I first learnt about ‘Walking Pictures’ a few months ago (see older blog). Thus when I was looking through the museum’s image archive of people, I recognised another walking pictures image.
This time the reverse has some detail on it: “Tom Rattue outside W H Smith taken 1920 or 1930”. Note that W H Smiths was on the corner of High Street and New Canal then, where Waterstones. now is. The reverse also gives “COLEMAN’S Photograph’s Service, Boscombe Beach, 10 Royal Arcade, Boscombe”. Great information for the image detective to get stuck into.
However I noticed the “Wear a Flanders Poppy” poster, and did a search for this with great success! It was issued in 1925 and is out of copyright. I thus downloaded the image and added it to image collection with the suffix ‘c’. The front of the image has suffix ‘a’ and the reverse ‘b’.
If anyone wants to research Tom Rattue or Coleman’s, I will add their finds to the image archive. Also, if anyone can make out the Children’s book on display outside W H Smiths or any other details, I shall be very interested.
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.
Salisbury Museum still has quite a collection of former Director, Frank Stevens’ personal “clutter”.
Back in 2011 someone at the museum (a volunteer?) went through many of these items, placed them in plastic wallets and gave them MODES references.
We have just got round to scanning the images (photographs).
In one scan, I recognised the metal lattice work, This was the original bridge over the river Avon built near the Clock Tower in Fisherton Street. And, yes, there is the clock tower in the background on the far left of the image. The building in the centre background is also still there. I knew it as the Bull Hotel, 11 Fisherton Street, Salisbury.
Now for the image date. Frank Stevens had the image in his possession, so it dates from before his demise in1949. The car is around 1920s. The ladies dress styles* are around 1920s Who is the lady – a relative of Mr Stevens? Are the three ladies and two children behind also related? On the back of the photograph are the words “LUMENART FILMS” ; a change from Kodak!
This is where this small insignificant card photograph suddenly became of far greater importance. I put these two words into Google search and came up with:
Click here, or on the links above and find out more about the story of walking pictures by Simon Robinson. I had not known of “walking pictures” where a series of three photographs were taken in quick succession. So Frank or a friend of his, probably purchased this image with two other images from a professional travelling photographer. We may learn more.
* cloche hats, bar strap shoes, knee length skirts, double breasted coats, round rim glasses, bobbed hair, loose fitting , dropped waist etc.
Thank you, as always, Alan, for a gem from the archives. And I think we have all learned something new!
Something a little different! And not quite what it seems?Alan writes…
How well do you know Amesbury? The Friar Tuck Cafe with its internal mirrors has been a feature of Salisbury Street in Amesbury for many decades.
Here is an image of a group of cyclists visiting The Friar Tuck Cafe.
Do you know where James Street is? Here is an image of a row of businesses in James Street.
The Job Centre, D Conner Family Butchers, Imber Enterprises Ltd., Prices Removals Ltd., and the Council Offices.
These photographs will probably become more intriguing as the years roll by.
The businesses above have all closed here now and removed their name boards.
The Salisbury Museum image archive, and perhaps a few people’s memories, are all that is left to remind museum visitors as to what could once be found nearby on the Plain!
From Andrews’ and Dury’s Map of Wiltshire, 1810 at Wiltshire & Swindon History Centre, Chippenham
Good maps are a joy. This one of Salisbury and its immediate environs, from 1810, is full of interesting detail.
Today, just over two hundred years on, housing and other development links Bemerton (extreme left), West Harnham (and soon Netherhampton too), East Harnham, and Bishopdown to the city itself. But not yet Britford.
For a closer look…
To the east, but north and just outside the city as it then was, is a feature marked with a red dot – ‘Mismass (or Mizmaze) Hill. A mizmaze was, of course, a maze, and this may well have been an early name for Bishopdown or Castle Hill . Can any one tell us more?
Notice the blue dots to the east of the city. Close by you can see the map maker’s small drawings which are a representation of the frames on the tenterfields where locally woven cloth was stretched and dried as part of the finishing process. This was a late remains of the glory days of the weaving industry in Salisbury, an industry which just about lingered on into the early 19th century. Today some of these areas are possibly the same open spaces which remain – Bourne Hill Gardens, open land around Godolphin School and land also close to St Martins.
The Wheelhouse, by the way, was a pub. It is not clear why that gets a mention and no others are marked at all!
The green dot, again to the east but this time in the south of our map, shows ‘Muttons Bridge’. Somehow this seems the sort of name one would find on an early map, and there would be doubt about finding it on a modern map, but sure enough, Google maps has Mutton Bridge in front of B and Q DIY store on the Southampton Road. Today it is still the name for the section of that busy road which crosses the Bourne river where it runs south into the Avon, behind B and Q.
A brown dot is by the New Canal, clearly marked. It is all that remains of grand scheme to have a canal linking Salisbury with the south and east.
