On April 1st we play tricks on people in the UK. But there is no trick here. This page is as genuine and serious as all of the other posts on this blog.

The book, Hymns Ancient and Modern, is not of itself really a museum item.

This copy of Hymns Ancient and Modern is at Market Lavington Museum

These books have been printed in huge quantities and there needs to be something special for them to be kept in a museum. In this case it is the inscription on the fly leaf.

This inscription is the only item we have from the Marquess de Lavalette, former resident at Market Lavington Manor

The top name reads G de Lavalette. This was Georgina, Marquess de Lavalette and we can find her on the 1901 census as the head of house at Market Lavington Manor. We knew she rented the house for when Charles Awdry purchased the manor in 1902 he took on Georgina as a tenant. We know little of Georgina although we have seen her car on this blog – a fine Mercedes (click here).

The 1901 census lists her as a gentlewoman who had been born in Edinburgh some 77 years earlier. She was a widow and the other nine residents were all servants.

Brian McGill, in his wonderful book about Market Lavington called Village under the Plain, suggests that Georgina died in 1907.

From the site www.thepeerage.com we can find that

Georgiana Gabrielle de Flahault

Died 16 July 1907

Georgiana Gabrielle de Flahault was the daughter of Auguste Charles Joseph de Flahault, Comte de Flahault de la Billardrie and Margaret Mercer Elphinstone, Baroness Keith. She married Marquis de Lavalette on 2 February 1871.² She died on 16 July 1907, without issue. He died 1881.
From 2 February 1871, her married name became de Lavalette.

We’d love some further information as to why this widow of a French Marquis ended up at Market Lavington.

The next name on the book’s flysheet is easier to know about. Anne P Bouverie was Anne Pleydell Bouverie, resident of The Old House in Market Lavington. She was born in about 1844 and lived to a good age. She died in 1940 so people still alive remember this old lady who became increasingly reclusive. Anne was the daughter of Edward who built the Manor House.  It is not clear if Anne ever lived at the Manor but by 1901 she was at The Old House where she remained – a spinster lady – for the rest of her life.

How she got the book, we don’t know but she clearly passed it to Elizabeth Fielder. We do not know who she was at all. We have no record of any Fielders in Market Lavington or Easterton.

There is nothing unusual about snow as winter turns into spring. Even so, we felt a bit cheated by quite a lot of poor weather, including snow during March. But take heart. It wasn’t this bad.

Actually we don’t have a date for this. It may have been in the deep mid-winter.  The year, though, was 1950. Our photographer was standing close by Broadwell. The house behind the youngsters is Beech House and the reason for that name is visible behind the house. There used to be big beech trees in the back garden. We looked at felling in progress before. Click here.

The bad weather of March 2013 won’t go down as memorable. True there was a lot of snow falling (this was on the 17^th March).

Heavy snow in Market Lavington on 17th March 2013

But barely any snow settled – there’s just a little on the church roof and that soon went.

Market Lavington church on 17th March 2013. The snow really didn’t settle.

Recent communications regarding Mr Milsom’s garage continue. Rosemary has sent a copy of an apprenticeship indenture as shown below. It concerns her father being apprenticed to Mr Milsom.

Apprenticeship Indenture for Robert Godfrety of Easterton to learn the trade of motor engineer from Reginald Milsom of Market Lavington

As can be seen, this is mostly a pre-prepared form with a small amount of handwriting needed to complete the document. It reads

