The year is 1921. Young Ena Gye has written a play to be performed by her friends and family. It is called The Runaway Husband. Perhaps Ena, who was seven at the time, based this on some real life experience. Doting parents took a photo – or arranged for one to be taken.

‘The Runaway Husband’ – a 1921 play performed by The Gye children and their friends in Market Lavington

What a charming tableau. Apart from the children – we’ll return to them – take a moment to admire the footlights.

The wonderful glass candle holder footlights. I wonder what became of them.

Small jars which look to be different colours, hang from a string. They probably contained night lights and would surely have looked very pretty.

But back to the children.

Close up on the children

These are well captioned on the reverse of the card.

A well captioned card. We know who all of the children are!

So, standing from left to right we have Eric James, Ruth Mundy, Winnie Mundy, Tom Gye (the baby) and Ena Gye taking the part of the runaway husband. Nancy Merritt sits in the middle and the other sitters, from left to right are Keniel Poolman, Bessie Gye and Ellie Gye.

We have looked at the Gyes and their cousin Eric James in the past, so let’s consider the friends this time.

Winnie Mundy was an incomer. She had been born in Hatfield, Hertfordshire in 1907. Her parents, Arthur and Margaret (née Burgin) had married there the year before. But in 1911 the family were in Market Lavington where Arthur was a bricklayer.

We think Ruth Mundy is little sister. Certainly Arthur and Margaret had another daughter in 1912 in the Devizes area so probably in Market Lavington. One letter of the record is difficult to read but the lass appears to have been named Sarah R I Mundy. So maybe she was known by Ruth – the R word. Unfortunately it is the R which is the blurred letter.

We are less sure about Nancy Merritt. A girl with that name was born in Farnham in Hampshire in 1912 which could be the right age for the girl in the photo. But here was a large Merritt family who lived close to the Gyes. It seems likely that Nancy was one of them.

Keniel Poolman was the child of Andrew and Rose (née Polden). He was registered as Jacob J K Poolman after his 1918 birth. We know that the Poolmans lived near the Gyes on White Street in Market Lavington.

This photo has been given to Market Lavington Museum very recently. The donor knew it was taken at Clyffe Hall, along The Spring, but had no idea when or why. He didn’t name any of the people. We guessed it was in the 1950s, for the clothes looked like that era.

Dancers line up for a photo prior to a 1950s get together at Clyffe Hall in Market Lavington

We took the photo to Pat and she was able to furnish us with quite a bit of information. Dances were held quite regularly in the early 1950s and the attendees quite often were lined up for a photo first. This was one of those occasions and was definitely in the early 1950s.

Pat then went through the photo, naming people.

We’ll start with the back row, from left to right. First is Percy (known as Perce Webb who came from Easterton. The next two men are not known, but Pat said they came from West Lavington. The fourth man is Raymond King followed by Jim Gye who lived up Drove Lane at Homestead Farm.  After him we only got the name John and after him came Charlie Batt and Eric Pollard. The next chap was Don Baker and we must record that he recently died down in Cornwall. He and wife Mo moved there some years ago. We now reach the tenth man from the left and he was Frank Phillips who came from Marston. Next we have Gordon Baker who was Don’s brother. The last man at the back, wearing the trilby hat was one Pat couldn’t recognise.

So to the middle row where the first young lady is Pat Hobbs – the very same Pat we were getting information from. Next to Pat is Ada Askey and then Mrs Kyte from West Lavington. Fran Francis comes next.  The following two we just have as Maureen and Maureen’s mum. Then we have Sally Buckland and Annie Buckland who was Sally’s mum.  The first man in this row is Geoff Alexander and next to him is Vic who came from Potterne. Then we have Joan Baker who married Ernie Tilley of Potterne. The final two are not known.

Now to the front row sitters. At the extreme left is Ron Francis of Grove Farm (his wife, Fran, was in the middle row) and next is one of the Francis sons. The other lad is Ray Chapman. Next is Bill Askey (his wife Ada was in the second row). The first woman in this row is Mrs Webb, wife of Perce at back left. Then we have May Proust. The Prousts ran the shop on Church Street which later became the Spar and even later Dempseys. Then we have Harry Hobbs in the short sleeved shirt. His shop on High Street was more or less opposite The Green Dragon and he was Pat’s father. Next to Harry is Mrs Davis who lived at Palm House on High Street and then we have Mrs Gye, wife of Jim of Homestead Farm. The final two are Mr and Mrs Dodge of White Street in Easterton.

