The Little Book of Wiltshire E-Book

Dee La Vardera

• Herausgeber: The History Press
• Kategorie: Sachliteratur, Reportagen, Biografien
• Serie: Little Book of
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 271

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013

Beschreibung

The Little Book of Wiltshire is a compendium of fascinating information about the county, past and present. Contained within is a plethora of entertaining facts about Wiltshire's famous and occasionally infamous men and women, its towns and countryside, history, natural history, literary, artistic and sporting achievements, agriculture, transport, industry and royal visits. A reliable reference book and a quirky guide, this can be dipped in to time and time again to reveal something new about the people, the heritage, the secrets and the enduring fascination of the county. A remarkably engaging little book, this is essential reading for visitors and locals alike. A reference book and a quirky guide, this can be dipped into time and time again to reveal something new about the people, the heritage, the secrets and the enduring fascination of the county. It is essential reading for visitors and locals alike.

Leseprobe

CONTENTS

Title Page

Acknowledgements

Introduction

What They Say About Wiltshire

1 The Wonders of Wiltshire

2 Record Breakers

3 Military Matters

4 Law & Order

5 Working Life

6 Leisure Time

7 Inventors, Pioneers & Scholars

8 Literary Wiltshire

9 Wiltshire’s Nobel Laureate

10 Musical Wiltshire

11 Stage, Screen & TV

12 Film File

13 Animal Tales

14 On this Day

Bibliography

Illustrations

Copyright

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thank you to everyone who helped me with my researches, with contributions and in verifying the material gathered. Most entries are the result of a combination of sources from original documents, archive material, newspapers, magazines, books, the internet and human memory.

Particular thanks to: Robert Goddard; David Waters, the Great Bustard Group; Peter Stowe, Castle Combe Circuit; Tony Pickernell, Garrison Theatre, Tidworth; Sarah Jane Kenyon, Dents Glove Museum; Simon Cook and Martin Macintyre, The Rifles (Berkshire and Wiltshire) Museum; Paul Connell, Chippenham Museum; Roger Frost, Market Lavington Museum; Kate Fieldon, Bowood House; David Dawson, Wiltshire Heritage Museum; Paul Gahan, Swindon Library; David Birk, Trowbridge Museum; Felicity Jones, STEAM Swindon; Steve Hobbs, Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre (WSHC); and John Rattray, Wiltshire Wildlife Trust. Thanks also to Norman Beale, Graham Carter, Barry Cooper, Gerry Hughes, Terry Gilligan and Mike Stone.

INTRODUCTION

The wonderful county of Wiltshire attracts millions of visitors from around the world every year – most, it seems, making their way to Stonehenge or Harry Potter’s Hogwarts at Lacock or Longleat to see the lions. But there is so much else to see from Downs to Plain: white horses cut into chalk hillsides, canals and crop circles, fine architecture in churches, great houses and colleges, picturesque villages and hidden hamlets.

Farming and small businesses, new technology and commerce work side by side, keeping the county developing and changing as it always has over the centuries. Multiplexes and supermarkets have replaced breweries and mills. Our county records office, rated one of the best archive services in the country, stands where livestock were auctioned, in what was once the largest one-day cattle market in England.

But it’s people who make a place. Wiltshire can boast a long line of wonderful men and women over the centuries, from poets to politicians, artists to archaeologists, singers to suffragettes who have left their legacy both here and abroad. This book is packed with them, along with the unsung heroes and heroines, oddballs and eccentrics, as well as quite a few rogues and villains.

Here are stories to celebrate and entertain, about the funny, the unusual and the obscure relating to our very own green and pleasant land – Wiltshire. Have a good read or just dip in as the fancy takes.

