The Bread Charity

It may surprise people to know that the ancient charities, set up in the distant past by village worthies, ran until comparatively recent times. The Sainsbury Bread Charity was set up in 1795/96 with the aim of providing some bread for the poor of the parish. The items we show today date from 1980.

A list of names was drawn up – potential recipients of the charity. Some were included because of their pensioner status, others because they were widows or widowers and some because they had children in need. This was a church based charity so Vicar, churchwardens and a small committee drew up the list. Each person was issued with a ticket.

Sainsbury Bread Charity ticket

The instructions are simple. Your usual baker will exchange a loaf of bread for this ticket. The baker may or may not have put a mark on the ticket but this one has a shop stamp on the back.

This ticket has been stamped by the Mcormacks at the Spar shop on Church Street

Ah! A reminder, here, of the former Spar shop in the village at 7 Church Street. In 2016 we have the Coop for groceries. Back in 1980 there were the two shops and back into history there were others.

The McCormacks put their bill in to the charity – presumably with the requisite number of tickets.

The McCormacks put their bill into the charity

We can see that the local Spar shop received 10 tickets exchanged for loaves at 36p each. They will have received their money from the charity.

These days the old charities have had their small sums of money merged so that best use can be made of what, really, are very limited funds.

But it is good to be able to recall these old days.

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Broadwell Playground 1980 style

Sometimes it can pay to look at what may seem to some of us like fairly recent photos. The one we look at today was taken just as a family snapshot by our curator back in 1980. It shows his son at the Broadwell play area.

Broadwell playground in 1980

There is a surprising amount of history in this photo. It shows the space themed items in this little playground, dating, one assumes, from the mid-1960s. The little lad is on what to all intents and purposes was a rocking horse but it is shaped like a space rocket. The youngsters climbing on the frame in the background were on a structure shaped just like an American Gemini space capsule.

In case anyone thinks there is a little bench at the left side, there isn’t. This was the tail end of a traditional slide.

Should anybody happen to fall then it was straight onto the hard asphalt at ground level. There was no soft rubberised surface back then.

It was a very different world almost 36 years ago!

The visit of Gumdrop

This is another story inspired by an extract from a copy of Easterton Echoes. This time it is from issue 129 dated May 1986. And once again we have to say that this is really quite some time ago – just about 29 years at the time of writing. It’s ancient history to people under thirty.

Here is the extract which shows a document still produced on a typewriter ( one with a pale letter ‘g’). No doubt this was used to cut a stencil which was then duplicated on something like a Gestetner copier. This article was written by Mr Phill Laycock who was then head of St Barnabas School. This was (and is) the primary school, physically in Market Lavington, but built to replace Victorian schools in both Market Lavington and Easterton.  It is about a book week. If you find this too small to read remember you can click on the extract to open a larger version.

Book week at local schools in 1986

It sounds as though Phill had organised some top notch authors to appear and lots of fun for children – not only at our most immediate school, but also at other schools in the area.

The star of Val Biro’s books for children was called Gumdrop and Val did, indeed, bring Gumdrop to St Barnabas. Our curator’s children were both pupils at the school at the time and on reading this extract Rog looked through his photo albums and came up with this one.

Gumdrop at St Barnabas School

That’s Gumdrop with children in front. Those kids, of course, are now in their mid-30s. The location, of course, is St Barnabas School with the caretaker’s bungalow immediately behind Gumdrop.

The White Stuff

Snow has barely fallen in Market Lavington during the winter of 2013/2014. Mind you, it is only March so there is still time.

Our curator did manage to capture a flurry of snow on February 13^th

A small flurry of snow fell in Market Lavington on February 13th 2014

It never looked like settling or pitching as many locals say.

Lots of people don’t like snow and of course if you have to travel it can turn the simplest of journeys into a really trying ordeal.

But snow can also be utterly lovely. Let’s look back to the snow of 1980 and a photograph taken in Manor Woods.

Beautiful snow in Lavington Manor woods in 1980

What a delightful scene and a scene missed by many Wiltshire folk this year. There isn’t a huge amount of snow on the ground but it turns the woods into a winter wonderland.

Broadwell in transition

Our first picture today shows Broadwell as it was in 1975. It shows the little white house, across the water. Knapp House towers up above it. The little house had belonged to the Merritt family and from there they ran their smithing business and also their herd of dairy cows.

Broadwell, Market Lavington in 1975

By 1975 the pump had gone and so, too had the little wood which had stood just out of shot to the left.

Now we move on to the 1980s.

A new family sized house is replacing the old, damp little building.

Broadwell, Market Lavington in about 1980

It’s interesting that the door in the old building had been bricked up during that brief period.

The new home was given an old sounding name – ‘Ye Olde Forge’. It marks its location although not a bit of the old remains. We guess the builders were using what was left of the old building for storage. It was swept away before the new house was occupied.

The barn and associated buildings on the right now form a part of White Horse Barns. That is also modern housing.

An aerial view of Market Lavington

Today we are looking at a photo which dates from 1980. It is a colour photo of Market Lavington from the air.

Aerial photo of Market Lavington taken in 1980

That’s quite a picture of England’s green and pleasant land.

Let’s work through the scene.

This is Canada Rise with Canada Woods behind the houses. If we look further to the left we have the top of Northbrook.

Beyond Northbrook we can see Bouverie Drive, the former Vicarage which is now the nursing home and the large roof of the ‘Wilts Ag’ building which is where Rochelle Court now stands.

Moving further we can see the market place with the butcher’s shop clearly visible on the High Street.

Towards the top of the picture we see Lavington Hill. There’s a round topped shed in The Hollow and at the bottom of this section of picture we can see Knapp Farm.

Next we have Knapp Farm in the centre and White Street on the left.

The field on the right has an interesting past. We believe it was in use as (or considered for use as) an air strip during the First World War. Jack Welch, who was the father of our museum founder, Peggy Gye made a comment in a letter he sent home

An aerodrome out in the Recreation Ground is getting a bit too close isn’t it? Lavington must be very much altered especially with the felling of so much timber.

Completing the tour round this picture we have the church with The Old House on the left and Grove Farm on the right. The Grove Farm estate had not been built then.