A Patrick Manley pencil sketch

Patrick was well known, amongst other things, for sketches he made around Market Lavington around the end of the twentieth century. This one is certainly unusual in its view.

A Patrick Manley sketch of Market Lavington

This is a framed picture we were recently given. It is behind glass and so is hard to photograph. Patrick has vignetted it by letting the image fade away to the bottom and right.

This sketch dates from 1997

This view dates from March/April 1997.

Patrick’s viewpoint was probably the bottom of the courtyard at the museum building. Trees and shrubs have grown up which makes it hard to find the view today.

Similar view in June 2016

This photo shows the window on the old school building which is visible on Patrick’s drawing but the rest is local greenery.

The viewpoint for Patrick would have been a little further to the left, but that area offered no view at all now. Back in 1997 he could see houses on both sides of Church Street.

It’s a lovely picture. Thanks go to the late Patrick Manley for capturing this little known corner of the village and to the donors who gave it to the museum.

 

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Ladywood Vale

One of the treasures of Market Lavington is a little book published in 1855 with the longest full title you could imagine – so here we’ll shorten it to ‘A Topographical Account of Market Lavington’. This was written by the Reverend H Atley and includes some sketches of various locations within the village.

Let’s quote from the book.

A small stream rises at the farther end of Easterton, and supplies the sheet of water in the grounds at Fiddington (where there is a pleasant and comfortable asylum .for lunatics), winds to Northbrook, passes on through the meads at Ladywood to Russell mill, where it joins another stream (which rises at Newlam, a mile from West Lavington; this formerly covered a space of seven acres, but is now reduced to very narrow limits).

United in one it pursues its way towards Bath and Bristol, where it falls into the Avon and Severn. A branch which turns off towards Devizes empties itself into the Avon and Kennet canal; in its progress it forms the moving power to several mills, and imparts fertility to the various meads in its course.

The meads at Ladywood get a mention here and Ladywood Vale gets a lovely sketch.

Ladywood Vale – an 1855 sketch by H Atley

We find it just about impossible to tie this picture into 21^st century reality. A 1900 large scale OS map does show Lady Wood and also a pine wood so maybe our artist stood in that area.

1900 map extract showing Lady Wood and nearby pine woods

It’s a lovely sketch and a lovely little book. The whole area is entirely changed now for Ladywood is a road name on the Grove Farm estate. The sketch, which predates common photography, gives us some idea of the rural nature of what was actually a market town at that time.

The shoeing shed

Judy Livyer was a friend and house share mate of Peggy Welch/Gye. We believe she came to Market Lavington as a World War Two land girl, palled up with Peggy and shared her High Street accommodation. She made a few sketches of the area and this one shows the Gyes shoeing shed.

The Shoeing Shed
A 1940s sketch by Judy Livyer

This was at Gye’s yard which was on White Street in Market Lavington.

Traditionally, the Gye company worked in wood but over the years they added more strings to their bow. When the Easterton smithy closed the Gye’s bought up the whole works including the Easterton smith/farrier who was Bert Burnett. This rather unkempt looking building must have been his domain. From all reports he was a first class farrier.

It’s good to have a sketch. This sort of view was not often chosen by a photographer. We get an idea of the conditions in which people carried on daily lives as recently as the 1940s.

A sketch of St Mary’s

Last October, at our Museum Miscellany, we did a section called ‘pencil and Paint’ which showed our villages through the brushes and pencils of artists. It is possible that the 2016 Miscellany will have a part 2 of this idea for new acquisitions keep arriving due to the generosity of many, many people, both local and from far afield.

This one has arrived locally. We know who gave it, but nobody knows who drew this sketch of the church.

A sketch of St Mary’s Church but by whom and when was it drawn?

There is a clue to the artist for in the bottom right hand corner there are the letters TS.

Was the artist TS?

It is hard to pick a date as well, for churches change little over the years but we think this might be fairly modern – perhaps from the 1990s when the developments at Grove Farm opened up a vista of the church.

