The Bell ringers of 77

Market Lavington is lucky enough still to have a team of ringers, albeit more are wanted to take up or return to this fun activity (our curator does it)

Sadly, none of the ringers of 1977 are still ringing in this area although one or two might ring elsewhere.

This photo recently turned up in a collection which our former archivist had. We think it is 1977 because many photos in the collection showed 1977 Silver Jubilee events. Maybe this team rang for that event.

Market Lavington bell ringers of 1977

From the left we have Johnathan Gye who, sadly, died far too early back in 2001. Next to him is a man we are not certain of, but we think he could be a son of Maurice Baker. Maurice is the man on the right and he died a couple of years ago. The third man from the left is Johnathan’s father, Tom Gye. He is still alive, but no longer ringing for he is well into his 90s. We marked him getting an award for 70 years ringing on this blog (click here).

We do not know the fourth man – the younger chap in blue but we think he may have come from the Plymouth area and may have been staying with Tom and Peggy Gye. Next, the fifth man, is Fred Davis. He was another man who died far too young, back in the 1980s. And then, as mentioned before we have Maurice Baker.

How good to have a picture of the ringers of that era, standing outside the tower door at St Mary’s

Advertisement

All the World’s a Stage

Today we have a photo from the same source as the one we showed yesterday – and its caption has some of the same problems.

A play within the church fete at Beech House, Market Lavington in about 1972

OK. It was 30^th June – but what year? There’s no doubt this was the garden of Beech House and on the left hand end we have Peggy Gye, the owner – yet to found our museum but as ever, closely involved in village activities.

Sad to say, we don’t recognise others in this photo so once again we are appealing for help. We think the year was 1972 (30^th June was a Friday that year) which means even the youngest child in the picture is well over 40 now.

Do get in touch if you can tell us more about the people or even what the play within the fete was about.

Sailing at Lavington

Sailing is a bit of unpromising activity in Market Lavington where our big stretches of water are the Broadwell and the privately owned lake at Clyffe Hall. But that didn’t stop Lavington School from building a sailing dinghy.

A dinghy built by pupils at Lavington School in about1972

The caption on this is not as useful as it could be. OK, it was 12^th March, but in which year? We think it was about 1972. We’ll forgive the missed r in Crystal – and hope that others will forgive us our many similar errors – but ‘The Crystal Palace’ was destroyed by fire long before this photo was taken.

We believe the teacher in the photo was Mike Copland. He taught history and is remembered as keen on sailing. We can’t name any of the youngsters who will, by now, be in their 50s if we have dated the photo about right.

We’d love to hear from anyone who can help us be sure with our date and who can name the people shown.

The view down Canada Rise

It probably hardly needs saying in this year which marks the centenary of the war supposed to end all wars, that Canada Rise derives its name from the fact that Canadian soldiers were billeted in that area back in 1914.

However, today we are looking at a 1970s view down the road.

The view down Canada Rise in the 1970s

It is almost amazing, now, to see that the thirty miles per hour speed limit for the village was so close in. This photo dates from forty years ago and at that time people who lived up Spin Hill on what was always quite a busy road could have cars racing past at any speed. These days the speed limit starts near the top of the hill.

The middle of the picture is dominated by what were then new dwellings on Bouverie Drive.

Bouverie Drive was a new area of housing 40 years ago.

Beyond Bouverie Drive we can see the tops of houses on the road out of the back of the Market Place.

The biggest change has occurred on the right of the photo.

This area is now part of the Grove Farm estate.

Back then, a gate led into an open field with a footpath which headed across to the church. The little Northbrook stream trickles through the lowest part of the field and there was a footbridge across it. The old barn on Parsonage Lane can be seen at the top of the hill leading up to the village centre.

In the 1990s, this open area became a part of the Grove Farm Estate so it is now filled with roads and housing. Back then we knew nothing of the Saxon remains that were found under that rise.

The Photographer’s Shop

Market Lavington no longer has a photographer’s shop – something it had for 100 years or so in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. We are pleased that a fairly recent photo of Peter Francis’s shop, which was on Church Street, has survived.

Peter Francis’s shop on Church Street, Market Lavington in about 1970

We are looking into a lost world here. The market for much of what was on sale (we don’t have an accurate date but estimate it at around 1970) has all but vanished. Photo albums fill the desk. These seem to be special occasions only items these days. Most people just post their thousands of images on a suitable website or just have them to view on their tablets – and it has to be said a tablet makes a very handy photo album. But we can pick out various items and just imagine a child saying, ‘Mummy, what is ….. ?’

Take this item.

Flashcubes? Weren’t they for use with instamatic cameras – the ones that tried to make it all very simple by having film in a cartridge?

And what’s developing and printing?

Yes that was when we used to use those strange lengths of a thing called film.

And cassettes? Ah yes, we used to be able to record sounds on them.

Digital photography and sound have more or less wiped out the competition in the last couple of decades. No wonder a village just can’t support a shop like this any more.

Look Back at Lavington

In 1973 there was no permanent museum in Market Lavington. But that was no hardship to doughty Peggy Gye. The old village school had closed and was replaced by new, big, St Barnabas School up on the sands. It made the Old School the ideal spot for an exhibition which Peggy called, ‘Look back at Lavington’.

The ammount of work Peggy must have done to mount this exhibition almost beggars belief. Transporting all her artefacts – presumably stored somewhere at her Beech House home was just a start. Labels needed producing, photographs needed mounting and then the whole lot needed to be attractively displayed. It was a mammoth undertaking.