Harnham Bridge, marked with an orange dot, is, of course, the old bridge into the city, linking Ayleswade Road to St Nicholas Road. The route into the city in 1810 from Coombe Bissett, the Chalke Valley and Blandford Forum came down to the bridge along what is today the Old Blandford Road, with a dog-leg into Harnham Road.
Harnham Mill we know, of course, and marked with a black dot is the Town Path looking like quite a major route in 1810. At the northern end is a road right which would take you along Cranebridge Road and Crane Street to High Street but the turning left is Water Lane joining Fisherton Street which, in turn, heads off towards the junction which is now St Paul’s Roundabout. Next time you negotiate traffic at the roundabout remember it was the site of the Turnpike Gate, and the Gallows! The church shown at West Harnham is St George’s, while the mill on Mill Lane where it meets the River Nadder is Old Fisherton Mill (mill itself now gone, house partly rebuilt). The nearby church (black dot) which is marked on the 1810 map but which no longer stands, is St Clements, demolished in 1852 when St Paul’s was built. Today its graveyard is a small park.
Marked by a purple dot is the Church of St Andrew, Bemerton, sometimes referred to now as George Herbert’s Church. On a modern map, Church Lane marks the the presence of St Andrew’s, while nearby Brick Lane is a reminder of the Brick kiln marked on the 1810 map in the vicinity of today’s Ashfield Road, the name of that road probably no coincidence. The paper mill (purple dot) has gone but is mentioned here.
The Roman Road (yellow dot) is of course, in a sense, still there. It can be traced from London to Dorchester, and gives its name amongst modern buildings in Bemerton, before setting out to the south.
Two of the landmarks on the 1810 map remain, to this writer at least, a mystery. The Mizmaze mentioned at the beginning, and the Pleasure House on the Nadder outside Bemerton. Can you help?
Some street images are hard to identify. Take the archive image here for example. Do you recognise this building? Of course the big ‘give-away’ here is the street name plate on the side of the building – “Blue Boar Row”. The far left of the image shows that it is on the corner where Castle Street is. But today the building looks somewhat different.
One can try to read the words on the building front and try to discover the history of this company. It appears to be number 33.
Below is my photograph from 2006. The building has grown in height, an extra floor added. The hung wall tiles have become plain. The windows are different in size. The street name plate is gone. The lamp post with its two protecting stones and the Victorian post box have gone too. The protecting stones have been replaced by metal railings. The rain down-pipe on the right looks remarkably similar.
I conclude that it is basically the same building but very extensively altered. Without the street name plate it would have been very difficult to locate the building in the earlier photograph. Note that numbers 1 to 32 Blue Boar Row apparently no longer exist. Postcode finder says only numbers 33 to 51 exist.
If anyone wants to further study Blue Boar Row, Salisbury museum has a collection of images in the image archive available for study. They show that the extra floor was added in Victorian times. The image below from 1870 shows 33 without the extra floor.
Whereas the image below from 1897 shows 33 on the extreme left, with the extra floor but the lamp post, two protecting stones and Victorian postbox are still there.
Wonderful photographs, subjected to forensic study by Alan Clarke, who, with his team, looks after the museum’s fabulous archive.
Our guess is that the first photograph is 1887, the flags and bunting there suggesting Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee, while the 1897 photo was taken at the time of the Diamond Jubilee. So No 33 was extended between those two dates.
During that same period, the Lloyds Bank building was also apparently extended – to the east, from five to eight bays. So many stories in these photos!
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
“You make an excellent point Alan. Unless you are familiar with the location of the scene it is difficult to put a time to when the image was made – other than it is in black & white. The inclusion of people makes it much easier to place the image on a timeline, perhaps only accurate to a period but nevertheless with more accuracy.”
I have been asked a number of times what do I think makes a good image.
The Salisbury Museum Volunteers have scanned around a million images over the last 10 years. We started by scanning the museum’s 30,000 prints and then went on to the 10,000 glass plate negatives and glass lantern slides. We followed this by dealing with the hundreds of thousands of Salisbury Journal black and white negatives.
On the way, other items appeared, such as school play programmes, miscellaneous photographs, Salisbury industries’ adverts, people’s personal family collections including slides, and much more.
My answer as to what I think (it is very personal) makes a good image is an old photograph which has been taken with a fixed camera (no hand shake), at high resolution of a country scene or even a street scene. But by far the most important item to be included in the scene is people: adults, children or both.
Here are two images of Fisherton De la Mere taken over one hundred years ago. They were scanned from glass plates preserved in a metal box found under the museum floor. One image contains people, the other image doesn’t. Which do you find the more interesting?
Beautiful photographs, and, as is often the case with Alan’s choices, provoking some questions, beyond the obvious. Thank you Alan.
