A Celebration of Wiltshire in Poetry has been inspired by the natural history, landscape and heritage of this beautiful county. Wiltshire has a distinctive and ancient natural landscape, which is perhaps overlooked by travellers who pass through it, in search of coastal destinations further west....
The author, a native of Bath (Somerset) and a lecturer, historian and biographer, explores the possibilities of writing history backwards from the present into the past. Like the author’s own family, this book is firmly rooted in North Somerset, Bath and West Wiltshire. Part memoir,...
Horatio Barber is a somewhat forgotten figure from the pioneering days of “heavier than air” flight. Although well documented at the time, his considerable contribution to aviation is often overlooked in the history books. His achievements, if mentioned at all, tend to lie in the...
History of a theatre in Swindon, Wiltshire, England, from opening in 1898 to closure in 1955, with full detailed list of all productions, and many illustrations.
Heather Tanner (1903-1993) is best remembered as an environmental campaigner and the author of four exquisite books about Wiltshire and its countryside, illustrated by her husband, the artist Robin Tanner. This selection of her work, chosen by her friend Rosemary Devonald, draws on unpublished essays,...
New edition of William Beckford’s first published work, of 1780, with introduction by Robert J. Gemmett, and annotations, illustrations and a bibliography. The work is a satire which criticizes the excesses of schools of painting, particularly the Dutch and Flemish, and an extended parody of...
Authoritative and very detailed study by acknowledged road transport history expert of the stage coach trade between Bristol and London, 1650s to 1840s, which provides the key to understanding the British stage coach system as a whole. Fully illustrated with maps, charts and contemporary prints,...
History of the union workhouse in Devizes, Wiltshire, and its subsequent history as a hospital, with details of buildings and people associated with it.
Biography of Jan Ingen Housz (1730-1799), brilliant but almost forgotten Dutch scientist, who discovered photosynthesis, pioneered inoculation, and associated with the most distinguished thinkers and philosophers of the European enlightenment, in Britain, Austria and Holland.
Comprehensive description and history of the major medieval church at Edington, Wiltshire, England, and of its sponsor, William of Edington, bishop of Winchester. The church is architecturally important because its fabric spans the 14th-century transition from Decorated to Perpendicular style. It is celebrated for the...
Fictional account of an episode in the reign of Athelstan which took place partly in and around Frome in 934 AD, followed by extensive factual commentary and discussion.
Comprehensive study of the effect on the county of Wiltshire (in southern England) of World War Two and its aftermath to 1955, including war work in factories and on the land, military training, air raids, propaganda and rationing. Fully illustrated.
Described by the BBC in 2011 as ‘one of the most powerful dynasties in England’, the Long family of Wiltshire derived enormous power and prestige from land ownership. They were empire-builders, fiercely ambitious opportunists, maintaining their position as Wiltshire’s administrative and political backbone for half...
Illustrated biography of Rudyard Kipling’s parents. John Lockwood Kipling and Alice Macdonald Kipling were both born into strict Wesleyan Methodist families, but their similar interests, loving and successful marriage brought them exciting experiences in India, artistic recognition and membership of the Pre-Raphaelite group at the...
Alphabetical list of those who died during World War II from Swindon and the surrounding district of Wiltshire, with lists of prisoners of war and those awarded medals for gallantry.
This book blends biography with military and social history. But it is also a tribute, driven by gratitude. If the story had ended differently the author would never have existed. After Dr Beale retired, he took up family history. For some years he managed to...
Alfred Williams (1877–1930), dubbed ‘the hammerman poet’, was a self-taught Wiltshire genius, whose life was toil and poverty, but who deserves to live on and be remembered as a sensitive chronicler of village life, folksong collector, industrial reporter – and rural poet, in the mould...
Stuff the Bustard and other poems is Sue Kemp’s record of the entertaining and unusual topics that have featured on BBC Wiltshire’s Breakfast radio show over the past couple of years. Always light-hearted, this book will rekindle memories for the regular listeners to Wiltshire radio....
