Crossways

Crossways was a house sited at the crossroads where Drove Lane and Parham Lane met Kings Road up on Lavington Sands.

The house was much loved by earlier owners. The Miss Chalmers had a poultry farm here at the time of the first world war and a Mrs Hawes lived there, putting up with rather primitive plumbing for many a year.

It was deemed unfit for 21^st century living and has been swept away leaving us with a few rather poor photocopies of photos of the house and environs.

This one is on a page which says both 1924 and 23 but seems more confident about it being March. Clearly it was a snowy time.

Crossways in the snow in 1923/24

Some folks say this house commands the best view in Market Lavington. It looks over West Park Farm and along the vale to Westbury and beyond.

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Snow at St Mary’s

Photographers who entered the ‘Seasons’ category at Market Lavington show at the start of the month commented on how difficult it was to portray four seasons that looked different this year.

Perhaps they’d not have had the problem in 1897 when this photo was taken.

Snow at St Mary’s Church in 1897

Snow clearly fell that year – and settled or pitched as people say around here.

We can see part of St Mary’s Church and a corner of the village school on the right. That could be a chap trying to clear the path up to the church.

Snow clearance on the path up to the church?

Now that path is treacherous at any time. If slippery with compressed snow it would be awful.

Straight ahead we are looking at Grove Farm. That’s the path that leads to the Community Hall now.

On the left, the little single storey building is the bier house and behind it a row of cottages stand along the edge of Church Street.

The view is difficult to recreate during summer. The trees are in full leaf and hide items.

Bier House and church remain

What we can see is that the church and bier house stand, more or less unchanged. That line of cottages behind the bier house has gone to reveal Church Cottage.

Let’s hope we get no snow until the winter and maybe some of us could look forward to a bright sunny day with snow on the ground – in January.

 

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.

Bad Winters

Every now and again we get a bad winter. People over 70 may recall that 1947 was particularly bad. Those over 60 will remember the ‘Long Winter’ of 1962/63 whilst those who are young may end up remembering the winter of 2013/14. Some people seem to be predicting a harsh winter this time although we are cynical and wonder if it isn’t just politicians trying to score points off one another.

However, today we are looking at another winter which had its moments back in 1982. Those readers in the older generation may just blink in near disbelief when we remind them that this was more than 30 years ago. And it was then that local resident Ray took a colour slide near his home – Yeoman Close in Market Lavington.

The 1982 winter as recorded in Yeoman Close, Market Lavington

What a delightful photo and it tells us about life those thirty plus years ago. There seems to have been a lot of snow if we judge from the piles of it that people have moved. Yet the houses are thinly covered and that suggests a lack of decent loft insulation. The covering, though, is even, which indicates central heating. You can compare with the older houses in the background which all have more snow on the roof. We suspect those houses were not so well heated.

Virtually every house has its ‘BBC2’ or 625 lines TV aerial.  Back then we only had terrestrial TV. And it was in November 1982 that we got a fourth channel choice when channel 4 started.

There are cars and vans on drives, but it seems to be pretty well one vehicle per household. These days two might be seen as normal and more cars per house are not uncommon. Children tend to live at home for longer so it is perfectly common for mum, dad and a couple of young adult children all to be occupying car space outside one house.

Now we bet that when Ray took that photo of snow back in 1982 he didn’t realise that he was also recording a bit of social history.

The arrival of Winter

Winter is now on its way. Officially and astronomically, it may be Autumn until December 21^st, but most people and meteorologists now seem to regard December as a winter month. We can expect cold, chilly days and, who knows, there could be snow.

And to mark the start of December we have a snowy picture in Market Lavington with a group of girls walking along a snow-bound White Street and about to pass by Broadwell on their right hand side.

Winter comes to White Street in Market Lavington in the early 1960s

We don’t have this fully dated – just early 1960s is all we have. Unsurprisingly we don’t have the names of the rather silhouetted girls, walking away from the camera. But they have a jaunty air and it looks as though they intend to enjoy the snowy conditions. There were no worries about transport, or getting to work for them. The snow, then as now,  just provided more scope for fun for youngsters.

Hillside

Hillside is a cottage on White Street which was once the home of Mrs Elisha. May Elisha was a former Miss Potter and was the very long term infant teacher at Market Lavington School. Our photo today shows May outside this house.

