This could almost class as archaeology. Those who have watched the TV programme Time Team will know the form. You open a trench and see what you find. Of course on Time Team a lot of preliminary work has been done and mostly they know what to expect. We are not sure what James Winchcombe, undertaker, expected when he was digging a grave in 2002 at St Mary’s, Market Lavington. This was in what gets called the old part of the graveyard and it was being re-used, so there presumably was a chance of finds.

Nothing ghoulish was found. In fact what appeared was a key – a pleasing, quite large key believed to be for a lockable chest and dating from the 19^th century. After 100 plus years in the ground it was rusty.

19th century key found whilst grave digging in Market Lavington church yard

If you happen to know anyone who might have lost this key – then tell them, ‘hard luck’. It is part of the Market Lavington Museum collection.

Incidentally, the person the grave was being prepared for, in 2002 was Mrs Margaret Marston, known as Betty. Margaret had been born as Margaret Beatrice Burt in 1922.

Next year, 2014, it will be 100 years since the outbreak of the First World War. This occasion is being marked up and down the country and we, in Market Lavington, will have our own part to play in it.

Apart from our own local lads who went away to fight – and some of them never returned – our area was also a place where soldiers from the empire trained and were billeted. We have several photographs of Canadians and Australians in the area, and a part of our village is known as Canada because of the solders from that dominion who were encamped in the area.

Wiltshire’s Great War Centenary Group are holding a meeting on 21st March at Devizes School. We have booked a table but this event – and more importantly the events to mark the occasion – could involve a wide range of community organisations.

If you would like to be involved then the person to contact is Tim Burge of the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre based in Chippenham.

One of the items we have at our museum is a handkerchief, sent back by a Market Lavington lad to his loved one. Slightly oddly, it is a souvenir of Ypres which we’d have thought people might have wanted to forget!

Souvenir of Ypres handkerchief sent to Market Lavington during World War I

The machine embroidered image is of Les Halles in Ypres. Ypres, of course, is a town in the French speaking part of Belgium.

The image shows up much better if you can get the light behind it.

The image on the handkerchief

It may seem odd looking ahead to 2014 when we haven’t yet opened for the 2013 season, but if you have any first world war memorabilia that you may be able to let us use for 2014 displays, do get in touch. Remember, we only want Market Lavington or Easterton items.

As Frank Sinatra said, ‘regrets, I’ve had a few’. And it is regrettable that this little cottage failed to survive. Mind you, you won’t think that if you live in the decent modern house that now occupies the same plot. Many people, however, feel it a great shame that this cottage was consigned to oblivion as recently as 1984.

Tudor cottage on Northbrook, Market Lavington. For many years this was the home of Tommy Burden

The cottage, which stood close by the bridge where the road called Northbrook crosses the stream, does look very attractive – an idyllic reminder of past times.

This idyllic cottage was demolished in 1984

It is possible to imagine this cottage as the home of Little Red Riding Hood’s grandma. No wonder some locals called it the witch’s cottage or the Noddy House.

One suspects it was originally thatched. It has that steeply pitched roof that indicates this, as well as an absence of guttering.

Having quoted Frank Sinatra, I’ll mention another hit of the 60s – ‘Out of Time’ by Chris Farlowe. For, I suppose this cottage just ran out of the right kind of time.

It was small, and suited to be a bachelor pad or maybe a nest for newlyweds. But these became the people who didn’t have time or inclination for a high maintenance house and garden. Nobody actually wanted to live there and take on the responsibility for the place. It stood empty for some years before demolition.

Our museum founder, Peggy Gye, was always of the opinion that time couldn’t stand still and that our village must develop. She would also have put any regrets behind her.

The cottage has gone and we can’t bring it back. The replacement house is suited to modern living and the village has moved on.

But at the museum we have preserved the heritage of both Market Lavington and Easterton, at least in photos. And that, of course, includes photos and memories of this cottage which for many years was the home of Tommy Burden.

Not forgetting Elizabeth Burgess

It is probably not surprising that the village photographer’s wedding was well photographed. Here we have what may have been the full set of guests

The groom and bride we have met before. Robin (whose name was actually Robert) Burgess was the son of Alf and he took over the photography business, with brother George in 1918. Elizabeth (known as Nellie or Queenie) was a Burnett from Easterton.

The wedding of Robin Burgess and Nellie Burnett took place at Easterton Church

The wedding, in 1921, took place in Easterton. The Reverend King officiated and is one of the guests shown in this photo taken in a cottage garden in Easterton.

