Cow and piglet

We have posted this photo once before on this blog – a charming shot of a cow suckling a piglet.   When we published this back in 2013 we reported what we had been told – that this was Fr...

A new car in the 1950s

Back in May 2015 we looked at an Austin 7 car which had belonged to Betty Gye of Homestead Farm. When Betty was ready to take her driving test, her dad decided she couldn’t take it in the old Austin...

A ploughing match at Market Lavington

The following extract appeared in The Cottagers Companion for September 1837. This appears to have been quite a local concern judging by the premium winners. But it seems even the losers were award...

Threshing in 1976

We have seen something of this occasion in a blog post in September 2012 but this colour snap catches the dust and grime of the threshing process. Now let’s be clear. This was not normal back in ...

The Williams’ hay rake

There are some items we just can’t take at our museum. To comply with ‘rules’ all items must be protected from the weather so we cannot take items which won’t fit in our little cottage. We’d...

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...

Work at Homestead Farm in the 1950s

Homestead Farm was just beyond where St Barnabas School now stands up Drove Lane which was once called Cemetery Lane because there is a cemetery just below the school. It was never a big farm but in ...

The Farmer’s Guide of 1925

Commercial companies exist to sell their products or services. The Farmer’s Guide was really an advertising magazine produced by Carters, the seed company. It was quite lavish back in 1925 with a co...

Flax

Flax is a field crop not grown all that much locally although we understand that the need for cloth – linen is made from flax – meant much more was grown during World War II. In more recent years...

Grove Farm Plans

This plan has recently turned up at Market Lavington Museum. We do not know its origins, but it looks, perhaps, to have been part of some kind of school project display, produced by an adult. The plan...