This year I was able to attend three of the events organised for Volunteers Week – the coffee afternoon at Salisbury Museum involving a walk through the current ‘Salisbury on Camera’ exhibition, the visit to Wiltshire Museum, Devizes, and the Salisbury Cathedral Tower Tour.
The talk ‘Salisbury on Camera, 50 Years of the Salisbury Journal Archive’ was given by Ken Smith, whose parents, incidentally, used to run The Little Junk Shop on Salt Lane. As a teenager I used to spend a lot of time in this shop buying books, and Brooke Bond tea cards especially. I recall that, on the birth of my first child, Ken’s Dad, Jim, presented me with a silver 3d coin, which I still have in her ‘Baby Book’.
During his talk Ken highlighted just a few of the 244 images in the exhibition, explained their background and why they were selected. They were also put into the context of what was happening throughout the country at the time.
Among the photographs I recall being highlighted was Salisbury’s first supermarket, Price Rite’s on Bridge Street (where Wagamama now is); an anti-vivisection demonstration aimed at Porton Down and the legendary Charlie Knight (of ‘Charlie’s Bikes’ fame). Regarding Price Rite, Ken Smith said that shop assistants had to explain to customers how to use self-service as, hitherto, they had been used to being served. Charlie Knight used to appear at local fetes with a range of idiosyncratic bicycles. I recall one where the rider had to pedal backwards in order to go forwards and turn the handlebars to the left in order to turn right.
The talk was followed by a very convivial tea, coffee and other refreshments on the back lawn.
The morning of Friday 2nd June saw four of us catching the 10.52 No.2 bus from New Canal to visit Wiltshire Museum in Devizes. As the journey time is 70 minutes, on arrival we ate our packed lunches on The Green (somewhat chilly!) before making our way to the Museum. Here we were met by Nicola Trowell, the ‘Partnership and Digital Lead’ and also, formerly, of Salisbury Museum, who, over coffee and biscuits, described to us the history of the Museum and something of its future, and reminded us that the Museum contains the largest collection of Early Bronze Age gold ever put on public display in England.
In terms of history, Nicola explained that The Wiltshire Museum was established in Devizes in 1874 and is accommodated in Georgian and Victorian buildings, with a number of floor levels and staircases.
In terms of the future, Nicola informed us that The Museum had been awarded Development Funding of £300,748 by The National Lottery Heritage Fund to facilitate relocation to the former Devizes Assize Court. They plan to apply for a full National Lottery grant in 2025 which, if successful, will enable work to start in 3 or 4 years time, with a target opening date of 2030.
Among the very many exhibits, one that particularly attracted my attention on this occasion was the Britton Cabinet (Fig 3).
Fig 3 The Britton cabinet
Made of mahogany and pine, with elm and maple veneer, this piece was made as a talking piece for a gentleman’s drawing room, and was once owned by the travel writer John Britton. At the top is a model of Stonehenge as it was when the cabinet was made in 1824. The sides of the glass are coloured red and orange so that, as demonstrated by Nicola, shining a torch (candle) light through would show how Stonehenge looks at dawn or dusk. The aerial views on the front are from before the days of aerial photography.
In one of the drawers is a model of Stonehenge as it may have been if it was complete. In a second drawer is a model of the Avebury landscape, based on a plan by the antiquarian William Stukeley. The drawer fronts are set with watercolours of prehistoric monuments in Wiltshire, Wales and the West of England by John Britton and leading artists of the day. The remaining drawers and cupboards held books, maps, plans and drawings.
The cabinet and many of John Britton’s books and papers formed the founding collection of the Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society which, today runs the Wiltshire Museum.
Tuesday 6th June saw another group of us meeting at the Cathedral West Front for a Tower Tour. Although I had been looking forward to, once again, having the opportunity to peer out across Salisbury from the little door at the base of the spire, as there were only four of us, we accepted the Guides invitation to go ‘off piste’ to areas that the general public doesn’t usually get to see. This included being led to see the construction work happening at the east end. Things I learned included:
The medieval clock does actually ring a bell situated in the rafters on the floor above.
Salisbury Cathedral is the only Cathedral in Britain where one has an uninterrupted view down the entire length of the nave and chancel (Fig 4)
Beams organised like one set of football posts set atop another are called ‘Queen Posts’ (Fig 5).
The visit gave me another opportunity to view the graffiti previously pointed out to me on a specialist ‘Graffiti Tour’ and a glass window engraved by Rex Whistler.
Fig 4 The only cathedral in Britain with uninterrupted view down chancel and nave
Fig 5 Queen posts in the roof of Salisbury Cathedral
This was a very informative and worthwhile visit and which reinforced some things which I already knew.
Many thanks to Alan for this, which will have some readers wondering what they missed! Great photographs too. Thanks to Kate, and all others involved, for organising another enjoyable, interesting, week’s activities.