Dee La Vardera, 2013

WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT WILTSHIRE

‘Welcome to Camillashire. For more than 30 years Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, has lived and loved in Wiltshire.’ (Daily Mail, 20 August 2007)

People in Wiltshire are the fourth happiest in the country according to the Office of National Statistics Well-being Survey (2012)

‘A fine Champion Country pleasant for all sports, Rideing, Hunting, Courseing, Setting and Shooteing.’ (Celia Fiennes, Through England on a Side Saddle in the Time of William and Mary, 1695)

‘The Chicago of the Western Counties.’ (Richard Jefferies, on New Swindon, 1867)

‘Everywhere the same squat rows. It was like wandering through a town for dingy dolls.’ (J.B. Priestley on New Town, Swindon, taken from English Journey, 1934)

‘Wiltshire itself helps to supply London with cheese, bacon and malt, three very considerable articles, besides that vast manufacture of fine Spanish cloths … that it is thereby rendered one of the most important counties in England, that is to say, important to the public wealth of the kingdom.’ (Daniel Defoe, A Tour Through The Whole Island Of Great Britain, 1724–1726)

‘The hawthorn bushes were loaded with their sweet May snow, and in the glowing afternoon sun the sheets of buttercups stretched away under the bright elms like a sea of gold.’ (Revd Francis Kilvert of Langley Burrell’s diary, 17 May 1874)

‘Wiltshire is without rival among English Counties for the extent and character of its antiquities. Its woodlands are charming. The valleys of its greater rivers have a detailed loveliness all their own, while thoroughly English in general effect.’ (R.N. Worth, Tourist’s Guide To Wiltshire, 1887)

The local population of North Wiltshire ‘are phlegmatique, skins pale and livid, slow and dull, heavy of spirit … they only milk the cowes and make cheese; they feed chiefly on milke meats, which cooles their braines too much, and hurts their inventions. These circumstances make them melancholy, contemplative, and malicious; by consequence whereof come more law suites out of North Wilts, at least double the Southern parts.’ (John Aubrey, The Natural History of Wiltshire, 1656–1691)

‘In the city of Salisbury doe reigne the dropsy, consumption, scurvy, gowte; it is an exceeding dampish place.’ (John Aubrey)

‘Swindon represents the eastern edge of the UK’s largest silicon design cluster – twice the size of Cambridge, and second only to Silicon Valley itself.’ (National Endowment for Science, Technology & the Arts (NESTA) Report ‘Chips with everything’ October 2010)

1

THE WONDERS OF WILTSHIRE

Stonehenge, Avebury, and Associated Sites were listed by UNESCO (1986) as World Heritage property of ‘Outstanding Universal Value’ and ‘internationally important for its complexes of outstanding prehistoric monuments’.

STONEHENGE

Stonehenge covers 2,600 hectares and is ‘the most architecturally sophisticated prehistoric stone circle in the world’. English Heritage describes it as ‘a unique lintelled stone circle surrounded by landscape containing more than 350 burial mounds and major prehistoric monuments such as the Stonehenge Avenue, the Cursus, Woodhenge and Durrington Walls.’ Latest carbon dating pinpoints its construction to 2,300 BC say Professors Tim Darvill and Geoff Wainwright. Its purpose: ‘It is certain that Stonehenge was built as a temple to the sun and the changing seasons, carefully aligned to mark midsummer and midwinter’, agrees Julian Richards.

Visitor Facts

1951 – 124,000 visitors

1971 – 550,000 visitors

1990 – 687,000 visitors

2010/11 – 1,023,000 visitors, of whom 50 per cent were from overseas

It regularly appears in top ten lists of most popular places to visit in Britain.

Who Owned Stonehenge?

Stonehenge was in private hands from the middle ages onwards, from the Benedictine nuns of Amesbury Abbey through to Henry VIII, who took the abbey and its land in 1540. He passed it down to various families, including Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford and the Marquess of Queensbury, then to the Antrobus family who bought the estate in 1824.

