Grove Farm, the church and village

Here we have a period postcard of Market Lavington. We date this by TV aerial to about 1960. All of the TV masts we see are of the old 405 lines type.

The Village from Home Field – about 1960

This is a view of the village from the lower slopes of Salisbury Plain. We are looking across Home Field which had once been the recreation ground. The two dominant buildings are…

…Grove Farm …

…and the Church of St Mary.

We can see that Meadow Cottage still had its thatched roof.

It is also interesting to note those three bright white ventilators on the roof of the school.

And here we have more of Church Street and The Muddle.

This postcard has recently been given to the museum. It was part of the collection of former board member and archivist Priscilla. We offer her and her daughter many thanks.

 

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An undated school photo.

We are fairly sure this is the 1960s but we have very limited information on this Market Lavington School photo.

An infant class at Market Lavington School with Mrs Elisha in charge

Mrs Elisha is at the back – right end. She retired in 1968.

The only captions with the photo say ‘Front row, 3^rd from left – Withers’ Also ‘4^th from left S Ayliffe’.

The venue is definitely outside Market Lavington School.

Once again we hope our readers can tell us more.

The Fire Brigade

Today we have another article from an issue of Lavington Forum – the Market Lavington School magazine issued for a while in the late 1940s. This one is about the fire brigade which used to keep an appliance in its Market Place premises.

The Fire Brigade – an article from a 1940s Lavington Forum. Hitting Ctrl and + will enlarge this and make it easier to read

A good little article there so well done to B Little and M Sainsbury.

A builder’s day book

Amongst items given to the museum from the estate of Tom Gye we have a number of the day books used in the building trade. In these books each customer was recorded and indexed and the labour and materials used on jobs was recorded. Here we have one small entry – part of a much larger one, from 1968 and on to 1971.

Small entry from a Gye day book – this entry from 1968

The customer, having work done, was Wiltshire County Council. The site for the work was Easterton School. This vanished building was between Easterton Church and the junction between the main street and Kings Road. The day book does not record the actual nature of the job but it still makes for a fascinating document. We can see the costs involved for getting work done.

The top part of this document records the initials of workers and the hours they worked. Some of the initials are recognisable. T G is Tom Gye himself, for example. Most interesting, perhaps is that the work involved 42½ hours of labourer time which was charged at 11/6 per hour. That’s 57½p in post decimal money. It just sounds so laughably cheap nowadays but our curator recalls working as a labourer in a factory at about that time and earning 7/2½ per hour which worked at £14-10-0 (£14.50) for a 40 hour week.

It looks as though some of the work might have been repairs or extending a playground with ballast, cement and Mendip chippings.

Later in August, in preparation for the new term, the Gye firm had a job of sanding and revarnishing the desk tops at Market Lavington School. This was some 8 hours of work and cost £6 including the varnish. Other small jobs continued right up to the end.

The end came when both Easterton School and Market Lavington School were replaced by the new St Barnabas School. This opened on Drove Lane in 1971.

Lavington Forum

Cherry Orchard Poultry Farm

We were given one copy of Lavington Forum some time ago and recently we have been given a couple more. They miss out on one crucial detail – the date of publication but we believe this copy of the Market Lavington School magazine dates from 1949.

Mavis Boulton designed the front cover for this edition of Lavington Forum produced at Market Lavington School in about 1949

This is certainly a bit battered and it has suffered the slings and arrows that time has thrown at it, but it is still in readable condition.

Let’s take a look at the article on the Cherry Orchard Poultry Farm.

Article on Cherry Orchard Poultry Farm by Robert Sainsbury and Arthur Burt

Well done to Robert Sainsbury and Arthur Burt for telling us a bit more about this long gone Market Lavington business.

An infant class

Here we have another photo with no information except that the original was a Kodachrome slide. It’s a school photo with a class of infants.

An infant class in Market Lavington

There’s no doubt about the teacher. This is Mrs Elisha – a Market Lavington lady for all her life and a teacher for more years than anyone could really imagine. In the early days she was Miss Potter and then for more than 40 years she taught as Mrs Elisha.

Mrs Elisha retired in 1968 at the age of 65 and we wonder if this was her final class. If so Mrs Elisha could easily have taught the grandparents of some of these children.