How lucky we are that we have friends in the villages who can turn an almost unknown picture into something so fully described. Huge thanks go to Pat for naming so many of the people.

This is being written as I drink a mug of coffee, with water boiled in a very cheap, largely plastic kettle which, of course, plugs straight into the electricity supply and boils water very rapidly.

Now go back 100 years, to a time before mains electricity arrived in the Lavingtons and there was no cheap plastic. Your kettle had to be made to withstand the heat of a fire. Essentially, it had to be metal.

Most metals were not all that easy to beat or bend into shape and then make joints which had to be waterproof and heatproof. The ideal metal was copper.

Our curator tells us that in the 1970s he and his wife tried to make a copper kettle. They attempted to beat a sheet of copper into a hemisphere to make the top of the device. He believes they still have the resultant attractive copper dish somewhere. In those harum-scarum 1970s days they never found the time to complete the project and, in any case, they had an electric kettle to use.

Back in the 1900s, the options were more limited and a Market Lavington copper smith completed a kettle of simple, attractive appearance.

Copper kettle at Market Lavington Museum

This kettle has been made in several pieces. It has a sturdy base. The side is made of a single sheet of copper bent round.

The top is another single sheet, beaten into shape. There is a handle (made of steel with a wood grip) and a spout. It should have a wood knob on the lid but that is missing.

The kettle was clearly designed to stand on a kitchen range, which is just what it does at Market Lavington Museum.

The method of jointing is interesting. We guess it was a brazing method, but we can see how surfaces were overlapped to ensure good contact and closure.

The seam joining the ends of the kettle wall together

That’s the seam in the kettle side wall. Clearly it has been riveted as well, probably before brazing took place.

The kettle was given to the museum by a White Street (Market Lavington) resident.

Here we have a photo which was taken at the Coronation celebrations 60 years ago in 1953.

Elsie Cooper (in wheel chair) and her brother Stan next to her at the Market Lavington Coronation celebrations in 1953.

Elsie Cooper is in her wheelchair sitting next to brother, Stan. The location of the photo is the football field at the top of Northbrook.

We’d like to use this post to tell you how we try to find out more about people. First of all we try to get some estimate of the age of the people in the photo. This is often quite hard in post war pictures for people tended to look old and careworn. One of the things we’d like to decide with regard to the Coopers was whether they were born before or after 1911. We’d like to be able to locate them on a census if possible for then we can discover who the parents were. For them to be on that census they’d need to be over 42 on the photo.

Next we can turn to that sad document, the burial register for St Mary’s Market Lavington.  Here we find that an Elsie Cooper was buried in 1964, aged 67. A Stan Cooper was buried in 1997, aged 83. If these are the right people we can probably make a start by using the censuses for Elsie.

Result! On the 1901 census Elsie May Cooper is the 5 year old daughter of John and Elizabeth Cooper. They lived in The Market Place and John was a blacksmith.

We can now use the wonderful FreeBMD website to locate a possible marriage between a John Cooper and an Elizabeth and again, we get a result in the shape of a marriage between John and Elizabeth Hoare in 1896. The same site can let us search for children born to a Cooper with a wife’s maiden name of Hoare – but only after 1911 (the records don’t have the maiden name before then) and again we get a result in that Stanley H Cooper was born to the couple in 1913. I also note that a Lawrie Cooper was born to the same parents in 1915 and that’s grand since the person who gave the photo is a descendant of Lawrie.

We’ve had luck, and we all need that, but we could now sort out a whole family tree should we want to.

Broadway, Market Lavington was once the home of the Lavington Brick, Tile and Pottery Company. That ceased production around the time of World War II and local cottages, which had once housed workers were no longer needed.

