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Wednesday 25th August 2010 - Wilton House
Before Monday I had never visited Wilton House, merely 15 miles or so down the road towards Salisbury. We visited the adventure playground when the children were small, yes, but not the house. I was very impressed; it's beautiful and so well looked after.
I liked the views and the grounds too. The palladian style bridge adds just the right amount of interest to the gentle scenery around the River Nadder. I couldn't help comparing Wilton with Longleat. I am much more familiar with Longleat, where the scenery plays second fiddle to the commercial aspect of stately home management, unless you are viewing from Heaven's Gate or the Lodge Gates. At Wilton the house is unencumbered by modern buildings, except for the restaurant and adventure playground, both well hidden by trees and some way away. Longleat is much larger of course, and probably costs more to upkeep, but there is a sort of seedy fairground feeling at the back of the house. But then, variety is the spice of life!
I loved the beautiful Victorian boathouse with its twisted supports painted in such an unusual but effective colour.
Friday 20th August 2010 - Hall Pictures
I was asked quite a while ago to organise some new pictures for the Village Hall using old photographs of Chitterne with captions. Quite a while ago. It was one of those projects that didn't gel in my mind straight away, so it had been put on the back burner several times while metamorphosing into something that I could work with. Originally the captions were to be longer, more detailed and based on the local history articles I contributed to Chit-Chat. But the main impetus to complete came when I realised I could reproduce copies of the originals at home on the new Canon photograph printer D acquired to print his own photographs. A framing deal made with DW, picture framer of Warminster, helped and now the project's finished and ten new pictures have been hung on the hall walls.
I saw the pictures in situ for the first time today and I'm pleased with the result. They are a mixture of village scenes and groups of villagers, on the assumption that visitors might be glad to find an ancestor's photograph as well as get an idea of the way Chitterne looked years ago. It was sheer luck that the green mounts match with the green picture rails and skirtings in the hall as I'd forgotten they were green when choosing the mount colours.
Tuesday 10th August 2010 - Village Bees
For a good number of years I have been buying village honey from beekeeper RF. Bees have been kept at number 98, his home, for over 100 years. RF took over from his aunt Nora, who was still beekeeping the summer before she died aged 88 in 1984. She had been tending the bees, alongside her sister Esme, since she was 15 years old. Esme died aged 77 in 1970. Their elder sister Beryl didn't tend the bees but cleaned and prepared the honey jars and equipment. Beryl died aged 92 in 1977. One year Nora said she would give up her bees. RF offered to help her if they kept one or two hives, and that's how he came to take over after Nora's death. He has been beekeeping ever since.
The taste of the honey depends largely on the plants visited by the bees. RF keeps his garden full of all kinds of shrubs that bees like, but they visit the nearby fields as well. You can certainly tell from the subsequent honey when the local farmers have been growing lots of rape.
The bees at 98 are not the only ones producing local honey. A much larger concern based at Swanage in Dorset manages a number of hives scattered around the south, among them some sited on the village outskirts, Tilshead side, on MoD land. The bees from these hives are much more likely to visit wild flowers than cultivated ones or crops, and the resulting honey has always been the most prized. If you want to try this honey, it is sold at Salisbury market on Longley's bacon and cheese stall and called Field honey. Field being the apt name of the people, not the place where the honey comes from. How you can tell which jars contain honey made in Chitterne is going to be a problem.
Monday 2nd August 2010 - Manor Sold
The Manor at Chitterne came under the auctioneer's hammer at Devizes on Thursday evening. I was not at the auction but I understand that it sold for about £750,000. The two barns and stable were not sold as they did not reach the reserve price. The two fields alongside the Hollow (the old road to Warminster) were bought by a local farmer for £88,000 and £50,000 respectively.
Wednesday 14th July 2010 - Dangers of DIY
The recent sunny weather persuaded D to tackle some DIY at the Round House. We have planning permission for a double garage, but D decided to ease himself gently into DIY mode by refurbishing the carport roof first. Above you see the half-finished result. He made a fine job of replacing some of the struts and cross-members and lining the interior of the roof with treated pine sarking, fitted diagonally. Next came the fitting of the underfelt, which was going well until disaster struck when he was pulling a length of underfelt into place. He misjudged the amount of roof behind him and walked backwards off the end and landed with a thud on the concrete path 10 feet below. I saw him land and the image of his back hitting the path is etched in my brain; it was just as if someone had dropped a sack of potatoes from a great height. Some time later he was airlifted to Salisbury District Hospital in the air ambulance after a stiff dose of morphine had finally allowed the medics to straighten his legs and get him onto the stretcher.
