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The Great Flood of 1841

Posted by: Blog Administrator on Jan 21, 2011

Tagged in: Wylye valley , WSA 1336/98 , World War 1 , Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre , Wiltshire , William McGonagall’s , weather , waterproofs , Warminster , verses , Tilshead , The Great flood , thaw , Terry Bracher , Tay Railway Bridge disaster , story , Stoke Winterbourne , stanzas , souls , snow storm , Shrewton , Sarum , Salisbury Plain , River Wylye , River Till , records , rebuild , Project group , poetic , poem , Orcheston , newspapers , Maddington , local , letter , investigating , indexes , homeless , historical record , Hanging Langford , Flood Cottages , flash flood , event , Elston House , Elston , drowning , doggerel , document , disasters , destitute , currents charity , county , compassion , communities , commemorating , collections , Codford , Blewdon’s House , author , Ann Doughty , 1841 , 1789

I just happened to be trawling through some indexes to our records when a subject caught my eye - the Great flood in the Wylye Valley 1841. Now I am just about to visit the Wylye World War 1 Project group, one of several trips to the south of our county this week, and have an eye on the weather since the heavy rain over the last few days. Investigating this story in more detail it appears that the flood took place 170 years ago, almost to the day!  (Apparently there was a similar flood in 1789 around the same time of year - I am taking my waterproofs).  What particularly drew me to the reference was a note concerning a piece of doggerel about the event.

 

I have always been curious about doggerel and other poetic forms as an historical record commemorating events (and people), especially disasters, such as William McGonagall’s poem on the Tay Railway Bridge disaster of 1879. But what I found was even more astonishing; forget the 8 verses by McGonagall, our document contains 51 verses, in part 1, and a further 25 in part 2, a grand total of 76 stanzas detailing an event that, according to contemporary local newspapers, lasted a mere 12 hours, though with such force and hugely disastrous consequences for the local communities. The document (WSA 1336/98) is a transcript of a letter by Ann Doughty of Hanging Langford to her mother some days after the flood with a doggerel rhyme by an unknown author.

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Wiltshire and Black History

Posted by: Blog Administrator on Apr 23, 2009

Tagged in: York , Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre , Wilts Rgt of Militia , Wilton House , Westminster , West Africa , trumpeter , The Wiltshire Black History Project , slave trade , Shakespeare , Septimus Severus , SEE ME , Sarum , Salisbury Journal , royal courts , Roxburgh , Roman Emperor , Roman , Robert Pearson , privateers , Pedro Negro , parish register , parish of St Paul , oral testimonies African-Caribbean , Numerus Maurorum Aurelianorum , Moors , mineral Ethiopia , marriages , Marlborough , Maria Mandula , Libya , Leonora Casey Carr , knighted , John Hawkins , John Blanke , inter-generational , Henry VIII , Hadrian’s Wall , Guinea coast , Great Tournament Roll , gravestone , George Sydown , Footman , engraving , Elizabeth I , East Tytherton Moravian Graveyard Restoration Proj , duke of Somerset , Drummer , community history project , Catherine of Aragon , Calne Parish Register , burials , British Black History , Black History , Antiguan ‘Mostee’ , Africa , aethiops , advertisement , adult baptisms

Hello, I am Terry, Archives and Local Studies Manager. In my last blog I wrote about a document from the English Civil War, a particular interest of mine. Recently, a researcher at the History Centre gave me a reference to an entry in a parish register that relates to another interest of mine, that is British Black History. It was from the Calne Parish Register of burials and dated 10th December 1586 and notes the burial of “Maria Mandula advena et aethiops (stranger and AEthiops).”  Is this the earliest reference to a Black person in Wiltshire?

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