Britain was in post war austerity at the time and when rubble was needed to assist with road improvements at the Black Dog crossroads, it was acquired locally. The Broadway Cottages were demolished and the demolition materials were used to help form the foundation of a better roadway.

In 1958 a photographer – we don’t know who – recorded the scene where the cottages had been.

Site of Broadway Cottages, Market Lavington’ The photo dates from 1958

Presumably the unknown lady visitor was standing on what had been the base of the cottages. Was she, we wonder, a former resident visiting her former home? The picture, sadly, is not of good enough quality to allow for enlargement, but maybe somebody will recognise the lady.

At least the photo was well captioned as to location and date.

Photo caption. What a shame it doesn’t name the person.

Broadway Cottages when Lavington bricks were still being made.

These were the cottages in earlier and happier days, clearly lived in for smoke issues from the chimneys.

We’d like to know more about these homes – their precise location for one thing. Can you help?

Back in Edwardian days as well as earlier and later, things were done properly. If someone died then letters were sent in a black bordered envelope. These, of course, were the days before the widespread use of the phone, let alone E-mail or social media. Your notification that someone had died would drop through your letter box in a black bordered envelope,

But propriety required that black bordered envelopes were also used for a period of mourning afterwards. Our envelope today covers that period of mourning following the death of Queen Victoria in 1901.

Black bordered envelope received by James Welch of Market Lavington in 1901

James Welch, as we can see, was Secretary of the Wiltshire Agricultural Association. This body of men had obviously sent their condolences to the close relatives of Victoria which included, of course, the new King, Edward VII. The letter in the envelope was to thank the association for their kind thoughts. It is a form letter, making use of what we’d now call mail merge although back in 1901 this involved a scribe in handwriting in various sections.

The letter to James was in his role as Secretary of the Wiltshire Agricultural Association

As we see, the King did not deal with this himself. He commanded the signatory and he got someone else to do the scribing. But obviously the Welch family thought this was worth keeping – until it was passed to the museum.

James Welch was our museum founder’s grandfather.

Today we have what is very much what we call a ‘we’ll meet again’ photo. You’ll know the Vera Lynn song and if we describe a photo after it, it’s the second line we refer to – ‘Don’t know where. Don’t know when.’

Well, for this photo we certainly have no idea where it was taken and can only get a rough idea of when it was taken. The photo is not well captioned but it clearly shows Lavington Scouts, presumably at a camp for tents are set up.

Lavington Scoputs at a scout camp between the two World Wars

The back of the card has the limited captions.

Rather limited information on the back of the card

If we accept the names as correct then we have V Osmond, B Cooper, F Perry, T Andrews, R Huxtable, F Cooper, B Giddings and Alexander in the photo.

Let’s zoom in on some of the scouts. Maybe a reader will recognise them and be able to give us a bit more information.

Close up on some of the Lavington Scouts

Do please get in touch to give us more information.

1978 is now thirty five years ago. On the basis of a life span of three score years and ten, that makes it half a lifetime ago. Roughly half the people alive now won’t remember 1978. It is ancient history to these people.

But at least the folks of Market Lavington can see what their village was like back then because people allow us, at the museum, to have copies of photos. So here we have The High Street in 1978.

Market Lavington High Street in 1978

This photo was taken on a very wet day with a church parade in progress. We have what looks to be a Boys’ Brigade band marching. In some ways they are not the most interesting feature in the photo (with apologies to anybody in that band). They wore a uniform and there is little about it that tells us this was 1978.

At first glance, the street looks similar, but there are differences. Take The Green Dragon for example.

The Green Dragon porch went right across the pavement

The porch outside ‘The Dragon’ goes right across the pavement. It would stay like that for the next twenty years and then a lorry brought it down. Probably a sensible decision was made – to rebuild a smaller porch that didn’t come under threat from 21^st century traffic.

Across the road there are changes.

The people on the left would be outside the chemist’s shop now

The rather shaded people on the left, were they to take up the same position in 2013, would be standing outside the chemist’s shop. . Incidentally, had they been there in more like 1913, they’d have stood by Briant’s Restaurant. Things go full circle sometimes. The old shop and other buildings were pulled down in the name of progress in the 1960s. Then, in the 1990s, shops and other buildings were put back again. In 1978, that building-free gap was a car park. But beyond it there is an interesting sight.

