Did you know that pubs are closing at the rate of 12 a week? WBR has surveyed many pubs that have closed: The Tollgate Inn and The Barley Mow in Salisbury alone. Its not that we modern Brits have gone off drinking: the smoking ban and cheap booze sold by supermarkets have sounded the death knell. And so it has been for the Rodbourne Arms in Swindon, our latest job.

The Rodbourne Arms

It is interesting to find that when Swindon’s suburbs were growing there was a need perceived for a drinking place in Haydon Wick on the north side of Swindon. Although no reference has been found to the planning application which must have preceded the building of the pub, it would appear to have been built around 1903, since, on 11^th February 1904, the Justice Minutes’ Book recorded the application of Andrew James Lydford for an alehouse license for the Rodbourne Arms Hotel. He met considerable opposition from the formidable Temperance Movement, in the guise of The Swindon & District Temperance Council, the Free United Church, the British Women’s Temperance Association, and the G.W.R. Temperance Union.

Comment (2) Read More...

 Pinhills is an old farmhouse tucked away in the heart of the Bowood Estate. It has a very interesting history. There are a number of ancient trees in the woodlands around, including at one time the pine trees which John Aubrey claimed gave the settlement its name, a corruption of ‘Pine hill’. However, the name is now thought more likely to be simply a corruption of ‘Pen’, the Celtic word for hill, reflecting the settlement’s prominent position, to which over time the repetition of ‘hill’ has been added, when understanding of the meaning of ‘pen’ faded, as has happened with Pendle Hill, in Lancashire.

 
Taken from the Calne tithe map, 1844

The manor of Pinhills was held for a long time by the Blake family, who had connections with other noble local families, such as the Goddards, Baynards and Hungerfords. Their coat of arms could be seen in a stained glass window in Calne Church until the steeple fell in on it in 1639.

Comment (0) Read More...

 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.

Comment (0) Read More...