The Wiltshire Society

This indenture made the fifth day of December one thousand nine hundred and thirty two BETWEEN Reginald Milsom of Church Street, Market Lavington, Wiltshire trading as a motor and general  engineer (hereinafter called “the Masters” which expression where the context permits shall include the survivors or survivor of them or the executors, administrators or assigns of such survivor and, in the case of a Limited Company the successors or assigns of the said company) of the first part Robin Edward Godfrey of Oak Cottage, Easterton, Wiltshire (hereafter called “the Parent” of the second part Robert Bernard Godfrey (hereinafter called “the Apprentice” of the third part and Godfrey Emil Rice the Hon. Secretary of the Wiltshire Society (who and whose successors for the time being in the said office are hereinafter referred to and included in the expression “the Secretary”) of the fourth part. WHEREAS the Apprentice with the consent of the Parent  has agreed to bind himself and the Masters have agreed to accept him as an Apprentice upon the conditions hereinafter contained. NOW THIS INDENTURE WITNESSETH that in consideration of the sum of fifteen pounds - shillings charity money paid out of the funds of the said Society to the  Masters on execution of these presents the receipt whereof the Masters do hereby acknowledge and of the agreement to pay the further  sum of fifteen pounds – shillings hereinafter contained and in consideration also of the service of the Apprentice to be done or performed to or for the Masters and of the covenants and agreements hereinafter entered into by the Parent  and Apprentice the Masters hereby covenant  with the Parent and Apprentice  and also as a separate covenant with the Secretary in manner following that is to say That they will take and receive the Apprentice as their Apprentice from the fifth day of December One thousand nine hundred and thirty two for the term of four years and also will during the said term to the best of their knowledge power and ability teach and instruct or cause to be taught and instructed the Apprentice in the art trade or business of….. and in all things incident and relating thereto. AND will pay the Apprentice at the rates and in the manner following that is to say:

during the first year six shillings per week

during the second year nine shillings per week

during the third year twelve shillings per week

during the fourth year fifteen shillings per week.

Odd that the trade that young Robert Bernard Godfrey was to learn was not shown. Unlike youngsters who were bound apprentice 100 years earlier, at least Robert had a little money and could lead, legitimately, a bit of his own life.

Users of the Twitter website may have seen a piece of weird history which is about a crime which took place in Market Lavington back in 1747. The crime was the somewhat unpleasant mis-use of a hat

Some may have thought the first appearance of this item was just a tad early for April Fool’s day but in fact it is entirely genuine. The original tweeter got his information from a book entitled ‘The Justicing Notebook of William Hunt 1744 – 1749’.

William Hunt, a West Lavington man, was a justice for a wider area. His job was to decide if cases should go for a proper trial, or whether he might mete out a suitable punishment or persuade people with disagreements to settle them.

The Wiltshire Records Society transcribed his notebook for the roughly five year period back in 1982.

We now have a copy of this book – it is totally plain on the outside so we’ll look at the title page.

Justicing Notebook of William Hunt – many of his cases involved Market Lavington or Easterton

The only picture in the book is a presumed image of William Hunt

This portrait – the fronticepiece of the book – is believed to be of William Hunt

He looks a kindly man and in reading his notes it does seem that he tried to avoid too much difficulty for those who transgressed. Here is the item about the hat which was tweeted.

This was the case which was posted on Twitter – a crime in Market Lavington

It seems that James Allexander provided a new hat or the value of the hat.

Another entry does suggest that more value was attached to property than to the wellbeing of women.

In the event, John Hopkins paid five shillings compensation for the theft.

This book makes an interesting addition to our knowledge of Market Lavington

If you ask older people when something happened they are inclined to say, ‘oh, I suppose it was about five years ago’.

We have certainly been told this about a rather elegant piece of topiary that used to be in front of houses on Parsonage Lane. We have seen the topiary before (click here).

The topiary did survive into the colour photo era and can be seen on this image which dates from the early 1970s.

Topiary outside number 8 Parsonage Lane, Market Lavington in the early 1970s

There it is, outside number 8 Parsonage Lane and still looking much as it had done in the 1930s.

Up the garden path

Can anyone tell us (for sure) who cut this tree into its shape, When they first did it and just when the tree was removed? We’d love to know.

The tradition amongst bee keepers is that you have to tell the bees the news. Here it is the other way around. An old picture of beehives is giving us some old news.