Back in 1978, Market Lavington had banks

Yes, it’s a bank – The Midland Bank. Market Lavington still had its own bank branches back then – Midland and Lloyds had premises in the village. The Midland was able to make use of what had once been Harry Hobbs’s shop. Of course, the branch has now long gone. So too has the name Midland Bank. Perhaps it didn’t sound grand enough for the 21^st century. In 1999 it was taken over by HSBC – The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation.

Yes, Market Lavington changes, along with the rest of Wiltshire, the country and the world.

This advert was taken from the Wiltshire Gazette for 12^th November 1953. A. S Wordley were agricultural engineers based in the Market Place, Market Lavington

Advertisement for Wordley’s Agricultural Engineers of Market Lavington. From a 1953 newspaper.

Many is the time that words can paint pictures and this advert paints a picture of long gone days. One thing that has pretty well vanished in the 60 years since the advert appeared, is adverts in the local paper for anything to do with agriculture. A look through a January 2013 edition found that there were ads for jobs in farming but, despite editorial content about farming no ads for equipment. Times change. Farmers tend to work to a bigger scale and no doubt get much more information from national magazines and, what you are reading now – the Internet

The bigger scale of farming is made clear by the ads for combines. The big one advertised has a twelve foot cut. These days a combine is likely to have had those feet changed to metres. This one worked on Lavington Hill in September 2012 and it has a 12 metre cut.

Large combine harvester at worjk on Lavington Hill in September 2012

Prices, perhaps more than compensate. The £1625 for a 12 foot cut diesel combine has become in excess of £300 000 for the present day monster. In real terms that’s about fair for you’d have needed three of the old machines to do nearly as much as the present one.

The other thing that has vanished from Market Lavington is the agricultural engineer. T H White, once a Market Lavington firm (click here) still operate in Devizes.

Lastly, we could comment on nice, simple, 4 digit phone numbers. They were so much easier to remember than today’s strings of numbers. Mind you, these days, with the right equipment, we can talk to our phone and just tell it to dial a named person, and it will do it.

Any memories of life at Wordley’s would be greatly appreciated.

It is good to report that Market Lavington still has a library and it is still supported by what we now call Wiltshire Council.  As a result of recent cost cutting measures, there was a choice. Either the library would close or it would be run by volunteers. Good old Market Lavington produced enough volunteers and the library still operates.

But not with tickets like this! Most of us will remember the days when we had three or four tickets like this. When we took a book out, a card kept in the book was slotted into the ticket. The library then stored ticket and card in a rack

Old style library ticket belonging to a borrower at Market Lavington Library

When you returned your book, the card was put back in that and you got your reader’s ticket back so that you could borrow another book. It was a simple and effective system, now replaced by computer technology.

As we can see, the ticket we have belonged to a White Street resident.

This winter a jay has started visiting the garden of our curator and here it is.

A jay visiting a garden in Market Lavington

Jays have not been uncommon in the village for we have plenty of woodland. That was, traditionally, their favoured habitat. They are omnivores and will eat almost anything, but acorns and beech mast are staples in the jay diet.

You can see, in the picture, that jays have a crest on top of the heads which they are able to raise. This has led to them being mistaken for the very uncommon visitor, the hoopoe. For the record, a hoopoe has been known to visit Market Lavington for, many years ago, one flew over the curator’s garden. It handily did an about turn, giving enough time to get a witness out to see it as well – but no camera!

Here we have another photo for our 21^st century wildlife survey. Do let us have a copy if you get a photo of wildlife in Market Lavington or Easterton.

Today we have a lovely shot down Lavington Hill and on to White Street with St Mary’s Church as a backdrop.

A view down Lavington Hill to White Street and beyond in about 1940

We do not have a date for this photo but electricity wires clearly cross the scene and it was before the cottages on the right were demolished. It could be the 1940s or 50s.

Let’s start at the back with the church.

St Mary’s, Market Lavington stands on its hill

It sits on its raised area, above the level of much of the rest of the village. It is always uphill to finally reach the church, whether you approach from Church Street, Roman Way or from St Mary’s Road. A dedication to St Mary is quite common for a church on a hill.

