Posted by: Blog Administrator
on Feb 1, 2011
Tagged in:
window ,
Winchester ,
WBR ,
Victory Clump ,
swimming pool ,
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St Peter’s Abbey ,
Southcott ,
sophisticated ,
sold ,
Sir John Astley ,
servants ,
sauna ,
sang ,
rural ,
Robert Cooke ,
residents ,
purchased ,
Pewsey ,
parish ,
Old Manor House ,
mourning ,
Michael Cooke ,
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mansion ,
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lands ,
King Alfred Statue ,
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farming ,
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family ,
employed ,
Eliza Cowmeadow ,
dwelling ,
dissolution ,
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Christmas ,
Charles Cooke ,
Bart ,
Alfred Cooke
Just before Christmas WBR looked at a farmhouse in the hamlet of Southcott, within the parish of Pewsey. It was the usual story – an old farm which was worked by generations of farmers is no longer viable. The lands are sold off and the farmhouse is turned into a country hideaway for busy people. The transition from rural dwelling to sophisticated mansion necessitates a good lot of tweaking of the original fabric to bring it up to date, as well as extending the accommodation to provide services such as our rustic forbears would never have dreamed of (Southcott has a swimming pool and sauna!).
The hamlet of Southcott, c.1960
Ref: P48999
Part of our remit is to look into the history of those that lived there before, and take a peek at what they were doing, partly to inform us as to how the building might have been used at a particular time, and although not strictly necessary, what sort of people they were.
Posted by: Blog Administrator
on Aug 11, 2010
Tagged in:
World War II ,
Wings of Victory Week ,
Westbury ,
wartime ,
Warship Week ,
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The Aid to China ,
School Savings Group ,
school log books ,
Salute the Soldier Week ,
Sailor's Society ,
rural ,
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North Bradley ,
Merchant Navy ,
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London ,
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lives ,
knitting wool ,
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Heywood ,
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forster mother ,
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community history project ,
collect money ,
cinema ,
Christmas ,
charities ,
Canada ,
Bratton ,
blackout curtains ,
Barking ,
Americans ,
American cloth ,
America ,
air raid warden
I was recently using the school log books of Heywood for our ongoing Community History project (http://history.wiltshire.gov.uk/community/) and found that the earliest log books we held for the school were from 1938. It is unusual for us to took at the log books for this period, and I discovered that they gave an interesting insight into the lives of rural schoolchildren (including the evacuees) during wartime.
Evacuees from Portsmouth in Kilmington, 1939.
Ref: P32983
Posted by: Blog Administrator
on Jul 2, 2010
Tagged in:
Wiltshire ,
summers past ,
summer holiday ,
Summer ,
Stonehenge ,
solstice celebrations ,
school ,
rural ,
longest day ,
harvests ,
Harvest Holiday ,
grain harvest ,
families ,
county ,
Avebury ,
19th century
With the longest day and the solstice celebrations at Avebury and Stonehenge our thoughts have turned to summer and summers past. In a rural county this was an important time with a succession of harvests that involved whole families for many weeks. In the 19th century the school summer holiday was known as Harvest Holiday and was often adjusted if the grain harvest was early or late.
18th century representation of a Wiltshire shepherd
Children were often kept away from school to help in the fields, bring refreshments to their working parents or look after younger siblings. Women who apparently had no job according to census records would work long hours in the fields at such seasonal work. To find out more about how the season has made its mark on the Wiltshire landscape, please 'read more'...