Its ironic isn't it that such an active bloke, who last summer cycled over the Alps for 8 days, should injure himself a few feet from his front door? For injured he is, with a shattered pelvis, 10 broken or cracked ribs and a broken collar bone. It was a small relief that his head and spine escaped injury. As it is he will be mending from the pelvic surgery for an estimated 6 months.
Before the accident we had arranged for the large area of patched and degraded concrete at the front of the house to be replaced by paving and the paving workers arrived 2 days later. The result is a much tidier front of house and completed underfelt on the carport roof. The paving men were shocked by the news of D and offered to finish that part of the job. People have been so kind to us.
D is still in Frenchay Hospital, Bristol, as I write this but due to be moved back to Salisbury any day.
PS D moved back to Salisbury Hospital today, 14th.
Saturday 3rd July 2010 - The Manor
Signs have appeared on the street advertising the auction of The Manor at the end of the month. This is the old manor house and farm of what was Chitterne St Mary. Chitterne All Saints had its own manor house, which stood on the present day sportsfield and is now gone, and a separate manor farm house.
The house, buildings and land are to be auctioned in 3 lots by Strakers in the Corn Exchange, Devizes on 29th July. The 17th century house is described as intact. The Wallis family who have lived there since about 1823 have preserved its integrity. What will become of it in the future is anybody's guess. The two large barns, also listed, and stable, are given as 'potential for conversion'. The street scene is bound to change I suppose, but, looking on the bright side, perhaps we will get a pavement at last.
Monday 28th June 2010 - Swopping with Ferdy
Yesterday it was village fete day and Ferdinand Mount, who had written the Guardian article about his childhood experience of elections in Chitterne, had been invited to open it this year. I was keen to meet him, since he wrote me that kind letter back in April, (see Blown Away 13th April blog). Who wouldn't? NH introduced us and we shook hands. He immediately said he had his copy of Chitterne, a Wiltshire Village in his car and would I sign it for him. I had thought to bring my copy of his Cold Cream to the fete for just the same purpose, but then had left it behind, so after the opening it was fetched and we had an exchange signing.
Saturday 19th June 2010 - The Monte Hospital Opens
Today new Chitterne residents R & LS threw open the doors of their company to the public at new premises at the Ginger Piggery, Boyton, in the Wylye Valley. The business goes by the name of The Monte Hospital Ltd. Where Monte refers to a classic Lancia car called the Monte Carlo, and Hospital refers to spare parts and advice for two rare cars: the Lancia Monte Carlo and the Lancia Scorpion. TMH serves a niche market as only 1500 Monte Carlos still exist and according to the website www.montehospital.com this is the only outlet that caters for their needs.
As RS said: "A new rare breed has arrived at the Ginger Piggery." The Ginger Piggery breeds rare Tamworth pigs so The Monte Hospital fits right in, not exactly breeding cars but making sure they continue to run. We might add that a pair of new entrepreneurs have arrived in Chitterne, to join the many others who already live here. What would all those old farming families in the past have made of that?!
Wednesday 16th June 2010 - Chitterne House Query
An interesting query popped up in my email folder yesterday. It came from an fine art gallery in York. They asked if I could identify a house pictured in an early 19th century watercolour painting they were researching. It was not immediately obvious from the painted image which house this was. But there were other clues including an old label on the back of the frame which stated that it was the residence of the Rev. William Bond of Tyneham when he was rector of Chitterne. That statement threw me a little because as far as I am aware there have never been rectors at Chitterne, only vicars and curates. Another clue on the back was a sale advert for the house from about the 1920s they guessed. This was lucky as it included a small photograph which I could identify as the back view of Chitterne House.
From my notes I discovered that William Bond lived in Chitterne in the 1790's, at least, his children were baptised here between 1795 and 1799. He had married Jane Biggs from nearby Stockton in 1794. Chitterne House was still owned by the Michell family at that time so William and family must have rented it from them. Richard Hayward bought the Chitterne House estate from the Michells later, in 1830.