In front of the church we see the cottages that face up Lavington Hill with their interesting fluted chimneys.

These cottages are still there and face up Lavington Hill

The cottages on the right have been demolished and replaced by new dwellings set back from the road.

These Lavington Hill cottages have been demolished

On the left, down past the junction, we can see barns associated with Knapp Farm.

Buildings at Knapp Farm, Market Lavington

All in all, it is quite a different view from what we’d see today, although the centrepieces of church and cottages are more or less unchanged.

We believe Alf Burgess set up his photography business in Market Lavington in 1886. The following year he married Marion Gray who hailed from Lanarkshire in Scotland.

The couple were blessed with a number of children.

At the time of the 1891 census they had two boys, Robert (who was always known as Robin) and George. We might speculate that a first born had already been lost since Robert was just two and George was one.

In 1901 there were six sons. Robert W was 12 and Alfred G was 10. Then there were John G (8), Hugh Cecil (6),  Allan H (3) and Charles F (1)

The 1911 census tells us that Alf and Marion had been married for 24 years and had produced 7 children of which 5 were still alive. They all lived at home so we know they were Robert William (22), Alfred George (21), Hugh Cecil (16), Alan Herbert (13) and Charles Frederick (11). John Gray Burgess had died in 1902 aged just nine.

All of which brings us to today’s photo which shows the 6 boys of Alfred and Marion Burgess.

The Burgess Boys – sons of Alfred, the Market Lavington photographer and his wife Marion.

The photo must have been taken in about 1901 and shows from left to right, George, Robert, Hugh, John, Allan and Charles.

Alf has vignetted this photo – the corners have been faded. No doubt it was thought to be a delightful romanticised family snapshot.  And quite right too, for that is just what it is.

How lucky we are to live in this digital age of easy, instant communication. Our curator found a photo in amongst others which hadn’t been accessioned and so there was no information about it, apart from the writing on the back which simply said this.

Who were Uncle Hugh and Uncle Allan and do they really have any connection with Market Lavington?

So who were Uncle Hugh and Uncle Allan? Well first, here they are.

Almost certainly the two main men are Hugh and Allan Gray. Their sister Marion married Alf Burgess the Market Lavington photographer.

These photos are with those associated with the Burgess family. Yes, there was a Hugh and an Allan in that family – we saw them as little boys yesterday – but if these men are that Hugh and Alan, then they are all playing fancy dress. If this had been Hugh and Allan Burgess, by the age of the men the photo would have been taken in the 1950s or 60s. That just didn’t seem right.

An email sent to the right quarter got an instant response suggesting that the two men might be the Uncle Hugh and Allan of our Burgess Boys. Their mother was Marion Gray by birth, which was in Lanarkshire in Scotland, and she had younger brothers, Hugh and Allan, born in 1871 and 1872. Now that photo could well date from around 1930 so I’ll go along with my correspondent’s suggestion.

But this brings us to Marion who was born in Lanarkshire in about 1860. We do not know how this Scottish lass met Alf Burgess from Wiltshire, but they married, in Wiltshire in 1887 and Marion lived in Market Lavington from then until she died in 1935. But let’s take a look at a much older photo of her – from her Scottish days. Our correspondent has told us more about her early life in Scotland. Thanks Cassy.

Marion Gray as a youngster in 1876

Marion is the girl seated on the right in what must be a family group. The picture is believed to date from 1876.

There are interesting and helpful websites when it comes to dating old photos. Our favourite is http://www.rogerco.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/time/time.htm which shows female costumes from years between 1860 and 1952 and also typical backs of photographs by professional photographers.

Our photo has this back.

The back oif a studio photo can often help with dating the image.

Leaves, borders and flowing fonts certainly look to make this a late 1870s photo.

So, there we have Marion Gray in her younger, teenage days. Maybe our correspondent will name the others in the photo.

Lovers may walk, but according to this postcard they also find totally impossible places to sit and enjoy a cuddle. Our image for St Valentine’s Day is one of many Edwardian postcards we have at Market Lavington Museum.

