We recently spent an afternoon in the village of Sherston with work experience students looking at the development of the village. A prominent feature is the Rattlebone Inn, standing at the corner of the market place of what was a planned medieval town. The inn sign shows a Saxon warrior wielding an axe, commemorating the legend of John Rattlebone.

 
F0018  The Rattlebone Inn. The building dates from around 1700 when several new houses were built in Sherston.

We must turn now to John Aubrey, who recorded the following piece of doggerel that was used by old women and children in the mid 17^th century;

            “Fight well Rattlebone,

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Some of the most popular talks I give are those dealing with the meaning of inn and pub names. Currently we don’t have a great variety of pub names in Wiltshire but we do still have some interesting ones. The Green Dragon at Alderbury was used by Charles Dickens in Martin Chuzzlewitt, as he was staying nearby while writing this novel. Dickens used many hostelries in his books and in this case he renamed it the Blue Dragon; perhaps the sign was somewhat faded to a pale blue and he misinterpreted it as it would have been unlikely that the name was on the building.

 
The Green Dragon at Alderbury

The green dragon came from the earls of Pembroke and many of the early names used the badges of great families. The red lion of John of Gaunt, the black bear of the earls of Warwick and the white hart of Richard II are still common today. From the 18^th century the full coat of arms was often used so that in Fovant we have the Pembroke Arms. The association with the badge or coat of arms often indicated that the family owned the property or were the chief landowners in the area.

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You can learn a lot just by walking around a village, thinking about how it evolved and picking up clues from remains on the ground and in buildings. If you looked at both old and new maps before your walk you’ll make even more deductions. Most of our Wiltshire villages date from Saxon times, although some are on earlier settlements; again most have Saxon names and the study of street and field names can also be very rewarding. (see The Place-names of Wiltshire by J.E.B. Gover, 1939; and English Field Names by the appropriately named John Field, 1989)

On 18^th March at 2.15 the History Centre afternoon lecture will be Looking at Villages with Michael Marshman, who will talk about some of the skills that help you to become a landscape detective. Apart from his day job at the History Centre Michael has been writing the Village Life articles for Wiltshire Life for the last eight years! Some tickets are still available (Tel. 01249 705500).


Lacock [F0018] A 15^th century cruck building showing where the roof was later raised to allow the insertion of an upper floor.
 
All our villages are different and can be one of a number of types apart from the nucleated, linear or agglomerated that we may remember from geography lessons. Some villages, such as Shrewton, can be several medieval villages that have grown into one; these are known as polyfocal villages but others, such as Inglesham, may have shrunk and be much smaller than they were in earlier times. In others, like West Ashton, a landowner has cleared the original village from the proximity of his manor house and rebuilt it further away.

 
Steeple Ashton [F0045] The village green contains the market cross of 1679, when an attempt was made to revive the market, and the blind house (lock up) of 1773. Indications of the market site and of the hundred court of Whorwellsdown
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To most of us the pub has been a permanent feature of our landscape - many of us have navigated by using them as points of reference. They are a part of community history and often the pub, or its name on a variety of buildings has been in the town or village for a couple of centuries or more. The George Inn at Lacock (pictured below) has a 16^th century core and there was a George Inn here in 1361.

The George Inn at Lacock

A chequerboard can be found on the Methuen Arms at Corsham. This sign has ancient origins, being used by the Romans, but here it might have shown either that draughts or backgammon was played or that the innkeeper also acted as a money changer. This inn was known as the Red Lion when it was set up in the 17^th century it survived an early order for its suppression by magistrates.

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