Reverend King of Easterton was one of the guests

This is the only picture that we have of Reverend King. His name lives on in ‘Kings Road’ for it was this good chap who managed to get the road surfaced. It was important to him as it linked his vicarage with his church, in one direction and Devizes in the other.

It isn’t a wonderful picture. Has anyone out there got a better one?

Tom Gye, widower of our museum founder Peggy, begins to wonder if he might be the oldest living villager – if he excludes residents at the nursing home.  He’s certainly amongst the oldest and museum folk visit him fairly regularly both to offer him company and to learn more about past times. Tom is old enough to remember events in the 1920s.

We recently came upon a photo which had the word ‘Gye’ scrawled across the back so we took it to Tom for identification. Tom’s eyes lit up and he smiled as he said, ‘well that’s my dad.’

Here’s the photo.

Father, aunts and uncles of Tom Gye, all born in Market Lavington

Tom’s dad is the youngest lad at bottom right. He was called Joseph Edward Gye and he was born in 1883 which gives us a rough date for the photo of 1888-1890. Talking to Tom always brings extra bits of information. Apparently his father was always known as Teddy as a youngster. It was Tom’s mum who decided he should be called Jo.

Tom says this photo was taken at the back of the family home on White Street in Market Lavington

Tom’s grandparents James and Mary Ann had the nine children. The six girls came first followed by the three boys.

Tom was the youngest child of a youngest child. The aunts were approaching 60 when Tom was born and he did find it hard to identify them, for certain, in this photo of them as youngsters. But he thinks, in the back row  from the left there is Aunty Het (Hester), Aunty Sal (Sarah), Aunty Em (Emily) and Uncle George. In the middle row there was Aunty Bet (Elizabeth), Aunty Flo (Florence) and Aunty Win (Winifred).  At Bottom left is Uncle Tom (Thomas) and his father is the other lad.

Brief  BMD information of these nine, as far as is known, is given below.

1. Hester Ann b 1862 M Thomas Richard Reed in 1894 D 1927
2. Sarah Sophia  b 1864 M James Francis Weston 1899
3. Florence Mary b 1867 M Henry Edward Perrett 1896 D 1942
4. Elizabeth Hannah b 1869 M Walter John James 1904 D 1927
5. Winifred Amelia b 1871 M Gilbert Ludford 1902 D 1951
6. Emily Jane b 1873 D 1933
7. James Jeremiah George  b 1875-1899 – known to have had breathing problems so possibly a victim of TB.
8. William Thomas b 1879  M Rosa Ring 1905 D 1951
9. Joseph Edward  b 1883 M Lucretia Redstone 1909 D 1944

Thanks to Tom for this information and for so much more.

Candles! These days they are seen as a romantic light or a horrible fire hazard. In 21^st century Britain they are used for effect or for emergency. Most of us, for everyday usage, prefer our electric lights which are bright and come on at the touch of a switch. And we have candles with self-burning wicks.

In earlier times, when candles were essential illumination, wicks did not burn properly. They got longer and longer and they smoked. Cutting off excess wick was just one of those things that had to be done. Households had wick trimmers to get off that spare length of wick.

We have a pair in Market Lavington Museum.

19th century wick trimmers at Market Lavington Museum

These are not so different from ordinary scissors except that one blade is enlarged and had a ledge to hold the trimmed off piece of wick. The wick was hot and smouldering. You didn’t want it falling into your rag hearth rug and setting fire to it.

These snuffers have no maker’s name but are believed to date from the early 19^th century. They offered an elegantly simple solution to a problem from that era.

At Market Lavington museum we don’t have just any old pepper pots. Like everything else we have, our pepper pots must have a close connection with our parish, past and present. So this includes all of Easterton, Fiddington, the Russell Mill area and even the small area up on Salisbury Plain known as Gore. All these places have, either historically or now, been a part of Market Lavington.

However, the pepper pots we’ll look at today go to the heart of the village, being 100% associated with a building on High Street. This is the Workman’s’ Hall. This hall was built in 1865 as a temperance hall. Folks could use it for eating, entertainment, education and drinking non-alcoholic beverages. The hall had its own crockery, some of which we have seen before on this blog. Here are our pepper pots.

Workman’s Hall pepper pots at Market Lavington Museum

These pots, as can be seen, are not in perfect shape and they look capable of delivering enough pepper to cause a mass sneeze! They carry the messages ‘Workman’s Hall’ and ‘Lavington 1865’.

