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Ashmore
Ashmore maps
Historic maps of Ashmore and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Ashmore maps
Ashmore area books
Displaying 1 of 16 books about Ashmore and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Ashmore
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Wiltshire memories
The Mount
My great aunt Emilly Still lived in the bungalow in the background and we as children spent many happy summer holidays in Fontmell Magna. She and Tom (who I never knew) are buried in the church graveyard.
I remember travelling from our home in Kent to Fontmell in the winter of 1963 during the worst snow storms in living memory to help my mother's aunt.
If anyone reads this I would love to find out more about Tom and Emily. I have visited Fontmell in recent years to put flowers on the grave.
A Boarding School Second to None
What a dump Iwerne Minster was to a school boy of the 60's sent from London to that boarding school in the middle of nowhere. The locals spoke in a strange unintelligible dialect, the air was sometime thick with the stink of manure, and you had to be 14 to buy beer from the off-licence at Tarrant Hinton! Now, 50+ years on, it doesn't seem such a bad place at all. In fact, its quite nice down there. The beer is not so bad after all.
Hovis Hill
This is the hill that appeared in the Hovis television adverts - supposedly in a northern town, but in reality in deepest Dorset! At the top it is about 700 feet above sea level. It is now the scene of the once a year Gold Hill Festival in July.
Shaftesbury's Bad Reputation!
Shaftesbury's position high on a hilltop with only a meagre water supply meant that water had to be brought up to the town from wells at the bottom of the steep slopes, usually by horses and donkeys carrying barrels. Water sellers then went round the town's houses selling water by the bucketful. However, Shaftesbury's position at the crossroads of several main coaching routes meant that it was abundantly supplied with inns and beer houses. This scarcity of water and preponderance of inns, together with the fact that the churchyard for the now vanished St John’s Church (on St John’s Hill) was set on a steep slope high above the church itself, prompted Thomas Hardy's famous description of the town in his novel 'Jude the Obscure' as a town 'remarkable for three consolations to man ... It was a place where the churchyard lay nearer heaven than the church steeple, where beer was more plentiful than water, and where there were more wanton women than honest wives and maids'.
My Childhood Memories
My memories of Silton are that I was a young boy of 4 years old when I moved there with my parents, my dad was a dairy man, making cheese and my mum twice a week would make butter with another lady. I loved living in Silton. I loved the school's summer holidays because most of my time when not helping my mum was spent on the farm where my dad worked or going to the other farms in the area. Silton was and could be very close when it came to helping those in need, such as when the weather was so bad that roads were not accessible because of the snow in the 1960 approx. I used to go to Zeals with my dad every six weeks to have my hair cut, not in a barber shop but in a big works building which was right next door to the pub. I liked to go exploring across the fields in the area where I lived. I saw and... Read more
I Was Born in Shaston (Thomas Hardy) in 1951
Moved around a bit. Can't remember. But I remember going to school at Buckhorn Weston primary school near Gillingham at the age of 5 and I was May Queen. There were photos. Does anyone out there remember what happened to Buckhorn Weston primary school? Because I was on the internet a couple years ago and it was still up and running. I know it's a very small village so where did the school go? And where can I find info about the school? It's just a part of my past.
Coombes of Church Farm
I believe my Great Grandparents Annie and Maurice (Frank) Coombes lived and farmed at Church Farm during the 1920s. My father Thomas (Aubrey) Coombes used to spend most of his school holidays there as a boy. This was a very happy time in his life. Long summers helping his grandfather and being spoilt by grandmother Annie.
When they gave up the farm, they moved a few doors down into The White House. Both are buried in the churchyard along with one of their sons who died as an infant.
Annie lived all her life in Sixpenny Handley where she was born, leaving only once to visit Salisbury for a day out!!
I am researching my family history, I understand that the Adams family in Handley are cousins of the Coombes. Any information would be appreciated.
Does anyone remember the 'cheese making' competitions held in Handley in the 1930's and 40's. My mother tells me a relative won the title for best cheese maker 3 years... Read more
