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Christmas Recipes

Posted by: Blog Administrator on Dec 17, 2011

As this is the time of year that we are allowed to ‘eat, drink and be merry’, here we take a look at some culinary delights...!


 

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Taken from theWiltshire Times,
13th December, 1930 

Tim Woodman compiled a collection of old recipes and remedies in 1988, taken from around Wiltshire over the previous 25 years. Most have been handed down through generations.






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Sally In The Wood

Posted by: Blog Administrator on Nov 12, 2010

Tagged in: woods , Wood , witch , Wiltshire , Warleigh Manor , Waller , victim , turnpike , The Reflection in the Pond , The Haunted Landscape , tale , supernatural , Somerset , skirmish , Sir Charles Hobhouse , Simone Brightste , Shaftesbury , Sarah Gibson , Sally King’s Lane , Sally in the Wood , Sally , Royalists , Roundheads , road accident , road , parish , origins , nature , murdered , memories , Maggie Dobson , Katy Jordan , Kathleen Wiltshire , Justice of the Peace , John Chandler , imprisoned , Home Wood.Monkton Farleigh , Henry Duncan Skrine , ghost , gamekeeper , evicted , enquiry , enemy , Dorset , Deputy Lieutenant of Somerset , dead man wood , Claverton , Civil War , Brown’s Folly , border , book , Battle of Lansdown , Bathford , Batheaston , baptised , Avon , ambushed , A363

 We recently had an enquiry regarding the origins of the road Sally In The Wood, which can in fact be found just over the border in the parish of Bathford, Somerset. It forms a section of the A363 as it journeys through Home Wood towards Bathford.


The explanations of the road name are both varied and intriguing, and as they are also closely related to the parish of Monkton Farleigh in Wiltshire, I thought I’d share them with you.

 OS 1st edition, 1887, Ref: 32/5
OS 1st edition, 1887, Ref: 32/5
Warleigh Manor can be seen in the top left corner, with the road Sally in the Wood running through Home Wood immediately to the right of the Manor.

John Chandler in his book ‘The Reflection in the Pond’, gives us three versions of the tale. The first is of a supernatural nature, and was published by Kathleen Wiltshire in 1984. It tells the story of a young couple who knocked down a girl dressed in white when she ran from trees across the road in front of their car. Another version, this time by Maggie Dobson and Simone Brightstein relate that Sally was murdered in the woods or imprisoned in nearby Brown’s Folly, or that she was an actual road accident victim. Interestingly, the name of the small section of woodland immediately below Home Wood is called 'Dead Man Wood'. Katy Jordan in her book ‘The Haunted Landscape’ mentions that Sally in the Woods does have the reputation of being an eerie place, where ‘no birds sing’, so you never know...
To find out more about the other versions of the tale, please 'read more'.







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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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