Hillside at the bottom of Lavington Hill in 1932

May Elisha stands in the doorway

Yes, there is May, framed in her doorway and looking every inch the young housewife.

It is particularly good to have May’s annotation on the back of the photo.

There we are. It was June 1932, the house is named and we know it was May’s first home.

The caption continues.

Many years ago the snow reached the roof! So I have been told.

I wonder if any weather historians might be able to pick a year for such an event. The snow, no doubt bad enough, may well have got deeper in the telling.

It’s a lovely picture of a house still standing, but no longer under a thatch roof. And three cheers for good captioning.

Broadwell Snow

There is nothing unusual about snow as winter turns into spring. Even so, we felt a bit cheated by quite a lot of poor weather, including snow during March. But take heart. It wasn’t this bad.

Actually we don’t have a date for this. It may have been in the deep mid-winter.  The year, though, was 1950. Our photographer was standing close by Broadwell. The house behind the youngsters is Beech House and the reason for that name is visible behind the house. There used to be big beech trees in the back garden. We looked at felling in progress before. Click here.

The bad weather of March 2013 won’t go down as memorable. True there was a lot of snow falling (this was on the 17^th March).

Heavy snow in Market Lavington on 17th March 2013

But barely any snow settled – there’s just a little on the church roof and that soon went.

Market Lavington church on 17th March 2013. The snow really didn’t settle.

Christmas Openings – 2012

Last year, for the first time, we had a couple of very successful Christmas openings. We are repeating this idea this year. We will be open on:

Wednesday 26^th December from 2pm to 4pm

Saturday 29^th December from 2pm to 4pm

Sunday 30^th December from 2pm to 4pm

 

Some displays will have changed since we closed at the end of October and this will be the first opportunity for visitors to see the workings of the clock which used to be in the Workman’s Hall.

But let’s celebrate Christmas with a snowy picture.

A snowy scene on The Spring, Market Lavington in 1915

This was a scene along The Spring, Market Lavington in 1915.

Beech Wood in 1960

Now here’s a Market Lavington photo which begs a question. But let’s start with what we know. The scene is Beech Wood, the year is 1960 and the photographer was the then teenaged Johnathan Gye. We also know that much later, the photo was used by Johnathan as a Christmas Card.

Beech Wood, Market Lavington in 1960

First question? Where is Beech Wood. These days its location is helped by a small close of houses which carry the name, but the location can be seen on the map – part of Canada Woods. The map also shows where the museum is, but not the best car park these days, which is at The Community Hall.

Map showing location of Beech Wood

The big question though, is. ‘why are there young pigs running around the wood and making their way down to the stream?’ Was this normal? Or was it a rare event to have porkers running free in the woods and did Johnathan go there especially to snap a photo of them?

Answers on an email, please.

Market Lavington Snow

Much of Britain has had more snow, this winter, than we have come to expect. Market Lavington may well have got away lightly but there was enough to cause school closures and allow the young (and young at heart) to make their way up Lavington Hill for a spot of tobogganing.

But weather has always had a big influence on the lives of people – more so in the past when there was no central heating and no easy communication. Here are some historic photos of Market Lavington snow.

Market Lavington Broadwell after the 1891 snow

This photo dates from 1891 and shows people at Broadwell. This spring was the hub of the village until mains water was piped in during the 1930s for most villages came to Broadwell to collect water. Cottagers with buckets dipped for water as it appeared from out of the ground. Farmers, filling tanks, used the pump which, in this photo has a young lad perched on it. Animals were permitted to drink from just a bit lower down. It was obviously of prime importance to keep the access clear to the water source and clearly some local people have been doing that. I’m sure others have seen the photographer (Mr Burgess) and just want to be in the picture.

Snow scene from Market Lavington manor - 28th April 1908

We now move on to 1908 – April 28^th to be precise and a view from the Manor. Many people in Market Lavington do not realise that there is a Manor House. It’s of no great age (mid nineteenth century) and was used as the manor House for less than a hundred years. These days it is a part of Dauntsey’s School.

The final photo is of The Spring in 1915. This is the main road out of the village towards West Lavington. In those days it was clearly safe to stand and chat in the middle of the highway.

Snow along The Spring, Market Lavington in 1915

If you have interesting Market Lavington or Easterton snow photos (or any others) then do contact us at the museum.