Posted by: Blog Administrator
on Nov 26, 2011
Tagged in:
Trowbridge ,
then and now ,
Stallard Street ,
photograph ,
newspapers ,
Market Place ,
Margaret Dobson ,
historical research ,
Henry VIII ,
directories ,
Conigre ,
Bradford Voices
A phrase that is often used as is ‘you can never go back’. Well recently I have been putting this to the test whilst working on a new book. It’s a in ‘Then and Now’ photographic series and so I’ve been out taking photographs of Trowbridge from the same viewpoint as those taken 60 to 120 years ago. I was born in the town but haven’t lived there for 20 years and I’m seeing the town as it is now, as I remember it in the 1950s and ‘60s, and as it was in the early 20th century.
None of the buildings in this picture from the 1880s of Stallard Street and the Town Bridge in Trowbridge are standing today. Although Bridge House on the right is still standing the bays in the picture are not as they were destroyed by a bomb in the Second World War.
We all realise that the pace of change has been far greater over the last few decades than ever before but it’s been very clear to me that the town I knew in the 1960s was quite close to how it was in 1900 and very distant from how it looks and feels today. The way of life, relationships, and human knowledge has changed so much that we regard the communities in which we live very differently to the way people only a generation or two ago did.
Some of the recent physical changes apply to many small to medium sized towns. The identical shopping malls, the out of town stores, the pedestrianised areas, the extensive car parks, and the heavy traffic. Old buildings will have been demolished in the 1960s and ‘70s, following on from pre-war slum clearance and the replacements probably look far more out of date than the original would.
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.
Posted by: Blog Administrator
on Jul 9, 2010
Tagged in:
Yorkshire ,
Wiltshire Weather Proverbs ,
Wiltshire shepherd ,
Wiltshire Libraries ,
Wiltshire Independent ,
Wiltshire Council ,
Wiltshire Archaeological Society ,
William Camden ,
Westmorland ,
weather ,
Wales ,
verdict ,
Titchborne Claimant ,
Times Digital Archive ,
The Preston Guardian ,
The Lancaster Gazette and General Advertiser for L ,
Terry Bracher ,
Swindon Libraries ,
Swindon Borough Council ,
subscribe ,
stories ,
Sir Roger Titchborne ,
Shrewsbury ,
Shoulder of Mutton ,
serendipity ,
search terms ,
Rev. C. H. Smith ,
researchers ,
relieving-officer ,
records ,
Public House ,
prison ,
poor man ,
Poor Law ,
online ,
observations ,
Nineteenth Century Newspapers Online ,
newspapers ,
Malmesbury Union Workhouse ,
local history ,
libraries ,
landlord ,
keywords ,
jury ,
John Matthews ,
John Aubrey ,
Jacksons Oxford Journal ,
information ,
Inclemency of the Weather ,
http://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/leisureandculture/libr ,
http://www.swindon.gov.uk/leisuresport/libraries/2 ,
History Centre ,
heir ,
family fortune ,
eureka moment ,
distraction ,
Devizes prison ,
Death ,
court case concerning ,
Coroner’s ,
computers ,
clergyman ,
browsing ,
Bromham ,
Brinkworth ,
astrological ,
articles ,
Arthur Orton ,
art ,
antiquarian ,
1873
Like many researchers, when I am browsing newspapers and other records I am often distracted by other interesting stories or snippets of information. When searching for articles online, there is less distraction as you are already narrowing your search terms to produce that eureka moment. But what online research does provide for, something that should be in every Local Historian’s toolkit, is what I call the art of serendipity, or more bluntly putting in a couple of keywords and see what happens, with surprising results! (You see, we have all done it).
The Titchborne Claimant
In the spirit of research on behalf of our faithful blog readers I thought I would search two online resources to which both Wiltshire Council and Swindon Borough Council subscribe on your behalf. These are the Times Digital Archive and Nineteenth Century Newspapers Online. These are available 24/7 to Wiltshire Libraries and Swindon Libraries members respectively, through the following links: http://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/leisureandculture/librarieshome/libraryonlineresources.htm. To find out which other Wiltshire stories were discovered, please 'read more'...
http://www.swindon.gov.uk/leisuresport/libraries/24hourlibrary.htm