They make a jaunty pair, displayed in our kitchen along with much more of the crockery from the Workman’s Hall

In less than two months our museum, preserving the heritage of Market Lavington and Easterton, will be open for the 2013 season. The team have been at work preparing and once again our mannequins have been re-dressed with a new theme. This year it is all early 20^th century. This young lady, still to have hands attached, is wearing a 1906 wedding costume.

Here we have an ecru silk wedding outfit in two parts – skirt and bodice. It has elaborate lace panels and a flared, frilled skirt. At some point its sleeves have been removed. The veil in net and lace was worn by the same bride to the same wedding.

The mannequin itself is not period. This came from Mrs McKinstry’s shop which was on the corner of High Street and White Street. She dates from the 1950s.

The bride for this wedding also wore a petticoat which we have (and which will be displayed elsewhere this year) which has a name tag ‘Cox’. She also carried a fan.

Sadly, despite best endeavours, we are not able to trace who the bride was. It would be good to have a photo of the actual event so, if anybody has any ideas, do get in touch.

In 1987 our museum was young. No doubt, at the time, it seemed as vibrant and lively as we think it is today. But a look at a photo taken at that time makes it look quite an empty environment. Mind you, there are advantages to that. Less items on display means the things can be seen better. However, this photo also shows something of a cyclical nature. One item that was on display in 1987 has been stored away since then, but, as we saw on yesterday’s blog, it has re-emerged for 2013. It was clearly time for an airing.

In Market Lavington Museum in 1987

Yes, back in 1987 the 1906 wedding dress and veil were on display. The mannequin it was on is the same one shown in yesterday’s blog – the one from Mrs McKinstry’s shop in Market Lavington. We see that the fan held by the bride is displayed behind her.

In the middle of the room is the school desk. This early 20^th century desk was used at Market Lavington School and would have had drawers then. Back in 1987 it was displaying items used at the school.

A Market Lavington School desk of the early twentieth century. It can still be seen at the museum.

Of course, we still have the desk but these days its use has become rather more functional. It houses all sorts of written and photographic items – folders about different aspects of Market Lavington and Easterton.

The display case we see in the background is now in the trades room. None of the shelving or cabinets we now have in the museum can be seen in this photo.

These days we have items on display on this side of the stairway, and the wall behind the stairway is covered in exhibits.

When we look at a photo like this one it is clear that the museum has developed hugely over the intervening period.

But that bride is back again to represent marriage in 1906.

One of the good things about writing a blog is that you get a chance to see what search engine terms bring people to your writing.  Yesterday, for example, someone was searching for Ann Neate. I’m afraid we have no records of such a person. Maybe the Ann Neate searcher might like to get in touch and tell us more. We can respond to searches. Again, yesterday someone was looking for a history of nursing in Market Lavington and this blog post has a connection to that.

What we are looking at today is a rather unprepossessing note book.

This book at Market Lavington Museum may look a bit dull

This is an account book for the Wiltshire Friendly Society of Oddfellows. The book belonged to Alf Burbidge who was probably the treasurer.

It belonged to Alf Burbidge who lived at the house which is now Market Lavington Museum

Alf and his wife Louisa lived in our museum building and raised their two daughters there. Not surprisingly, we feel rather attached to things that belonged to the family.

One page lists committee members. It is undated but we believe it is from around 1916.

The Committee of the Wiltshire Friendly Society of Oddfellows inclusded men from Market Lavington and Easterton

Although this was called a Wiltshire society, Jacob Smith was a Market Lavington man (and someone looked at the page about him yesterday). William Smith may well have been from Market Lavington but it is a very common name. There were a couple of William Potters in Market Lavington but we’d be pretty certain that William Coleman was a local man, born in Easterton and living in Market Lavington. He served as Town Crier as well as being a boot maker and chimney sweep. We think Robert Cooper was a foreman at the brick works in market Lavington. This committee certainly had a strong Market Lavington presence.

Members seemed to take it in turns to visit the sick. These were sick visitors for the start of 1916.

People delegated to visit sick members each month

It looks as though this friendly society did some of the caring for those who had health problems.

Other pages list pay-outs.

Payouts to those in need

If we pick on James Ridout, it looks as though he may have become in need of assistance (again) in the March of 1916. Sadly he died in the April and his family received a payout. This, of course, was care in the form of cash rather than actual nursing help, but hopefully during March and April he was visited by Messrs Sainsbury, Sheppard and Ellis.

