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 Swindon Archives has been successful in securing a grant of £22,700 to help open up the historic archives of the Earls of Radnor, including unique letters by George Washington, Horatio Nelson and Queen Elizabeth I.

Writing to Lord Radnor in 1797, former U.S. President Washington was looking forward to retirement: “I am now placed in the shade of my vine and fig tree; and at the age of sixty five, am recommencing my agricultural & rural pursuits; which were always more congenial to my temper and disposition than the noise & bustle of public employment; notwithstanding so small a portion of my life has been engaged in the former.”

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I’m Victoria Barlow and I’m the County Conservation and Museums Manager. Before moving to Wiltshire three months ago, I worked as Collections Manager for a maritime museum in Kent and have worked in museums for 15 years. During my first few weeks in post I visited all of the 18 museums that we work with and I was struck not only by the welcome I received but by the professionalism and enthusiasm of everyone working in Wiltshire’s museums.

Volunteer Mike Asbury of Pewsey Museum and Photographer Simon Harris collect an award at the recent Voluntary and Community Sector Awards. Copyright Wiltshire Council.

Many of our museums are run by volunteers and even those which do have excellent professional staff, rely on volunteers to some extent to run their services. You will have heard the government talking a lot about volunteers recently and the concept of The Big Society. Here in Wiltshire we have been doing that since the 1970s! Wiltshire Council doesn’t run a museum but instead we have a Museums Advisory Service and a team of Conservators who work with museums small and large across the county, supporting and helping them to look after their collections and meet professional standards. 

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 I am delighted to be able to share with you the news that ‘Photographing Wiltshire’s Treasures’, a collaborative project between ten independent museums and a local further education college, has won two awards at an event to celebrate the work of the voluntary and community sector in Wiltshire.

 
The Voluntary and Community Sector Award

The project, funded by a Renaissance South West Museum Development Fund grant, saw photography and media students from New College Swindon complete placements at museums across Wiltshire, most of which are run entirely by volunteers. During their placements the students received training in object handling and photographic techniques and were then able to work with staff and volunteers to select and professionally photograph items from the collections.

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2010 is a significant year for several of Wiltshire’s museums, as they celebrate anniversaries of one sort or another.

To give you a reminder of some of the fantastic museums and collections on our doorstep here in Wiltshire, here is a rundown of the 2010 celebrations:

 
Medieval chess piece
Salisbury & South Wiltshire Museum

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The Objects Conservation lab at the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre is an exciting and consistently intriguing place to be with the diverse range of unique objects that come through the doors.

 
Detail during treatment of Indian talwar sword shown with silver and gold inlay from the Rifles Museum. The cleaned surface, right side, shown in contrast with the left side’s yellowed lacquer coating.

            My name is Drew Karnoski, and I’m a student of conservation at Cardiff University, currently completing a work placement in the Objects Conservation Laboratory at the WSHC. To find out more about the objects I have had the pleasure to work with, please 'read more'...

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From June to December this year at museums across Wiltshire you will be able to see a photographic display of some of the county’s marvellous museum objects.

Thanks to a grant from Renaissance South West the Wiltshire Council Museums Advisory Service has been able to work with photography students from New College, Swindon to photograph collections at nine museums across the county. Please 'read more' to see exhibiton venues, dates and more examples of the photography.

Jurassic ammonite from Cricklade Museum
                           

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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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