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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It is always hard to single out any particular collection as a favourite, but some are obviously outstanding due to the sheer scope and variety of their contents. One of the great treasures at Wiltshire and Swindon Archives is the archive of the Earls of Radnor, of Longford Castle, near Salisbury in Wiltshire. Part of the archive is an uncatalogued collection referenced 1946, which has recently been added to thanks to a very generous loan of archive material from the current Earl. This is the subject of a bid for funding to enable us to catalogue and make this fascinating archive more accessible to everyone.

This autograph letter of Elizabeth I forms part of the collection

The uncatalogued archives of the Earls of Radnor in collection 1946 supplement the earlier deposit 490 (see: www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/a2a). The material in 490 contained mainly estate material, and 1946 also includes some manorial and other estate records which will be of enormous importance for local history and will benefit the continuing production of the Victoria County History of Wiltshire. Importantly, however, 1946 broadens the scope of 490, as it also contains a lot of unique material relating to the building, maintenance and governance of Longford Castle and its household, which will be of great interest to anyone researching either the house or its contents, including its famous art collection. The records also include family and personal material. However, the records do not just shed light on nobility but will also be of interest to family historians wanting to find out about ancestors who were involved with the Radnor family. The records include wage books and accounts for both household servants and agricultural labourers, dating back to the early 19th century. Please 'read more' to find out which other interesting documents can be found in the collection...

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A few weeks ago I visited this small village with Dr Alex Craven, who is researching it for the latest volume of the Victoria County History. I was invited along in my capacity of building archaeologist. The village is found just off the A30 Shaftesbury to Salisbury road. Blink and you miss it. It was obviously once a much more bustling community; Alex found that instead of one long village street with a couple of lanes off, there were once parallel streets. The street near Compton House was removed for the convenience of the Penruddockes, Lords of the Manor, to improve the view! Since then it has lost its pub (the King’s Elm) and latterly the village shop. Silence now reigns, punctuated only by the muted sound of passing traffic from the main road and sheep bleating. It could be oppressive to the average townie, or heaven, depending on your persuasion.

 
The Cemetery in Compton, which contains the graves of a number of ANZAC troops who died of influenza in 1919. 


Look down the street towards the church and the manor, which lie close together secretively behind high walls, and you will see quaint little houses of the local greensand covered in thatch, or a later replacement for it. A steep bank on one side lours over the street, and green wooded hills on the far side of the pleasure grounds to Compton House add to the sense of seclusion. The interiors of some of the houses that the owners kindly granted access to were fascinating: Combe House dating from the later 17^th century retained an original stair, an insanely steep, tortuous thing winding around a central newel post and rising to the attics. Climbing on all fours is the natural mode of ascent, a fact that the present owners, now into their retirement, no longer find attractive. Well Cottage is dominated by a large hearth taking up almost one entire wall. Now arranged with flowers, knick-knacks and pictures, the heat and light from the fire would once have been an important focus for the household. The present modern kitchen is now tucked away at the rear of the house, in a lean-to. Time moves on, even in sleepy Compton Chamberlayne, but the absence of many of the sounds of civilisation contribute more to the feeling of timelessness than more ostentatiously ancient places like Lacock, with its hordes of tourists.

Dorothy Treasure

To view additional images of Compton Chamberlayne, please go to:

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Here on the helpdesk at the History Centre we offer help to many of our visitors who are either unsure of using the census online or are having problems tracing their ancestors when using it.



The Helpdesk

During our many hours spent giving help and guidance we have spotted a few common problems encountered by our visitors. We thought it would be good to share our knowledge with those of you who may also be experiencing difficulties. Hopefully some of the tips will be useful and give you some fresh ideas, encourage you to keep looking and with luck, maybe even solve those tricky problems once and for all!

Why are only half my family on the census page?

The household will continue on the next page. Click on the ‘Next’ icon at the top of the screen and the next page will be shown.

 
Why can’t I find my ancestor on a particular census?

Sometimes names have been transcribed incorrectly. Try using the names of other family members or cutting down the amount of information used on the search page, for instance just putting the county down under residence or putting no residence and just using the place of birth if you know it. The description of the head of the household may be misleading; the true head may have been absent on the night the census was taken. If the wife is classed as ‘married’ rather than ‘widow’, then this is probably the case. Read on to find out more...

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Just lately my work has taken me to Manor Farm, a mixed farm at Broadchalke, one of those tiny, out-of-the-way places in the south of Wiltshire that you wouldn’t go through unless you had business there. It nestles in the Ebble Valley roughly between Salisbury and Shaftesbury. Manor Farmhouse is one of those long, low, rambling buildings that started at one end and carried on ad infinitum until stopped by a tall, square dovecote; a sort of punctuation mark in stone.  Additional charm is supplied by the weathered grey church of All Saints nearby presiding with quiet dignity over the centre of the village.

 
Manor Farm, Broadchalke

Every building I see that is of any age has had alterations made, almost as a matter of course, for the varying needs of successive tenants and owners. Looking at Manor Farmhouse it is possible to see its origins in the core of the building at the front. This core consists of a heated hall, then a general living room where the occupants cooked and slept and gathered for warmth, and an unheated parlour; a posh but cold room with a fine quadripartite ceiling (divided into quarters by chamfered beams) which showed off its status as the main secular building of importance or capital messuage of the estate. From digging in the records it seems that in the early 17^th century the parlour was too cold for comfort. A big external chimney stack was added onto the side of the parlour probably by Richard Aubrey, father of the celebrated Wiltshire diarist John Aubrey, who was to succeed him as the tenant of the Earls of Pembroke at the farm. Richard had married Deborah, the daughter of Isaac Lyte of Easton Piercey in the north of Wiltshire, where John was born on March 12^th 1625. John was removed from Trinity College, Oxford in 1643 because of the Civil War and brought home to Broadchalke where he later carried on the farm after his father died. 'Read more' to find out about his time at the farm....

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