1920s photo of beehives in the garden behind the fish and chip shop in Market Lavington

Let’s consider the hives first. There have been two main types used in Britain – the functional ‘National’ hive and the prettier ‘WBC’.  These have the look of the WBC which was named after its inventor, William Broughton Carr. These were photographed in 1920 in the garden behind what is now the fish and chip shop and Chinese takeaway opposite the Co-op. The hive on the right is clearly doing well for extra honey holding ‘supers’ have been added to cope with the produce.

The bees belonged to Mr Elisha. He was the father in law of Mrs Elisha the school teacher and he had the premises on the corner of High Street and Chapel Lane as his tailoring and haberdashery shop. As we can now realise, he was also an avid bee keeper

The buildings on the right of the photo were in the yard behind the butchers shop.

Now we’ll look at the odd bit of structure to the left of the hives.

This is a grave. That area behind the fish and chip shop was once the graveyard of the chapel on chapel lane. That building, of course, is now the fish and chip shop.

We published a list of chapel burials on this blog a couple of years ago. Click here to see it.

There could be all sorts of reasons for wanting a prop to lean a pillow against so that someone in bed can be semi-upright. Bed bound people might have found such a device useful for eating and drinking. Or maybe a person just enjoyed breakfast in bed. We have one of these devices at Market Lavington Museum

A bed rest at Market Lavington Museum

The device operates something like a traditional deck chair. From its flat ansd folded arrangement a triangle can be produced with three different notches rto allow the pillow to be held at different angles.

This bed rest dates from the 1920s. It belonged to the Shore family of Market Place, Market Lavington and thy used it until 1987. Mrs Shore had been, until her marriage in 1940, Miss Flo Burbidge. And she had been born in our museum building back in 1908.

We don’t know all of the history of this bed rest, but it is possible that the Burbidge family had it and passed it on to Flo. We like to think that our bed rest is at home now.

Can we believe the written word? Often we can, but certainly not always. Today’s blog is a case in point.

We were looking through some old CDVs we had. CDV stands for Carte de Visite and they were quite a standard style of nineteenth century photograph. They measure 54 by 85 millimetres and were an ideal shape and size for a small full length portrait photo. They were exceedingly popular and it is no wonder we have quite a lot of them at Market Lavington Museum.

Here is one of them, a charming shot of two young lads.

Charming CDV showing two lads – a photo at Market Lavington Museum

Our records do not tell us the names of the lads. Indeed, it is really the back of the photo which holds definite Market Lavington interest,

The photo is by A Burgess of Market Lavington

We’ll ignore that bit of hand writing at the top for a moment and consider the main features. Well straight away we can see that this was a studio photo by A Burgess of Market Lavington and that he could use the new instantaneous process when photographing children. He kept his negatives so copies could be made later. But actually, we can learn more from the general style of the back of this CDV. A wonderful website at http://www.rogerco.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/time/time.htm allows us to date the backs of these old photos. From that we think this card dates to around the late 1880s and possibly into the early 1890s.

Now to that hand written bit at the top. It barely shows on the original CDV. The enhanced photo here makes it easy to read – Wally and Eric James. Presumably someone decided this was a photo of these two lads. There is certainly a similarity between the younger lad and another picture we have of Eric which you can see here.

But that photo dates from 1918. If this one is a similar age, it surely wouldn’t have been printed on 1880s card. We don’t think this photo can be Wally and Eric. But those brothers had a father called Walter who was born and raised in Market Lavington – born in 1879. He fits with the supposed age of the CDV. Sadly he had no brother called Eric. Walter’s brothers were Charles born in 1876 and Arthur born in 1885.

At present we have no way of knowing if those two lads are members of the James family. It will be a long shot, but perhaps someone out there in blogland can help.

Whoever the lads are we can admire the skills of our Alf Burgess, our Market Lavington photographer.

Sometimes a picture turns up which brings a smile to your face. Just look at this jaunty chap.