We know this venerable and remarkable lady continued to do some supply teaching, possibly until she was almost 80.

What we don’t have are names of children – but they will be recognised. Do let us know who they are.

It looks as though poor Mrs Elisha had been pushed out to a mobile classroom. Someone will tell us where that was sited.

Like many a school photo, this one is utterly charming.

Thimbles

We have featured ‘lost and found’ thimbles before on this blog but today’s collection were never lost so didn’t have to be found. They were essential items at Market Lavington School.

Thimbles from Market Lavington School

This collection is of very standard, ordinary thimbles. There is nothing fancy about them. They date from the first half of the 20th century. They are made of base metal and were designed to be functional rather than decorative. Mind you, many people would find them quite decorative items.

They date back to a time when the male and female genders were treated differently. Sewing was for girls although, oddly enough, being a tailor was a male job. Back in time – it could have been up to the 1970s, girls would have been expected to become proficient at hand sewing. They would have spent time at school practising the craft and learning how to do repair jobs as well as how to make new items.

Pushing a needle through tough material was hard and could be painful and that’s where the thimble came in. They were worn on the end of a suitable finger and could be used to push the needle through. The bobbled surface was intended to make sure the needle did not slip causing injury to the pusher.

We can see from this collection that thimbles came in a variety of sizes to suit any finger. None of these are as tiny as the one featured recently which was found ‘under the floorboards’ at 21 Church Street.

These thimbles are bound to bring back memories for many girls.

 

A School photo

School photos usually arouse interest – particularly those recent enough for those photographed to be recognised as friends, relatives or even, perhaps the person looking at this blog.

Here is such a photo.

This photo was taken in the little playground at The Old School and features at the back Mr Pickering.

We have the names of many of the youngsters as well.

Back row (left to right); C. Bishop, not yet known, S Chapman, S Heywood, K Scott, A Greening, F Carmichael, not yet known, P King.

Middle row (left to right); not yet known, not yet known, White, Baker, Steel, J Hancock, not yet known.

Front row (left to right); Peter Bolton, C Rose, not yet known, Eldridge, not yet known, D Baker, not yet known.

Of course we hope people out there will fill in the details. We estimate the year at about 1960 but again, we hope a reader will give us precision there.

The class of 1905

School photos and class photos have always been popular. It was always a good way of remembering classmates and now, with photos of this age, it just may be possible to identify some of the youngsters.

Market Lavington School boys in 1905

Three things have been positively identified about this picture. One is that it is at Market Lavington School. The second is that the teacher is Miss Lilian Hopkins and the third is that the year is 1905.

Maybe somebody out there will recognise a grandfather or maybe a great grandfather from other photos they have seen.

Lilian Hopkin was born around 1885 and she was the daughter of William and Elizabeth. At the time of the 1901 census they occupied 21 Church Street. Just possibly they could have been the people who lost the old ha’penny we featured a few days ago.

By 1911 William was a widower and living in West Lavington with a couple of his daughters – one of whom was Lilian who was described as an elementary school teacher – probably at Market Lavington School.

In 1913 Lilian married Joseph Jordan. We believed they lived in the Midlands for a while and had at least two children – Harry and Elizabeth

In 1926 the couple lived on White Street in Market Lavington. They were still there in 1939.

Lilian was still on White Street in 1955. The probate record for her in 1957 still gives White Street as the address and names the two children.

Lavington Area Schools’ Sports

David Bratchell recently visited the museum. He lived in Market Lavington as a youngster and attended the local school until he reached leaving age in 1957. The family moved away in 1959. His ‘Granny Smith’ remained living in the Market Place, Market Lavington. She had one of the new bungalows.

David did not come empty handed. He brought his certificate from the 1957 Lavington Area Schools’ Sports.

Certificate awarded at the 1957 Lavington Area Schools’ Sports

David’s memory is that these sports took place in West Lavington. David, of course, represented Market Lavington and managed second place in the 220 yards race for under 15 boys.

Times change. David left school at 15 – not now permissible and these days the race would be 200 metres. But of course, there couldn’t be a Lavington area schools’ sports for people in the under 15 category now, for one school, Lavington School, is the only state school for secondary aged pupils. Back in 1957 many village schools were the establishment for those aged 5 to 15.

So well done David, not only for running well in 1957 but also for reminding us of times past with this certificate.