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Challymead
Challymead maps
Historic maps of Challymead and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Challymead maps
Challymead photos
We have no photos of Challymead, although we do have photos of these nearby places:
Melksham| Great Chalfield| Gastard| Seend| Lacock| South Wraxall| Steeple Ashton| Corsham| Trowbridge| Rood Ashton| Bradford-On-Avon| Bromham| Rowde| Box| Kingsdown| Ditteridge| Derry Hill| Winsley| Avoncliff| Chippenham| Biddestone| Iford| Iford| Colerne| Farleigh Hungerford| Erlestoke| Bremhill| Rode
Challymead area books
Displaying 1 of 12 books about Challymead and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Challymead
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Wiltshire memories
Born in Whitley
I was born in 1946, at 210 Corsham Road, Whitley. I started school aged five, at Shaw School an old victorian school of which I have fond memories. My teacher, was a lovely lady called Mrs Hill, her husband taught the older children and was headmaster, they lived at the School House, down School Lane. There were fields at the back of the school and along one side, with Shaw Church on the other side, where every week we were marched to a church service. I and my brother were christened at Christ Church, where our parents were married. My mother, and grandparents moved to 84 Corsham Road when my mum was six weeks old. She was born in Melksham, where I later went to school at Shurnhold S.M. School until I left in 1961. School holidays of which, I have so many happy memories, with my best friend Vivian. We got up to all sorts of things, back then it was safe to roam the fields, of which... Read more
Childhood Years
My name is Annette Deighton, and I was a child of five living in Atworth with my parents John and Betty Hopkins in 1965. I have fond memories of the primary school in the village which I attended with my brother Philip and my sister Lorraine. Mr Lowes was the headmaster at the time and was such a lovely man. I remember a teacher called Mrs Talford, and the nature walks we had in nearby fields close to the school. I have very happy memories of the village and people we knew there.
Cottles Lodge, Atworth
One of my fondest memories is of Great auntie Nell, she lived all alone in a very lonely place called Cottles Lodge which in times long ago was the lodge to Cottles House, which is now Stoner School for girls.(Private). Cottles Lodge was a great place to explore, with an orchard, endless fields all round and a high wall. Electric was late in reaching Cottles Lodge so oil lamps were the norm for many years and water pulled from the well. Auntie Nell was a very hard worker she had dozens of chickens and sold some of the eggs to passing trade . She was very deaf and her hearing aid would give off a loud whistle which was great amusement to us kids. But she was a generous person who loved her nephews and nieces very much. Vivian a childhood friend and I would often walk to South Wraxall from Whitley starting off very early. The road to Wraxall went past auntie Nell's home, so we would... Read more
The Harp And Crown
The pub in the picture is the original H&C which was burnt down only a few years after this picture was taken. The pub was then rebuilt further back from the road. There are still elderly people in the village who remember their parents and even their grandparents going to the local for their usual.
One old lady's husband used to go to the pub a lot. Mrs Liddle lived at the top of Velley Hill until the 1960s I think, when a lorry drove through her living room and she was relocated to The (then relatively new) Close at the bottom of the hill before the pub. Sadly, she's now passed away after years of giving sweets to the village kids.
My younger brother was the first baby born in the village for many years, causing quite a stir and ending in many visits from the elderly village residents who knew the couple who lived in the house before us, and who are now buried in the village.
Childhood Home
I lived at Gastard House from 1953-1967. By that time it had been converted into flats, and we had the ground floor. There were other children there as well, and we had acres of space to play, in spite of part of the gardens being used as allotments. Every year we all had a big bonfire party on 5 November. I was told that it had been used by the military during World War 2. I believe it is very run-down now, but I have very happy memories of it.
No 1 And No 9 Lanes End, Gastard
I was born in Corsham in September 1949, and lived at Number 1 Lanes End, Gastard with my parents, sister and brother until my marriage in 1973. The cottage in the picture shows Number 3 Lanes End and around the corner is Number 9 Lanes End, where my grandparents lived throughout their married life. Aunts, uncles and cousins all resided within the village, so there was never a shortage of family life. My memories of the village as it was, when I was growing up, are very vivid, as both my grandfather and my father owned smallholdings in the village and much fun was had with friends collecting wild flowers in spring, haymaking in summer and harvest festival in the autumn. As much as I would have loved to have brought my children up in village life, property prices escalated to beyond the pockets of village children (first time buyers). However, I still visit the sleepy old village regularly and will never forget my roots. Nicola Wilkins
HIBBARD of Hilperton
My wife Lynne and I visited the Anglican Church to search the headstones for my ancestors.
On the day we visited, there was a Christening that had just been completed and the Vicar was chatting to the christening party.
Lynne got to chatting with the Vicar's lady assistant, while I went to the front of the Church where there were several headstones.
What a surprise ! I located my G-Grandfather's twin sister's headstone Dorcas HALL (nee HIBBARD) 27 July 1908, along with Thomas 5 March 1886 and a child Walter John 26 November 1877.
Hilperton is the town where my G-G-Grandfather Charles HIBBARD resided during the 1851, 1861, 1871 and 1881 Census, with 2 daughters' Sarah Ann and Louisa Mary.
In the 1891 Census Charles is in the Hilperton Rectory and listed as a pauper, which I find very unusual !.
G-G-Grandfather Charles is buried in the nearby town of Trowbridge.
G-Grandfather William's home in Aickmans Road, Christchurch, New Zealand was... Read more