Arthur Potter of Market Lavington (1882 – 1946)

This is Arthur Potter, doffing his cap to the photographer, holding his pipe and wearing some very fine gaiters. The picture was taken at Old Bell House, adjacent to The Green Dragon.

Arthur was born in 1882. His father was Edwin who ran the horse bus service between Market Lavington and Devizes which we have seen before on this blog (click here). Edwin also had a small farm.

In 1901 Arthur lived with his parents and is described on the census as a farmer’s son.

In 1908 Arthur married Annie Hester Oram who lived on Northbrook in Market Lavington. Arthur and Annie were living on Northbrook for the 1911 census but Arthur was still described as a farmer’s son, working on farm.

As far as we know, Arthur and Annie had two daughters. Edith was born in 1913 and Violet in 1915. Arthur ended up following his dad into the carrying business.

In 1926, the family still lived on Northbrook. The couple were still there in 1939.

Arthur died in 1946 – he had been living on Northbrook. When Annie died in 1959 she lived at New Street – or as we call it, The Muddle.

Our curator recalls that when he was a kid, back in the 1950s, he visited jumble sales and there were always hair curling tongs. This was obviously the time when such items were seen as unwanted and old fashioned and they were discarded. Peggy Gye, a generation older than our present curator, probably bought some to preserve them. At any rate, we now have several pairs of curling tongs in the museum. Here is one pair – actually found in a shed at Meadow Cottage on Church Street, by Peggy’s brother, Tony.

19th century curling tongs found at Meadow Cottage and now at Market Lavington Museum

These tongs are believed to be late 19^th century and are made of steel. The overall length of these tongs is 27.5 cm – about 11 inches.

How do they work? The following extract comes from http://www.objectlessons.org/health-and-beauty-victorians/hair-curling-tongs-victorian-original/s71/a1065/ .

The tongs are two hinged pieces of iron, formed into handles at one end with narrow cylindrical blades at the other. The tongs were heated up over a flame and then sections of hair were curled around them. Each section of hair was folded first into a length of paper, called a curl-paper, to prevent the hair from scorching. In spite of this there are many tales of burnt and scorched hair as the heat of the tongs is hard to control and many women must have damaged their hair through this process.

Curling tongs can still be purchased, but these days they are electrically heated and, no doubt, have a thermostat to prevent frizzled and scorched hair. Mind you, it seems the must have items these days are hair straighteners. Oh, the perversity of fashion!

Former professional photographer, Peter Francis used to take to the air to get photos of our home area, but today we bring one taken by an amateur photographer and one who is still very much with us – Ted Maslen.

Market Lavington from the air – a 1992 photograph

We think the photo dates from 1992.

The houses in the foreground, one of which is having an extension added, are in an area once known as The Mead. The houses on the left in the next row back are on The Muddle (also known as New Street). That leads down to Church Street where, on the extreme left we can just see half of what was then The Vicarage and is now The Rectory.

Just along Church Street, the red houses with a couple of dormer windows in the roof was once a part of the Hopkins empire. It was here that acetylene was made and sold. Hopkins called these premises ‘The Light House’. Opposite, where Milsom Court now stands there was once Mr Milsom’s garage and petrol station. More recently one building became the doctors’ surgery but that is now in a purpose built medical centre elsewhere.

On the extreme right, behind the car park with a solitary red car in it there’s an area which looks like a builder’s yard. And that’s just what it was. It was the Gye’s yard now converted into housing and gardens.

Back on Church Street we reach the former Volunteer Arms.

The former Volunteer Arms in Market Lavington

That’s on the right in this enlargement and behind it, heading off to the left are the houses on Parsonage Lane.

High Street, Market Lavington from the air in 1992

From there we look along High Street with the Post Office on the left and Gemini Hair on the corner with White Street opposite.