An attempt to sell Stonehenge in 1899 failed when there was public outcry and questions raised in Parliament. Sir Edmund Antrobus offered the 1,300 acres site, including ‘certain pasturage and sporting rights’ to the Government for £125,000. A Punch cartoon of 30 August 1899 speculated on what might happen to the site if Stonehenge were sold. In the end, Antrobus fenced off the site and imposed an admission charge of 1s to visitors. When the heir to the Antrobus baronetcy was killed in the First World War, the estate was finally put up for sale.

Going, Going, Gone!

The last private owner of Stonehenge was Sir Cecil Herbert Edward Chubb, 1st Baronet (1876–1934) who was born in Shrewton, and attended Bishop Wordsworth’s School, Salisbury and lived at Bemerton Lodge. He went to a Messrs Knight Frank and Rutley auction held in the Palace Theatre, Salisbury, on 21 September 1915 where he bought Lot 15 (Stonehenge, with 30 acres adjoining land) on a whim as a gift for his wife, paying £6,600. Chubb gave Stonehenge to the Government on 26 October 1918, handing it over to Sir Alfred Mond, First Commissioner of Works. Its current valuation is in the region of £51 million.

Trouble at the Stones

The first organised Free Festival at Stonehenge was held in June 1974 to celebrate the summer solstice and continued for eleven years. In 1985, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher banned the solstice gathering and a High Court judge granted an order to enforce a four–mile exclusion zone around the Stones. There were violent clashes between more than 1,000 police, many in riot gear, drawn from six counties and the MOD, and the convoy of several hundred new-age travellers, peace activists, anti-nuclear campaigners and free festival-goers en route to Stonehenge. There were 520 arrests in what became known as the ‘Battle of the Beanfield’, after the field where the convoy was camping.

SIX PHONEYHENGES

Stonehenge, Alton Park, Staffordshire, is a Grade II listed early nineteenth-century garden folly, described in the National Heritage List as ‘massive stone blocks. 3 bays with 2-tier central bay, monumental lintels’. It was built by the 15th Earl of Shrewsbury in the gardens of his estate, now part of Alton Towers Amusement Park.

The Britton Celtic Cabinet, 1824, in the Wiltshire Heritage Museum, Devizes, was made for George Watson Taylor of Erlestoke Park, MP for Devizes (1826–1832). In the shape of a Stonehenge trilithon it is made from mahogany and pine with pollarded elms and bird’s eye maple veneer with glass fronted panels displaying watercolour views of megalithic monuments. The glass cabinet on top contains a cork model of Stonehenge made by Henry Browne, and a model of Avebury in a drawer beneath.

Foamhenge, Natural Bridge, Virginia, USA. This was the fastest Stonehenge ever erected. Mark Cline, fibreglass artist, set up his exact replica made from styrofoam in a single day on 1 April, 2004. He carved 16 ft tall blocks of foam then anchored them in cement on his property, Enchanted Castle Studios in Natural Bridge, Virginia. It has become a popular attraction worldwide, much respected for its accuracy in appearance, layout and astronomical alignment.

Phonehenge, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, USA. This half circle was created from a number of old–fashioned red British telephone boxes. It is used as performance area in the British Invasion section of the Freestyle Music Park, a 55–acre rock and roll themed amusement park near Myrtle Beach, opened in 2008. (Not to be confused with Phonehenge West (California) made from telephone poles by Alan Kimble Fahey, sentenced in December 2012 by a Los Angeles court to 565 days for failure to demolish his compound and structures).

Carhenge, Alliance, Nebraska, USA. Jim Reinders, farmer and artist, erected his homage to Stonehenge in 1987 built from 38 vintage American cars sprayed with grey paint. Over 80,000 tourists a year visit the site and it was voted No. 2 Wackiest Attraction in America in 2009.

Sacrilege, Turner Prize-winning artist Jeremy Deller’s creation is a life-size replica of Stonehenge as a fully operational bouncy castle. It was launched in Glasgow in April and went on tour to twenty-five locations across Britain, as part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad.

