Wiltshire was largely ignored by the 19^th century collectors of folk songs and it was left to a South Marston man, Alfred Williams, the hammerman poet of Swindon Railway Works. He was self educated, fluent in several languages, translated poetry from Asiatic languages and published several books, despite remaining a poor working man all his life. Between 1914 and 1916, owing to poor health he collected 600 songs from people in the Upper Thames Valley before joining the Royal Field Artillery.

 
Illustration of Score (truly local carol)

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Just lately the Wiltshire Buildings Record seems to have got involved in some big projects. Our latest commission in Salisbury is just such a one. Salisbury city centre is laid out in a grid pattern, all in one go, known as the Chequers. This ancient layout dates from around 1220, when work on St Mary’s Cathedral began. Each chequer has its own colourfully quaint name. Three Swans chequer and Three cups chequer stand side by side above Antelope chequer. Our present project is in Blue Boar Chequer, to the north of the market place.

One of the buildings in the Blue Boar Chequer

Imagine how excited we got, being given the chance to penetrate the interior of one of these historic chequers! As we amble along the myriad streets of Salisbury all we normally get to see are the shop fronts lining the edges, or modern interior shop fittings, and sometimes the historic fabric of the buildings, warts and all, where this has been kept and subsequently exposed in the current trend for nostalgia.

Lloyd’s Chemist is next to Debenham’s, and is sited on the south side of the Chequer, facing the Market Place. This tall, smart building was constructed in about 1740, no doubt replacing an older, timber-framed one, and contains a grand staircase, panelled walls and old fireplaces, none of which you can see from the shop. The front of the building was modernised in the later 19^th century, and the ground floor shop front in the middle of the 20^th century. To find out about the fascinating documents discovered within the buildings, please 'read more'...

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2010 is a significant year for several of Wiltshire’s museums, as they celebrate anniversaries of one sort or another.

To give you a reminder of some of the fantastic museums and collections on our doorstep here in Wiltshire, here is a rundown of the 2010 celebrations:

 
Medieval chess piece
Salisbury & South Wiltshire Museum

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I thought it may be of interest to take a look on your behalf at the kind of original documents visitors order out when they visit our search rooms, to give you an idea of the wide range of requests we receive for documents each day. I chose a day last week at random, and got peeking!

 
Pattern Book, Ref: 947/1802

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