We get a great many visitors passing through our doors, honing in on those invaluable parish registers, wills, non-conformist records etc. Some venture further, taking a look at what else the History Centre has to offer, but for many, little do they realise that they are missing out on some essential information – the contextual evidence that brings life to those ancestors they are searching so long and hard to find.

The Wiltshire Local Studies Collection is a unique resource available at the History Centre which can do just that. I have searched the shelves to give you just a taste of what is on offer if you have a little extra time to look whilst you are here. If not, many of our books are available to loan via your local library, all you need to do is put in a request.

Memoirs

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As this is the time of year that we are allowed to ‘eat, drink and be merry’, here we take a look at some culinary delights...!

Taken from theWiltshire Times,
13th December, 1930 

Tim Woodman compiled a collection of old recipes and remedies in 1988, taken from around Wiltshire over the previous 25 years. Most have been handed down through generations.

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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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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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Mere Museum is celebrating the start of 2011 with their new conservation themed exhibition entitled ‘Preserving the Past for the Future’ and staff from the Wiltshire Council Conservation and Museums Advisory Service teams were privileged to be invited to the opening on 4 January for a sneak preview.

A Gladstone Bag, c.1882

The exhibition shows the range of objects conserved by the Conservation team for the museum over the years with photographs showing the objects before treatment alongside the actual objects after treatment, together with informative panels about the conservation treatments used.

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Inspired by a recent display on Eddie Cochran at Chippenham Museum and Heritage Centre this blog entry is all about Wiltshire’s links past and present with the world of rock and pop.

 
Eddie Cochran

To commemorate 50 years since the famous rock and roll pioneer died in a car crash on Rowden Hill in Chippenham, earlier this year Chippenham museum put on a display of Eddie Cochran memorabilia. 'Read more' to find out how many other pop stars have been associated with Wiltshire over the years...

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Bribery, corruption, intrigue, rotten boroughs and riots …oh dear, that will be Wiltshire’s parliamentary elections in eighteenth and nineteenth century! Present events always give us an opportunity to take the long-view and here at the History Centre we have a range of resources on the political history of the county and borough, from excellent accounts published in the Victoria County History for Wiltshire to election squibs, poll books and original documents.

'The Antiquities of Malmesbury', described as 'A parliamentary election, as lampooned in 1792' in VCH Wiltshire Vol. 14, opposite p.221 (our Ref: P41146).

Wiltshire’s early claim to political fame was the impressive size of its parliamentary representation. Until 1832 it elected two Knights of the Shire (representing the whole county), two MPs for Salisbury, and two burgesses for each of its 15 boroughs, a grand total of 34 seats. Only Cornwall had higher. This was especially impressive given that many of the boroughs were the size of a village, and few of their residents could vote.  The most notable, of course, was Old Sarum, which retuned two MPs and in 1768, it is claimed, had an electorate of, er…one, though usually could count on seven. Other small boroughs included Great Bedwyn, Cricklade, Downton, Heytesbury, Hindon, Ludgershall and Wootton Bassett. Yet other towns like Bradford on Avon, Corsham, Trowbridge, and Warminster could not send representatives to parliament. To find out about the great political contest of 1818 and Marlborough making the national news in 1832, please 'read more'...

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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 6^th 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 19^th 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

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, 25^th 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 20^th February 1946 to 8^th June 1948. 'Read more' to find out which other Wiltshire museums have items associated with the month of February...

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