A 1977 view from the church

We love our views from the church. This one, part of a set was taken by Ray in 1977 and as ever with these photos it captures a snapshot in time.

View (roughly to the north) from the church tower in 1977

 

This view is in roughly a northerly direction. Just below the church, at the right side of the picture we have the garden of the Old House.

The garden of the Old House

This was before the barn house was constructed so we have an immediate difference there. Green fields spread across the middle of the photo where houses now stand – an area which close on 2000 years ago had a Roman area and a later Saxon area. Grove Road, Roman Way and Saxon Close now occupy that area.

Beyond that we can see that Bouverie Drive had already been built.

Bouverie Drive and Northbrook

Beyond Bouverie Drive we can see houses on Northbrook. The grass area this side of the thatched cottage on the right of this bit of picture is now built on but otherwise this view has not significantly changed in 38 years – except in the loss of elm trees and the regeneration of much greenery. Oh! And the foreground, of course where those new roads with old names are now built.

 

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Tug of War in 77

There was a Tug of War competition as part of the Jubilee Sports in 1977. This celebrated the queen’s 25 years on the throne and now is some 38 years ago.

After the more formal competition, the kids took over and had fun and here’s a photo of them.

1977 tug of war. Boys v …

The flared trouser fashion of 1977 is there to be seen as these youngsters desperately try to pull a similar team . Except the other team was all female.

…girls

History has not recorded who won this particular battle of the sexes.

Nor, sad to say, has it recorded the names of any participants. Maybe you can help there.

From the Easterton Echo of October 1977.

It scares some of us to realise that 1977 was 38 years ago.

It was the year of the Queen’s Silver Jubilee and Easterton celebrated it. Amongst the activities in Easterton was a poetry competition and this entry was highly commended.

Poem to mark Easterton and the Queen’s Silver Jubilee in 1977

So congratulations to Mr Sainsbury who was running Easterton Post Office at the time.

If you find the poem a bit small to read then click on it to open a larger version.

Pond Farm – then and now

Pond Farm is one of the lost farms on Salisbury Plain. It was an active farm until about 1910, albeit its piece was disturbed by the summer regimental camps which took place there.

Then it became part of the artillery range on a permanent basis. Occupants moved out and farming ceased.

Here we merge two pictures. One dates from the Edwardian era and is, of course, black and white and shows the farm in its remote setting.

The second dates from 1977 which at 38 years ago is hardly now, but these days there is no public access to the area. Back then it was possible to recognise the area as the same. The 1977 picture is in colour and no doubt it looks much the same today.

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The pictures should merge, one into the other, every few seconds. There are arrows to click if you feel a need to speed things up.

 

 

 

Fun and Games in 1977

1977 is 37 years ago as we write this blog in October 2014. Getting on for half of us weren’t born at the time and it probably would be half of us who don’t remember events from that year.

Would it be fair to say that events were celebrated in a more social way and, perhaps with more active participation? Maybe back then people expected to get together and have a bit of fun. These days we spend more time, as your writer is doing now, sitting alone with our electronic devices.

Anyway, the big event of 1977 was the Queen’s Silver Jubilee when she celebrated 25 years on the throne. The previous occasion when there had been such an event was 1935 when her grandfather, King George V celebrated his 25^th year as Monarch.

Our Queen’s Silver Jubilee was certainly seen as an excuse for public celebrations, get togethers and general fun. Many areas in Market Lavington and Easterton had quite small scale street parties. For example, Spin Hill had one, Northbrook Close had one and so did The Market Place. There was at least one in Easterton and others elsewhere.

And then there were village wide events. In Market Lavington this included a fete and sports on the Elisha Field. And our heritage photo, from 1977, shows men involved in their sack race.

Sack race for men – a Market Lavington event in 1977

This photo was taken by someone who moved to the village in 1976. He didn’t know the people then and still doesn’t.

So once again we ask our readers for any help possible in identifying competitors and spectators.

We can also smile or even giggle at the fashions of the day. Did we really wear trousers that baggy? Well clearly we did.