The happy conclusion to this tale is that V and RP have purchased the painting from the York gallery, so it will shortly return whence it came.
Comment: 08/07/2010, I've seen the watercolour now and nowhere on the old label does it mention "rector". It says William Bond was curate at Chitterne. Another much smaller label identifies the picture as having been part of the late Laura Ashley's collection. SR
Tuesday 8th June 2010 - Kneeler Project
A merry band of women are stitching new kneelers for our village church in honour of the 150th anniversary of its consecration on 4th November 1862. The idea is the brainchild of Sarah Gooch, and the beautiful designs, based on decoration in the church, have been worked out by Ann Moody. The colours are earthy: rusty reds, a deep gold and two blues, bringing medieval church decoration to mind. Last I heard there were 21 of us stitchers, including me.
I was unsure whether to stitch or not when first asked. Would a kneeler stitched by a non-believer be acceptable? It was, and when I saw the designs I very much wanted to join in.
Wednesday 2nd June 2010 - Ela and William Feature
Countess Ela of Salisbury, whose family held Chitterne after the Battle of Hastings until it was given to Lacock Abbey in 1246/47, and her husband William Longespee, the Earl of Salisbury, both feature in Elizabeth Chadwick's new book: To Defy a King. The book is set in the time of King John and spans the years from 1204 - 1218. The main character is Mahelt Marshall, eldest daughter of William Marshall, chief advisor to the king, who marries Hugh Bigod, half-brother of William Longespee. Longespee is also King John's half brother, they share the same father, Henry II, but whereas John's mother was Henry's wife, Longespee's mother was Henry's mistress Ida de Tosney who was also Hugh's mother.
Elizabeth Chadwick is famous for the meticulous research underlying her brilliantly evocative medieval novels. When researching William Longespee for an earlier book she discovered that his mother was Ida de Tosney, not Rosamund Clifford as previously thought, and kindly emailed me to tell me that the information on the Chitterne history pages was out of date. I was astounded to hear from one of my favourite authors and very grateful. Since reading this latest book, which I heartily recommend, I have updated the Ela pages once more. If you want to know what England would have been like in Ela's time, read the book.
Saturday 22nd May - Hastings
It's surprising where else in England you can find connections to Chitterne. I've just spent two days in Hastings in one of a row of six cottages named Trafalgar Cottages, supposedly built to house the widows of Naval Officers who died at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. Here in Chitterne the Round House supposedly commemorates that same battle. The cottages are in Old Town, Hastings, the original part, which in William the Conqueror's day had a good harbour. Not any longer; the harbour all but disappeared when 13th and 14th century storms altered the coastline. Today the town is a fishing and holiday centre with a famous line of tall black net-drying sheds at the landward edge of the shingle beach.
The cottage was very quaint, with tiny rooms on three floors connected by the narrowest stairs I have ever seen in a house. The cottages were built at right angles to the road, clinging to the side of the valley. We could reach the centre of Old Town in the bottom of the valley by negotiating a series of narrow stepped passageways between, and sometimes under, similar tightly-packed houses. From the hill above Trafalgar Cottages you could see right across Old Town, to the far side of the valley and the remains of King William's castle. An incredible vista of mis-matched dwellings, each house joined to the next but differing from it, in colour, size or roof material.
Hastings Castle is a ruin. Half of it has fallen into the sea or been pushed off the cliff by the 19th century entrepreneurs who caused Pelham Crescent to be built below. Except for the nearness to the sea, the castle has the same feeling about it as Old Sarum, which isn't surprising since they were contemporary. As with Old Sarum there was a motte and bailey castle at Hastings before the stone version. The Normans built many hundreds of castles in Britain all told, but Hastings was one of the first.
A very large group of students chattering away in French added an authentic atmosphere. Apparently they arrive in droves and study the castle and battle as part of their own history. All the descriptive plaques dotted about the site were in French and English. As the only two native English speakers present, except for the wardens, it was a bit deja vue. I was also reminded of Lacock Abbey where French was spoken until the dissolution, and its connection to our own village.
