The Festival of British Archaeology is a nationwide, annual event that aims to promote archaeology. It has been running for twenty years, and has evolved from a single day to two whole weeks. As in previous years the Wiltshire Archaeology Service are actively involved and this year we will be doing not one but two exciting days out. Both events are free!

Aerial view of Barbury Castle

The first event is an exciting guided walk around Barbury Castle followed by a walk down the Ridgeway (approximately 2.6 km) to see some of the amazing prehistoric features of the Marlborough Downs. Barbury Castle is an impressive Iron Age Hillfort with enormous ramparts that overlooks Wroughton, Swindon and the surrounding countryside. David Vaughan, Assistant County Archaeologist will be leading this walk at 2pm on Saturday 31^st July. To book your place or to find out more information see the contact details below via 'read more'.

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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'.

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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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Our regular users will know that in a previous entry we posted a German aerial photograph with plans to target the Westinghouse site in Chippenham during WWII. For those of you who are interested, one of our viewers has been able to translate the text for us:

For official use only

Picture No. F.88.7b/40-038 (? 3)

Taken on 18/09/40
Chippenham[Please 'read more' to see the complete translation....]

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We have recently acquired an original German reconnaissance aerial photograph from 1941. It focused on the Westinghouse site in Chippenham and detailed their plans to bomb it. Read on to find out more......

German Aerial Photograph of Chippenham, 1941, Showing Westinghouse as the Target

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Although the majority of the records I am dealing with are from after 1974 (when the District Councils were set up), whilst trawling through the boxes and filing cabinets I also sometimes find earlier items.

The map shown above came from the legal section of the former North Wiltshire District Council. It shows Chippenham in 1820. The burgage plots (the long, thin areas of land associated with some of the buildings) are shown and each of the buildings has a key number. The index at the side lists the tenants of each of the numbered buildings. Chippenham was incorporated as a Borough in the 16^th century, and so it is likely that many of the burgage plot boundaries were established before this date.

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Hi there I'm Dorothy Treasure and I'm the Building Recorder for Wiltshire County Council.  

It's funny how you think you get to know a place like Chippenham and then it surprises you. I was asked to look at the Rose and Crown pub in the town centre the other day with Mike Stone, curator of Chippenham Museum. This very fine hostelry has recently changed hands and the new owner, Dave Purton, was keen to find out as much as possible about the historic fabric. It dates from the 14^th or 15^th centuries and was originally timber-framed in a very ancient way using crucks - a form not seen in Wiltshire after about 1500. I wasn't expecting to do more than explore the ground and first floors so was dressed in my usual office garb of dress and best coat. I hadn't reckoned on Dave's intrepidity! Mike and I were persuaded to climb through a tiny loft opening to investigate. A good many years had passed since the last gymnast had navigated the timbers of that ancient roof and the dust had settled pretty thickly.

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