Cynicus card of Lovers’ Walk in Market Lavington – or anywhere else!

Ah yes, The Lovers’ Walk, Market Lavington. But it might just as well have been Easterton, Fiddington or, indeed, anywhere else in the country.

This card was produced by Cynicus. The Victorian artist Martin Anderson (Cynicus) was born in Leuchars, Fife in 1854.  He set up the Cynicus Publishing Co in Tayport Fife in 1902.

Different town names could be added to this card. It could pretend to be at any town or village.

So the image has no connection with our locality at all. It is a generic picture that just has the Market Lavington name stamped over the top of it.

No doubt there were real Lovers’ Walks in the Lavington area but I hope couples didn’t canoodle on the spindly branches that Cynicus shows.

Here we have a fine photo by Alf Burgess showing Church Street in Market Lavington in the Edwardian era.

Church Street, Market Lavington in Edwardian days

Let’s start at the back.

These properties on White Street were part of Mr Walton’s department store

The buildings facing us – outfitter, clothier, draper etc. were actually on White Street and they were all a part of Mr Walton’s empire. He had a range of premises making his business a true department store. He even had an overhead wire system – a so called ‘cash railway’.

On the left the hanging sign is for the Volunteer Arms which would, at the time of this photo, have been run by members of the Trotter family.

On the right is a building on the corner of Church and White Street which is about to open in a new guise. Visitors to Market Lavington will be delighted to find a tea/coffee shop operating there. The building is owned by Trinity Church and they will be running the business under the name of Saint Arbuck’s. We certainly wish Trinity every success in this new venture.

This was to become Lavington Gas Works

Here, on the left of the main photo we are looking at buildings which were, for a while, the premises of the Lavington Gas Works. It was here that acetylene was produced and distributed around the village. You can see more of this company here and here.

Now to the right side of the photo.

Shops and other premises on Church Street, Market Lavington

At the left hand end of this photo we have the shop which many will recall as Peter Francis’s photographic shop. Back when the photo was taken it was part of Mr Walton’s emporium. Next to it, the building with the interesting brick front has an interesting history. That building and premises behind it have been almost everything from Baptist Chapel, to village grocery run by Mr Bullock, Mr Potter, the Proust family right through to Mr Dempsey. The white building with gable end facing the street was Mr Godfrey’s butchery. It became Mr Pike’s shop later – still a butcher and has now been completely rebuilt. On this side we have the Merritt’s cycle shop – later Mr Reid’s. At one time this became the petrol station in the village.

In the middle of the photo we have a donkey cart.

Billy Davis was Market Lavington’s very own rag and bone man

This is Billy Davis who was what used to get called a rag and bone man – finding uses for people’s unwanted items.

It is so good when things come together and you can start to get a bit more understanding.

This story had better begin in 1983 although it concerns the Vicarage in Market Lavington 100 years or so before that. It was in 1983 that a piece of paper, with some limited information was sent to or maybe given to Peggy Gye, our museum founder.

When the museum was founded – it opened in 1985 – the piece of paper became part of the collection. It contains a photocopy of a sketch of the vicarage.

Sketch of the Vicarage in Market Lavington dating from about 1880

The piece of paper has been headed, in a 1983 hand.

The Reverend Edward Blackston Cokayne Frith was the incumbant at the time

In addition there is an attribution, giving the name of the artist.

The artist is said to be Francis Hamilton Northesk Wilson

This tells us that the drawing was by Francis Hamilton Northesk Wilson of home he lived in England.

But who on earth was the artistic Francis Wilson?

A clue came from a correspondent who wrote:

Rev Frith is not a direct ancestor of mine, but his wife, Maria Sankey Frith, was the sister of my paternal great-great grandmother Henrietta Sankey Wilson. My great grandfather, William H. Wilson, was the son of Charles Watson Wilson and Henrietta Sankey Wilson. He was born in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, India in 1863. Charles W. Wilson was a military officer and, unfortunately, Henrietta died with the birth of their last child, Violet, about 1877. Unable, or unwilling, to care for his many children, Charles sent them to live with the Friths at the vicarage in Market Lavington. The 1881 census record of the Frith household includes those Wilson children living at the vicarage. My great grandfather, William H. Wilson, is listed among them as age 17 and a Seaman Apprentice in the Merchant Marine.

