The Best Way for Mary Redstone

In recent blog posts, we have looked at Lucretia E Gye’s recipe book and noted that her maiden name was Redstone. She was the daughter of Mrs Lucretia Redstone the headteacher of Easterton School. Lucretia Ethel had a younger sister, Mary, who we have seen in our post Starched knickers for Mrs Redstone. When Mary was about nineteen, her mother gave her a book of household hints and recipes. Maybe the information contained would have been u… Read more

Meet the maltsters

We have previously described Market Lavington’s malt industry and learned that at one time there were as many as 27 maltings in the little town, converting barley into malt for the brewing industry and transporting some of it by waggon to London breweries. The last malthouse closed in about 1883 and, although we know the location of a few of the old maltings, we have very little information about the people involved in this industry. We can… Read more

Market Lavington in the County Guide

We recently looked at the 1906 description of Market Lavington in the Cambridge Geographies and now will see how the village was described by Lornie Leete-Hodge in the 1976 County Guide to Wiltshire. Once more, we are reminded that our village was formerly considered a town. Indeed, it was a market town, dealing with the sale of sheep and corn. (In the 19th century and before, there was extensive farm land up on Salisbury Plain, until it was ta… Read more