Did you know that pubs are closing at the rate of 12 a week? WBR has surveyed many pubs that have closed: The Tollgate Inn and The Barley Mow in Salisbury alone. Its not that we modern Brits have gone off drinking: the smoking ban and cheap booze sold by supermarkets have sounded the death knell. And so it has been for the Rodbourne Arms in Swindon, our latest job.

The Rodbourne Arms

It is interesting to find that when Swindon’s suburbs were growing there was a need perceived for a drinking place in Haydon Wick on the north side of Swindon. Although no reference has been found to the planning application which must have preceded the building of the pub, it would appear to have been built around 1903, since, on 11^th February 1904, the Justice Minutes’ Book recorded the application of Andrew James Lydford for an alehouse license for the Rodbourne Arms Hotel. He met considerable opposition from the formidable Temperance Movement, in the guise of The Swindon & District Temperance Council, the Free United Church, the British Women’s Temperance Association, and the G.W.R. Temperance Union.

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 In the centre of Devizes is an unassuming building, not very different from those red-brick houses flanking it. It has large, airy two-by-two pane sashes with typical segmental arches which contain a shaped keystone. Behind the net curtains can be glimpsed a cosy living room, and a pretty garden beyond. This is The Grange and it was once the old Devizes jail, or bridewell, in Bridewell Street.

 The Old Bridewell, Devizes

The Bridewell started life in 1579 as a timber-framed building in the street which now bears its name. It was established after the opening of the Bridewell prison in London in 1556 as a new type of prison to deal with the growing numbers of those regarded as rogues and vagabonds or the idle poor. This example had been followed in Oxford in 1562, Salisbury in 1564 and Norwich in 1565. It was burnt down twice and rebuilt: after a fire in 1619 and another more serious fire in 1630, but still in timber, much of which survives today.

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A few weeks ago I visited this small village with Dr Alex Craven, who is researching it for the latest volume of the Victoria County History. I was invited along in my capacity of building archaeologist. The village is found just off the A30 Shaftesbury to Salisbury road. Blink and you miss it. It was obviously once a much more bustling community; Alex found that instead of one long village street with a couple of lanes off, there were once parallel streets. The street near Compton House was removed for the convenience of the Penruddockes, Lords of the Manor, to improve the view! Since then it has lost its pub (the King’s Elm) and latterly the village shop. Silence now reigns, punctuated only by the muted sound of passing traffic from the main road and sheep bleating. It could be oppressive to the average townie, or heaven, depending on your persuasion.

 
The Cemetery in Compton, which contains the graves of a number of ANZAC troops who died of influenza in 1919. 


Look down the street towards the church and the manor, which lie close together secretively behind high walls, and you will see quaint little houses of the local greensand covered in thatch, or a later replacement for it. A steep bank on one side lours over the street, and green wooded hills on the far side of the pleasure grounds to Compton House add to the sense of seclusion. The interiors of some of the houses that the owners kindly granted access to were fascinating: Combe House dating from the later 17^th century retained an original stair, an insanely steep, tortuous thing winding around a central newel post and rising to the attics. Climbing on all fours is the natural mode of ascent, a fact that the present owners, now into their retirement, no longer find attractive. Well Cottage is dominated by a large hearth taking up almost one entire wall. Now arranged with flowers, knick-knacks and pictures, the heat and light from the fire would once have been an important focus for the household. The present modern kitchen is now tucked away at the rear of the house, in a lean-to. Time moves on, even in sleepy Compton Chamberlayne, but the absence of many of the sounds of civilisation contribute more to the feeling of timelessness than more ostentatiously ancient places like Lacock, with its hordes of tourists.

Dorothy Treasure

To view additional images of Compton Chamberlayne, please go to:

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This week I was asked to look at King John’s hunting lodge in Lacock. As might be expected from its position next to St Cyriac’s Church this rather unprepossessing building, now a tea-room, was likely to be a building of some importance. Documentary research so far has been unsuccessful in establishing the early history, so it is not known for certain whether King John enjoyed forays into the forest of Melksham from this spot. Lacock was only a small settlement when the Conqueror took his Domesday survey. The village seen today is supposed to have been planted or planned by Ela, the first Abbess of Lacock, which itself was situated at this previous settlement.

 
The Hunting Lodge

The front of the lodge building is of earlier 18^th century appearance in a comfortable, cottagey style, having a rubblestone construction with stone mullioned windows. The upper floor windows peep forwards from a deep tiled roof. The proprietor, Mrs Vaughan, lives in the Lodge and keeps her tea-room in the old stable at the rear. The stable itself is 19^th century in date but the lodge holds all the early interest. A heavy timber cross-frame seen in the entrance hall is all that is left of 13^th century two-storeyed timber building. One pointed-arched doorway of a group of 4 remains today. It must have once led into a now-vanished buttery or pantry, with the upper pair of doorways leading into bed-chambers or solar. The ground level has also since risen so one can imagine mediaeval ghosts passing through the doorway up to their knees in concrete, perhaps dragging a deer carcase into the larder. Please 'read more'...

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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...

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