For the record, it seems that the much travelled William Wilson eventually settled in Texas in 1889, after surviving a shipwreck near the Falkland Islands.

Unfortunately, we can find no trace of Francis Wilson ever living in Market Lavington but maybe he was a brother of William who missed out on written records for some reason. We do know that William had a sister called Frances who lived with the Friths at the time of 1881, 1891 and 1901 censuses.

And while we haven’t traced Francis our correspondent has. It seems that Francis was the older brother of William. We also know that the people who sent the sketch to our Peggy were the granddaughters of Francis and that they died a few years ago.

A mystery is solved.

This photo has recently been sent, along with others, by a museum friend in the antipodes. It shows a carnival procession lining up on Easterton street.

A Market Lavington and Easterton Hospital Week carnival lines up in Easterton – about 1920

We can start with the identified person. The girl on the extreme right, wearing a fairy costume is Ena Gye. Ena was born in 1911 and it is from her that we date the picture as around 1920.

Ena Gye – born 1911, Market Lavington

As we can see, the photo is sepia in style but we can often see people better in black and white. There could be other recognisable people in the picture although fancy dress and make up can make recognition harder.

It’s hard to recognise people in fancy dress!

There’s a case in point. The witches clearly have masks. Doe’s the man holding the tiller of the bath chair really have that facial hair? Maybe the best hopes for identity are the Japanese lady or maybe the wagon on which a part of the farm name can be seen.

One person in the photo is peering out of a cottage doorway. Perhaps there’s somebody who might recognise him.

Can anyone recognise the Easterton resident peering out from his doorway?

There he is, behind the bear.

We think this is a glorious photo so many, many thanks to Amanda for sending it to us.

A rather dull looking brown book which we have at Market Lavington Museum was a very official book for keeping records of tuberculosis. This was also known as consumption and was, pretty much, a killer disease.

A rather dull looking book at Market Lavington Museum

It’s a tuberculosis notification book

There’s nothing very pretty about the front cover. I think you might describe it as brusque and efficient, but the publishers have made an effort with their own label.

Publisher’s plate

It is the inside information that is rather chilling – the diagnosis of TB for a patient.

A patient is named – Dorothy Thorn, living in Market Lavington

 Dorothy Thorn, the unfortunate patient, had been born in Weymouth according to the 1911 census. This sees Dorothy with her Granny, 63 year old Jane Axford, we believe in The Market Place in Market Lavington. Alternatively, she may have been Emily Thorne with parents Charles and Emily in Weymouth. Emily had been born in Market Lavington and we believe she was Emily Godden. It looks as though Dorothy was enumerated twice in 1911.

That might make up for our complete inability to find her on the 1901 census!

We have already learned of the Wilson family who lived with the Reverend Frith and his wife at Market Lavington vicarage. Mrs Frith was the Wilson family aunt and she took care of the children following the death of their mother.

We now have photos of some of these Wilsons.

Let’s start with just one girl.

Violet Dottie Wilson who lived at Market Lavington Vicarage from about 1878 to 1900

This is Violet Dottie Wilson. Sadly, her mother died giving birth to her and that resulted in the move to Market Lavington. It was a long move, for the Wilson family were based in India. But in 1881 we find Violet, the youngest of the Wilson clan, at the Vicarage in Market Lavington.

Violet was still with her uncle and aunt at The Vicarage in 1891. This census also lists a daughter, adopted by the Reverend Frith called Catherine and a Frith niece known as May but properly, Agnes. Violet’s older sisters were still present as well.

Violet was a bridesmaid at the wedding of her cousin, Agnes May Cokayne frith which took place at Market Lavington in 1897. Perhaps the photo dates from about that time.

We think Violet married Harold Jones in 1900. Such a marriage was registered in the Devizes district. The couple lived in Camberwell, South London for the 1901 census. They had a six month old son called Donald.

Our correspondent in Richmond Virginia is keen to know more about this family and the other Wilsons. We’d love to know more about their life and times in Market Lavington.