This month, usual host Katy England was busy organising our latest temporary exhibition, ‘Fashioning Our World,’ so Owain Hughes took over Conversation Club, leading with a brief but fascinating talk about the Amesbury Archer.
We were able handle artefacts from the era and discuss questions prepared by Katy. Although most of us had seen the Archer in his case in the Wessex Gallery, a more in-depth discussion of his importance as a bringer of new technologies to a Stone Age world was revealing and relatable to the impact of new technologies today.
We went in to the Wessex Gallery and found ourselves looking at the Archer and the objects with new respect and wonder.
Under Fives Friday
Hopefully the last session to be held in the hall at Harnham…. although a very satisfactory venue, everyone is looking forward to be being back in the museum.
This event was a music session hosted by Liv and was as popular as ever with both children and parents.
Hopefully, our regulars and newer participants will all eventually become museum Members – at least one regular renewed at this session. We run through the benefits at each meeting.
The May meeting will be run by regular Volunteers Mary and Sally, introducing the new Natural History Gallery…back in the museum!
Volunteers are needed to help carry a giant statue through a city’s streets in a string of upcoming events.
(The photo above shows the original Giant in his place in the now almost complete new Salisbury galleries of The Salisbury Museum.)
The Salisbury Giant, which stands at 3.6m (12ft) tall, dates back more than 500 years.
A replica of the giant is brought out to celebrate significant events in Salisbury, continuing a custom that goes back to at least the 15th Century. People are now being sought to carry the giant at a number of spring events including St George’s Day celebrations.
Paul Sample said the tradition “won’t exist” without volunteers and urged people to come forward.
Originally owned by the Tailor’s Guild, the figure was used to display clothing produced by tailors in medieval Salisbury, when the town’s prosperity was founded on the wool trade. It was purchased by the city’s museum in 1873 for 30 shillings (£1.50).
Sometimes referred to as St Christopher, the giant later became a symbol of celebration and was often brought out alongside his horse, Hob Nob, to parade through the streets on significant dates like the coronation, carnivals and local civic events.
Volunteers known as ‘whifflers’ walk alongside the giant carrying processional guilds. Mr Sample, chief whiffler, said: “Salisbury has probably the oldest and longest tradition of giants. It means that we have a real place in the folk history of England and it’s really important internationally that we keep it going.”
This year’s events start with a St George’s Day procession on 28 April, and organisers are looking for seven volunteers to carry a replica of the giant.
“We’re hopeful that lots of people will come forward as volunteers this year, to help us continue the tradition into years and decades, and centuries to come,” Mr Sample said.
“He just had his cloak washed for the first time in about 30 years so he’s ready to go, we just need help getting him there,” he added.
The Salisbury Council House fire of 1780: accident or arson?
Founded by the Bishop of Salisbury on his own land in 1220, the church controlled all aspects of the city’s life for nearly 200 years, much to the annoyance of some of the increasingly prosperous citizens.
By the 1400s secular elected assemblies (known as the ‘24’ and the ‘48’) held administrative functions and appointed city officials, such as the mayor, from their ranks. This power clash was even apparent in the architecture: the earlier Bishop’s Guildhall at the east end of the Market Place had by 1416 been joined by the Mayor and Commonality’s own premises between the Cheesemarket and St Thomas’s Church at the western end.
As the influence and power of the citizenry rose further, a new Council House was proposed in 1565 to be paid for by ‘the good will and contribution of the city inhabitants, their acquaintance and friends’.
Building started in 1580, with Mayor Christopher Weeks laying the first stone. This building was constructed in front of the Bishop’s Guildhall ‘where the great elm late stood’ and took 4 years to erect. It was a timber-framed 3-storied structure with gables, open colonnades at the side and a central turret.
Unfortunately, the original stone pillars were later found to be insufficiently stable, and the space between them was filled in around 1614. This was again funded by subscription, not all of which was completely voluntary: every member of the 24 were expected to pay 10s, whilst the 48 paid 5s each. This wasn’t the last time subscriptions were raised: external repairs were needed in 1734 and 1757, and extra money sought in 1740 and 1765. By this time the bill for repair and maintenance had become one of the city’s biggest items of extraordinary expenditure, and in 1770 a committee was established to inspect the Council House, order repairs and consider a replacement. Ten years later it burnt down.