AVEBURY

Avebury stone circle is the largest prehistoric stone circle in the world. It is fourteen times the size of Stonehenge and was built and altered over many centuries from about 2850 BC to 2200 BC. ‘The encircling henge consists of a huge bank and ditch 1.3km in circumference, within which 180 local, unshaped standing stones formed the large outer and two inner circles.’ (UNESCO) It is regarded by spiritual groups, such as druids, as an important spiritual centre and site for ritual.

On 15 June 1668, Samuel Pepys visited Avebury, and said of the area: ‘Where, seeing great stones like those of Stonage standing up, I stopped, and took a countryman of that town, and he carried me and shewed me a place trenched in, like Old Sarum almost, with great stones pitched in it, some bigger than those at Stonage in figure, to my great admiration: and he told me that most people of learning, coming by, do come and view them, and that the King did so.’

Florrie’s Ghost

The 400-year-old Red Lion Inn in the heart of the Avebury Circle appears in many top ten lists of most haunted places in Britain. One ghost said to haunt the pub is that of Florrie, killed by her husband who unexpectedly returned from the Civil War to find her with her lover. He shot the lover and slit his wife’s throat, dragging her body to the well (still preserved in one of the pub’s front rooms) where he threw it, sealing the well with a boulder.

How Marmalade Saved the Stones

Alexander Keiller (1889–1955) ‘The Marmalade Millionaire’ inherited the family business of James Keiller & Sons Dundee Marmalade when he was nine. He sold his shares in 1918 and used his wealth to pursue his many interests including racing cars, skiing, flying and archaeology. He became interested in Wiltshire with its Neolithic history and began buying land in 1924, including a large part of Windmill Hill, a mile north of Avebury. He added properties in the village, including the Manor House, and surrounding land with earthworks and stone circle. Thanks to his wealth, expertise and determination in excavating, recording and restoring the site, we are able enjoy its present-day splendour.

Two Special Stones

The Barber’s Stone, re-erected by Keiller in 1938, was named after the skeleton discovered buried underneath the stone, along with a pair of scissors, a small iron lancet and three silver coins dating from early fourteenth century. Thought to be a medieval barber-surgeon (or a tailor) who was crushed under a stone while helping locals to destroy and bury the stones, perhaps part of the attempts to rid the site of its pagan associations in response to pressure from the Church against such practices.

The Diamond or Swindon weighing 100 metric tonnes (the equivalent of two Chieftain tanks) is heavier than any stone at Stonehenge, and also one of the few megaliths that has never fallen or been moved.

SILBURY HILL

Silbury Hill is the largest prehistoric mound in Europe. Built around 2400 BC, it stands 39.5m high and comprises half a million tonnes of chalk. It is privately owned and managed by English Heritage. The purpose of this imposing monument still remains a mystery. It seems to have been all things to all people at one time or another. From a burial mound, a platform for astronomical observations to a place for druidical sacrifices or the motte of a castle. It has always been considered a place of spiritual significance, some believing it to be the omphalos or navel (the centre of the spiritual world), the sacred ‘eye’ or the pregnant earth goddess.

The King and the Snails

John Aubrey recorded an important visit to Silbury Hill in his Natural History of Wiltshire in 1663, ‘I had the honour to waite on King Charles II and the Duke of York to the top of Silbury hill, his Royal Highnesse happened to cast his eye on some of these small snailes on the turfe of the hill. He was surprised by the novelty, and commanded me to pick some up, which I did about a dozen or more immediately; for they are in great abundance.’