Nursing care at this time was very much a charitable business for there was no National health Service until 1948. But maybe these members of a friendly society got help from one another.

Our display of costumed people, sitting on the old 18^th century settle is always liked by visitors to the museum. For 2013, we have a display which depicts a morning scene in the early 1900s. The scene depicts a family group rising and getting dressed. It is an opportunity to have on display some of our large and interesting collection of under garments.

Market Lavington Museum’s display of costume for 2013

The display is not yet complete but there is a clear message in it. Undergarments were white.

Amongst items being modelled or displayed there is a 1910 cotton nightdress, a similar aged cotton stocking is decorated only up to the calf. No higher than that would have been seen.  There is a 1906 wedding petticoat and a 1910 child’s petticoat. Suitable accessories have been found to add flavour to the scene.

This display will be for one year only so make sure you visit in 2013.

As a photographer, Alf Burgess would have been in frequent need of supplies. He’d have needed, in particular, the chemicals for developing and fixing film and prints. This label tells us that he got supplies from Johnathan Fallowfield of London.

Label on a delivery of photographic materials to Alf Burgess of Market Lavington

The label was found in 1981 in the cellar of 13 High Street which was the Burgess home and photographic studio and shop from the 1870s. It is addressed to Mr A Burgess, Market Lavington, Wilts and was carried by the Great Western Railway.

There’s a fine history of the Jonathan Fallowfield company on the web at http://historiccamera.com/cgi-bin/librarium/pm.cgi?action=display&login=jfallowfieldco . From this we know the company moved to the 146 Charing Cross Road address on this label in 1890. Alf died in 1918, so we have a date window for this label.

But the label tells us more. The four stained holes in the corners and the central ones must have had tacks in them, holding the label to a wooden crate. The Burgesses must have kept the crate long enough for it to get woodworm. The very neat round holes in the label certainly have the look of worm holes. At some point the label must have fallen off the box – as rusting tacks failed. And then the label must have remained, down in that cellar, until the 1981 occupants found it.

We had no museum in 1981, but Peggy Gye was the acknowledged village historian and so it was given to her.

It’s only a label, but it tells a tale.

Eric James we have met before on this blog (click here). He was the baker at Number 1 High Street until lured away by the thought of being a poultry keeper. Eric received this letter from a friend serving in the forces during World War II.

1943 letter from Sid Potter to Eric James – an item of WWII memorabilia at Market Lavington Museum

The letter comes from Gunner F S Potter who signed himself as Sid. Sid was constrained by censors and gives away nothing about where he was at the time except that it could be as hot as an English summer, or very cold and stormy and a long way from any town. Paiforce was the Palestine and Iran Force

Sid was Market Lavington born in 1913 and remained, essentially a Market Lavington man until he died in 1974. The burial record tells us that his father was Robert and his mother was Rosina.

It certainly sounds as though he’d had enough of the war. No doubt he was pleased to get back to his garden in Market Lavington where his sweet peas were always considered very good.

It’s about 1891. The Welch family have decided it is time for a group family photo. Rather than popping along from their Church Street home to see Alf Burgess, and have the photo taken in his studio, they opt to have the photo taken at their home. We can only guess that they made use of Alf Burgess but Spring Villa (it still exists) made an ideal scene for a charming photograph.

The Welch family at Market Lavington in about 1891

The parents are Annie and James Welch and the children are Dorothy and Jack. Although the Welch family had a long association with the village, it was only little Jack who was born in Market Lavington. Dorothy, the older of the two children had been born at Upton Park in Essex. Annie was a Londoner by birth and James was born in Glamorgan.

For this blog, let’s look at Annie and find out about her.

Annie Welch – the former Annie Earle

Annie was born in 1857 in the Lambeth area of South London. Her father was a clerk in an office. The family were living in Lambeth at the time of the 1861 census.

How Annie met future husband James Welch, we do not know, but in 1881, 24 year old Annie was a visitor at Beech House in Market Lavington. Her hosts were the Welch family. Amongst the Welch family she was among was 25 year old James.

Did this young couple captivate James Lye, the famous fuchsia grower of Market Lavington? Amongst cultivars he produced was one he called Annie Earle – which still exists and another called James Welch which seems to have vanished. You could take a look at http://www.jameslyefuchsias.co.uk/ to discover more about fuchsias by our local grower, preserved by a true enthusiast and friend of Market Lavington Museum, Kristopher Harper. There you can find an image of Annie Earle, the fuchsia.

