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Tags >> Francis Kilvert

The artist who became an inspiration in education...

Posted by: Blog Administrator on Aug 12, 2011

Art education and the funding for it have found its way into the press in recent months. As it so happens, a man who spent most of his life in North Wiltshire was pivotal to the development of art in education -  I’d like to tell you all a little about him here…

 

Robin Tanner was born on Easter Sunday, 1904, the third of six children. He spent his teenage years in Kington Langley, the birthplace of his mother.

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And a Wiltshire New Year to You!

Posted by: Blog Administrator on Jan 4, 2011

Tagged in: Wiltshire , William Henry Tucker , wedding , wages , Trowbridge , treat , trade unions , Swindon , Sunday school , snow storm , Sir Edward Bayntun , schoolmasters , schoolboys , reverends , railway accident , polka , plague , New Year’s Eve , New Year , Lords , Lord Methuen , locomotive superintendent , Langley House , Langley Burrell , Kington St. Michael , Keren Wood , John Couzens , Jeffery Whitaker , Jackson’s Lane , Isambard Kingdon Brunel , inhabitants , Herbert Spackman , GWR , Graham Awdry , gauge , gardener , Francis Kilvert , flooded , experiences , Edwad Awdry , diary , Daniel Gooch , dances , Corsham Court , Corsham , Commonplace Book , clothier , Bromham , Bristol , Bratton , Bella Dixon , ball , authors , architect

 As the New Year is now upon us, I thought to take a look at how some of our previous Wiltshire inhabitants spent their New Years’ Day by taking a look at their diary entries. The authors’ backgrounds range from lords to schoolboys, schoolmasters to reverends, and how different their experiences of New Year were…

 Advert from the Wiltshire Times, 1st January, 1910, p.7

Advert from the Wiltshire Times, 1st January, 1910, p.7

It was the plague that was the main concern at the beginning of January in 1666 when Sir Edward Bayntun of Bromham noted in his Commonplace Book on January 6th  :




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A Wiltshire Christmas Past

Posted by: Blog Administrator on Dec 18, 2009

Tagged in: ‘Wassail’ Harvey , www.wiltshire.gov.uk/community/folk_play_search.ph , with Christmas carols , Wiltshire Community History , Wiltshire , We Wish You a Merry Christmas , wassailing , wassail bowl , villagers , verses , Thomas Ernle , The Britford First Carol , Tha Girt Big Figgetty Pooden , stories , spiced ale , songs , skating , seasonal decorations , school , Sarum Missal , sang , Salisbury Cathedral , rural Wiltshire , Rector , Rector , punch , poems , poems , plays , performed , New Year , mumming , mummers’plays , Monkton Park Community Primary School , minor gentry , Medieval , Limpley Stoke , late night parties , John Chandler , John Britton , John Aubrey , History Centre , heathenish custom , games , Francis Kilvert , folk tradition , Folk Arts , fertility ceremony , Felicity Gilmour , farm labourer , Everley , Evening Prayer , Edward Slow , dialect , dancing , crops , Cricklade , clergy , church , Christmas masses , Christmas Festivities , Christmas Eve , Christmas Day , Christmas , Chris Wildridge , celebrations , butcher’s meat , Britford , boy bishop , Boar’s Head , animals , Alfred Williams , Ales , A.G. Street , A. Lemoine , A Wiltshire Christmas , .Civil War

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
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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