Wiltshire was largely ignored by the 19^th century collectors of folk songs and it was left to a South Marston man, Alfred Williams, the hammerman poet of Swindon Railway Works. He was self educated, fluent in several languages, translated poetry from Asiatic languages and published several books, despite remaining a poor working man all his life. Between 1914 and 1916, owing to poor health he collected 600 songs from people in the Upper Thames Valley before joining the Royal Field Artillery.

 
Illustration of Score (truly local carol)

Comment (0) Read More...

Hello, I am Terry Bracher, Archives and Local Studies Manager here at the History Centre.  Browsing through part of photographic collection I came across a photo of elephants bathing in the River Avon in Chippenham town centre in 1906. The elephants were part of a travelling circus and the Avon at Chippenham clearly provided a welcome break for the elephants as they walked to the venue for their next performance. Now I have always had an interest in historical curiosities and this led me to ask colleagues if they had come across any other curious animal related tales throughout Wiltshire, with the aim of creating our top ten animal tales, so long as they followed a simple rule - the animals could not be farm animals (unless they did something especially curious) and they had to have been see alive and well at some point in Wiltshire’s history.

The Elephants in Chippenham, 1906

But let’s start with animals that do not count. I would have liked to include the dancing bears of Lacock. They were a familiar site in the nineteenth century, being led into the village along with musicians and other entertainers. Looking through the book “Chippenham and Lacock in Old Photographs” I was astonished to see a picture of a dancing bear in the late 1930’s. Sadly, on closer inspection this was a photo of the 1938 pageant with a Mr Bob Vines in convincing pose playing the part of the bear, together with his “handler” his brother Eric Vines. This could be a whole new category in itself. 'Read more' to find out about some dramatic events involving animals in Wiltshire....

Comment (0) Read More...

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.

Comment (3) Read More...