But back to the story of Annie, the person. She and James Welch married in 1887 – in West Ham. Dorothy was born the same year before the family moved back to Spring Villa.

The couple had no further children. The four members of the Welch family continued to live at Spring Villa.

Our 1926 electoral register shows the family, still living there in 1926.

Annie died in 1930 and joined her husband in the Welch vault in Market Lavington churchyard.

This invention by Robert Liston can be found at Market Lavington Museum

Here we see a plank. It is quite long – 113 cm or 44 inches to be reasonably precise. At one end it is made into a kind of fork and there is clearly a hole through it. What the photo does not show is that it is dished along its length. It’s a bit like a giant razor shell. But what on earth is it?

A clue. It dates from the early 20^th century.

Not enough? OK, it belonged to Doctor John Lush.

Yes, it’s a splint that Scottish doctor, Robert Liston devised for helping to set fractured femurs. It dates from the early 20th century.

Medical readers may well have known straight away since just about identical splints can be bought and used today. They are known as Liston splints.

Doctor Lush was part of a local family of doctors and farmers. We have met him before on this blog and you can click here to read about his life.

We have a number of his tools of the trade in Market Lavington Museum. This is one that doesn’t look as though it will cause too many nightmares.

We may not have seen much sunshine recently but Market Lavington has been lucky when compared with other parts of the country. We have had very little spring snow and, so far, we have avoided any power cuts. However, it has been bitingly cold, so it’s time to look at a happy time when people felt able to appear in summer weight clothing.

This photo dates from the early 1930s.

A group of Market Lavington youngsters in a play put on in the early 1930s

We do not know the event, but children’s plays like this were popular in those pre TV days. There are 16 girls, all dressed in the same fashion, and one other child dressed as a black bird of some kind. We have some of the names.

The four taller girls at the back are (left to right) Linda Shepperd, Sybil Baker, Gwen Phillips and Vilna Oatley

There are six girls standing just in front of the back four and they are unknown, Marjory Milsom, unknown, unknown, Vera Ellis and Rene Davis.

The five kneeling girls are Phyllis Halswell, Sylvia Cooper, unknown, Jean Davis and Cynthia Draper.

The bird has not been identified.

We have a copy of an original photo which had been folded – hence the line down the middle.

Let’s just pick on one of the girls – Gwen Phillips.

Gwendoline E Phillips was born in 1922. Her parents were Arthur and Emily (née Pocock). We have looked at their golden wedding before on this blog (click here). Gwen would have been raised at the former hardware shop, opposite the Co-op.

Gwen married a Mr Davis, we think in 1943. Their children had births registered in the Devizes area but, according to that 1970 Golden Wedding report about Gwen’s parents, The Davis family then lived in Calne.

As ever, we’d love to know more about the people in this photograph.

Yesterday we saw a group of youngsters which included Marjory Milsom. Today we are looking at an item which she probably used in the course of work. Marjory became a mechanic, working at her father’s garage on Church Street. The location is clear because modern housing on his garage site is called Milsom Court.

A car repair garage has a need for plenty of engine oil and, no doubt, lubricating oil as well. Such quantities of oil tend to be supplied in large metal drums. If oil is to be emptied via a tap, then the drum needs to be off the ground. It was much easier to have a small pump which fitted into the top of the drum, via the fill hole. And that is what we are seeing today.

Oil pump used at Milsom’s garage in Market Lavington

There is the pump, resting against the top of the stairs. The tube below the label went into the drum. The position of the platform for putting an oil jug on can be adjusted so that the pipe could reach down to the bottom of the drum. The handle at the top could then lift the oil up to pour out of the spout, falling into the jug.

No doubt the fact that this pump was used for oil helped to keep it in tip-top condition. Being largely of brass construction, corrosion would have been minimal.

The pump was made by a company called Prima who operated in Birmingham

Maker’s plate on the pump

The pump dates from the 1920s or 30s.

The answer, in this case, is a 1970s football team. They are probably late 1970s and could be early 1980s.

Here they are.

Football team, probably of the late 1970s. Presumed to be a Lavington team – can you help us to identify them?

Sadly, we know nothing about the team. Peggy Gye, our museum founder, donated the photo but it is only captioned, ‘coloured photo of football team with cup’. Coming from Peggy, we assume it is a local team.

Here’s hoping somebody out there can tell us more about this team which seems to feature a number of players with Kevin Keegan like hair-dos.

