Chitterne is a remote village on Salisbury Plain. Having lived there for 30 years and spent a lot of that time researching its history Sue Robinson has produced the first modern history of her adopted home. The result is an excellent and informative book, clearly and engagingly written, that is a pleasure to read, and maintains the consistently high standard we have come to expect from John Chandler’s Hobnob Press. In fact it is a history of two parishes, Chitterne All Saints and Chitterne St Mary, which have been moving inexorably closer together since their first tentative steps towards union in 1653 under an Act Concerning Marriages, Burials and Births.

Like most modern local historians Sue follows in the footsteps of an earlier enquirer. In the case of Chitterne it is Revd JT Canner, who collected much material in the early 20th century, which Sue omits to state, either through modesty or an oversight that she published in 2002. However whereas Canner was merely a collection of information, much from oral sources, that would otherwise not have survived, Sue has used this raw material and woven it into a full historical account, thus outstripping the efforts of her historical predecessor.

She too has drawn on oral sources to excellent effect, in particular the account of the school and Home Guard during WW2, which are the good examples of how anecdotes that have passed into village folklore have been preserved, probably just in time. The log books of Chitterne school are kept in the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre (WSHC) in the best conditions possible and should be preserved indefinitely. Recollections of former pupils would possibly only survive for their lives, if not recorded. They provide an important counterpoint to written (and thus, often official) sources. This is a lesson that is worth emphasising to local historians, at a time when members of the last generation of those bound to the soil are becoming fewer and fewer.

It is a measure of the fluent and unassuming style of the book that the chapter on the manorial descent, a subject necessary in such a work, albeit often rather dull, succeeds in holding the reader’s attention. Fortunately the eponymous manors of both parishes were held successively by two families, the Methuens of Corsham Court and the Longs of Rood Ashton, both with substantial archives in the WSHC.

In fact it is a pleasure for the reader, unfamiliar with the parish, to have such a sure and lucid guide through topics like local roads and tracks, farming and local trades, and the impact of the military. Such is the unobtrusiveness of the writing that the reader is surprised on completing each chapter at how much useful information has been absorbed.

The chapter entitled A Village Tour is particularly successful. It offers thumbnail accounts of the older properties in the village, and the changes they have undergone. A clear map leads the reader along the main street, although it might have been better if all the properties described were shown on the map. Street numbers and house names may change in following years and future readers might find it not so easy to identify some of them. A similar chapter on the farms is also treated to good effect, although here each property is marked on an accompanying map. This is followed appropriately by an account of village people, which is full of informative recollections and anecdotes.

The final chapter, Fun and Games, ends with a sentence about the excellence of the teas served by the cricket team, which ensure return visits from away players, and, I would guess, strong support of the home team. Sue’s book is the literary equivalent of such spreads, for both locals and visitors.
Steve Hobbs.