A brickyard hut

There were all sorts of buildings at the brick works, down on Broadway. Today we look at one of them which, when the photo was taken, began to look like a bit of a tumbledown hut. But it was a hut with history.

The Aerodrome Hut at Market Lavington Brick Yard in 1958. Prior to 1922 this had been at the Stonehenge Aerodrome

This hut was known as ‘The Aerodrome Hut’. This may seem an unlikely name.

It was acquired, by the brickworks in 1922. It had been (perhaps) an aeroplane hangar at the Stonehenge airfield. The photo itself dates from 1958 which is long after the brickworks closed.

Although the back of the photograph says this was a hangar, it looks rather small. Is there anybody out there who can tell us any more about original uses for the hut or, indeed, what our own local brickworks used it for?

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Four young Gyes

It is not surprising that we have quite a lot of Gye memorabilia at Market Lavington Museum. The Gyes were a prominent local factory and would have had the interest, inclination and money to be involved, one way or another, with photography. There is a goodly collection of Gye photos going back well into the nineteenth century.

However, today’s charming family snapshot dates from the 1920s and shows a little collection of children.  They are four of the children of Joseph Edward Gye and his wife Ethel who lived on White Street and ran the many faceted building, carpentry, smithing etc. business from the area now known as Gye’s Old Yard.

The four youngsters are, Ena Gye at the back, Bessie Gye on the left, Sally Gye on the right and young Tom Gye astride the horse.

Four young Gyes of Market Lavington

Tom was born in 1920 (and still lives on White Street) and that helps us to date the photo to around 1922.

The Gye family were well blessed with quality toys, no doubt made by dad or members of the work force. The wooden horse looks solid and dependable.

The scene around is very much of the era. Buckets were absolute household essentials. Gathering water from Broadwell would still have been a major task when the photo was taken. The bucket in shot looks to be enamelled which would be easy to keep clean for drinking water. Almost hidden alongside is a second bucket which may be galvanised and more suited to water not intended for human consumption.

The children, of course, look just as happy as the children of today although we doubt that modern children would look content in the boots and sandals that these young ones are wearing.

Florence Eldin

Florence Eldin, daughter of a butcher who held the shop which is now Dowse the butchers, has been mentioned before on this blog. Click here for that posting.

We know that Florence was born about 1893 in Cambridgeshire and moved to Market Lavington when her father took over the butchery business.

She was in her 50s when she married George O’Reilly in 1945, a marriage which lasted just three years before George died. He was quite a bit older than her.

Florence herself died in 1973 but that length of life might have seemed unlikely back in 1922.

Extract from the Market Lavington tuberculosis reporting book

As we can see, it was in that year she was diagnosed with pulmonary tuberculosis.

This could explain her absence from the village in 1926. She is not on the electoral register for that year.

At Market Lavington Museum we have quite a substantial record book, kept in accordance with the Tuberculosis Regulations of 1911. Our book, we should be thankful to say, received very little use.

 

Another charabanc in Salisbury

Today we look at another of the many charabanc photos we have at Market Lavington Museum.

Fred Sayer had a substantial fleet of vehicles, based in Market Lavington and he ran trips to all sorts of tourist destinations during the 1920s. If trips were heading to the seaside they were almost bound to pass through Salisbury where a ‘comfort break’ was made. An enterprising photographer took photos of the party on the outward journey and had prints for sale on the return. So, as per usual, the location is Salisbury but certainly quite a few of the people come from Lavington.

A Charabanc carrying Market Lavington people photographed in Salisbury in about 1922

The driver, in white coat and cap is Percy Notton and amongst those on the vehicle we have Ivy Pomeroy, Jack Plank, W Trotter senior,  Harry Merritt, Mrs Gye and baby Tom Gye and also Mrs Ross and her son.

Standing by the bus we have Joe Gye and Charles Ross.

The charabanc is a Commer Car and has a registration, partly hidden by the starting handle of A? 9868.

The photo can be dated by the age of Tom Gye, the baby, to about 1922 or 23.

As ever, any tales about these people, or identities of others in the photo would be very welcome.

A Market Lavington Christmas card in 1922

A Happy Christmas to all our readers who celebrate this event – and here’s hoping all those that don’t celebrate have a really good day as well.

In the UK we have a long tradition of sending cards at Christmas and today we are going to look at a Market Lavington card from over 90 years ago. It takes the form of a standard postcard.

A Christmas Card from Market Lavington sent in 1922

The card is one of those generic ones, over-stamped with ‘From Market Lavington’ and with a photograph stuck on. The photo is of a wintry scene – probably not in Market Lavington.

However, we assume a Market Lavington shop sold such cards and this one was posted in Market Lavington on 23^rd December 1922.

A Market Lavington postmark for December 23rd 1922

The name Fericker seems not to be correct since nobody of that name actually seems to exist. Chapmanslade, where the card went, is between Westbury and Frome.

The message doesn’t say all that much and certainly seems very formal by today’s standards.

The message. ‘Dear B’ was wished a pleasant time.

Miss Fericker appears to be ‘B’. Here’s hoping she did have a pleasant time and that the weather improved so that Uncle could get over to see her. Unless Uncle was a driver in 1922/23, he was not in for an easy journey. With one change of train he could get to Dilton Marsh – Chapmanslade was a part of that parish but it would still have been a three mile walk to Chapmanslade.

Of course, if anyone can identify who sender and recipient were, we’d be delighted to hear from them. That could be a little Christmas present to us at Market Lavington Museum.