At the very top of the picture is the Market Place with quite different parking arrangements from those we have now and the cars just behind the bin lorry are in the car park for Wiltshire Agricultural Engineering. The Chemists shop stands there now.

Well done Ted – a brilliant photo.

These days most people would have no idea on how to cook on a kitchen range. It was a work of skill getting things to the right temperature with judicious addition of fuel and control of dampers. And of course, at the same time you actually had to manage the food as well. It’s so different from our ‘touch of a button’ life with technology managing the heat leaving the cook free to deal with the food.

Back in those old days all sorts of extras were available. What we are looking at today is called a trivet. This one could be clamped onto a range and used to keep a pan warm in front of the stove.

Late nineteenth century trivet at Market Lavington Museum

As we can see this is quite an ornamental piece of cast iron. A utilitarian item could quite happily be cast into something which was ornament as well as useful. The underside, with the clamp, is more complex.

Underside of trivet with adjustable fastening

There’s a wing nut to enable adjustment to be made. The trivet could be held at varying distanced from the fire.

This trivet is believed to date from the late 1800s and had been used by the Gale family of The Spring in Market Lavington. Presumably, it had been unused for some time when it came to the museum back in 1987.

Many, many children are taken to school by car these days. Let’s not blame laziness but rather suggest that with parents working it may be the only way to safely and conveniently get youngsters to their centre of education. But, as we all know, it does add an extra peak traffic time as cars converge on schools.

Is the school run a new phenomenon? Absolutely not. We have a picture here of a group of children whose parents had decided that the Miss Chinnocks’ school in Market Lavington was the perfect place for them to get their education. The family concerned lived in Erlestoke some 3½ miles to the west. This family had not, at the time, moved into motor transport. The family travelled in a small cart.

We have a charming photo here, with five children and an adult seated in the little cart. The horse decided to look away as the photo was taken but the people all posed nicely.

We don’t often look at the lives of non-Lavington residents but these were Lavington educated, so we’ll make an exception. Not that we do know all that much of them!

The children belong to the Look family. The family had Manor Farm in Erlestoke. The family had not been in Erlestoke for long. At the time of the 1911 census Edward Henry Look was a dairy farmer in Somerset with his wife, Eva and four young daughters – Edith, Ida, Eveline and Hilda. Perhaps they are amongst those on the cart. Edward died in 1957 and is buried at Erlestoke.

And off the children go to the Miss Chinnocks’ School which was sited next to the Workmans’ Hall in the village.

One of our new displays for 2013 is entitled ‘School Days’ and there you can see many photos of school children, posing for group photos or just at work. There are also other artefacts to remind us all of school days from the past. We hope to see you there.

The England football team, despite an 8 –  0 victory, seem to be making slightly heavy weather of qualifying for the next world cup. I wonder how the local Church Lads would have got on.

This photo shows the lads – and some who might be more senior in the 1911/12 season.

Market Lavington Church Lads Football Team – 1911/12

Sad to say this is a ‘don’t know where, don’t know who’ photo. But maybe somebody out there will recognise some of the lads. That’s what we hope.

So let’s enlarge the team, bit by bit.

As an added bonus we have the person peering out of the window.

Please do get in touch if you think you know any of the lads.

The street known as Northbrook leads out of The Market Place. It goes down a hill and at the bottom it crosses the stream, also called Northbrook. It then rises up, quite steeply on to the sands. The present tarmacked road ends at this point but footpaths continue – there’s a choice of five paths radiating out from the top of Northbrook.

There are potential views over the village from points up Northbrook. Photographer Alf Burgess found a spot in about 1910

Northbrook, Market Lavington from the sands in about 1910

It is quite hard to get this photo to match anything from the present day. So much has changed. But the terrace of cottages at bottom right is still there with the Northbrook stream running past this end gable.

The thatched roof is probably that of ‘The Rest’ also still in existence. The little corner of tiled roof at the bottom left of the photo would be on cottages demolished in about 1950.

