The Festival of British Archaeology is a nationwide, annual event that aims to promote archaeology. It has been running for twenty years, and has evolved from a single day to two whole weeks. As in previous years the Wiltshire Archaeology Service are actively involved and this year we will be doing not one but two exciting days out. Both events are free!

Aerial view of Barbury Castle

The first event is an exciting guided walk around Barbury Castle followed by a walk down the Ridgeway (approximately 2.6 km) to see some of the amazing prehistoric features of the Marlborough Downs. Barbury Castle is an impressive Iron Age Hillfort with enormous ramparts that overlooks Wroughton, Swindon and the surrounding countryside. David Vaughan, Assistant County Archaeologist will be leading this walk at 2pm on Saturday 31^st July. To book your place or to find out more information see the contact details below via 'read more'.

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Is the title of a talk by Dr Jeremy Burchardt at the History Centre (Wednesday 16^th September at 7.30 p.m. – Tel. 01249 705500 for tickets; £3.50 – concessions £2.50)). The answer is in the allotment movement and the work of the Great Somerford Rector, Stephen Demainbray, in providing allotments in 1809 after the local Enclosure Act had removed rights of common from poor villagers. Jeremy will speak on this and the spread of the allotment movement.

The provision of allotments as a way of improving the lot of the poor was to become a driving force in Demainbray’s long life, although the pioneer in the local area was Thomas Estcourt of Shipton Moyne. As a condition of commuting the landowners’ tithes the Rector requested that several acres should be retained for the benefit of the poor. Under the Act the land was to be kept in perpetuity for ‘the poor cottagers, Parishioners of and residing in the parish of Great Somerford, otherwise Broad Somerford’. 

 
 Detail of the Enclosure Award map for Great Somerford showing the glebe land used for the allotments.
                         
The allotments were to be allocated annually with regard to the number of people in each family and they were to be free of all rents and taxes. This is still the case today and the oldest allotments in the country are allocated to villagers on the Tuesday of Easter week, as they have been for 200 years. Read on to find out more.....

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