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The Long and the short of it: South Wraxall Manor and the Longs

Posted by: Blog Administrator on May 6, 2011

Tagged in: writer , Wiltshire , William Wellesley-Pole junior , widow , wealth , Vol. IX , Visitors Book , Thomas Larkins Walker , Thomas Critchley , Stag’s Horn , St. James’ Palace , South Wraxall Manor , son , Sir Walter Long , shooting , school , Samuel Sneade Brown , Rood Ashton and Draycot , Rev. Jackson , Rev. Dr. F. , retirement , reputation , relation , pupils , prosperous , property , poet , plaisaunce , Pedigree , partridge , pamphlet , owned , notorious , nephew , Mrs Knight , Mr Thomas Knight , Motto , Miss Knight , Miss Katherine Long , Medlicott , Long family , Long , letter , Kilvert , John Taylor , inherit , infatuated , India , horseracing , Gentleman’s Magazine , Gateway of South Wraxall Manor , frontispiece , fortune , folly , family , extravagance , Exeter , events , Etching , estates , Envy will lye , egotism , Duran Duran , Duke of Wellington , Draycot House , diary , destitute , debts , Dan Cruickshank , clothiers , clergyman , Charter House , Charlotte Anna Long , Catherine Tylney-Long , Bradford on Avon , bookseller , Bath , bass guitarist , Aubrey , article , Archives

Dan Cruickshank has just taken a fascinating look at South Wraxall Manor, and to supplement his visit I thought I’d have a look in our archives for any quirky or unusual information on both the manor and Long family who initially made their fortune as clothiers.


P40652
South Wraxall Manor

A. C. Martin restored the gardens at South Wraxall Manor for Richardson Cox between 1900 and 1902. He laid out the gardens whilst restoring the manor. By 1968 a geometrical island and sundial had found their way into an earlier circular swimming pool.


 Gateway, 1860s
947/1787/1 Gateway of South Wraxall Manor, 1860s

 
 Letter from Medlicott to Walter Long
947/1062, 1878
Letter from Medlicott to Walter Long















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The Great Flood of 1841

Posted by: Blog Administrator on Jan 21, 2011

Tagged in: Wylye valley , WSA 1336/98 , World War 1 , Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre , Wiltshire , William McGonagall’s , weather , waterproofs , Warminster , verses , Tilshead , The Great flood , thaw , Terry Bracher , Tay Railway Bridge disaster , story , Stoke Winterbourne , stanzas , souls , snow storm , Shrewton , Sarum , Salisbury Plain , River Wylye , River Till , records , rebuild , Project group , poetic , poem , Orcheston , newspapers , Maddington , local , letter , investigating , indexes , homeless , historical record , Hanging Langford , Flood Cottages , flash flood , event , Elston House , Elston , drowning , doggerel , document , disasters , destitute , currents charity , county , compassion , communities , commemorating , collections , Codford , Blewdon’s House , author , Ann Doughty , 1841 , 1789

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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