Sunday 16th May - William Titt's Wild Oats
After sterling work trawling through the Chitterne baptisms, JIR has put forward a theory that explains a conundrum concerning the many children attributed to William Titt in Chitterne around 1820-1840. JIR has identified William as the son of William Titt, the blacksmith, and Diane Cabel, who lived on the Green, Chitterne. He was born in Chitterne in 1805 and later became a master in the art of sowing wild oats.
The other characters in the drama are: Jane Carter born 1805; William's cousin Emma Feltham, nee Grant, born 1804; her husband John Alexander Feltham born 1803; and Mary Ann Andrews born 1807 at Knook, William's wife.
From a young age William had a relationship with Jane Carter which produced three children: Maria, Emma and Susanna. While Jane was pregnant with their last child Susanna, born 1832, William consorted with his cousin Emma Grant who it is assumed had by this time, been deserted by her husband, John Alexander Feltham, with whom she had one child, Mary Ann born 1824. Emma gave birth to William's child, another Susanna, in 1833. Both Susannas were born in Chitterne so Jane and Emma must have been aware of each other and that William was the father of their children, because William's relationship with Jane ended here. But were they aware that William had also been busy elsewhere?
Nearby, in the tiny, but aptly named, village of Knook, lived Mary Ann Andrews who gave birth to another of William's Children, Walter, in 1832 at Salisbury. This relationship stuck, the two married and Mary Ann went on to have nine more children. After the first three the couple moved to Maddington, and presumably William settled down.
Jane Carter, no longer with William, went on to have a fourth child, Isaac, with John Everley.
Emma Feltham died in 1836. Her daughter Susanna was brought up by grandparents John & Ann Grant. She was the great-great-great grandmother of JIR's wife.
Wednesday 5th May - New Play Equipment
The new play equipment purchased by the Parish Council with grant money has been installed in the sportsfield, and is already being well-used by the young of Chitterne. Some grown-up children have had a go too. Here are some pictures.
Today, I could hardly believe it but I heard that some villagers don't approve and think the equipment unsightly. What planet are they inhabiting?
Well chosen say I to the Parish Councillors. It looks good, does the job and is a great addition to the facilities in the sportsfield.
Tuesday 20th April - Less Ducks, More Pigs and Lambs
Nature in the raw. The Cut and the duck family are dwindling, but the Jacobs lambs have arrived at Manor Farm and piglets abound at Pig Paradise.
Tuesday 13th April - Blown Away
On Saturday, unbeknown to me, an article appeared in the Guardian Review section which included a fascinating reminiscence by Ferdinand Mount on elections in Chitterne years ago (he lived here at the Old Malthouse). This morning I was amazed to receive a hand-written letter from him, praising the Chitterne book and modestly confessing that he had "pillaged it ruthlessly for a little political reminiscence I did for the Guardian." He went on: "I was very cross to see that they (the Guardian) had cut the line referring to Chitterne's 'splendid local historian Sue Robinson'" Well, you could have knocked me down with a feather!!
Thinking that I needed to share this good news with the publisher of the book I phoned him and announced myself, whereupon he said: "Well, not 10 minutes ago I posted you a cutting about Chitterne from Saturday's Guardian. I expected to see your name credited somewhere." I said: "that's exactly what I'm ringing you about, I've just had a letter from Ferdinand Mount," and I proceeded to read it to him. He was blown away too, and urged me to add his congratulations on the article to my own when I replied to the letter.
I will reply, when I've landed safely back on earth, and I'll be telling Mr Mount just how much I enjoyed his wonderful book 'Cold Cream' (see 9 July 2009 blog) and how we're now square because I pillaged his words to add to my notes on Chitterne in the old days.
Comment: Wow that was a near miss to fame, shame as it would have been a lovely endorsement of your work. Typical Grauniad to drop off the important bit.. I didn't read the article till your blog pointed it out, I usually turn straight to the book reviews section, tho I did notice the sweet picture that accompanied it. Having read the article now, it is also very sweet and an excellent historical memory and one the village will treasure, along with your book. gg
Sunday 11th April - Elm Farm Toll Booth
The new tenants at Elm Farm have taken an interest in the history of the house and come up with a solution to the old problem of where Chitterne's tolls were collected in the days of the turnpike road. Their findings have tidied up a loose end that was left over after I'd proved that the Round House was never a toll house as described in the listed building notes. Thanks to R and LS another piece has been slotted in to the village history jigsaw puzzle, and in a very ingenious way.
