The Archives Conservation team recently held a number of workshops for museum curators and volunteers on the care of paper and archive collections.

This was very much untried territory for the team, Paul Smith and Mervyn Grist, but was in response to requests for assistance from museums around the county. Three days (one in September and two in October) were arranged and numbers limited to six delegates per session. The programme for the sessions was devised by Paul Smith, Senior Archives Conservator. Staff and volunteers from Wiltshire Heritage Museum, Devizes, Dewey, Cricklade, Athelstan, Mere and Salisbury Art Collections attended.

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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.

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Hello, my name is Terry Bracher, Archives and Local Studies Manager and along with my colleague Laurel Miller, who is our Heritage Education Officer, one of my favourite jobs is to help co-ordinate one of the History Centre’s big annual events, which is our Open Day. It takes place on Saturday 1st October from 10am – 4pm. Last year we had over a thousand people visit the History Centre at our Open Day participating in a range of family fun activities and this year looks like being as popular.

The Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre

Of course, a lot of planning goes into the event, but did you know that we start almost once the previous Open Day has ended? First we have to review the activities that took place and look at your wonderful and informative feedback to see what was successful and if anything worked less well, so that we can make improvements the following year.

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There has recently become available at the Help Desk a partial index of those men who served in the Wiltshire Militia during the Napoleonic Wars 1793-1815. A brief description of the creation and function of the Militia will explain how and why this could be of use to researchers, together with the five unique features that set them apart from other military forces of the period.

The Infantry drilling, 1807

The first of these features was that the Militia Act of 1758 introduced the idea of conscription. The Regular Army before this date and up to the First World War was officially a volunteer army, but it was felt that volunteering would not raise enough men to serve the purpose of the new force, which was to defend the country in the face of an invasion threat and replace the Regular Army at home during a time of war. Each county was ordered to raise a certain number of infantry men (800 for Wiltshire); each parish was allotted its quota of this total, which was to be selected by ballot from a list drawn up by the parish constables containing the names of all males between the ages of 18-50 (later reduced to 45) with a number of exceptions, including peers, parish officials, clergymen, teachers, preachers, articled clerks, apprentices and members of the regular army. The term of service was for 3 years (later 5) after which time the whole process began again, although men could re-enlist and were encouraged to do so by means of a bounty.

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I am currently researching items for my forthcoming talk at the History Centre on Crime and Punishment in Wiltshire (Thursday 14^th April) and come across a wonderful woodcut engraving of the pillory at Marlborough in an article on obsolete punishments by Llewellyn Jewitt in “The Reliquary” Quarterly Journal, January 1861.

The pillory was used for a range of moral and political crimes, most notably for dishonest trading - the modern equivalent of implementing trading standards.  Its use dates back to Anglo-Saxon times where it was known as “Healsfang” or “catch-neck”. In France it was called the pillorie.  It was well established as a use of punishment after the Conquest.  It was considered to be a degrading punishment with offenders standing in the pillory for several hours to be abused by fellow citizens, sometimes being pelted with all manner of organic material such as rotten eggs, mud and filth. If that was not enough, sometimes the offender was drawn to the pillory on a hurdle, accompanied by minstrels and a paper sign hung around his or her head displaying the offence committed.

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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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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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Just lately the Wiltshire Buildings Record seems to have got involved in some big projects. Our latest commission in Salisbury is just such a one. Salisbury city centre is laid out in a grid pattern, all in one go, known as the Chequers. This ancient layout dates from around 1220, when work on St Mary’s Cathedral began. Each chequer has its own colourfully quaint name. Three Swans chequer and Three cups chequer stand side by side above Antelope chequer. Our present project is in Blue Boar Chequer, to the north of the market place.

One of the buildings in the Blue Boar Chequer

Imagine how excited we got, being given the chance to penetrate the interior of one of these historic chequers! As we amble along the myriad streets of Salisbury all we normally get to see are the shop fronts lining the edges, or modern interior shop fittings, and sometimes the historic fabric of the buildings, warts and all, where this has been kept and subsequently exposed in the current trend for nostalgia.

Lloyd’s Chemist is next to Debenham’s, and is sited on the south side of the Chequer, facing the Market Place. This tall, smart building was constructed in about 1740, no doubt replacing an older, timber-framed one, and contains a grand staircase, panelled walls and old fireplaces, none of which you can see from the shop. The front of the building was modernised in the later 19^th century, and the ground floor shop front in the middle of the 20^th century. To find out about the fascinating documents discovered within the buildings, please 'read more'...

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I thought it may be of interest to take a look on your behalf at the kind of original documents visitors order out when they visit our search rooms, to give you an idea of the wide range of requests we receive for documents each day. I chose a day last week at random, and got peeking!

 
Pattern Book, Ref: 947/1802

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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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