass artist who was apprenticed to Christopher Whall, a leading light in the Arts & Crafts Movement. He helped Whall to illustrate Stained Glass Work (1905) and was involved in designs for Cape Town Cathedral (1908), Pretoria (1909-10) and for many churches in the USA. He later designed some of the stained glass in St Michael’s parish church in Shalbourne.

 
Ropewind Farm

Parsons came to live in Shalbourne between 1930 and 1933, setting up a studio at Ropewind Farm where he converted a mid-18^th century 3-bay barn, adding a large, porch-like window to let in natural light on the north side. He also incorporated a small granary on rather unusual brick and timber staddles into a larger purpose-built storage building and garage, giving access directly from Rivar Road. The house he lived in adjoined the site. He was forced to return to London through ill-health in 1933 and died there the following year. 'Read more' to find out about the farm's more recent history...

Comment (0) Read More...

After all the disruption caused by the recent snowfalls, here at the History Centre we were interested to find out how often similar events occurred in our County in the past.

We’ve all heard about the terrible winters of 1813/14 when the River Thames froze and frost fairs were held. Charlote Grove lived at Ferne House, in Donhead St. Mary, and began writing diaries at the age of 18. Her entry for January 11^th, 1814 states ‘It snowed very hard. Charles contrived to walk down to Mrs Cooke’s. January 20^th - ‘A very deep snow. The mail prevented from coming’. January 25^th – ‘I walked with my father to the sheep fold. The icicles on the hedge look like the most beautiful cut glass’.

Men digging out a locomotive stuck near Newton Tony, 1927
To find out about other snowy winters of the 19th century, please 'read more'.

Comment (0) Read More...

Hello, it’s Terry again. Further to my previous blog on notable animals in Wiltshire’s History, we now have a couple more vying for that top spot. First, and being a fan of the good old British moggy, I was pleased to have the Marlborough church cat brought to my attention. Yes, it is commemorated in stone, but it seems that it really did exist. Visitors to St Mary’s Church in Marlborough will be able to pick out the outline of a cat on the south porch. This corbel, dating to the fifteenth century, commemorates a church cat that saved her kittens from a fire. Perhaps the cat was originally employed to catch the church mice, but it goes into our top ten as our most heroic animal in Wiltshire’s history.


St Mary's Church, Marlborough

Also brought to my attention and no less deserving of our respect is the bear that was the inspiration for Winnie the Pooh.  During the Great War, 25,000 Canadian troops were stationed around Salisbury Plain 1915-16. Among their number were also four American black bears, mascots of the 2^nd Infantry Brigade, the Divisional Ammunition Park, the 2^nd Brigade and the 8^th and 10^th Batteries. When the Canadian troops left for France on 7^th June 1916, the bears were left behind in the care of the Zoological Society. From there they found their way to London Zoo.  One of the bears, named Winnie after its place of origin, Winnipeg, was brought from Canada by Lieutenant Harry Coleburn. Winnie remained at the Zoo until its death in 1934. There is some suggestion that this former Wiltshire four-legged resident inspired A A Milne to name his fictional bear after Winnie.  Winnie the Pooh was published in 1926.  However, later in their lives, neither Christopher Robin nor his father could remember the origin of the name. Despite this, there is a bronze statue of Winnie the Pooh with Lt. Coleburn, by Bill Epp, erected in 1992 behind the Reptile House of London Zoo. For this and being the most unlikely inspiration for a literary character that has brought pleasure to thousands of people and associated giftware (including an old cushion in my car and my wife’s old school pencil tin) Winnie goes straight to the top of our list …. Unless of course you know a more deserving animal…


The Canadian Tented Camp on Salisbury Plain


You can view a picture of the statue at London Zoo by visiting http://www.thegypsypoet.co.uk/poetry_for_children.html which also contains some lines of verse for Winnie the bear (please 'read more' to view):

Comment (0) Read More...

Many of the objects that come into the Conservation labs are from Wiltshire Museums.

This month conservators have been working on a glass sign belonging to Mere Museum. The sign, advertising ‘Attaboy Hats’, came to the labs in several pieces. The museum would like to put it on display as part of an exhibition about local industry in Mere.

The sign before repainting
To find out more please 'read more'...
 

Comment (0) Read More...

Documents in WSA suggest that the famous Time Lord may have spent time in Malmesbury in the mid 17^th century.

A Dr Qui [the Latin for who] is mentioned several times between 1657 and 1675, and was an important person in the town. He was described as a surgeon in his marriage licence bond, when aged 40 he took a bride aged 26 from Wroughton. In Easter 1673 he signed a letter filed in the Quarter Sessions records as Alderman (Mayor) of Malmesbury.

He was buried in Malmesbury abbey church yard 1675, and his will was proved in the following year. However as fans of the TV series know only too well the Doctor has been re-incarnated at least ten times so evidence of his death may well have been exaggerated.

Alderton deeds saved for Wiltshire
Although most of the archives placed in our care are deposited on loan or outright gift, we do purchase material of particular importance. In August we were alerted to sale of about 150 medieval deeds relating to the estates of the Gore family of Alderton, a small parish in North West Wiltshire. Unfortunately in order to maximise the vendor’s profit they were broken up into many separate lots. Principal archivist Claire Skinner spent a stressful but exciting morning bidding by telephone at an auction taking place in Norfolk, and managed to purchase about half of the lots (95 deeds) which covered the earliest documents. This was achieved by a combination of our own budget and generous contributions from the Friends of the National Libraries, and Wiltshire Family History Society.

Close-up of the earliest Alderton deed purchased in 2009 – reference 3815/1/1
Grant by William Lycame of Alderton (spelt Aldrynton here) to John Bovetoun and Christine his wife, of the rent of a grain of wheat for a tenement, dated 1332. The deed is in Latin, which was the language of the law until 1733.

Many of the deeds have seals attached which illustrate the craftsmanship and vitality of medieval small scale sculpture. A good example is the punning seal of William Gore which has a bull’s head between his initials. To find out more and see if you can help us with identifying a family and church in some photographs dating back to the 1950s please 'read more'...

Comment (0) Read More...

Our Wiltshire Community History website is one of the Local Studies section's ongoing projects to place a history of each Wiltshire parish online. One of the subjects looked into is that of Victorian schools. The establishment of schools in the parish is researched and, where Victorian school log books survive, they are looked at to give an account of school life. Also included are early surviving photographs or plans.


Wilton National School, early 20th century

Extract from the Community History entry for Lydiard Millicent:
The main subjects taught in Victorian schools are very similar to today, being reading, arithmetic, writing, grammar and geography. A large emphasis was also placed on scripture and religious education (often taken by the Reverend who visited frequently). In October 1872 the older children contributed and bought four scripture prints for the school. The girls were taught needlework and the boys drawing, and there was also dictation. Singing was important; the children learnt songs and did repetitions. Songs included ‘The Canadian Boat Song’, written by Thomas Moore following his year long trip to America, Bermuda and the West Indies. It was published in 1805 and begins:

 “Faintly as tolls the evening chime

  Our voices keep tune and our oars keep time... [Please 'read more']

Comment (0) Read More...