On the right hand side of the picture there are cows grazing where now you’d find the houses on Bouverie Drive.

In the middle of the picture we can see Northbrook (the road) making its way up to The Market Place where all has changed.

The Doctor’s House and Ivydene – amongst many long gone properties in Market Lavington

The cottages lining Northbrook on the right of this enlargement have either gone or been altered. The thatched cottage in the centre alongside the raised footpath is still there, but not thatched.

To the left of that cottage, and almost behind it we have another cottage now demolished. The white building beyond must be part of a house we sought – Ivydene. This was the home, later, of Fred Sayer, the bus company proprietor.

He also became the owner of the large house behind the tree. The other side of that house faces the Market Place. That house had belonged to Doctor Lush at one time. It was demolished in the mid-1920s to allow more space for Fred Sayer’s fleet of buses.

Embrocation! For many it conjures up images of cartoonist Giles’s Grandma and of real elderly people suffering the aches and pains of worn joints. In times past there was no quick fix replacement part surgery and all sorts of hoped for remedies were tried to relieve pain and aid mobility. At Market Lavington Museum we have a mirror which advertises Elliman’s Embrocation – for aches and pains.

Mirror advertising Elliman’s Embrocation. 100 years ago it was hung at Spring Villa in market Lavington.

The image shows that this mirror which dates from 1910 is still highly reflective. The reflection can be seen behind the advert.

Elliman’s Embrocation was made from about 1850. It was sold in two forms, Universal was for human use and Royal was for animals. In fact the two products were identical, being made from eggs, turpentine and vinegar.

A product with the same name can still be purchased and still using the same ‘active’ ingredients.

This mirror used to hang outside the closet at Spring Villa in Market Lavington in the 1910s and 20s.

Frank was one of our local characters. He was a smallholder/farmer who could turn his hand to almost anything.

In later life he lived at Anne’s Farm on Spin Hill (which has now been renamed) with his wife, Dolly. Frank was a large man and by then he certainly wasn’t a speed merchant.

A local cartoonist created several images of Frank and others, going about their lives. This one dates from 1966.

This cartoon of Frank Arnold can be seen at Market Lavington Museum

It’s not clear what the problem was for Frank. Maybe birds were eating his seedlings. Anyway, he is clearly telling his sow, Bess, to get after the problem. Bess is happy to oblige. It’s to be hoped that the little piglet keeps out of the way of the galloping sow.

Like all of the cartoons – there are 19 of them – the people have been caught perfectly. There’s no mistaking the size and style of Frank there. The artist has the advantage over the cameraman there. Our cartoonist can draw a scene from his imagination and not generate that tense look which people can put on when a camera points at them. Frank’s life and times – for a couple of years – are well documented in these images. Being cartoons, with a speech bubble, we get ideas about how Frank thought. For those people who knew Frank it all rings very true.

We looked at another cartoon earlier on this blog and we gave a summary of his life there. Click here to read it.

The title of this blog is also the title of a one year only display for 2013 at the museum. We are displaying fairly modern photos taken by Maurice Baker, a lifelong village resident who, sadly, died recently. As a bell ringer and one time captain of the tower, Maurice had access and, from time to time, climbed out onto the tower roof to record the changes in the village (much against his wife’s wishes, it should be added). The main part of our display features photos Maurice took in 1981 and then again in 2000. They show huge changes, particularly in the view to the North. Here’s the 1981 photo.

View North from Market Lavington Church in 1981

We look over the church yard and then into some fields which were a part of Grove Farm. To the left we have the woods below Canada Rise with a few Spin Hill houses just peering over the trees as well as some on Canada Rise. The bulk of the houses we see are on Northbrook and Northbrook Close. At the lowest level, in front of Northbrook we can see some houses and bungalows on Bouverie Drive. Beyond Northbrook we can follow the line of Drove Lane and see St Barnabas School.

And now to the year 2000.