But over to you, readers. Can you tell us any more?

The Old House

Philip Wynell Mayow was the brother of the Vicar of Market Lavington. This was back in 1837/38 and Philip must have stayed with his brother. Philip was an accomplished sketcher and it is thanks to him that we have a number of fascinating views of the village that predate photography. We have seen several of them on this blog and here we have another – a view of the Old House.

The Old House, Market Lavington – a sketch by Philip Wynell mayow

This has its caption on it.

The sketch is dated to 1838

It is just labelled Market Lavington 1838 but we know this is The Old House which remains much unchanged to this day. The Old House is a grade 1 listed building and the listing citation reads:

Manor house. Early C14, C16, remodelled late C17-early C18 and restored 1875. Rough casted stonework with some brick, originally with some timber framing. Tiled roofs. Two storeys, 2 ½ bays with cross wing at south-west end, rebuilt as double range wing.

Entrance within gabled porch of 1875 in angle with extended wing. Timber ovolo moulded C20 windows with diamond pattern leaded glazing. The eastern range has two added further wings to east with a secondary entrance on north side. Numerous gables.

Interior: The house contains an early medieval double aisled open hall structure with contemporary cross wing of 2 bays within a rectangular plan of stone walls. Half bay at north-east end probably contained cross passage, and services possibly in a separate structure beyond, now absent. Spere truss against passage and central truss of hall has large archbraces springing from outer walls to cambered collar between square set arcade plates. Crown post above with steep straight braces to upper collar and collar purlin. Trenches for former louvre near apex of rafters. Wall posts to stone wall dividing wing from hall. Roof over hall smoke blackened. Similar crown post truss to centre of wing. Fireplace, probably C16, inserted into cross passage, stone, with 4-centred arch and rounded arris. Secondary stair at side. Main stair in extension of wing forward, late C17-early C18, with turned balusters and heavy handrail, swept up at newels. Main drawing room in north-west corner, formerly the wing, has C17 oak panelling and cornice, the ceiling divided by deep chamfered cross beams. Gable stacks. Centre dining room within former hall, has main fireplace, described above, and early C18 panelled dado. Room behind stack now kitchen. Chamber over dining room has bolection moulded fireplace in stone. Some C17 iron casement windows to first floor windows, with quadrant stays and turnbuckles. The only known aisled hall in the county.

No mention is made of the cedar tree in the listing, but we believe the existing tree is the one shown in the 1838 sketch. We are sure that Philip Wynell Mayow would instantly recognise the Old House today as being the building he sketched.

A display in the museum, for 2016 will show all of the Wynell Mayow sketches, enlarged to at least A4 size.

Bill Elisha

Back in 2012 we showed one of two sketches drawn of Bill during World War 2. Today we look at the second of them.

A 1944 sketch of Bill Elisha

We can see that bill is the CQMS or Company Quartermaster Sergeant in the Wiltshires.

We can’t make out the name of the sketcher but they have thoroughly caught our Bill. As folks say, this is like him to a T.

Bill had many village roles. He was chair of the Parish Council and a long time stalwart of the football club – as a player in younger days and then as a club official. He is remembered because the Elisha Field is named after him.

Bill was born in about 1902 and died in 1984.

The unchanging church

Church buildings do change – but alterations are much deliberated over and are, in any case, quite rare. A church building often looks very much the same, even from almost 200 years ago.

And here is another 1837 sketch by Philip Wynell Mayow who was the brother of the vicar back then.

1837 church sketch by Philip Wynell Mayow

The trees have undoubtedly altered and their rather overbearing presence in this image has been reduced somewhat. The steps to the right have changed somewhat as well.

For a modern equivalent here is the church as depicted on the wall hanging in the Community Hall.

The church in the Millennium Wall Hanging in the Community Hall – Artist unknown

It can be seen to be just about identical. Once again we realise we can truly trust the 1837 Mayow sketches. They really do show us what the village was like.

