Brickworks memories by Mrs Elisha written 1977

Good memories are a real source of knowledge and understanding. Here we have memories written down by Mrs Elisha in about 1977. Her memories date back and mention of the Central Flying School probably...

Top Hat

Here we have yet another item given to the museum this month. This one belonged to Tom Gye who died last year. It was one of his top hats. A part of the Gye business was undertaking funerals. We alrea...

Agricultural labourer wages

This document is not specific to Market Lavington but refers to the whole of Wiltshire and other counties. The Wiltshire wage is compared with the highest and lowest wages paid elsewhere at various ti...

Women of the village

This piece of writing, we believe by Janette Hodgkinson, was written in 1999 and follows the archaeological excavations on the Grove Farm site. We think it captures the spirit of two ages, separated b...

A wagon kit

John Davis was a coal merchant in Market Lavington at the time when coal was king. If you wanted to keep warm or cook things then the chances are you used coal. Huge quantities were moved around the c...

Hymn Numbers

What commonplace items these are. In times past every church had sets of numbers which could be slotted into a board to tell the congregation which hymns were to be sung. These days more and more chur...

In a strop!

In a strop   There was a time when men shaved themselves with cut throat razors. That’s a fearsome sounding name for what was a very dangerous tool. To get a perfect edge on a cut throat razor,...

Sing a song of sixpences

Our local metal detectorist found quite a few pre 1971 sixpence coins or tanners as they were affectionately known as. They all come from the old recreation ground. Here’s a sample to show changes. ...

A Bovril Jar

OK, glass Bovril jars are almost as common as muck but we are still pleased to have one at the museum. It was acquired at a day centre sale earlier this month. It’s a small one. These jars were fa...

H. Bros Brick

During much of the second half of the nineteenth century Edward Box owned the local brickworks but after his untimely death the business was sold to Holloway brothers, a West Lavington based family. P...