An unverified rumour

Just over a month ago we published a sales brochure for a house in Easterton, now known as Willougbys. (click here) The brochure refers to a story that Oliver Cromwell stayed at this house.

A single, small, typed document has just come to light and that refers to this incident as well.

Document about Easterton House which refers to a possible civil war incident in the Market Lavington area.

This document, as can be seen, is about a house in Easterton called Easterton House which was once used as the Vicarage for the parish. We have no reason to doubt what most of this document says. It is the first paragraph – a kind of preamble to the main focus – which refers, again, to Oliver Cromwell.

It says, ‘A great battle was fought on the Wiltshire Downs just above Market Lavington and it is said that Oliver Cromwell slept in a farm house, in Easterton, the night before the battle.’

We would really like a historian who knows to confirm or deny this story of a battle on the downs above Market Lavington. Of course we are only about 6 miles from the site of the Battle of Roundway but surely nobody would describe Roundway Down as ‘above Market Lavington’ when it is the other side of Devizes.

Any help or ideas on this would be gratefully received.

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The Old Vicarage

Actually this sketch shows what was then the brand new vicarage in 1848. Most of our sketches by Philip Wynell Mayow were drawn in about 1837. This one came from the same sketchbook so we think it is by the same person but it is stylistically different. It shows that brand new Vicarage which Philip Wynell Mayow’s brother – the Reverend Mayow Wynell Mayow had moved into. He had been vicar for over ten years by then and we are not 100% sure where he lived before. The tithe map of 1840 tells us he had property at the same place.

But let’s see the sketch first.

Market Lavington Vicarage – an 1848 sketch

This building still exists, incorporated into the Nursing Home in the village. Back in 1848 it was a country house deemed suitable for a gentleman vicar.

Here is the relevant tithe apportionment.

Land and property occupied by Reverend Mayow Wynell Mayow

We can see that our Vicar at the time held plot 76, the church and yard and plots 123,124,126 and also 149.

A little bit of High Street on the 1840 tithe map

Plot 123, the Vicarage house and garden, is just where the new building was erected so presumably Wynell lived there and had a temporary sojourn elsewhere whilst the new house was built.

Another lovely image showing Market Lavington before photography.

 

The Nursing Home – Then and Now

Actually, our then photo is not from so very long ago. The Nursing home, in the old Vicarage building, was well established and in 1996 it was expanding. The old Parish Room had been demolished to improve the entrance and new accommodation was being built to cater for the needs of all sorts of elderly folk. In the summer of 1996 it was one big building site as seen in this photo.

Extensions being built at the nursing home in 1996

The one person in the photo, in white shirt and tie, is presumably a site manager, checking the plans.

These days we might assume he was checking something on his smart phone, but such things, ubiquitous though they are now, were barely in use at all back then.

The former Vicarage is clearly visible and other buildings have that rather harsh look of brand new structures. But things soon mellow and eleven years on in 2007 we see a very similar view.

Nursing home in 2007

By then there was a neat and tidy entrance to the site. People are even less in evidence than they were in the building site photo but actually, the nursing home is quite a vibrant community and, as far as possible, very much part of our local community.

 

 

 

Market Lavington Vicarage

Market Lavington had had a number of houses used by the parson. Once there was a parsonage on Parsonage Lane but this was demolished in the nineteenth century and replaced with numbers 6 and 8 on Parsonage Lane. These days we have the Rectory on Church Street. It had been a Vicarage, but when parishes merged into the present group benefice, it became a Rectory. In between, for the latter part of the nineteenth century and the early years of the twentieth, our local Vicar had the benefit of a delightful, large house. This was set back from the High Street, more or less opposite the Workman’s Hall. Two long term residents were the Reverend Frith and the Reverend Sturton. This building shows their delightful home

Market Lavington Vicarage from an Edwardian postcard by Mr Burgess

It is still there and still lived in. It is at the heart of the care and nursing home in the village.

This photo was taken in 2006 and shows the old Vicarage, now joined by many modern buildings.

