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...!

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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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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Following on from our glimpse into Victorian school life, school today seems so different to the experience of Victorian pupils. Computers, interactive white boards and televisions would certainly seem as foreign to those children as slates and dipping pens would to today’s students. However, a recent trawl through the delightful school log book collection for extracts to show teachers also found some things in common.  All the teachers agreed that whether it was bad weather, uniform, behaviour in class or the challenges of teaching maths and English, parts of school life from 140 years ago seemed very familiar.

 
Swallowcliffe Schoolchildren

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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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You can learn a lot just by walking around a village, thinking about how it evolved and picking up clues from remains on the ground and in buildings. If you looked at both old and new maps before your walk you’ll make even more deductions. Most of our Wiltshire villages date from Saxon times, although some are on earlier settlements; again most have Saxon names and the study of street and field names can also be very rewarding. (see The Place-names of Wiltshire by J.E.B. Gover, 1939; and English Field Names by the appropriately named John Field, 1989)

On 18^th March at 2.15 the History Centre afternoon lecture will be Looking at Villages with Michael Marshman, who will talk about some of the skills that help you to become a landscape detective. Apart from his day job at the History Centre Michael has been writing the Village Life articles for Wiltshire Life for the last eight years! Some tickets are still available (Tel. 01249 705500).


Lacock [F0018] A 15^th century cruck building showing where the roof was later raised to allow the insertion of an upper floor.
 
All our villages are different and can be one of a number of types apart from the nucleated, linear or agglomerated that we may remember from geography lessons. Some villages, such as Shrewton, can be several medieval villages that have grown into one; these are known as polyfocal villages but others, such as Inglesham, may have shrunk and be much smaller than they were in earlier times. In others, like West Ashton, a landowner has cleared the original village from the proximity of his manor house and rebuilt it further away.

 
Steeple Ashton [F0045] The village green contains the market cross of 1679, when an attempt was made to revive the market, and the blind house (lock up) of 1773. Indications of the market site and of the hundred court of Whorwellsdown
To find out more, please '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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To most of us the pub has been a permanent feature of our landscape - many of us have navigated by using them as points of reference. They are a part of community history and often the pub, or its name on a variety of buildings has been in the town or village for a couple of centuries or more. The George Inn at Lacock (pictured below) has a 16^th century core and there was a George Inn here in 1361.

The George Inn at Lacock

A chequerboard can be found on the Methuen Arms at Corsham. This sign has ancient origins, being used by the Romans, but here it might have shown either that draughts or backgammon was played or that the innkeeper also acted as a money changer. This inn was known as the Red Lion when it was set up in the 17^th century it survived an early order for its suppression by magistrates.

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