On November 15th, 1780, the new mayor, Joseph Hinxman Esq, had been sworn in and gave the ‘customary entertainment at the council chamber’. Soon after the departure of the company, at about 5 in the morning the upper story of the building was found to be on fire. Despite the fact that ‘extensive, and indeed irreparable injury was done to the venerable edifice itself’ the majority of its contents were fortuitously rescued, including the corporation chests containing the charters and records of the city, books, papers, paintings and other valuables. Council records state that ‘prompt assistance was given, and by nine the conflagration was subdued’, and that help had been received from citizens and soldiers of the 11th Dragoons under the command of Captain Popple. The people were thanked and rewarded, and 10s given to the Dragoon Captain.
What is interesting, is the information that is missing. No mention of how or where the fire was started appears to have been noted, nor who it was who gave the alarm. There is also no reference that I can find to the fire in the British Newspaper Archives of the time, although others in Amesbury and Salisbury are mentioned – some in newspapers as far away as Dundee. It was referred to in the Salisbury and Winchester Journal – but not till 100 years later. The only record of the events seem to be the council Ledgers themselves.
In emergency meetings held after the fire it was decided to demolish the building entirely. A very timely offer by the City Recorder, the 2nd Earl of Radnor, to fund and furnish a new building at his own expense was accepted, with other monies offered by one William Hussey (towards its upkeep) and by the Hon William Bouverie (to provide a carved chair for the mayor). What had been a huge drain on the city’s finances was replaced by a brand-new building at practically no cost.
So, was this accident, or arson? The cynics amongst us may question the lack of publicity around this notable event, its fortuitous timing when the building was such a financial drain, the fact that the building was totally destroyed yet its contents all saved – despite the early hour of the fire – and the very generous benefactors who stepped in straight away. Was the fact that the fire occurred after what could have been a notable party, but only after everyone had left, in any way significant? Sadly, there is no proof either way. As an added twist, however, the new Council House, opened in 1795, was built on the site of the Bishop’s Guildhall, which was demolished to make room for it: emphasising the rise of the secular power over that of the church in the clearest possible way.
We welcome more of Megan’s research, undertaken by her as part of that done for displays in the new galleries. Political intrigue…. thank you Megan!
A great deal has been done over the last thirty months or so, by Volunteers who have been researching items for display in the new galleries. Volunteer Megan Fyfe sends this, the result of one of her investigations…
The museum has a splendid portrait of an otherwise not-particularly-well-known Salisbury merchant, called William Wendover. Or possibly Windover.
Dressed to impress in the manner of the 1630s, the portrait celebrates him as a local benefactor since in 1630, just before his death 2 or 3 years later, he had given £50 each to the Company of Shoemakers and the Company of Bakers in Salisbury. In the portrait he is surrounded by four coats of arms, two of which represent his family and his merchant’s mark, and the other two link him to London-based Trade Companies, suggesting a merchant of wide interests and some standing.
Despite his London connections it is known that William had a house in Salisbury. He had bought the old Franciscan friary on St Ann’s Street, some 40-50 years after its closure by Henry VIII’s Royal Commissioners in 1538, and renamed it Windover House – parts of the original building surviving 400 years later.
Windover House, St Ann’s St. Richard II feasted here with the Friars Minor in 1393.
So far, so good as far as sources are concerned, but now we come to what could be called informed speculation. Or, less charitably, inspired guesswork.
There are no records of William’s birth, but Edward and John Windover both served as Mayors of Salisbury in 1596 and 1618 respectively: if they are related, a prominent local family is indicated.
From the age suggested in his portrait William, may well have been born under the Tudors, lived through the reign of the first Stuart monarch James I, and the accession of his ill-fated son Charles I. He must have survived the plague years that beset Salisbury, including 1627 when 369 people died and many fled, and although he died nine years before the start of the Civil War, it would have been difficult for him not to be aware of the discord leading up to it, such as Charles I’s dissolution of Parliament in 1626. He therefore lived through, and survived, a period of considerable political unrest.
William will also have lived through a period of considerable commercial change – itself a response to social changes such as the decrease in influence of the church – in which the original medieval trade guilds, designed to protect members and regulate trade, became incorporated as trade companies with a similar remit, but under the auspices of the Mayor and Town Council.
