I feel I can safely say that almost no town, village or hamlet in the county has been untouched by fire at some point during its history. It must have been an ever-present fear for every community; all that was needed was one little spark. Barns and hayricks were often to be found in the proximity of dwellings, and fire could quickly spread…

 
Ramsbury Fire Brigade attending a house fire in Oxford Street, Ramsbury, early 20th century
Ref: P6106

All houses were constructed of flammable materials, with thatch roofs being particularly vulnerable. When added to this the presence of naked flames, it presented a high degree of risk to person, property and livelihood.

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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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In one of my earlier blogs I had the pleasure of writing about our research into Black History in Wiltshire. I mentioned at the time that we were working with local communities and other partners to create the SEEME Wiltshire Black History Project. I am pleased to say that this hard work has paid off and we have been awarded a grant of £39,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund as part of a total of £56,000 we and our partners have raised to run an Oral History Project relating to Wiltshire BME communities.

 
This exciting project will help us to record, transcribe and archive the personal testimonies of elders within the community before they are lost to us. In addition, we will be providing family activities, including performance through drama and music, and animation video in response to those testimonies; creating educational resources and engaging young people with elders; publishing a calendar and a mobile exhibition. The aim is to create a project that is managed by the local community, with opportunities to volunteer and participate in all activies, in partnership with Wiltshire Council, the Salisbury Playhouse and the Wiltshire Music Centre. We are also grateful to Westlea Housing who provided an initial £3,000 to run a pilot project and get the partnership off the ground.

 Baptism entry for ‘Gilbert, son of John Keen, Niger, Yeoman and of Frances his wife.’

We also hope to continue to research the early Black presence in Wiltshire and I am grateful to colleagues and researchers at the History Centre who continue to provide some wonderful examples. Readers may recall that last time I wrote about Maria Mandula ‘Stranger and Aethiops’ buried in Calne, 1586, as perhaps our earliest written reference to a Black person in Wiltshire. My new favourite entry in our records relates to the parish registers of Minety, brought to my attention by our colleague Steve Hobbs. It is for 1708 and relates to a baptism of ‘Gilbert, son of John Keen, Niger, Yeoman and of Frances his wife.’ This is exciting because the majority of the Black people we find in parish registers in Wiltshire at this time were servants / slaves or former slaves for the aristocracy and gentry. Either way, most were not considered to be free. During this period it is estimated that there was a Black population of around 20,000 in London alone, and evidence from provincial counties such as Wiltshire help us to widen the picture. This was a period where Britain had truly established itself as a major player in the slave trade. But here, in Minety, not only do we have a Black person who is a relatively wealthy farmer, who was free, but clearly had been established in the community long enough to be married and have a child. Any further information on John Keen and the Keen family would be most welcome. We continue to collate references to Black people in Wiltshire, notably between 1600’s - 1800’s, so do keep the references coming as we build a picture of our county that has seen constant movement of people and historically more diverse than you might think. To find out more, please 'read more'...

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When you think of a county record office or archive service, the chances are you think of family history, and sources such as parish records, in particular baptisms, marriages and burials. Alternatively, you may think in terms of bundles of parchment documents covered in spidery handwriting (but no dust, I hope!) I have to admit we do hold large quantities of these sorts of archives, normally bundles of title deeds or manorial records, which often come in either from families or solicitors’ firms. It is less common for people to associate the county archives with the records of individual societies and organisations, and yet these are also important for the history of the county and make up a sizeable, and significant, part of our holdings. Societies and organisations represent communities which are often linked by common interests as well as location.  It is important to preserve records of those links for future generations to understand what mattered to their ancestors, and to appreciate them as three-dimensional people, not just a set of names in a family tree.

One of the organisations which regularly pass on their archives is the Women’s Institute, and in October we were delighted to receive records from the earliest Women’s Institute in the county, namely Downton and Redlynch. These include a complete set of minutes back to 1916, several scrapbooks with photographs and newspaper cuttings concerning local events, and an unusual record of jam-making during the Second World War. The records are in the process of being catalogued and will then be available for research. The W.I. is clearly far more than ‘jam and Jerusalem’ and the records of individual institutes reveal its evolution into the varied and wide-ranging organisation it is today. Please 'read more' to find out about another organisation that has renewed its commitment to preserving its records at the History centre...

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I was recently using the school log books of Heywood for our ongoing Community History project (http://history.wiltshire.gov.uk/community/) and found that the earliest log books we held for the school were from 1938. It is unusual for us to took at the log books for this period, and I discovered that they gave an interesting insight into the lives of rural schoolchildren (including the evacuees) during wartime.

