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']

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In October 2009 Castle Combe Museum was awarded Accredited status by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council.

This is an excellent achievement for the volunteers who run the museum and means they are meeting nationally agreed standards for how a good museum should be operated. This is the same standard that all museums across the country work to so is a great success for Castle Combe. To continue, please 'read more'...

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We have just been entertained by the children of our local school, Monkton Park Community Primary School, with Christmas carols and songs for History Centre staff and users. They ended with We Wish You a Merry Christmas and we would like to wish all of you a Merry Christmas and a Peaceful New Year. That set me thinking about earlier Christmas times in our county.

            
Adverts in Wiltshire Newpapers, 1909

For glimpses of Christmases past in Wiltshire you need to look in the writings of Francis Kilvert, Alfred Williams and A.G. Street. In Kilvert you will find the entertainments and activities of the clergy and minor gentry – dancing and games, late night parties, skating, and seasonal decorations in the church. Williams presents us with a view of the farm labourer’s Christmas while Street provides a mixture of famers’ and farm workers’ celebrations. To find out more please 'read more'...

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Just recently I have been called to Cricklade, a lovely old Cotswold town north-east of Swindon. This Saxon walled town is situated at the highest navigable point of the Thames where it is crossed by Ermin Street. Its town crest bears the Latin words ‘in loco delicioso’ meaning ‘in a delightful place’.

We came to look at what might be one of the oldest houses in the High Street. From the rendered front, there is no indication at all that the interior hides an ancient blackened cruck timber frame. 

The Cruck Truss

In fact, the façade is much as you would expect an early Victorian shop front to look – old multi-paned bay windows with thick moulded glazing bars. As soon as you open the front door you stare down a dark, narrow passage straight through to the old planked back door hung on heavy pintle hinges. To the left is a step down to the old, originally unheated parlour. In the end wall is a heavy beam – a mid-rail - which divided the framing into upper and lower panels, now replaced in stone. The upper room, traditionally the hall or parlour end, was reached by going back into the passage, going to the back and around the massive stone stack that was inserted c1600.  Once in the hall the massive weight of an over-engineered ceiling is the first thing you notice. When the old open hall was improved with the addition of a proper chimney stack, floors were inserted, using the chimney breast as a support for one end of the ceiling beam – a typical arrangement for this kind of modification. To go upstairs a neat little winder stair was tucked in between the chimney stack and the outside wall, very steep and precipitous! You wonder how they ever got the furniture up there!

Upstairs, the room over the old hall has had its ceiling removed to show off the impressive double-arched braced jointed cruck truss which would originally have been seen from the ground. From inspecting the timber framing closely it is apparent that there was another separate timber framed house next to it, though you would never know this as the building there now is entirely of stone. To find out more please click on 'read more'.

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Here on the helpdesk at the History Centre we offer help to many of our visitors who are either unsure of using the census online or are having problems tracing their ancestors when using it.



The Helpdesk

During our many hours spent giving help and guidance we have spotted a few common problems encountered by our visitors. We thought it would be good to share our knowledge with those of you who may also be experiencing difficulties. Hopefully some of the tips will be useful and give you some fresh ideas, encourage you to keep looking and with luck, maybe even solve those tricky problems once and for all!

Why are only half my family on the census page?

The household will continue on the next page. Click on the ‘Next’ icon at the top of the screen and the next page will be shown.

 
Why can’t I find my ancestor on a particular census?

Sometimes names have been transcribed incorrectly. Try using the names of other family members or cutting down the amount of information used on the search page, for instance just putting the county down under residence or putting no residence and just using the place of birth if you know it. The description of the head of the household may be misleading; the true head may have been absent on the night the census was taken. If the wife is classed as ‘married’ rather than ‘widow’, then this is probably the case. Read on to find out more...

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A genuine thank you to everyone who sent us their comments; many apologies again for being unable to post them sooner. You were all right about object number one and we did get a correct answer for object number three too, so congratualtions and well done! Here are the answers:

Number 1 is a gunpowder flask from Cricklade Museum. Dating from the early 19th century this once belonged to Joseph Neeld and would have been used to prime a pistol with powder ready to fire. Joseph Neeld was MP for Chippenham from 1830 to 1856.

 
The Gunpowder Flask
Please 'read more' to find out about the other two objects...

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Hello, I am Terry Bracher, Archives and Local Studies Manager here at the History Centre.  Browsing through part of photographic collection I came across a photo of elephants bathing in the River Avon in Chippenham town centre in 1906. The elephants were part of a travelling circus and the Avon at Chippenham clearly provided a welcome break for the elephants as they walked to the venue for their next performance. Now I have always had an interest in historical curiosities and this led me to ask colleagues if they had come across any other curious animal related tales throughout Wiltshire, with the aim of creating our top ten animal tales, so long as they followed a simple rule - the animals could not be farm animals (unless they did something especially curious) and they had to have been see alive and well at some point in Wiltshire’s history.

The Elephants in Chippenham, 1906

But let’s start with animals that do not count. I would have liked to include the dancing bears of Lacock. They were a familiar site in the nineteenth century, being led into the village along with musicians and other entertainers. Looking through the book “Chippenham and Lacock in Old Photographs” I was astonished to see a picture of a dancing bear in the late 1930’s. Sadly, on closer inspection this was a photo of the 1938 pageant with a Mr Bob Vines in convincing pose playing the part of the bear, together with his “handler” his brother Eric Vines. This could be a whole new category in itself. 'Read more' to find out about some dramatic events involving animals in Wiltshire....

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For a school trip to the First World War battle fields in Northern France and Belgium, we had to research a Swindon soldier from the war. We visited the History Centre with the school on a Monday; they kindly opened it for us so we could have the place to ourselves with the full attention of their expert staff who were extremely helpful (we would have found it very difficult if not for them!). Our soldier, Albert Cook, was a worker in the GWR works. His parents were from a small village called Clyffe Pypard and his mother died when he was six. Although he is no relation to us, neither famous nor very important, from all the hours of hard work and visiting his grave we now feel like we’ve known him all our lives.


Using original archival material at the History Centre

Since we didn’t get enough information on the first visit to the centre and we were too tight to pay for an account on ancestry.co.uk, we decided to go back to the centre where it’s free and more fun. We took the train down and were surprised the staff could remember us and our problems with our research we had the first time we visited. They showed us round again and helped us with the computers. The other people visiting that day were also very helpful and friendly; they showed us some great websites and how to get around on them.

From this visit we solved most of our previous mysteries but aroused some others, we found he had a sister who had disappeared when he was in his toddler years and we still didn’t know how his mother died. We decided to go again the next day; it’s so fun and interesting. We cleared all but a few of our problems, these few were not solvable because no records existed that would have held the data we wanted.

The trip was amazing, it seemed the soldiers of the First World War are the most remembered in Europe and they are never going to be forgotten. Their graves are still tended to like they died yesterday and schools from many different countries visit the cemeteries. When we sat by Albert’s grave we both had tears in our eyes. This was the reason why we came, to sit by the grave side of a person we felt we knew so well. If not for the centre and its bursting information of the past we wouldn’t have felt anywhere near like we did. Thank you Swindon and Wiltshire History Centre!

Emily Kellett and Charlotte Manser
Commonweal School, Swindon

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