Cow and piglet

We have posted this photo once before on this blog – a charming shot of a cow suckling a piglet.

A cow suckles a piglet in Easterton

 

When we published this back in 2013 we reported what we had been told – that this was Frank Potter’s cow. A small news cutting has been given to the museum which tells us where the piglet came from.

News item to accompany the picture

So it seems that the piglet belonged to Ron Kyte of Easterton and it was his aunt, Mrs Agnes Maddick who spotted what was going on but thought the piglet was a little dog worrying the cow.

It is a delightful photo and, dated by the news article to 1950.

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A Golden wedding in 1950

If you are around 65 now you were born in the year this couple celebrated their Golden Wedding anniversary. This report, about Mr and Mrs George Ellis of Market Lavington was published in the Wiltshire Gazette and Herald on July 20^th 1950. This means, of course, they married in 1900. Queen Victoria was on the throne then.

Mr and Mrs George Ellis celebrated their Golden Wedding in 1950

That’s the photo – now the accompanying article.

News article about the couple

Of note is that George Ellis went to work for Samuel Saunders jam factory in Market Lavington in 1895. This was a precursor of the much larger enterprise in Easterton founded by Samuel Moore. Where the article suggests he stayed with Samuel Saunders for 52 years it seems likely he’d actually have been working for Samuel Moore.

His wife, the former Elizabeth Rickson hailed from Surrey but she had a servant’s job for Samuel Saunders’ sister at Hawthorns in Market Lavington.

Cemetery lane, where the newlyweds lived is what we now call Drove Lane. Their more recent home at 8 New Road is what we more usually call The Muddle.

The couple’s three daughters all worked at the Devizes flax factory during the Second World War. That’s a reminder of the need to be self-reliant in all materials during the time of conflict.

So well done to Mr and Mrs Ellis and also to the local newspaper for publishing the article.

A School Photo

School photos can be a bit of a nightmare for us. Many people have them and they tend to be undated and uncaptioned. We were recently given this one.

A Market Lavington school photo from about 1950

We think this dates from about 1950.  It shows a class of 38 pupils with their teacher who is Mrs Sybil Perry.

We are fairly sure we recognise family likenesses in this picture but as yet we have no names for students.

Are you in this picture? Can you name any pupils?

We did very well getting the names of the similar date photo of customers at The Green Dragon.

Perhaps, in a few days, we’ll come back to this photo with people named.

Here’s hoping!

Bell ringers of 1950

Bell ringing still goes on in Market Lavington but today we are looking at a slightly reduced team from 1950. There are six bells in the tower at St Mary’s and here we see five ringers taking a rest just outside the church.

Market Lavington bell ringers of 1950

Back then bell ringing seemed to be very much a male preserve and here we see a collection of men who seem a bit overdressed for the exertions associated with ringing. One chap has dispensed with the tie but perhaps it is the jacket which seems a singularly unsuitable garment for ringing.

The captioning for this image is another one that is not as good as it might be. The person on the left is just given the name Bailey. Then we have Jack Saxton and Tom Gye is sitting on the fence. Next is Melville Bailey and Bert Shore is on the right. He was married to Flo Burbidge who had been born (back in 1908) in our museum building.

Tom Gye was still ringing into the 21^st century.

Just for the record here’s the team with some from Potterne at ringing the bells in November 2014.

Bell ringers at Market Lavington – November 2014

 

A shopping basket

Baskets are something of a speciality at our museum. Market Lavington’s Mullings family were in place making baskets of all sorts and sizes for three generations. There had been an earlier generation before, possibly based in Easterton. We now know the family were in fact widespread across the south of England with basket makers and reed growers in London and East Anglia. Our branch had originated more locally, in Devizes.

What we are going to see today is a ‘modern’ basket, made by Sid Mullings, the last in the line of Lavington basket makers. This shopping basket probably dates from around 1950 – so actually it’ll be 65 next year and due its pension!