Merry Making on the Mound

The Bath Journal for 7 September 1747 announced that: ‘At King Cool’s Theatre at Celbury-Hill (Silbury) near Marlborough (which is the most beautiful and magnificent mount in Europe) the 12th and 13th days of October, will be Bull-Baiting, Backsword Playing, Dancing, and other Divertions. The second day will be Wrestling, a Smock and Ribbons run for, and Foot-Ball Playing, eight of a Side. At this entertainment the Company of the Neighbouring Nobility, Members, Clergy, and the Rest of the King’s Friends is desired; and as eleven years ago about Six Thousand People met at the said Hill, the Publick-Houses had not proper accommodation, therefore several Booths will be erected.’

TV’s First Live Archaeological Dig

In 1968, David Attenborough, who was controller of BBC2 at the time, commissioned a dig of Silbury Hill led by Professor Richard Atkinson. This involved tunnelling into its depths to discover why it was there. At the time, the programme was judged a flop, since it found no treasure, no tomb and no real answers at all.

WEST KENNET LONG BARROW

This is ‘the largest, most impressive and accessible Neolithic chambered tombs in Britain’ and part of the Avebury World Heritage site. It was built around 3650 BC and briefly used as a burial chamber for fifty people before being blocked up. It was excavated in 1859 and in 1955-56. It is privately owned but looked after by English Heritage.

In the seventeenth century, Dr Troope from Marlborough is said to have stolen human bones from the Barrow to grind up and sell as a quack medicine.

It is said that at sunrise on Midsummer’s Day, a white spectral figure appears, accompanied by a red-eared hound.

SALISBURY PLAIN

‘The turfe is of a short sweet grasse, good for the sheep, and delightful to the eye, for its smoothnesse is like a bowling green, and pleasant to the traveller; who wants here only variety of objects to make his journey lesse tedious: for here is nil nisi campus et aër, not a tree, or rarely a bush to shelter one from a shower.’ (John Aubrey, The Natural History of Wiltshire, 1656–1691)

Salisbury Plain is the largest area of chalk grassland in North-West Europe. Much of the land is designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), Special Area Conservation (SAC) and Special Protection Area (SPA) for birds, and is rich in Scheduled Monuments (SM), as well as being the location of the Stonehenge World Heritage Site.

The Ministry of Defence has owned Salisbury Plain since 1897, when it began purchasing land, now totalling about 38,000 hectares (roughly the size of the Isle of Wight). This has enabled them to maintain this area as one of the best nature reserves in the country. Farmland has been carefully managed, and the absence of intensive farming methods has helped to create favourable conditions for all kinds of grasses and wild flowers to grow. This has helped to create a safe home for rare butterflies such as the Marsh Fritillary, Duke of Burgundy and Adonis Blue, and for birds such as Skylarks and summer visiting Stone Curlews, and now the Great Bustard. The regular movement of tanks across the land has proved useful too, for the rare Fairy Shrimp thrives in puddles in the tank tracks.

THE ROYAL HUNTING FOREST

Savernake Forest, near Marlborough, is the only privately owned forest in Britain and one of England’s most important woodlands, being more than 1,000 years old. The forest ownership has an unbroken line from Norman times, passing down thirty-one generations – father to son (and four daughters) to the current hereditary warden, the Earl of Cardigan. The Grand Avenue of beech trees in Savernake was planted by Capability Brown in the 1790s, and runs for just under 4 miles across the 2,750 acres of woodland. One of the oldest trees in Britain is the Big Bellied Oak, aka the Decanter’s Oak, on the side of the A346 road, south of Cadley. The forest is designated as an Area of Outstanding Beauty and a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and managed by the Forestry Commission.

WINDMILL HILL

An important exhibit in the Alexander Keiller Museum, Avebury, is the Windmill Hill (Neolithic) Pot found during excavations at Windmill Hill, ‘the classic Neolithic causewayed enclosure with three concentric but intermittent ditches’, and part of the Avebury World Heritage Site. Archaeological excavations at the site in the 1920s revealed some of the earliest pots found in the British Isles. Pottery was first used in Britain at about the same time that farming was introduced from the Continent. This type of pottery was named after Windmill Hill because it was one of the first sites where it was recognised.