In Salisbury, the Company of Merchants was reconstituted in 1562, to include all those traders dealing in commodities they did not make, and in 1612 money was raised to pay for a Charter from James I after which all the Trade Companies were reconstituted by the Town Council. Although there are no records of William acting as an officer of the company, it is certainly true that successful merchants could exercise both local and national power through their knowledge of trade opportunities, and the information they gathered about other countries. William’s link to the London Salters’ and the Merchant Adventurers’ Companies, suggested by the coats of arms on his portrait, indicate he had a presence in two important English cities, as well as any continental cities his trading enterprise reached.
But now the mystery deepens. For there is not one portrait, but two. And they appear to be identical. The one in the Museum is the same as one currently hanging in the Banqueting Hall of the modern Guildhall. But which is the original? The first one must have been painted on or after 1630: would it have been hung in the then Elizabethan Council House with the portraits of other benefactors – and not only hung there but have survived the destruction of the Council House by fire in 1780? An unreferenced information leaflet provided by the Town Council suggested it had been presented to the Corporation by Alderman Woodlands in 1879, and suggest the coats of arms are linked to other companies than I have suggested.
The portrait in the Museum states that it was donated in 1954 and a source, again unreferenced, links the Museum portrait to an artist Frances Lovibond, for whom other information is lacking, and suggests the Guildhall portrait was used as a reference. Whilst a forensic investigation of the two portraits – looking at paint composition etc – may, if considered financially worthwhile, state which portrait was the older, the lack of referenced and viable historical sources is a challenge more difficult to overcome.
Fascinating research when there is so little evidence, not only about the man himself but about the second portrait too. Thank you Megan, and we look forward to hearing more about your work.
Last week The Salisbury Museum welcomed a friend, Christina Richard of Tisbury, who came bearing gifts.
Christina (Tina) has recently had a new local history book published by Hobnob Press – The Pythouse Rioters – official launch on 2 December, but already available on Amazon and in local shops.
Tina was writing her book, about the people caught up in the Wiltshire machine riots of 1830, when, during the pandemic, your blogger was researching the same period of unrest. The ‘Swing’ Riots, as they were called, will feature in our new galleries next year.
Tina gave unstinting support to us, including a peek at the drafts of her chapters and a wonderful tour of the sites around Tisbury and Pythouse itself where events took place. What a beautiful part of the county, despite some turbulent history. Next year, as the new galleries open, we hope to have Tina with us as a speaker. Meanwhile she brought copies of the book as a gift to the museum and is already giving talks to local organisations as her book appears in the shops.
EXHIBITION CLOSING SOON! Salisbury On Camera: 50 Years of the Salisbury Journal Archive 29 Apr 2023- 29 Oct 2023 Make sure to head down to Salisbury Museum over the next month so you don’t miss out on this fascinating exhibition, Salisbury On Camera: 50 Years of the Salisbury Journal Archive.
This exhibition celebrates the first fifty years of this significant archive which starts in 1953 and runs through to 2003. Providing an incredible record of life in the city and surrounding area. This exhibition focuses on major events, fashion, sport, music, environment, buildings, famous visitors, local interests and social history.
244 images have been selected by museum volunteer Ken Smith which have been arranged according to the decade they came from.
COMING SOON! The Art of Wessex Exhibition 11 Nov 2023- 28 Jan 2024
In the build up to the opening of the new museum this exhibition will explore all the different Wessex artists represented in the museum’s collection.
Our collection includes over 5,000 paintings, prints and drawings. This careful selection will look at artists connected with the Wessex area from 18th century to the present day, ranging from the oil paintings of George Beare to the wood engravings of Howard Phipps. It will include well known pieces as well as hidden treasures and new acquisitions not seen by the public before.
THE ANNUAL CLARENDON LECTURE 2023
Politics as Recreation – The Annual Clarendon Lecture, from Professor Chris Given-Wilson, St Andrews University.
This year’s Annual Clarendon Lecture will focus on three separate occasions at Clarendon palace in the fourteenth century, in 1317, 1355 and 1370 when the English kings hosted their European contemporaries for talks – a medieval camp David. The main characters being discussed will be Edward II of England, along with King Charles II of Navarre and his brother Philip of Navarre during periods of conflict and especially the Hundred Years War in the later fourteenth century.