Using an old photo of the White Hart junction in Chitterne, on which a bit of Elm Farm appears, and a new photo taken from the same place and angle, RS has demonstrated his theory about the toll booth site. With a part of the old photo superimposed onto the the new one it's easy to see what he means: that the thatched roof just visible behind the Elm Farm garden wall on the old photo was in fact the roof of the toll booth. To see more pictures and read the full story go to: the Amesbury Turnpike page on chitterne.com
Friday 9th April - Duckling Dozen
This week a mother duck was spotted carefully leading her new brood upstream on the Cut. She didn't want them photographed and kept hiding them under the various village bridges, but they were snapped eventually near Manor Farm bridge.
Comment: Duckling dozen dwindling, on 12th April DR spotted 9 ducklings.
Tuesday 20th April: LS reports one duck and six ducklings were up our end of the cut this morning.......but DR counted 8 later same day
Thursday 25th March - Deep Connections
In the course of updating the Round House History website I added a new page on the origin of the house and more information on the "round end" page. The reasons for adding a Regency style extension to a plain little cottage has nagged at me for a while. The wet weather gave me the perfect excuse to look into it. Locally the Round House is said to have been made the way it is to satisfy the need of a sea-faring man for a ship-shaped house. I already knew that the round end had been added about 1814/15, when Charles Morris, ex-seafarer, took over the house lease.
I started looking. It was one of those research days when everything fell into place. I discovered that architects in the Regency period were very keen on using the new cement based stucco rendering to create follies, mock castles and anything circular. The same article pointed out that it was also the time of the "Nelson Cult" which "permeated every aspect of Regency life" - Bingo. Charles Morris was said by some to have served with Nelson at Trafalagar, although this has never been proved, in fact he appears to have been dismissed from the Navy, but that doesn't stop him being a fan of the dead hero.
I wasn't sure, then or now, if a lease-holder would be allowed to add a large extension to the property he or she was leasing. Or would it be up to the owner of the house to undertake major alterations? This is the only part that was unclear. So I thought to check on what the owner might like. The owner in 1814/15 was Paul Cobb Methuen of Corsham. I found this great portrait of him by Joshua Reynolds, handsome looking chap, not sure about the satin garb though...and discovered he was a patron of John Nash one of the Regency architects most famous for the aforementioned follies etc. So that settled it in my mind.
But the "roll" didn't end there. The icing on the cake was Paul Cobb Methuen's wife. She turns out to have been the daughter of the 3rd Baronet of Benacre Hall, ancestor of our own resident 14th Baronet! Just goes to show, as I always said, Chitterne connections run deep, very, very deep.
Saturday 20th March - Lark Rise Found
This week a second person mentioned Lark Rise to Candleford in the same breath as the Chitterne book, so as Lark Rise had passed me by, I thought I'd better get a copy and read it for myself. Sure enough, even within the first four pages, so many similarities jumped out at me it was uncanny. I suppose the mention of the use of 'housen' for the plural of house; the turnpike road; strings of horses being exercised; most of the folk working on the land etc., which appear in both books, go with the territory. After all Oxfordshire is not that far from Wiltshire, but what really got me were the identical metaphors. The description of cornfields 'rippling' like a 'sea of dark gold' was the first. I'm not sure if I used this metaphor in the book but it's certainly on the home page of the Chitterne website and has been for the past 9 years. Second, the description of one cottage as 'turning its back on its neighbours' which is how I've described Chitterne Lodge. Very weird.
Yesterday I heard from CG about a meet-up she had with never-before-met near relatives as a result of an introduction I'd facilitated. NC had called at the Round House a week or so back to buy my book, and to ask about the Found family. Along with a copy of the book I'd given him a copy of my database notes on the Founds and mentioned CG in the village, who's mother was a Found. He said he'd like to meet her so I rang her later - why didn't I do this when he was here? I'm such a dimbo, it just didn't occur to me - and gave him her phone number. This was the meeting CG was talking about. NC had come up from Southampton with his mother and sister to visit her the previous day and they had all enjoyed the exchange very much. CG said she could tell they were Founds the moment she met them and she was amazed at the resemblance between NC and her grandfather, which she could point out with the help of her old family photographs. They had much to discuss as CG had spent her childhood in Southampton and she was able to tell them about more mutual relatives in Southampton they had never met. This news just rounded off my week nicely.
