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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Hello - my name is Rachel and I am the Administrator for Heritage Services. When the History Centre was opened we were set the target of attracting 20,000 visitors in 2008/9. This challenging target was based on previous visitor numbers to the various Heritage Services, previously  in different locations around the county.

Folk Arts Launch  

We are delighted to report that not only did we reach the target, we exceeded it with 20,206 visitors recorded from April 1 2008 - March 31 2009. This is a fantastic achievement and offers an opportunity to share some details of our success. 

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