Christmas 1916

This was the third Christmas of the First World War. People on both sides of the war were away from home, suffering hardships, injury and of course, in some cases, death. By the middle of 1916 conscri...

Jasper Steven Chapman

1673 Private J. S. Chapman Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry 5th April 1916 aged 22 Jasper was born about 1894. His parents were William, a market gardener and Ann. They lived in the Fiddington Clay area of L...

Australians in Market Lavington – also the Mullings family

For some time we have tried to link our local Mullings family – the basket makers – with other Mullings in the south of England. A lead in this task comes with a postcard of Australian troops in M...

Tractors: Market Lavington leads the way.

Today we are looking at an article published in the Wiltshire Gazette and Herald on April 19th 1973. But it is about an event which took place in 1916 – the first use of a tractor in South West Engl...

The Manor Sale of 1916

Sale catalogues can be very interesting items and this one, complete with well reproduced photographs certainly is. The bulk of the estate had been sold off following the death of Charles Awdry. Ja...

Bessie’s Life

Bessie was a Market Lavington girl. Like many an older person she ended her days in care and this book was produced for her at that time. It’s a lovely, simple reminder of a life well spent. And n...

Australians in World War One

As we move towards 2014, and that centenary of the start of the First World War, this is a reminder that we shall be devoting display space to that war. We still seek personal stories and any other m...

Friendly Oddfellows

One of the good things about writing a blog is that you get a chance to see what search engine terms bring people to your writing.  Yesterday, for example, someone was searching for Ann Neate. I’m ...