The Bishop Tanner Christmas Coal Charity

Amongst documents recently passed to the museum are papers concerning a number of charities. Here we see the accounts of one charity for 1907 – the Christmas Coal Charity funded by Bishop Tanner. The Bishop was the son of a Vicar of Market Lavington and became the Vicar of St Asaph in Wales.

Here are the accounts.

Coal charity accounts – 1907

 

We can see that 120 hundredweight of coal was distributed amongst 68 parishioners at a cost of £7-10-0. Of this just a pound came from the old charity with most of the rest being from the offertory on Christmas day. The Vicar put a shilling in the pot

What we think is lovely is that the people who benefited from this charity are listed.

Recipients of the coal charity – 1907

There are many familiar local names here receiving one, two or three hundredweights of coal.

Advertisement

Jack Merritt – reservist soldier

We have often featured photos of soldiers from elsewhere in the UK who were on training camps at Pond Farm. Today we are looking at a card sent by a Market Lavington man from his summer training camp down in Dorset.

The picture shows some of the camp at West Lulworth.

Wiltshire volunteers at camp at West Lulworth in 1907

We can see the year was 1907 and no doubt our writer, Jack Merritt, was amongst the men shown.

Of course the message and address are interesting to us in this case.

The message side – the card was sent to Mrs J H Merritt of the Cycle Depot in Market Lavington

We can see the card was posted to Mrs J H Merritt of the Cycle Depot in Market Lavington

We imagine Jack was her husband although people have oft referred to him as Johnny.

The message is very much about very ordinary matters.

The message is simple news about life in the camp. We can’t quite make out the salutation – Dear who? Jack’s wife was called Annie so it looks like a pet name.

We like these little personal tales at the museum. We get an insight into a man who had a long life and was best known for being the local prize band leader.

 

Paying James Neate

Today we look at another of the bills paid by Holloways of West Lavington. This time the recipient of money was James Neate.

Receipted bill paid to James Neate of Market Lavington by Holloways of West Lavington

We can see that James Neate established his business in Market Lavington in 1852. We understand he came to Market Lavington on the strength of a proposed railway line. The line never materialised, but James weathered some financial storms and became well established in Lavington as a brewer, wine and spirit merchant and Maltster.

We see he also traded in cigars and worked as an insurance agent.

It has to be said we do not fully understand this receipted invoice for the half share of a fence at the back of the stores in West Lavington.  This might suggest that James had business interests in our neighbouring village.

If we consider the address we note James was at ‘The Brewery’ in Market Lavington. James and family lived at The Red House on High Street. The brewery was behind that and the sales outlet from the brewery was at a little pub called The Brewery Tap which was on White Street (Market Lavington).

As ever it is interesting to note that traders like James had to cope with substantial time delays before bills were paid.  This one is dated 1906 and maybe the Ap.  Means April. James received his money on 2^nd March 1907 so perhaps for almost a year he had to make do without his rightful £1-17-7½.

In present day terms it sounds a trifling amount but in terms of earnings, that 1906 amount of money equates to about £1000 today. It was a load of money!

By the way, several of our James Neate items can be seen at present in Salisbury Library as a part of the Dusty Feet exhibition.

A mystery football team

How we’d love to be able to tell you more about this group of young men who formed a football team.

Unknown football team in 1906/7. This postcard is at Market Lavington Museum

Our records just say, ‘Postcard: Market Lavington Football Club’

Well we can do better than that but we can also cast some doubt on the truth of the record.

There’s the ball. We are not certain whether the top line says ‘FSB’ or ‘F&B but the rest is clear. It’s a football club and the year was 1906-7.

Maybe the back of the card can give a little extra. It has a name on it.

Apart from the post card information and our museum code numbers, it has the name Mr C Coleman of Easterton written on.

At the time in question there were two Mr C Colemans living in Easterton – actually, both were Charles.

One was a baker on High Street born in about 1869 so in his late 30s when the photo was taken. The other was a tad older – in his early 40s in 1906/7. He was a carter on a farm.

Yet again, we appeal for help. Can anybody name any of the players? Can anybody tell us which Mr Coleman and how he was involved? Can anybody tell us which football club is shown?

 

A Memo from Robert Wadman

Robert Wadman was a farmer in Market Lavington. The 1881 census records Robert with his wife Sarah and 17 year old son, William as living on White Street where Robert farmed 750 acres employing fifteen men and eight boys. The 1891 censuses record Robert and Sarah as living, still, on White Street with Robert as a farmer. By 1901, Robert was a widower. Sarah had died in 1893.

But Robert and his family came, originally, from Somerset. Robert had been born in 1827 at South Cheriton. Sarah came from Bath.

In 1861 Robert had been a master cabinet maker in Bath where he employed 28 men and 12 boys.

The move to Wiltshire came at some time after 1864. For the 1871 census Robert, Sarah and family were at Eastcott where Robert had a farm employing 26 men, 12 boys and 8 women on the 1100 acres.

The memo we have dates from 1907 so Robert was about 80. It was sent to Whatley and Co of Pewsey and is therefore of interest to our friends at the Pewsey Heritage Centre which is based in the former Whatley building.

Memo from Robert Wadman of Market Lavington to Whatley and Co of Pewsey

The memo reads:

Dear Sirs

I have you this day and beg to say that I will send my men on Monday if you will please get up steam and put on coal for them to come home and I oblige

Yours faithfully

Robt Wadman

We’ll try to read meaning into that brief message. It sounds as though Robert Wadman had a traction engine and perhaps it had been at Whatley’s for repair. Robert was going to send some of his workforce to collect it.

We know very little of the Wadmans, but they have featured on this blog before when visiting Stonehenge. Click here to see that page

Robert lived until 1920. He joined Sarah in Market Lavington church yard.

A Much Travelled Leaf

We have featured items which belonged to the Baker family before. John Baker was a tin smith and trader, living and working in the property opposite the Co-op and next to Woodland Yard. He and his wife raised a family there in Victorian times and this  leaf shaped dish was a part of their life in those late Victorian days.

This dish has travelled by land, sea and air from Market Lavington to Canada and back.

There is little to say about the dish. It is clearly leaf shaped and decorated in the blue and white style. The picture depicts a man with his dog. How the Baker family used it, we don’t know. Neither do we know anything regarding the manufacturer or the actual age of the dish. It’s a small dish – about 15 centimetres long.

But it was clearly valued. After John Baker died in 1903, some members of the family decided to emigrate to Canada and the dish went with them – in 1907.

Canada was where the dish stayed for the next 87 years. It was given to the museum in 1994 by a family member on a return visit to the old homeland.

As an interesting thought, when the Baker family emigrated, this dish would have travelled by train and ocean liner. On its return it travelled by aircraft and road transport. So the leaf is well travelled by variety as well as by distance.

By the way, our curator hates the springs and clips that have been used to mount this dish. This method of fastening can cause chipping to the vulnerable edge of china ware.  But it has been like it since 1994 and it may have been like it before – back in Canada. Any new donations of items like this will not be treated in this way, however.