WSHC blog

Wiltshire and Black History

Posted by: Blog Administrator on Apr 23, 2009

Tagged in: York , Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre , Wilts Rgt of Militia , Wilton House , Westminster , West Africa , trumpeter , The Wiltshire Black History Project , slave trade , Shakespeare , Septimus Severus , SEE ME , Sarum , Salisbury Journal , royal courts , Roxburgh , Roman Emperor , Roman , Robert Pearson , privateers , Pedro Negro , parish register , parish of St Paul , oral testimonies African-Caribbean , Numerus Maurorum Aurelianorum , Moors , mineral Ethiopia , marriages , Marlborough , Maria Mandula , Libya , Leonora Casey Carr , knighted , John Hawkins , John Blanke , inter-generational , Henry VIII , Hadrian’s Wall , Guinea coast , Great Tournament Roll , gravestone , George Sydown , Footman , engraving , Elizabeth I , East Tytherton Moravian Graveyard Restoration Proj , duke of Somerset , Drummer , community history project , Catherine of Aragon , Calne Parish Register , burials , British Black History , Black History , Antiguan ‘Mostee’ , Africa , aethiops , advertisement , adult baptisms

Hello, I am Terry, Archives and Local Studies Manager. In my last blog I wrote about a document from the English Civil War, a particular interest of mine. Recently, a researcher at the History Centre gave me a reference to an entry in a parish register that relates to another interest of mine, that is British Black History. It was from the Calne Parish Register of burials and dated 10th December 1586 and notes the burial of “Maria Mandula advena et aethiops (stranger and AEthiops).”  Is this the earliest reference to a Black person in Wiltshire?

Comment (0) Read More...

Hidden gems in a Winterbourne Dauntsey attic

Posted by: Blog Administrator on Apr 20, 2009

The last time I posted my blog I was exclaiming over a hidden gem here in the heart of Chippenham – a wonderful, possibly 14th century roof hidden away for many years and only recently brought to light. This time I have to say I’ve found another one in similar circumstances! A change of ownership of a cottage in Winterbourne Dauntsey near Salisbury necessitated a thorough going over by the various prodders and pokers of old buildings such as surveyors and architects. They broke through the ceiling to find a fragment of unique roof carpentry type hitherto unrecorded by us in Wiltshire and that is saying something, considering we have records of over 14,000 buildings! It is a two-tier cruck (the Rose and Crown used a single cruck) with the blades crossed over at the very top so that the top-most longitudinal timber, the ridge purlin, sat snugly in the angle. I had an enthusiastic student balancing precariously on some joists in amongst the soot-blackened thatch to draw it up this time so I didn’t look like Worzel Gummidge at the end of it. The roof would make a great candidate for our dendrochronology (tree-ring dating) project if we could see past the soot to make sure it’s of oak – the only timber that can be securely dated so far. If you want to see famous two-tier cruck roofs on a grand scale then visit the tithe barns at Glastonbury Abbey and Bradford-on-Avon. These roofs were chosen because they were the mediaeval answer to spanning wide buildings.

 The unique apex cruck with crossed bladesThe unique apex cruck with crossed blades

The cottage was magically unspoilt – something that happens when a person lives in a house for so long they get used to it and never change it, or get too old to be bothered. In this case the interior survived the mania for flush-panelled doors and double glazing in the 20th century and kept its old planked doors hung on blacksmith-wrought iron strap hinges, and iron window casements as well as a host of other details normally swept away in the name of modernisation.

Comment (1) Read More...

4,000 Wiltshire Images On Line

Posted by: Blog Administrator on Apr 9, 2009

 

This month Wiltshire Community History, http://history.wiltshire.gov.uk/community/passed the 4,000 mark in new and old photographs and old maps of Wiltshire. Photographs represent all the completed communities that now have specially written brief histories, histories of churches, chapels and schools, booklists and other useful information. All recent photographs are geo-tagged and the building or site can be identified on an accompanying aerial photograph.

 The 11th century font from the Church of All Saints, Winterbourne GunnerThe 11th century font that is still in use in the Church of All Saints at Winterbourne Gunner

Comment (0) Read More...

500th Anniversary of Henry VIII

Posted by: Blog Administrator on Apr 7, 2009

2009 marks the 500th anniversary of the accession to the throne of King Henry VIII. The future king was the second son of Henry VII, born at Greenwich on 28 June 1491. He acceded to the throne on 21 April 1509, following his father’s death. Henry’s reign saw the dissolution of the monasteries and the establishment of the Church of England, as well as wars against France and Scotland. However, he is perhaps most famous for his private life – school children down the ages have learnt the little rhyme “Divorced, beheaded, died; divorced, beheaded, survived” to try to remember the fate of Henry’s six wives.  
Deeds of properties given to Jane Seymour by Henry VIII 
Deeds of properties given to Jane Seymour by Henry VIII
    
Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre holds several documents relating to Henry’s third marriage to Jane Seymour. Henry became engaged to Jane, who was already his mistress, a mere one day after the execution of Queen Anne Boleyn on 19 May 1536. Jane Seymour was the daughter of Sir John Seymour of Wolfhall in Great Bedwyn, Wiltshire: the couple were married there on 30 May 1536. Henry gave his new queen a large number of estates and manors by way of a settlement. These three documents, (see above image), from the archives of the duke of Somerset in the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre, are the title deeds to the properties.
Close up of deeds of properties given to Jane Seymour by Henry VIII
Close up of deeds of properties given to Jane Seymour by Henry VIII
Although they lack their seals, which have been detached and lost, they each have a portrait of Henry and lavishly decorated initial lines. In 1537 Jane died in childbirth, giving birth to Henry’s only son, who later became King Edward VI. It is widely accepted that Jane was Henry’s favourite wife - after her death the court went into an extended period of mourning, and Henry was buried next to her after his own death in 1547. 


Comment (0)