Photos from this era continue to arrive at the museum. We do have some ability to copy slides (the photo above was a colour slide) albeit it is a slow process.

 

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

Ken Mundy’s Shop

Ken Mundy’s shoe shop in about 1977

This isn’t the best photo you ever saw, but sometimes, we feel, a poor photo has a story to tell and is worth sharing. That’s so with this one.

The rather drab looking shop was Ken Mundy’s shoe shop and this picture dates from around 1977. But let’s just look at the left and remind ourselves that the ED visible was at the end of Lloyds Bank Limited – a reminder that not only did we have a shoe shop in Market Lavington, we had banks as well.

Let’s start at the bottom of Ken’s shop with the enamel advert for Craven A. Craven A was a tobacco product and we think it must have been on the shop in much earlier times. Ken never sold tobacco products. That particular enamel sign was quite common and carried the tag line (or should that be tag lie?) ‘will not affect your throat’.

Above that is the shop window. Ken sold shoes but he also soled shoes. Yes, he did shoe repairs. He even made shoes. Ted Maslen told us his wedding shoes were made by Ken. The window was a bit of a jumble, but the shop inside was absolute chaos. Ken was never very tidy or orderly and it was not unknown for people to arrive to collect a pair of shoes after some repairs and Ken could only find one. If you came back a couple of days later, he’d find the other as well. Nothing was ever permanently lost.

New shoes could be a problem as well. They could have been in the shop for a long time with one in the window and another in a shoe box. The one that had been in the light may well have faded and could be significantly different in colour from its partner.

But despite these little quirks, Ken was liked by villagers, and the young lads often gathered at his shop to learn something of his wit and wisdom.

We have a moderate amount of Mundy memorabilia in the museum and it really does remind us of a past time.

But one more thing on that photo. There’s clearly a noticeboard next to the shop window. We can’t remember what it was for, but it could be a proper bus timetable – so much better than the scrappy information you get these days, which tells you almost nothing. But there was a time when many shops had an information board for one organisation or another.

So, some good memories from that rather poor photo.

The Queen’s Silver Jubilee in 1977

This post is a plain, straightforward, request for help.

Can you name any competitors or spectators taking part in tug of war competitions up at what we now call the Elisha Field?

There are several photos for you to enjoy for what we might call recent history but which is, in fact, approaching 40 years ago.

The name we are certain of is Nancy Cooper – the lady on the left.

 

The old pavilion is lit up.

Back in the Edwardian era, more than 100 years ago, Charles Awdry held Market Lavington Manor and he wished to indulge in his passion for cricket. He had a high class cricket field laid out and built a pavilion to suit it. The pavilion was at the corner of the ground, where it met the road we call The Spring. That’s next to the entrance to Lavington School these days.

The cricket era was quite short lived and when Lavington School was built, the pavilion was converted into a home for the caretaker.

And that’s what we see in the photo below.

The former cricket pavilion in Market Lavington, floodlit in 1977

This splendid image shows the house floodlit at the time of Queen Elizabeth’s Silver Jubilee in 1977.

Since then, of course, the old pavilion has gone and modern housing called Pavilion Gardens stands in its place.

Pond Farm

Pond Farm was one of the hill farms of our parish. These days it is in a part of Easterton which the military authorities on Salisbury Plain have completely closed to the public. Our old photo, taken in the Edwardian era, shows the bustling farm, with house, cottages and associated buildings and a really well used track across Salisbury Plain.

Pond Farm, Easterton in about 1908

Our second photo shows the same scene before it was closed to the public but long after the farm had vanished.. It was taken in 1977 and it portrays the bleak emptiness of the Salisbury Plain landscape. The trackway was still clearly visible, but no longer bore the hallmarks of heavy use.

The site of Pond Farm in 1977

Let’s take a look at the photos  as a kind of two shot slideshow.

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It would be good if the path across to Pond Farm could be re-opened, like the re-opened Jubilee Path in Market and West Lavington.