Market Lavington Vicarage in its 21st century, care home guise

A couple of years ago we took a look at the sale brochure for the vicarage. This brochure was from 1956 and it described something of the interior of the building. You can click here to read it.

Ivydene Discovered

Oh to have records which were perfect in every detail. The photo below is described as one of nine photos dating from 1957-60 of the Market Place and surrounding areas during demolition of old buildings to make a council estate.

Photo dating from about 1960 showing Ivydene and the old Vicarage in Market Lavington

This description hardly fits the bill for this picture. We have an aerial view with some of the new housing in place. There’s a line of chimneys along the bottom edge. A little bit of the Market Place shows at the bottom left corner but essentially we have a view of an area to the north-east of the Market Place.

Let’s start with the Ivydene area. Ivydene had once been the home of Bus proprietor, Fred Sayer and during World War II it became the HQ for a search light battery. To a large degree, though, it is now off local radar. Well, it vanished 50 or more years ago so most people never knew the place. But here it is in this photo.

 

Ivydene – former home of Fred Sayer

As we can see, there is a terrace of buildings. We think Fred Sayer had the larger building at the right hand end.

Further left we can see the pair of cottages on The Terrace.

Cottages on the Terrace. The Blakes and the Wilkins lived here

Less than a month ago we featured the wedding of Mary Cooper and William Blake.  They made their married home in one of the cottages and when their daughter married she and her husband (Percy Wilkins) lived there.

At the time of this photo the agricultural engineers had the yard and sheds behind Ivydene. Behind them was the former vicarage which became, in recent years, a part of the nursing home.

 

The old Vicarage. In Victorian times the Reverend Edward Blackston Cokayne Frith held sway

We can see the big sweep of the drive in front of the house. That drive leads out onto High Street and at the top right of the photo we can see some of the houses at the far end of High Street, towards the old Congregational Chapel.

A part of the High Street in Market Lavington

It is unusual for a photo not to leave us with more questions. Just behind the old Vicarage there are two large barns.

Does anybody know anything about these barns?

Does anybody know any of the history of these buildings? It looks as though access was from the Vicarage.

Another view from the Racquets Court

When the Racquets Court was shrouded in scaffolding in 1972, the opportunity was taken to shoot some different views over the village and we look at another of those photos today.

A view from the Racquets Court, Market Lavington

It can be hard to get bearings in these shots from a high location so let’s point out some landmarks.

The row of white walled bungalows is on the street out of the back of Market Place. Beyond them we can see the former Vicarage which is now the nursing home.

The old Vicarage, Market Lavington

The cottages between the bungalows and the old Vicarage are on the Terrace, Northbrook.

It is the area just to the right of this which is most interesting – for it is utterly changed.

The buildings of Wiltshire Agricultural Engineering

We are now looking where Rochelle Court stands now. Back in 1972 it was the buildings of the Agricultural Engineers and before that it had been Fred Sayer’s bus yard.

The Market House, Market Lavington

The house facing us here is The Market House, still extant and still being renovated in 2013. To the right of it was the car park for the engineers. The white gable end was then the first house on High Street – where Harry Hobbs had his shop – later The Midland Bank and now just a private house.

The backdrop to the photo is Salisbury Plain, towards Easterton and Urchfont.

A Market Lavington Wedding in 1900

A few days ago we looked at Wilsons at the Vicarage and in particular the life of Violet Wilson who spent virtually her entire childhood under the guardianship of her uncle and aunt, The Reverend Edward Blackston Cokaybe Frith and his wife, Maria. They lived at the Vicarage in Market Lavington which is now incorporated into the nursing home.

Since writing that a picture has arrived for us, at the museum, showing some of the wedding party when Violet married Harry Jones.

Wedding party at the marriage of Violet Wilson and Harold Jones in 1900. The photo was taken at The Vicarage, Market Lavington.

This picture was taken at Market Lavington Vicarage. The happy couple sit in the middle on a garden bench which appears in other photos we have of the building.