An illuminating and infectiously enthusiastic guidebook to a town that many imagine is uninteresting and unattractive. Angela Atkinson’s popular blog, ‘Born Again Swindonian’, shows how wrong this impression is, and she has now produced a full colour description and guide to prove it. Her words...
Early photographs have an undeniable power, providing a window to our past with an immediacy that is hard to match – documenting change and capturing history. Museums, archives and local studies libraries, therefore, continue to build extensive photographic collections to preserve this important visual record...
The borough of Swindon embraces not only one of the largest towns in central southern England; it includes also large tracts of chalk downland and much of the upper Thames valley. The rapid pace of development across this area has resulted in a wealth of...
Eventful and colourful history of the Arundell family, landed gentry based at Wardour Castle, south-west Wiltshire (UK), from the 16th to 20th century, engagingly written for the general reader but fully referenced for the scholar.
The Jurassic Coast, A Poet’s Journey, is the author’s second book of poetry, and as the title suggests, is a voyage in verse around the Dorset and South Devon coast in England. In 2001, the Jurassic Coast became England’s first natural World Heritage Site, to...
Full length biography and study of influential English poet and Wiltshire clergyman, setting him in his literary context, and among his circle of friends and acquaintances
A powerful novel of the era of young free love and its problems in a conflicted society. It’s the winter of 1970 and Northern Ireland is smouldering with the unresolved hostilities of its ancient sectarian tribes, with Belfast a hotbed for trouble. In the heart...
Richard Jefferies (1848-1887) was a naturalist, novelist and social commentator, born near Swindon and always associated with the north Wiltshire countryside. A perceptive observer of human and animal life, in countryside and town, his sensitive, exquisite writing has always been cherished and admired. In 1883,...
In November 1915 the Chippenham Red Cross Convalescent Hospital opened in response to rapidly increasing numbers of wounded men returning from the battlefields of the Great War. This book follows events in Chippenham, a relatively small north Wiltshire town, that led to the opening of...
The book begins with the early origins of this remote hamlet near Trowbridge (in Wiltshire, southern England) which was affected by the Black Death. It describes its heyday under a branch of the Long family, prominent clothiers whose seat was Whaddon House and how they...
Wiltshire is particularly lucky in the variety and quality of its chapels, which range from tiny country meeting houses of traditional gable-ended design to large town churches with Classical facades and space for 1000 or more worshippers in their galleried interiors. This book documents them....
Over the Hills and Far Away is a collection of chronological military stories that begins with an Australian soldier’s journey across the sea to the Wylye Valley in the Great War and ends with the experiences of a doctor in Iraq in 2003. It takes...
This book tells stories of great courage and endurance through seven conflicts and across twenty countries. The action takes place in Asia, Europe, North Africa, the South Atlantic and Scandinavia, as well as the Middle and Far East. It takes the reader onto the battlefield,...
This eloquent and finely observed social history charts the lives of a rural population whose horizons were defined by the Hampshire and Wiltshire countryside between Salisbury, Romsey and Fordingbridge. Their unassuming stories of joy and celebration, mingled with sadness and poverty, are told with great...
Christian philanthropist and patron of Florence Nightingale, Sidney Herbert was hailed in his own times as a statesman, administrative reformer and co-founder of the modern Liberal party. Strangely neglected since his death, this biography brilliantly recaptures, through its subject, some of the many paradoxes of...
The gardens at Stourhead in south-west Wiltshire are amongst the best known in England. But what was there before they were planted? This book aims to show that the parish of Stourton had a fascinating history long before Stourhead was conceived. For example, it is...
First published in 1991, and out of print for many years, this has become the classic account of the history, buildings and people of the essence of Wiltshire, its geographical centre and emotional heart. John Chandler has been writing about regional history for forty years, and...
The latest, and largest, in Hobnob’s series of books in collaboration with the Wiltshire Buildings Record, this is the result of the author’s long-term interest in and study of almshouses. Fully illustrated, often in colour, and with maps and plans, her book is in gazetteer...
Gate lodges are amongst the most attractive of all small buildings, full of architectural style to reflect the grand country houses whose entrances they guard, and they survive in surprisingly large numbers. Yet they are not much studied and not much appreciated, a serious omission...
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