EIGHT WHITE HORSES

Westbury White Horse, aka Bratton Horse, is the largest and oldest of the eight horses carved into the chalk downland in Wiltshire. The present horse was cut in 1778.

Cherhill White Horse is the second largest and was cut in 1780.

Pewsey White Horse. The old horse was cut in 1785, the new one in 1937.

Marlborough White Horse, aka Preshute, was cut in 1804 and is maintained by Marlborough College.

Alton Barnes White Horse was cut on a hill known as Old Adam in 1812 by Robert Pile, who is also said to have cut the Pewsey Horse (or possibly his father).

Hackpen White Horse, aka Winterbourne Bassett or Broad Hinton White Horse, was cut in 1838.

Broad Town was cut on downland outside the village around 1864.

Devizes Millennium is the newest one, cut in 1999.

THE RIDGEWAY

The Ridegway National Trail is Britain’s oldest road, possibly 5,000 years old or more, and is part of a much bigger track stretching 250 miles from the Dorset coast to the Wash in Norfolk. This surviving part is 87 miles long and follows the ancient chalk ridge route used by prehistoric man, probably travellers, herdsmen and soldiers. Sections were also known as the ‘herepath’, Anglo-Saxon for ‘army road’. The road starts at Overton Hill near Avebury ending at Ivinghoe Beacon in the Chiltern Hills.

SALISBURY CATHEDRAL

Salisbury Cathedral is one of the finest medieval cathedrals in Britain. It took 38 years to build (AD 1220–1258) using: 60,000 tons of Chilmark Stone; 10,000 tons of Purbeck Stone; 28,000 tons of oak for the roof, and 420 tons of lead covering 4 acres used on the roof. It is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin of the Assumption and was consecrated on 20 September 1258.

Claims to Fame

The tallest spire in Britain. At 404ft high it was completed in the 1330s. The top 30ft of tower and spire were rebuilt in 1945–51.

The largest cathedral close in Britain. Its shape is roughly a rectangle measuring 80 acres. A licence to build a wall round the cathedral and houses was granted by Edward III in 1327.

The largest secular cathedral cloisters in Britain. Unusual, as they were never part of a monastic foundation and as Pevsner said, ‘It was an afterthought … It is entirely isolated from the cathedral.’

The world’s oldest working clock. It has no face, only strikes the hour, and can be found in the north nave aisle of the Cathedral. It dates from AD 1386 and used to be situated in the Bell Tower, which was demolished in 1789.

The largest piece of modern art within a medieval cathedral. The Salisbury Font, designed by William Pye, was installed in the centre of the nave of the Cathedral and consecrated by the Archbishop of Canterbury on 28 September 2008. The reflections of the surrounding architecture and stained-glass windows in the still surface of the water in the vessel are particularly beautiful.

The first women Dean of a medieval cathedral. The Very Revd June Osborne, a former pupil of St Mary’s School, Calne, took up post at the Cathedral in 2004.

MAGNA CARTA

‘The greatest constitutional document of all times.’

Lord Denning, Master of the Roll, 1965

The Chapter House of Salisbury Cathedral holds the best preserved copy of only four remaining original copies of the 1215 Magna Carta. It was written on vellum (parchment made from calfskin) and measures 14 in × 17 in.

Clause 39 is one of the most famous from the document:

No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or possessions, or outlawed or exiled, or deprived of his standing in any other way, nor will we proceed with force against him, or send others to do so, except by the lawful judgement of his equals or by the laws of the land.

The British Library holds two copies and Lincoln Castle the other. The worldwide significance of Magna Carta was recognised in 2009, as it was inscribed in the UNESCO ‘Memory of the World’ register, which began in 1992 to protect and promote the world’s documentary heritage through preservation and access.

