Church and Grove – 1920s

Some photos capture the quiet and rural nature of a place and we think this one did just that. We are looking at the west end and north side of St Mary’s church. We think this was taken in 1929. ...

The church in colour

Collectors of postcards often seem to dismiss the images which have been colour tinted. However, they give us an idea of what places actually looked like, 100 or more years ago. It reminds us that it ...

The Grange – Easterton

The Grange is a hidden building in Easterton. It is along the main street but is hidden behind a high, evergreen hedge. Those chimneys are what you see these days but it wasn’t always so. In time...

Easterton Street

This photo is undated. It was taken from the bridge over the stream at the bottom of Kings Road – the road that leads past the village hall and up onto the Sands but it shows the main street throu...

Northbrook in the 1970s

Our information on this photo centres on Tom Burden’s cottage and says it was demolished because it was past saving. The cottage referred to is the Tudor one at the left of this photo. Many peopl...

An Owen Carter watercolour

Sadly we don’t have the original of this painting, just a photo of it. It’s a watercolour by Owen Carter painted in 1850 and it depicts Church Street. Although there are many changes, the scene...

Market Place – then and now

Our Market Lavington Market Place has changed a huge amount since the second half of the 20th century. People who didn’t know it have difficulty recognising just what was there in the older pictures...

You don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone

The title for this piece is a quote from Joni Mitchell’s 1970 song, Big Yellow Taxi’. The song goes on, ‘They’ve paved paradise and put up a parking lot’. Joni was probably singing about an...

The unchanging church

Church buildings do change – but alterations are much deliberated over and are, in any case, quite rare. A church building often looks very much the same, even from almost 200 years ago. And here i...

Big Brother watches over the Vanishing Past

An interesting title for an interesting photograph This photo shows a scene on Northbrook in the late 1970s. It was taken by our curator’s brother in law, Bill, on one of his visits to Market Lav...