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Tags >> mystery

Mystery museum objects

Posted by: Blog Administrator on Oct 14, 2011

Tagged in: Tim Burge , story , Object , mystery , Museums Officer , museum , knowledge , clue

 

If you have been to any museums in Wiltshire you will know that they hold within them a great variety of objects telling the stories of the people and places of the county.

 

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Worth a 1,000 Words? Can You Identify Our Pictures?

Posted by: Blog Administrator on Apr 23, 2010

Tagged in: white horse , wedding photographs are not that common although m , WEA song , village feasts , Urchfont , unlocated photo , Uffington Station , Uffington , town , Swindon newspapers , Swindon and North Wiltshire Workers Education Asso , street scene , stereoscopic photographs , stalls , staff , Reuben George , rail , Public House , places , Picture , photographs , people , P43213 , P42181 , P40967 , P32082 , P31952 , P31311 , outing , Nag’s Head , mystery , morris dancing and tea , microfilm , location unless you know differently , King Alfred , identify , I said it in the meadow , hotels , History Centre , historic value , Great Bedwyn , gingerbread , fairings , Devizes , cricket matches , circus , church , catalogued , Bishop of Bristol , Bishop Browne , bells , belfry , American journalist , all night vigil , a picture is worth a thousand words , 1889

An American journalist once said that a picture is worth a thousand words; very true but only if you know what the picture is showing you. Here at the History Centre we have tens of thousands of photographs, most we can identify but a few are a mystery. Some are really good photographs but their historic value would be much greater if we could identify the places and people.

Image No. P32082

 Image No. P32082
                 To take a look at the other images, please 'read more'...


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Curiouser and Curiouser..... Wiltshire Animal Tales

Posted by: Blog Administrator on Dec 3, 2009

Tagged in: wooden Victorian models , Winterslow , Wiltshire , White Lion Inn , white horses carved , website , warnings , Truffle Hounds , Trowbridge , travelling menagerie , travelling circus , trained Falcon killed by a golfer , town centre , top ten animal tales , tombstone , tiger , Terry Bracher , teasing , Summer Truffle , statues , Spanish poodles , South East England , servant , Sea Lion , Salisbury Plain , Salisbury Fair , safari park , river Avon , recaged , Quicksilver , Queen Victoria , Pomegranate , pioneering animals , photographic collection , performance , pageant , nineteenth century , mystery , musicians , museum , Muscovy Ducks , Marquis of Bath , Malmesbury Singers , Malmesbury Abbey , mailcoach , Longleat Safari Park , Longleat , London to Exeter mail coach , lioness , Laughing Kookaburra , large cats , Lanner Falcon , Lacock , keeper , Jimmy Chipperfield , Indian Peafowl , Iford Manor , Hullavington church , Hollywood film stars , History Centre , historical curiosities , Hippo , High Post Golf Club , Hannah and the tiger , Great Bustard , gown , ghostly apparitions , folk-lore , Europe , escaped , entertainers , elephants bathing , Durnford , dancing bears , curious animal related tales , conservation , Conan-Doyle , community history , churchyard , Chippenham , chalk downs , celebrity animals , caged showcase , Born Free , black dogs , birds , birdie , attack , Archives and Local Studies Manager , animal stories , animal blog list , 2006 , 1906

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.

Elephants in Chippenham, 1906 

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....



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