SIX WINDOWS TO SEE

St Nicholas Church, Bromham

A memorial stained-glass window designed by William Morris in around 1870, which is dedicated to Irish poet Thomas Moore (1779–1852) who was buried in the churchyard. Moore moved from Dublin in 1817 to Sloperton Cottage, Westbrook near Bromham.

Lacock Abbey

A lattice window, famous as the subject of the first camera negative picture taken by William Fox Talbot, who discovered the negative/positive photographic process in 1835.

St Michael’s and All Saints’ Church, Lyneham

Two stained-glass windows designed and made by Henry Haig of Shaftesbury, one commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of RAF Lyneham (1990); the other to mark the 47 Squadrons long association with Lyneham (2007).

Church of the Holy Cross, Seend

The Millennium Window, 2002, was designed and made by Andrew Taylor, FMGP, of Littleton Panell to celebrate past and present working life of the village. The lights of the window show aspects of agriculture, the woollen and weaving industry, iron ore mining and smelting, and the importance of the canal for transporting raw materials to and from the area.

Trinity Chapel, Salisbury Cathedral

The Prisoner of Conscience stained-glass window, 1980, was designed and cut by Gabriel Loire, of Chartres, from glass selected by his son, Jacques. The central lancet represents Christ as a prisoner of conscience of the first century; the outer lancets those of the twentieth century.

St Peter ad Vincula, Tollard Royal

The stained-glass window by Giuseppe Bernini of Milan was given as a memorial to the Honourable Alice Arbuthnot, daughter of George Pitt-Rivers, 4th Baron Rivers of Sudeley Castle, who was killed by lightning on her honeymoon in Switzerland while climbing the Schildhorn Alp on 21 June 1865.

SIX WORKS OF ART TO VIEW

The Annunciation (1463) by Fra Filippo Lippi in the Cabinet Room at Corsham Court, and Michelangelo’s Sleeping Cupid (1496) is a must-see in the Octagon Room.

Glass Prism, etched glass by Laurence Whistler exhibited in Salisbury Cathedral is a memorial to his brother, artist Rex Whistler (1905–1944), who lived in The Close as a boy and was stationed at Codford training camp during the Second World War. He was killed in action prior to the D-Day Landings in France in 1944.

Walking Madonna (1981), the bronze sculpture by Dame Elisabeth Frink, is exhibited in Salisbury Cathedral Close. The figure is striding away from the church towards the town, ‘walking with purposeful compassion as a member of the community of the Risen Christ, to bring love where love is absent’.

The Choice of Hercules (1636/37) by Nicholas Poussin at Stourhead, possibly once belonged to the architect François Blondel (1617–1686) and was bought by Henry Hoare II (1705).

Study of an Angel after Van Dyck (1750s) by Thomas Gainsborough, held in Wilton House, is based on the altarpiece Saint Augustine in Ecstasy (1628) in St Augustine’s Church, Antwerp.

BOX TUNNEL

When Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806–1859) was building the Great Western Railway, which ran between London and Bristol, one of the worst obstacles he faced was Box Hill. Its highest point was 400ft above the proposed level of the railway – the solution being a tunnel through a thick bed of oolite (Bath stone). It was the longest railway tunnel in existence, at almost 1.75 miles.

Work began on the tunnel in September 1836 and was finished by 30 June 1841 when the first train for public use made the journey from Bristol Temple Meads to Paddington in about four hours. Workers worked by candlelight and there were two teams working at each end with a combination of work by hand, with pick and shovel, and blasting. When they finally met in the middle, the roof lines coincided exactly and the sides were only fractionally out. Over 30 million bricks were used to complete the tunnel, made by local brickworks in Chippenham. The cost of driving the tunnel through Box Hill was, on average, £100 per yard. You do the maths!

The current titleholder for longest tunnel is the Seikan Tunnel in Japan which runs 33.49 miles, of which 14.5 miles run under the ocean.