Clarendon provided a different setting for these meetings away from London and Westminster. This talk will consider the role of the palace in these international diplomatic events.
Speaker: Professor Chris Given-Wilson
Chris is a professional Emeritus in Late Medieval History specialising in fourteenth and fifteenth century history. He grew up in the New Forest. Recent works includes a biography of Henry IV and as a general editor of the acclaimed Parliament Rolls of Medieval England online.
Tickets £12 or £9 for Friends of Clarendon Palace or Museum Members. This lecture will be held at Salisbury Methodist Church, Thursday 16 Nov 7pm Pre-booking essential – book here
The Spectacular Ambitions of Roger, Bishop of Salisbury – A Talk by Tony McAleavy
One of the most extraordinary characters associated with the history of Salisbury was Bishop Roger (1102–1139) who controlled the diocese in the early 12th century and was also the chief advisor to King Henry I.
In today’s terms, Roger was the prime minister and was, after the king, the most powerful person in the country. In this talk Tony McAleavy will describe the life and colourful character of Roger. He will explain the latest research concerning Roger’s role in the building of the Romanesque work at Malmesbury Abbey and his plan to turn Malmesbury into a second cathedral for the bishops of Salisbury which led to a bitter conflict with the Malmesbury monks.
Tony McAleavy studied history at Oxford. He was for many years the schools history adviser for Gloucestershire County Council. In this talk he will draw upon the findings about the career of Roger recently published in a new book about the history of Malmesbury Abbey in the Middle Ages.
This is a fundraising talk for Salisbury Museum (registered charity no 289850)
£9 Members; £12 Non-members
This lecture will be held in The Salisbury Museum Lecture Hall 18 Jan 7.30pm Pre-booking essential – book here
I have been doing some research for one of the storylines in the new Salisbury Galleries – I thought it worth sharing.
The starting point is a painted board in the museum’s collections which lists the names of four prisoners (all tried for murder) executed and buried at the Wiltshire County Gaol, Salisbury between 1836 and 1855.
The men were all executed by hanging at the gaol (also referred to as Fisherton Anger County Gaol), in Salisbury. The prisoners were all buried within the grounds of the prison, which was located from 1822 to 1870 at the junction of Devizes and Wilton roads. More details about the prison were discussed in blog entries in 2021. Until 1822 the gaol was located in Fisherton Street on the site of where the clock tower is located today. The murders were all committed at some distance from Salisbury in various villages further north in Wiltshire.
It is unclear why these particular four men were listed or why the board was painted. The board must have been painted later than March 1855 as the last prisoner listed (William Wright) was executed at that date, and before the closure of the jail in 1870.
All the murders were of women by men. In three of the four murders, the victims were the wives or partners of the men, and the motive was jealousy. The murder by John Smith was a random motiveless killing, and it seems that Smith was mentally ill. The details of the men listed on the board, their crimes and the victims are given below. I can provide details of my sources (mostly newspaper reports of the time) if necessary – footnotes have been removed.
Henry Wynn was executed on 14 March 1836 “in front of” Fisherton Gaol for the murder of Eliza Jones at Highworth, near Swindon. He was buried within the precincts of the gaol. He was a native of Birmingham, about 17 years of age (so born around 1819) and described in the newspaper report as a “travelling tinker”. However, in his book, Endless Street, John Chandler refers to Wynn as a “vagrant”. Eliza Jones was an Irishwoman with whom Henry Wynn “cohabited”. Jealousy was the motive for the crime which Wynn freely admitted after his trial. A transcript of the newspaper report of the execution is at the end of this blog entry.
James Taylor was executed on 16 March 1841, also “in front of” Fisherton Gaol. He murdered Hannah Taylor (his wife) at Tockenham (three miles from Royal Wootton Bassett). The murder appears to have taken place on Friday 3 July 1840. On 29 June 1840 his wife had eloped with a railwayman. Taylor went in pursuit and later in the week managed to bring his wife home. However, a neighbour told him that the man with whom his wife had eloped had been seen nearby. This caused Taylor to shoot his wife dead (while her mother and sister were in the house). He intended to kill his child but could not face it. He attempted to commit suicide, but he failed and was taken into custody. The Salisbury and Winchester Journal makes much of the fact that before his execution Taylor remained “obdurate and impenitent” and the efforts of the prison chaplain to bring Taylor to a sense of his “awful situation” were “wholly unavailing”.