Look back at Lavington exhibition in the Old School in 1973

This is a general view of one room – it gives an idea of how much Peggy managed to achieve.

And here is one corner in more detail.

This could be called the Gye’s Yard corner

There are items here that have made it to the permanent museum and also some which have not. But once again we can admire the drive and work done by Peggy to get this exhibition mounted.

A dozen years later, we got our permanent museum and life became much easier.

Market Lavington Garage

Market Lavington’s garage was built on The Spring so was known as ‘The Spring Filling Station’. It was run by E J Haines, sold Esso petrol and had an agency to sell Fiat cars. And here it is.

The Spring Filling Station, Market Lavington in the 1970s

We believe the garage opened around 1970 and this photo dates from the late 1970s.

Apart from the garage, we can see Spring Cottages under the Esso sign.

The garage, later, became Shires and had an agency for Seat cars.

By the year 2000 it had gone the way of many a village garage – swept into oblivion. The site is now Shires Close, a small housing estate. Cars can still be admirably serviced and repaired in the Lavingtons, but petrol is not available in the area. ‘You have to go to Tilshead for that’.

When keys get lost

St Mary’s Church in Market Lavington had a wall safe into which visitors could put donations or payments for items purchased. Unfortunately, many years ago, the key got lost.

When this was realised the safe was blocked off so no more money could get in.

Eventually, people had no idea when the safe was last opened and it was decided to remove it and break into it.

It must have been disappointing to find lots of coins which were no longer legal tender.

A decision was made to mount the coins in a frame and sell them at the 2013 church fete. This was not going to make the value of the lost coins, but it would add something to the church coffers. A purchaser then donated one frame full of worthless coins to the museum.

Demonetised coins found in the safe of St Mary’s Church, Market Lavington

Heads – we win with an interesting curio for Market Lavington Museum

Well that’s quite a display of the older bigger coins – 50p, 10p and 5p and even some of the old 6d coins which remained legal tender as 2½p until 1980.

This suggests that the safe has not been opened since 1980.

The newest coin dates from 1981

The newest coin is a 1981 50p. It would seem, then, that this little wall safe was closed off in 1981.

Of course, most of the coins are dated between 1968 and 1981. The country went decimal on 15^th February 1971 but the 50p, 10p and 5p coins appeared in 1968.

The 6d coins, though, are older.

 

A 1958 sixpence (6d) remained legal tender as 2.5p until 1980

This one dates from 1958.

It’s an interesting reminder of old coinage and also a reminder that it is a good idea NOT to lose keys.

Northbrook and Bouverie Drive – Then and Now

Our first photo was taken on the street called Northbrook in the 1970s.

Bouverie Drive from Northbrook, Market Lavington in the 1970s

It was a wet winter’s day and views are more open in winter. We can see Bouverie Drive very clearly in this view which shows Northbrook passing over the bridge across the stream of the same name before going up the hill to the Market Place.

Immediately on the left, the cartwheel on the fence was at a little bungalow called Meadow Side. The much extended home is still there. Sadly, the same cannot be said for the building off shot to the right – the Tudor Cottage where Tommy Burden once lived.

But it is the houses and bungalows of Bouverie Drive which dominate the scene. The houses look very new and, in particular, the gardens indicate very recent building. The only architectural features we see in the gardens are rotary clothes lines.

Now a comparison with a shot taken on a dull but dry day in May 2013.

The same Market Lavington view in 2013

Northbrook is still there, following the same course, over the bridge and up the hill to the Market Place. But it is barely recognisable as the same place.

Bouverie Drive has all but vanished behind greenery. The weeping willow by the stream was a bit of community planting. On the right we have the garage and wall surrounding the replacement building erected after the old cottage was demolished. It has to be said that the new build is much more suited to 21^st century living.

When the new house was built, the footpath across to Parsonage Lane was re-routed. It now hugs the edge of the stream.

On the left a coniferous forest has grown up. Habits change. The 1970s was the era of open plan surroundings for houses. These days many people prefer privacy and some has clearly been provided by those quick growing conifers.

Change happens and it certainly isn’t all for the bad. Most new housing in Market Lavington is pleasing and new housing brings new blood to a place. That can help to foster community spirit – which is something the Lavingtons excel at.

 

Lucinda

The year is 1975 and the shop carrying the name Lucinda looks just a tad careworn.

Lucinda – a former shop on Church Street, Market Lavington

Lucinda is on Church Street and in a previous existence it had been Mr Pike’s butchery. George Pike had taken over the business from Mr Godfrey.

This shop has a long history. This photo shows George Pike and staff in about 1913.

That’s George Pike second from right.

It is interesting to note the petrol pump in the 1975 picture. This was associated with Mr Reid’s garage next door and was surely out of use by 1975.

Lucinda was about to change too. It was extensively rebuilt although it retained that gable end facing the road.

In this later picture, we can see the new brick frontage and see some of the other commercial premises which still existed on Church Street at the end of the 1970s.

Lucinda rebuilt – a view of Church Street, Market Lavington in the late 1970s

Beyond Lucinda is the Spar shop and in pale blue after that there is Peter Francis’s photographic business. The person on the pavement is just approaching where Saint Arbuck’s is now. This coffee shop is now the only commercial property along the length of Church Street apart from The Drummer Boy pub.