CAEN HILL FLIGHT OF LOCKS

The title of ‘longest flight of locks on a canal’ nearly goes to John Rennie’s 29 locks on the Kennet and Avon Canal. Its construction solved the problem of climbing 237ft up to Devizes, over a distance of 2.25 miles as part of the 87-mile route of the Kennet and Avon Canal. It opened in 1810 but fell into disrepair after the Second World War. After years of restoration work, the Queen opened the restored section on 8 August 1990. It received a Transport Trust Red Wheel plaque on 22 June 2011, marking its historical significance.

Tardebigge Flight on the Worcester & Birmingham Canal is the longest flight, with 30 locks raising the canal 220ft.

CROFTON PUMPING STATION

This Grade I listed building was built in 1807 to pump water to the summit of the Kennet and Avon Canal. The 42in Bore Boulton & Watt Engine built in 1812 is the oldest in the world still in working order.

HANDLE HOUSE

Teasels were used to finish cloth by raising the nap. They were mounted on wooden frames called handles and drawn over the dampened cloth. They were stored after use in buildings with ventilated walls. The Handle House in Stallard Street, Trowbridge, was probably built between 1843 and 1848 and is the only certain example of such a building in the West of England. With its exterior walls preserved, and a steel frame erected inside to stabilise it, the building has now been converted into offices.

RENAULT BUILDING

Also known as Spectrum, in Mead Way, Swindon, the Renault Building is Grade II listed and was designed by Norman Foster. It was built as Renault UK’s parts distribution centre in 1983 at a cost of £8,266,400. The building has won four awards including the prestigious Financial Times ‘Architecture at Work’ Award (1984) and the Constructa Prize for Industrial Architecture in Europa (1986). It was used in the James Bond film, A View to A Kill (1985). Renault moved out in 2001 and it was temporarily used as an exhibition gallery for Swindon College and a Ford showroom. It is currently an indoor play centre run by Kidz About.

WILTON WINDMILL

Wilton is the only working windmill in Wessex. It was built in 1821 after the new Kennet and Avon Canal had been completed because the canal took the water that had formerly powered five local water mills. It was in operation for over 100 years but gradually fell into disrepair as milling methods changed with the advent of steam roller mills. It was restored by volunteers in 1976 and is currently owned by Wiltshire Council and managed by the Wilton Windmill Society. It still produces and sells stone-ground wholemeal flour. In 2003, scenes for Bollywood movie Kuch Din Kuch Pal (Any Day, Any Time), starring Sudhanshu Panday and Bhumika Puri, were filmed there.

MILES OF BOOKS

The English Heritage Archive is housed in Swindon’s former Great Western Railway drawing offices. It holds over 12 million items including photographs, drawings, reports and publications on England’s archaeology, historic buildings and social and local history.

Housed on a former airfield acquired in 1979, the Science Museum at Wrougton is home to the Science Museum’s big-object store, archive and library – one of the best science libraries in the world. It has 16 miles of shelving, displaying original editions including those by Einstein, Galileo, Newton and Darwin.

The Bodleian Libraries of the University of Oxford opened a new £26 million overflow Book Storage Facility (BSF) in Swindon in October 2010. The computerised and climate-controlled warehouse on the 23-acre site at South Marston can store 8 million low-usage books and maps on its 153 miles of shelving. Library staff use forklift trucks to retrieve books that are then transported to Oxford by road in a twice-daily service.

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RECORD BREAKERS

FIRSTS

First King of England

Æthelstan (893/4–939) First King of all England. His grandfather was King Alfred the Great; his father King Edward the Elder. When his father died, his younger brother Elfweard succeeded to the throne and Æthelstan inherited the Kingdom of Merica. When his brother died he inherited everything, becoming King of Mercia and Wessex. He was crowned in Kingston upon Thames and reigned for fifteen years, having united all the English peoples under one rule. He did not marry and died aged forty-four in Gloucester. His tomb is in Malmesbury Abbey.

Beginning of the National Health Service