If you can tell us more then do get in touch. If not then just enjoy (or laugh at) the way fashion was a generation ago.

This postcard image shows a little bit of Easterton Street. We are uncertain as to its date, but the building on the right was the house and shop, then in use as the Post Office. It is more or less opposite the Royal Oak.

Easterton Street and Post Office probably before 1920

We have enlarged the photo a bit too much but we can read the sign – Easterton Post Office = and also note the large square bracket which would have held a gas lamp.

Post office sign and a gas lamp bracket

Further down the street we can see a bicycle leaning on a wall. There’s some kind of cart (with unreadable writing on the back of it and a small group of people standing near it. With no evidence of a modern age we suspect this might date from before 1920 – but do let us know if you have more knowledge than us.

Our next comparison shot is also undated. We do not think that the 7/84 is a date. The photo is older and could be the 1950s or early 60s although the one car we see looks older than that.

Easterton Post Office – about 1960

There are many changes. The post office has had its slates replaces by a sheet metal roof and it has been linked to the house with an extended frontage. The building next to the shop – the one with the bike – has been demolished and replaced by lean-to and garage type buildings. We can see Oak Cottage in this shot. In the older photo only the chimneys were visible.

A car at Easterton’s petrol station

There’s the car which is at the petrol station (long gone of course). It looks as though the sign is for Regent petrol.

Let’s move on to a miserable wet day in March 2013.

Former Post Office and Easterton Street – March 2013

Cars, of course, have proliferated. The Royal Oak sign can just be seen on the left. The former Post Office is now slate roofed again. So is the extended former entrance to the shop.

A new house has sprouted up beyond Oak Cottage. The distant car is not at a petrol station. One by one these service stations have closed and there are none in any of the Lavingtons or Urchfont these days.

John is a long term Market Lavington resident and has written this in response to the article about an oil pump published on 28^th march. You can click here to see it.

Now, in John’s words…

I have used this actual pump. In 1963 I started work for Edgar John Haines, who had taken over Milsoms Garage. I well remember the pump (and getting in a sticky mess with it).

There were two petrol pumps that were outside the workshop doors that you had to reverse in from Church Street to access. Petrol was four and four pence a GALLON. (That’s about 5p per litre.)

Milsom’s Garage on Church Street, Market Lavington – later becoming Edgar Haines garage. John Buckland worked here.

One of the pits in the workshop that were used to access the underneath of vehicles had a circular bulge in the centre, I was told this was to drop steam boilers down in to so maintenance could be carried out. (I never got to use this facility, as steam cars were a bygone era.)

The Fiat car company approached Edgar, the agency was taken on and business prospered, the German Wartburg agency soon followed with limited success.

As the new estate was built for the Army / RAF most of the personnel had foreign cars and as Edgar had a foreign car agency, working on VW’s, BMW’s, etc. became the norm.

The workshop was extended towards Gye’s workshops in White Street. Quite soon after, a new workshop and filling station was built in the Spring by Eddie Bishop builder also from the Spring, his workmen Fred Shepherd and Strawberry Cooper doing the majority of the work.

Edgar Haines moved his business to the new Spring Filling Station in the 1960s

After Edgar’s early death, the business was sold, became a Seat agency, and then was demolished for new housing.

I recall assisting in the preparation of a Ford Cortina GT that was owned by one of the RAF officers, that was entering the first ever London to Sydney car rally. How it fared I cannot recall.

Also, Victor Gibson, step-son of Lt. Colonel Bradshaw of White Street raced a Morgan plus 4 sports car that had some notoriety behind it. In 1962 it was entered for the Le-Mans 24 hour race by the Morgan car co. of Malvern. Known affectionately as “old mo” Remarkably it finished first in class for up to 2 litre sports cars and thirteenth overall. In Victor’s hands it was less successful!!!

It was road legal and garaged in Monday Market street in Devizes at the rear of the Lucinda wool shop. (Mrs Bradshaw had a chain of these shops locally, even one in Lavington.) I recall trying to bump start it to bring it to Haines’s along Monday Market Street with the bonnet open, me running alongside trying to give the carburettors some choke and flames licking at my arms. Victor wore a leather pilot’s hat when racing, safety was yet to come to the fore.

Somehow Victor managed to write it off along with the Colonel’s Rover 2000 and the trailer on his way to Castle Combe at the turnpike garage. (on the way to Melksham)

I left Haines’s employ in 1971 after eight years, to become a Police motor technician, a position Edgar had held previously.