Friday 12th March - Two Burials and Too Many Orams
Two unusual Chitterne burials have been discovered at the History Centre by DW and kindly sent to me. The first burial was that of Thomas Morgan, a claydigger, who it appears was killed when the clay pit he was digging in collapsed on him in 1711. This is interesting because it's the first example of a record of someone actually digging clay at Chitterne. In case you haven't read the story on my history pages or in my book, briefly it goes like this: There is an unusual deposit of very fine white clay on the top of one of the local chalk hills, now known as Clay Pit Hill. In the 17th century this clay was found to be excellent for making tobacco pipes and in 1651 the lord of the Manor of Chitterne St Mary licenced the digging of 30 wagon loads of it for just that purpose. So, 50 years later, here we have Thomas Morgan losing his life in the course of digging clay possibly for pipe manufacturers at Amesbury. Thomas' body was brought down and buried in the graveyard at Chitterne St Mary on 2nd November 1711.
The second unusual burial discovered in the records by DW is that of little Mary Tibbs on 20th March 1767. Mary's burial is unusual because her body was buried in someone else's grave, that of Samuel Sainsbury, landlord of the White Hart, at the same time as his body was interred. This happened sometimes in those days when the family of the deceased was too poor to pay for a separate burial. Mary Tibbs' mother was a widow so this was most probably the reason for burying her child in another's grave at Chitterne St Mary.
DW is still hot on the trail of James Oram's origins. See previous blogs: 8th & 19th Feb. Searches of local records for Maddington, Imber, Heytesbury, Bishopstrow, Codford St Peter, Codford St Mary, Upton Lovell, Upton Scudamore and Norton Bavant proved fruitless. However, a search of Upavon records gave the opposite result! DW found these possible candidates, James Orams were baptised at Upavon in:
1709 son of James and Susannah
1713 son of James
1723 son of Thomas and Jane
1735 son of William
1748 son of Roger and Susannah
A surfeit of James Orams! At least it looks as though he has found the area where our James originated. History research really is glorified detective work.
Monday 8th March - Little Lambs
This settles it. Spring lambs have arrived and the sun has been shining for a few days so dare we hope that winter is over? These lambs, at first quite unconcerned with the camera, suddenly took to their heels - do lambs have heels - took to their hooves and scampered off after Mum.
One little lamb is blissfully unaware of the camera, with eyes closed, face lifted, it basks in heat of the spring sunshine. We all know how that feels after such a winter as we've had.
Friday 5th March - Nesting Humans
You know Spring is really here when the birds start nesting. The same thing applies to humans, at least it seems that way in the village as various building projects get underway. At Townsend The Red House is undergoing a facelift before its new occupants move in later this month. G and K aren't new to Chitterne but they must have been fiercely tugged by that old Chitterne magnetism that keeps drawing people back because they only left last year. It's good to see them back again.
In Back Road the conversion of some old Chitterne Farm buildings into a bungalow is gathering pace. The foundations are about to be built upon.
This week another site notice was spotted in Back Lane, for a three-bedroomed detached house and double garage to be built on land behind the church. A plan of the proposed dwelling names the architect as B. Wyatt, which immediately alerted my fascination for coincidences, as a T.H. Wyatt was the architect of the church itself.
At our end of the village work has started at last on the new farm manager's house for Valley Farm.
Of course with the news that The Manor is to be sold comes the thought that much bigger projects may be just over the horizon. It's as if everyone has come out of hibernation; it must be the sun. D has had 3 requests for CAD work in as many days and I can see that I shall soon have to modify my map of dwellings mentioned last blog.
Good news for Chitterne folk: Ocado are now delivering to our area.
PS: The powers that be saw fit to refuse permission for the house in Back Lane. Shame, when new homes are so much needed and it was only one house after all.
PPS I understand that new houses are not to be encouraged in Chitterne because we have no facilities and would therefore have to drive to shop; visit the doctor, dentist etc.