John Smith was executed on27 March 1849(he appears to have been 23 years old at the time of his execution). He murdered Eleanor Lawrence on 9 August 1848 at Collingbourne Ducis, a village on Salisbury Plain, about ten miles south of Marlborough. Smith was a vagrant or tramp (“of repulsive appearance”) who had told one of the witnesses at the trial that he came from Worcestershire. Eleanor Lawrence was 34 years old, in poor health, and lived with another woman Mary Annett. Smith attacked Lawrence on the road not far from where others from the village were working in a field. She had been beaten with a sharp stone on her head and face and her death was caused by a fractured skull. After killing Lawrence, he had subsequently attacked (with stones) a clergyman (George Hadow) in the clergyman’s own home. There was no apparent motive for the murder or the later assault, but after his arrest he said that he was “tired of living”. It was reported that “he preserved the appearance of the most stolid indifference during the whole trial.”
William Wright was executed in front of the gaol on 27 March 1855, the executioner being a Mr Calcraft.He was hung for the murder of Ann Collins at their home at Hook in the parish of Lydiard Tregoze on 18 November 1854. Hook and Lydiard Tregoze are small villages on the western edge of Swindon. Wright was a blacksmith, who had lived with Ann Collins as his wife. They had a daughter about six years of age, who was in the house at the time of the murder. Ann Collins had, for a period, gone off with another man, Tom Ackley, who lived at Wootton Bassett, to the south of Hook. On 18 November 1854 Wright murdered his wife with a knife and attempted to cut his own throat, leaving a deep cut. Wright told a witness after the murder that his wife had told him that she intended go off with the other man again.
William Wright’s was the last public execution in Salisbury. The hanging caused the wound in his throat, that he had inflicted upon himself after the murder, to reopen. The Salisbury and Winchester Journal report stated that this “tended considerably to increase the horror of the spectacle”. The body was interred “within the precincts of the gaol”.
Execution of Henry Wynn: transcription from Devizes and Wiltshire Gazette, 17 March 1836
This unfortunate man, convicted at our assizes on Friday, of the murder of Eliza Jones at Highworth, underwent the last sentence of the law, in front of Fisherton Gaol, at a quarter past 12, on Monday morning – From the moment he entered the prison, he was perfectly aware, that in the event of his conviction, an ignominious death awaited him. He was at first remarkably reserved, and his spirits occasionally much depressed. After his condemnation, however, he freely confessed his crime – acknowledged the justice of his sentence and admitted that he had led a most wicked life; at the same time he solemnly denied that he premeditated the act for which he was to suffer. Short as was the time allotted him after his trial, he was anxious for its termination, and was weary of every hour; but this weariness did not appear to arise from any mental agony, and certainly not from any feeling that he was prepared to meet his God. The Chaplain to the prison was unremitting in his pious duties. On Sunday morning he preached a sermon adapted to the occasion from the 8th chap. of 2d Kings, and the 1st part of the 13th verse. The Rev gent also administered the sacrament to the prisoner on the morning of the execution, and read the usual prayers in the room near the drop. The prisoner took leave of the others in attendance with astonishing firmness, and ascended the steps to the platform apparently unconcerned.
He did not address a word to the persons below; but before even the Executioner had time to adjust the rope he gave the fatal signal! In a few moments he was launched into eternity – dying without a struggle. The rain fell heavily throughout the morning, so that the number of persons assembled to witness the spectacle was but small. After hanging the usual time the body was cut down, and in the afternoon buried within the precincts of the Gaol. Soon after his condemnation, the prisoner expressed the hope that the surgeons would not be allowed to have his body for dissection, and on being assured that they would not, he said “Then I shall die with less fear!” – He was a native of Birmingham, about 17 years of age, and a travelling tinker.
Thank you Martin. You remind us that civilisation has made great strides in the last two hundred or so years, but some things never change!
A number of Volunteers have been doing research of this kind for about two years, all to support the displays in the new galleries. Probably only ten percent or less of that research will ever see the light of day. We hope we might see more of it on this blog.
At the weekend, Volunteers had an exciting opportunity to join a guided tour of the building works, led by Museum Director Adrian Green.
This little chap (above) joined us, coming even closer at one point, clearly very interested in what Adrian was telling us….