 

The east end of the High Street in 1837

Yes, this is another of the fantastic sketches by Philip Wynell Mayow, brother of Market Lavington’s vicar back in the first year of Queen Victoria’s reign. Philip, our artist, was able to set himself up in the road more or less outside where the Workman’s Hall is now so that he could produce this sketch.

The East end of Market Lavington High Street by Philip Wynell Mayow

As usual, Philip has captioned his work.

Dated 20th May 1837

So it looks as though this dates from May 20^th 1837. To be historically accurate, this was a month before the death of King William IV so Victoria hadn’t become queen at that time.

We are going to look a little way down the street first.

Palm House is on the right

On the right here we see Palm House. Only three years before this sketch was made this had been the site of Mr Willett’s asylum but in 1834 he acquired Fiddington House and set up his asylum there, from then on.

A modern photo of Palm House shows just how little it has altered. It even has the same porches.

Similar view of Palm House

Philip Wynell Mayow’s accuracy is really shown to good advantage here. It means we trust that his sketches really do show us what the village was like.

The first building on the right in the whole photo is no longer in existence. It has been replaced by the 1865 built Workmans’ Hall. Back in 1837 this was the home of William Cambridge the engineer and we believe it was at these premises that he was building portable steam engines for export all over the world and also designing his famed clod crushing agricultural roller which is still made and used and is called the Cambridge roller.

On the left of the whole picture there is a gap in the housing with a row of trees. That area is now the entrance to the nursing home. Our knowledge of what was there in 1837 comes from the other sketch of High Street by this artist. It shows what looks to be a farm house, set back from the road. Later, a new vicarage was built there and this is still at the heart of the nursing home. The old Parish Room occupied the entrance area where the trees are.

We can see that most of the houses further along High Street sit snugly under thatched roofs.

Yet again, we have a fantastic image showing us our village in pre-photography days.

 

Parsonage Lane/Spin Hill

Once again today we turn to one of those marvellous sketches drawn by Philip Wynell Mayow back in the 1830s.

Sketch by Philip Wynell Mayow – believed to be of Parsonage Lane and drawn in about 1837

This one he has just captioned as Market Lavington.

Just captioned as Market Lavington

There isn’t a date or any further location given. We think it is Parsonage Lane, possibly leading up to Spin Hill but we cannot be certain. It is a wonderfully tree lined scene which fits what we know of the road today but the distant house (maybe two), on the right, can’t be identified.

Just where were these cottage buildings?

This is at least 170 years old and provides us with that glimpse of Market Lavington, pre photographic records. But we would love to be able to place it precisely.

Market Lavington High Street in 1837

This is another sketch by Philip Wynell Mayow, brother of the then Vicar of Market Lavington.

Market Lavington High Street in 1837 – a sketch by Philip Wynell Mayow

This shows the High Street. Philip was standing more or less outside where the Workmans’ Hall now stands. But at this time, the building on the left was the home and workplace of William Cambridge. He was the inventive iron founder, who back then was making portable steam engines and exporting them around the world, and also devising a clod crushing agricultural roller which still gets used today and is still called a Cambridge roller.

Straight ahead, the buildings which form the Co-op now still look correct although the right hand gable end was demolished years ago.

On the right hand side of the road, just beyond the trees is Greystone House which still looks much the same today.

The area on the right, between Greystone House and the artist has all changed and changed more than once since then.

Set back from the road we see what looks a lovely house, possibly a farm house. At the museum we didn’t know of the existence of that house before seeing the sketch. It had probably gone 10 years after Philip produced this sketch and it was replaced by a brand new and grand vicarage for our Reverend Wynell Mayow to live in. Then, in the early years of the 20^th century the Parish Room was built along the street.

All of that area is now a part of the nursing home. The Parish Room has gone but the mid-19^th century Vicarage is at the heart of the home still.