The man at top left is the Reverend Frith, vicar of Market Lavington and Uncle of the bride. We guess that the lady standing behind the couple is Maria Frith, the bride’s aunt. They were the blood relatives. The bride’s mother, who died giving birth to her, was Maria’s sister.

We can guess that the two bridesmaids are the sisters of the bride, Renee and Fanny Wilson who were also brought up by their aunt and uncle. We have no name for the other man.

Of course, if anybody can add anything, we’d be delighted to hear from them.

Wilsons at the Vicarage

We have already learned of the Wilson family who lived with the Reverend Frith and his wife at Market Lavington vicarage. Mrs Frith was the Wilson family aunt and she took care of the children following the death of their mother.

We now have photos of some of these Wilsons.

Let’s start with just one girl.

Violet Dottie Wilson who lived at Market Lavington Vicarage from about 1878 to 1900

This is Violet Dottie Wilson. Sadly, her mother died giving birth to her and that resulted in the move to Market Lavington. It was a long move, for the Wilson family were based in India. But in 1881 we find Violet, the youngest of the Wilson clan, at the Vicarage in Market Lavington.

Violet was still with her uncle and aunt at The Vicarage in 1891. This census also lists a daughter, adopted by the Reverend Frith called Catherine and a Frith niece known as May but properly, Agnes. Violet’s older sisters were still present as well.

Violet was a bridesmaid at the wedding of her cousin, Agnes May Cokayne frith which took place at Market Lavington in 1897. Perhaps the photo dates from about that time.

We think Violet married Harold Jones in 1900. Such a marriage was registered in the Devizes district. The couple lived in Camberwell, South London for the 1901 census. They had a six month old son called Donald.

Our correspondent in Richmond Virginia is keen to know more about this family and the other Wilsons. We’d love to know more about their life and times in Market Lavington.

At the Vicarage in the 19th Century

It is so good when things come together and you can start to get a bit more understanding.

This story had better begin in 1983 although it concerns the Vicarage in Market Lavington 100 years or so before that. It was in 1983 that a piece of paper, with some limited information was sent to or maybe given to Peggy Gye, our museum founder.

When the museum was founded – it opened in 1985 – the piece of paper became part of the collection. It contains a photocopy of a sketch of the vicarage.

Sketch of the Vicarage in Market Lavington dating from about 1880

The piece of paper has been headed, in a 1983 hand.

The Reverend Edward Blackston Cokayne Frith was the incumbant at the time

In addition there is an attribution, giving the name of the artist.

The artist is said to be Francis Hamilton Northesk Wilson

This tells us that the drawing was by Francis Hamilton Northesk Wilson of home he lived in England.

But who on earth was the artistic Francis Wilson?

A clue came from a correspondent who wrote:

Rev Frith is not a direct ancestor of mine, but his wife, Maria Sankey Frith, was the sister of my paternal great-great grandmother Henrietta Sankey Wilson. My great grandfather, William H. Wilson, was the son of Charles Watson Wilson and Henrietta Sankey Wilson. He was born in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, India in 1863. Charles W. Wilson was a military officer and, unfortunately, Henrietta died with the birth of their last child, Violet, about 1877. Unable, or unwilling, to care for his many children, Charles sent them to live with the Friths at the vicarage in Market Lavington. The 1881 census record of the Frith household includes those Wilson children living at the vicarage. My great grandfather, William H. Wilson, is listed among them as age 17 and a Seaman Apprentice in the Merchant Marine.

For the record, it seems that the much travelled William Wilson eventually settled in Texas in 1889, after surviving a shipwreck near the Falkland Islands.

Unfortunately, we can find no trace of Francis Wilson ever living in Market Lavington but maybe he was a brother of William who missed out on written records for some reason. We do know that William had a sister called Frances who lived with the Friths at the time of 1881, 1891 and 1901 censuses.

And while we haven’t traced Francis our correspondent has. It seems that Francis was the older brother of William. We also know that the people who sent the sketch to our Peggy were the granddaughters of Francis and that they died a few years ago.

A mystery is solved.