 
Evacuees from Portsmouth in Kilmington, 1939.
Ref: P32983

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It is always hard to single out any particular collection as a favourite, but some are obviously outstanding due to the sheer scope and variety of their contents. One of the great treasures at Wiltshire and Swindon Archives is the archive of the Earls of Radnor, of Longford Castle, near Salisbury in Wiltshire. Part of the archive is an uncatalogued collection referenced 1946, which has recently been added to thanks to a very generous loan of archive material from the current Earl. This is the subject of a bid for funding to enable us to catalogue and make this fascinating archive more accessible to everyone.

This autograph letter of Elizabeth I forms part of the collection

The uncatalogued archives of the Earls of Radnor in collection 1946 supplement the earlier deposit 490 (see: www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/a2a). The material in 490 contained mainly estate material, and 1946 also includes some manorial and other estate records which will be of enormous importance for local history and will benefit the continuing production of the Victoria County History of Wiltshire. Importantly, however, 1946 broadens the scope of 490, as it also contains a lot of unique material relating to the building, maintenance and governance of Longford Castle and its household, which will be of great interest to anyone researching either the house or its contents, including its famous art collection. The records also include family and personal material. However, the records do not just shed light on nobility but will also be of interest to family historians wanting to find out about ancestors who were involved with the Radnor family. The records include wage books and accounts for both household servants and agricultural labourers, dating back to the early 19th century. Please 'read more' to find out which other interesting documents can be found in the collection...

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After the success of the local(ish) Amy Williams and the continued determination and perseverance from Pewsey’s 2006 silver medal winner Shelley Rudman in this year’s Winter Olympics, I thought I would bring to light another of Wiltshire’s pioneering sportswomen. Fanny Williams played for Swindon Town ladies football team in the 1920s. Ladies football developed during World War I when the employees of munitions factories formed teams to play each other. The Football Association banned ladies football on their grounds but the English Ladies Football Association was formed in 1921. A national Challenge Cup competition was begun in 1925. Fanny’s boots are kept at the Swindon Museum and Art Gallery.

Wiltshire can also be said to possess famous athletics stars of the past. Purton produced a famous athlete in James Kibblewhite, born in 1866.

James Kiblewhite running for Spartan Harriers in the two mile NCAA Championship, Manchester, 1890 Ref: P18380 Wiltshire Historic Photographic Collection, reproduced with kind permission from Purton Museum 

He began his athletics career in 1884 and enjoyed great success for over 10 years. In 1890 he was selected to run in London in front of King Edward and Queen Alexandra (then the Prince and Princess of Wales). He won many medals but one of his greatest achievements was breaking the three mile English Record and World Record in London. He was employed by the GWR works in Swindon by 1916 and had a son who was also a promising athlete.  Purton Museum holds many items of memorabilia relating to James Kibblewhite, including trophies, medals, gold chain and watch, and newspaper cuttings of his career which are well worth having a look at.

James Kibblewhite with his trophies
Ref: P18381Wiltshire Historic Photographic Collection, reproduced with kind permission from Purton Museum 
Please 'read more' to find out which town two of Wiltshire's famous cricketers played for...

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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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As the year moves on we are preparing to undertake a major study into Wiltshire farmsteads. Some interested observers might be aware that the traditional farmstead in Britain is rapidly disappearing under the pressures of changes in agricultural practice. Sadly our traditional farm buildings have become largely redundant, either falling into disuse or being converted into desirable dwellings or light industrial units in the country. Only a handful of hobby farmers preserve the farmstead as it used to be, and only then because it enhances their product, be it traditional Wiltshire ham, or the kinds of speciality preserves sold only in posh farm shops. They maintain a certain image that harks back to the ‘good old days’.

Farmsteads are still very much part of the British landscape and this is very true in Wiltshire where agriculture has played such a key role throughout our history, at one time sending our milk, cheese and bacon to London and beyond. As a consequence there is an urgent need to record for posterity these buildings before it is too late. In order to undertake much of the work we need volunteers. Please read on to find out how you could help……

Haydon Farm at Haydon Wick near Swindon - one of the last farms on Haydon End Lane to be engulfed in modern development and its remaining old buildings converted to other uses.
 

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We have recently acquired an original German reconnaissance aerial photograph from 1941. It focused on the Westinghouse site in Chippenham and detailed their plans to bomb it. Read on to find out more......

German Aerial Photograph of Chippenham, 1941, Showing Westinghouse as the Target

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