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Great Wishford memories

Here are memories of Great Wishford and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of Great Wishford or a Great Wishford photo.

Chipperfield's Circus

The Village c1955
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In fact these are not Lotmore Cottages, which were along the road that leads to the River Wylye, immediately left in the photograph past the front of the Royal Oak pub on the left, about 50 metres down on the right.  I know this because I lived in Lotmore as a small boy, in the first of two semi detached cottages.  There was a hilly field opposite that led up towards Grovely Wood.  Chipperfield's Circus used to rest in this field when not on the road.  Sometimes there were elephants there.  Old Mr Chipperfield made me a wooden dog on wheels which we called Chipperdog.  Lotmore was demolished many years ago and some late 50's council houses now stand on the site.

Memories of Wiltshire

Granny''s Home

I have never visited Druid's lodge, but have been brought up with stories of it.
 It was for some years the home of my Grandmother.  She was the daughter of Thomas lewis the Irish Race horse trainer.
  Thomas was installed in Druids Lodge about 1907 by Lord Cunliffe who owned the 1913 Derby winner Aboyeur.  Thomas was his trainer.  
Granny went to school at the Gadolphin school for girls in Salisbury.  She was about 16 at this time.
Stephen Donaghue was one of the young jockeys there at the time.  According to my granny, she taught him to write his name so as to be able to sign cheques !
 If anyone reading this small article has anymore information on Thomas Lewis, I should be grateful.  Although he died in 1938, I do not know what or where he went after the start of the 1st world war.

Great Gran

My great-grandparents lived at Barford, they lived at the Dairy, Dairy Road. I visited there not long ago to find their graves, Harry and Harriet Fry, which I did. I also visited a lady called Wyn Fry a few years ago, she was married to my gran's brother. But then I never heard from her. I tried to find out what happened, can anybody help me?

My Grandfather

This is approximately the year when researching my family history that I became aware that there is a plaque in the church for my grandfather, George Reginald Mundy of the Wiltshire Regiment, who was killed in action on 23/7/1916 aged 40.  He left a widow and 5 children, the youngest being only 3 months old.
My grandmother died  in 1932, only 4 years before I was born, and yet I cannot remember any of my grandparents being talked about.
Kath Jones, nee Mundy


SORRY, BUT WE USED TO CALL IT GIBBS AND SPEW

Three Swans And Brewery 1992
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Yes, I worked there when I was 15 with two other boys. I remember Tony Fletcher and Alan Blackman (are you still out there?). It was a dark warm place when on full tilt, it looked like London in the fog. I remember the characters like old Seth, he could drink beer straight from the fermentation tank whilst it was still hot, yes, it was free, we used to have a ration of two pints a day hence I was legless after my first, then I used to save it till the weekend to sell to the oldies who could drink as much as they could get. Seth was a bomb, he loved the gee gees but it would take him 26 minutes to go to the bookies and back so he devised a way of getting out. I didn't know where he did work in the brewery, only that every now and then he would come to where I was on the barrel wash, it was a monster to... Read more

The Town Path

The Cathedral From The River 1887
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Have seen this view many times in my younger days back in the late 1920s and early 30s, just after crossing the footbridge over the river, when on my way to see my dear old gran at Harnham. I can still remember the smell of the old mill.

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