Shopping basket made by Sid Mullings of Market Lavington in about 1950 and given to Market Lavington Museum by his daughter.

The basket looks as good as new.  Maybe it was kept especially for the person who gave it to the museum, back in 1996, was Sid Mulling’s daughter, Margery. It reminds us that this particular craft of the countryside was alive and kicking well into days of living memory.

We would, of course, like to thank Margery and all others who kindly donate things to the Market Lavington Museum.

Easterton Street

Ah yes! Times past in Easterton Street! It all looks so quiet and peaceful.

Easterton Street in about 1950

Those of us who regularly need to get through Easterton by car will marvel at the absence of parked cars.  There’s certainly no need for traffic calming measures in Easterton these days. The parked cars make sure that traffic has to be slow moving – and that, of course, is no bad thing. Most street side cottages do not have any off road parking so these days there are always cars parked along the left hand side of the street as we look at it.

There are various clues we can use in trying to date a photo like this, which comes with no caption. The first thing to notice is a total lack of TV aerials. This almost certainly dates the photo to pre-1953. It was the televising of the coronation in that year that really launched the mass TV era.

Secondly, there is a car in the photo. It’s a distant one, way down at the far end of the street.

The one and only car is in the distance

It isn’t clear enough for us to identify but it has a late 1940s look to it. So maybe we should date the photo to about 1950

The house immediately on the left is The Homestead and that still looks much the same today. It has that steeply pitched roof which is a tell-tale sign of thatch being used in the past. In fact, the whole street looks instantly recognisable as Easterton.

Thanks to Eric and Pat for getting this photo to us.

Football – 1955/56

Back in July 2012 we posted a photo of the 1949/50 football team who had clearly won a cup and along with it we had Bill Elisha’s notes. We couldn’t recognise the players so I’ll invite people to look again by clicking here and letting us know who is in that photo.

We have just been given another photo of a football team. Diane, who gave it to us, knows her father is in it. We think this photo could date from the 1955/56 season. It shows not only the team but also a crowd of supporters – men, women and children.

Market Lavington and Easterton United Football Club and supporters – 1955/56

The stand behind the people says T. T. Football Club. We guess this is Trowbridge Town.

The two people we can name on the photo are Lavington and Easterton Football Club chairman, Bill Elisha…

Bill Elisha

…and Diane’s father, Gilbert Jenks

Gilbert Jenks

Can anybody name any others? We’ll enlarge them a bit to help identification.

 

Market Lavington Cubs

Today we have a delightful photo of a very smart looking set of cub scouts believed to date from around 1950. We don’t know the occasion, but there seems to be a ratio of one adult for each cub, so one hopes it was a well organised affair.

Market Lavington cubs and leaders in about 1950

We can name many of the people so let’s start with the adults from left to right.

Felix Travis, Percy Webb, Joan Ellis, Nan Pearce, Fran Francis, Jean Potter, not known and Don Baker.

The boys are, also from left to right, Brian Cook, not known, Roy Chapman, not known, Robin Tucker, Ray Pollard, Malcolm Little and Philip Francis.

You probably have enough to do in the run up to Christmas but if you happen to know any of the people in this photo that we haven’t identified then please spare a couple of minutes to let us know.

Broadwell Snow

There is nothing unusual about snow as winter turns into spring. Even so, we felt a bit cheated by quite a lot of poor weather, including snow during March. But take heart. It wasn’t this bad.

Actually we don’t have a date for this. It may have been in the deep mid-winter.  The year, though, was 1950. Our photographer was standing close by Broadwell. The house behind the youngsters is Beech House and the reason for that name is visible behind the house. There used to be big beech trees in the back garden. We looked at felling in progress before. Click here.

The bad weather of March 2013 won’t go down as memorable. True there was a lot of snow falling (this was on the 17^th March).

Heavy snow in Market Lavington on 17th March 2013

But barely any snow settled – there’s just a little on the church roof and that soon went.

Market Lavington church on 17th March 2013. The snow really didn’t settle.