A similar view over Market Lavington in the year 2000

The big change, of course, is that the Grove Farm estate has been built. We are looking over the churchyard at Roman Way and Saxon Close and can also see houses on Ladywood. Looking beyond, to Northbrook, at least one brand new house has been built, whilst others have been extended outwards and upwards.

There’s twenty years of tree and shrub growth too. Back in 1981 was not so long after the devastating arrival of the Dutch elm bark beetle, killer of elm trees on a savage scale. By 2000 the scene really doesn’t look short of trees.

Maurice’s photos cover all directions. We have on display 8 photos for the two years featured to represent each of the eight main compass bearings but just below the main display there are other photos from the same or earlier years so further comparisons can be made.

There are many different displays and new exhibits in the museum this year. You really do need to visit your local museum to see everything.

There can be little doubt that the Saunders family from Russell Mill were amongst the most influential of people. This was not only in the Lavington area, but also around Britain and, indeed, the world.

Father Amram was a highly respected miller and leader of people. It was Amram that organised people to buy out the tollgates and get them removed. Today we are looking at one of his sons – William.

William was born on 20^th November 1823 and he was to be the youngest son of Amram and Mary Saunders. Their home was Russell Mill which was in the parish of Market Lavington. It got passed to West Lavington in the 1950s.

We know little of his early life except that he attended a school in Devizes.

Our photo of William comes from the book ‘Elizabeth of Lavington’ which is about his younger sister and was written by her granddaughter.

William Saunders, born Market Lavington in 1823

William’s older brother seemed destined to take over the milling business so William looked elsewhere for his fortune. In 1844 he opened quarries near Box Tunnel.

A first business venture for William Saunders

In 1851 William was living with his married sister, Mary, in Kensington in London. William was described as a stone merchant.

In 1852 William married Caroline Spender of Bath. Later, he set up the Plymouth Western Morning News within the help of his father in law. In 1861 William and Caroline lived in Plymouth and William was now a newspaper proprietor.

In 1863 William founded Central News – the first ever news distributing agency and in 1864 he started the Hull based Eastern Morning News which came to be regarded as his real journalistic success. Perhaps William thought more of Central news for on the 1871 census, with William on Finchley Road in London, It is the news agency which he gives as his employment.

In 1881, William was in Streatham with Caroline and was listed as a newspaper Proprietor.

A new strand to his career took place in 1885 when he was elected liberal MP for Hull East. He lost his seat the following year when the liberals fell from power. William’s radical views, particularly his belief in land nationalisation, may not have helped him.

In 1889 William was elected to the first London County Council – for Walworth. The same area elected him as their MP in 1892.

At Market Lavington Museum we have a calling card holder which dates from this era.

Calling card holder for William Saunders

William died in 1895 – in Market Lavington He was buried on 4^th May in the churchyard at Market Lavington.

In 1983 his first paper, The Western Morning news published this story.

William’s story by his first paper – The Western Morning News

During World War II bombing was usually done visually. Pilots of bombers, up in the sky, looked for targets that they could drop their load on. However, they often flew at night to help keep themselves invisible so they needed light on the ground to get an idea of what they might hope to destroy.

To make it hard, the answer was to make sure it was as dark as possible. Sources of light had to be blacked out.

For householders, this meant making sure no light escaped from within the home and material suited to ensuring the blackout was made available by the government. Here is some of this material.

Black out material made into blinds for use at Spring Villa in Market Lavington

It really doesn’t look all that exciting as an object, but it tells a story of the enormous difficulty of coping in the pitch black war time conditions.

The material was tough, being made of bitumen laced paper on sacking type material. In this case it was made up into blinds. Not only did the material prevent the egress of stray light (and we can all imagine how the ARP warden in ‘Dad’s Army’ would have reacted to any of that) but also it was tough enough to stop glass being blown into the room should a bomb explode nearby.

These blinds date from 1939-45 and were in use at Spring Villa on The Spring in Market Lavington.