We began with a potted history, and a fresh look at the parts of the east front not yet covered with scaffolding. Adrian reminded us that while the plot was put aside for a canonry in the 13th century, and, indeed, a canonry was built, nothing of the original remains today. Apparently the current works show that the original is not even hidden within the building we now see, though one suspects that any useful material from the original may have been robbed for the later building, as has continued to happen through the centuries.
The building still shows the ‘scars’ of earlier alterations. Some of the lines of arched stonework here (above) indicate the position of the huge windows of the 15th century open hall.
Most of what we see now is 15th century, including our wonderful porch, although it was added a few years after the main building and originally had only one archway, the one at right angle to the face of the main building having been added in probably the 19th century. The layout of the original was typically Medieval, through the porch into probably a wood panelled corridor, or ‘screens’ passage’, kitchens and service rooms to the left and large Hall to the right, open to the roof (in the style of the current day Medieval Hall next door), with perhaps a private chamber at the far end. This, today, is taken up by Reception, the shop and the temporary exhibition gallery beyond that. There were other small buildings to the north, perhaps servants’ quarters, stables, etc, and these still exist, in part, as the cafe area, but at first they were separate from the main building.
These illustrations from Wikipedia show how the King’s House (known as Sherborne Place then) might have looked. Our view of the great open Hall is looking across the open hearth to the far end with a private parlour over. The buttery (with butts of wine!), pantry and screens’ passage would be behind us. Adrian said there is evidence in the rafters of the original open fire, but only a little, suggesting the Hall was not in constant use.
In the 16th century, after the Dissolution of the Monasteries had removed the ecclesiastical tenant, an upper floor was inserted* and the whole floor extended upwards by half a storey, hence the gables we see today. Fireplaces and their chimneys were added, including the fireplace still in Reception today. The brick cross-wing which joins the formerly detached buildings to the main part, was added in 1598. As well as being the link between the two, it houses the staircase which was clearly intended as a grand entrance to what we now call the King’s Room with its wonderful ceiling. One wonders if the visit from a monarch was already being planned, or hoped for.
There used to be a story that the newel posts within the staircase were previously masts of a ship….
(*The Sadler family were tenants for about 70 years during this time. Soon after the death of the last of the family, the building was converted into tenements.)
The soldier Shrapnel was a tenant for a while, as was Miss Margaret Bazley, who briefly brought her Godolphin School to the King’s House before taking it out to Milford Hill in 1848. Further alterations were made and the building opened as the Salisbury Diocesan Training College for Schoolmistresses (one of the first in the country) in 1841. That closed in 1978.
The rest, as they say, is yet more history….as the life of this remarkable building goes on.
And so inside. We were led from the cafe counter area into the toilets! and then into the area which once housed the Salisbury Collection (and will again), now a wonderful open space.
Looking the other way, we could see the opening that now exists between the old chapel/lecture hall and the rest of that side. Meanwhile, old fireplaces appear, and will perhaps disappear again…
Another view of the old chapel through the new opening, and at the far end the tall box within which our Giant now slumbers, ready for its new awakening…
The space created by the opening up of the old Salisbury Galleries, together with the chapel, is quite something, but there are 800 years of history to fit in it!
Then we were joined by…
Please don’t ask. I don’t know….!
We then went outside (the rain held off) and could see the rebuilt south wall of the old chapel. The huge opening, running nearly the whole length of that part, will be glass. The wall has been made up of flint so that it matches the existing walls on that side.
Adrian told us that the contractors had called in a world-renowned flint knapper, John Lord, to finish the corners in this unusual way (below). Beautifully done.
Then we went upstairs. The lift shaft (no lift yet) and a secondary staircase (fire escape) have gone in, but we went up the lovely old stairs with those famous newel posts. The ceilings in both the King’s Room and the old Wedgewood Gallery have been repaired and cleaned, and look glorious. The King’s Room (below left) will tell the history of Salisbury and the area through its ceramic heritage while the old Wedgewood Gallery will house some of the Museum’s Natural History collection.
The major surprise was the delightful space left by the clearing out of the old Costume Gallery (above). This will become the new multi-purpose learning area and will seat one hundred.
Thank you Adrian for a journey not to be missed and one which we can’t enjoy for much longer as the work goes on at pace.