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How to banish those February blues...

Posted by: Blog Administrator on Feb 16, 2010

Tagged in: wooden building blocks , Women’s Institute and Girls Training Corps , Wiltshire , wedding dress , web page , weather , weather , Warminster Dewey Museum , Warminster , Victorian kitchen , Victor Manley , Valentine’s Day , utility coat and skirt suit , uplifted , Trowbridge Museum http://www.trowbridgemuseum.co.u , taffeta , Stourton , stone memorial , steam , St Denys Church , spring , spirits , south-west Wiltshire , Sir Winston Churchill , scrapbook , school-master’s house , Salute of the Red Army’ , Royal Albert Hall , recipe , poultry , photographs , Pewsey Heritage Centre , pathological testing kit , pancakes , New Year , Museums Advisory Service , Museums Advisory Service , museums , month , Ministry of Information , Mere Temperance Society , Mere Museum , Market Lavington Museum , Luncheon and Supper Dishes , Longleat Restaurant , local history collection , local events , killed , James Lye , Jacqueline Ramsay , inclement , Illustrated London News , http://www.pewsey-heritage-centre.org.uk/ , http://www.meremuseum.org.uk/ , http://www.marketlavingtonmuseum.org.uk/ , http://www.culture24.org.uk/sw000041 , http://www.chippenham.gov.uk/tourist-information/l , Horningsham , historical , historic museum , Helen Burke , grey , gramophone record , gloom , geology , Gardeners Chronicle , fuchsias , Frome Young Farmers , flint , fife and drum , February 1969 , February 1945. On a lighter note , February 1874 , February , entice , Edwin Townsend , dull , drama festivals , donated , Documentation Assistant , display , disinfectant , discover , diet , dance tickets , Dakota , crash , collections , Clarice Culverhouse , Chippenham Town Hall , Chippenham Museum and Heritage Centre , chess match , Charles Street , Castle Combe Museum , bungalow , blue wool , blue hat , blindfold , bell-ringing , Beech Knoll , Barbara Norris , band , arrow-head , ancient , airmen , agricultural machinery , 1999

February. A month which hides between the excitement and liveliness of the New Year and the impending delights of spring. Often grey, rather dull, with only Valentine’s Day to cheer up the lucky few. However, if you are bored with the weather, frustrated with the new diet or already given up that New Year’s resolution, then a visit to one of Wiltshire’s many museums will light up the month for you. Within their varied collections lie many a fascinating item, and with that in mind, I have compiled a ‘February’ list to entice you to discover them.

February does seem to have a historical link with gloom, but how fascinating to travel to Mere Museum in south-west Wiltshire to discover the February 6th souvenir copy of the Illustrated London News commemorating the state lying-in of Sir Winston Churchill, or the photographs showing the stone memorial built by local labour in 1999 and dedicated to the airmen killed in a Dakota crash at Beech Knoll, Stourton, on 19th February 1945. On a lighter note, you may like to read the handwritten rules of the fife and drum band belonging to the Mere Temperance Society, February 1874 and while you are at the museum why not take a look at their six volumes of old local photographs and the local history collection.


Dakota crash memorial 

Dakota crash memorial

Travel northwards to Warminster Dewey Museum and you will discover a wide range of local history material, including the Victor Manley collection of geology, and various Valentine dance tickets, such as the Frome Young Farmers dance (please contact our blog if any romance was found at the Longleat Restaurant, Horningsham, February 1969!). Whilst at the museum you might  be interested in the 78 rpm gramophone record of bell-ringing at St Denys Church, Warminster, 25th February 1960, or the scrapbook donated by Barbara Norris containing details of local events, drama festivals, Women’s Institute and Girls Training Corps, compiled from 20th February 1946 to 8th June 1948. 'Read more' to find out which other Wiltshire museums have items associated with the month of February...






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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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