Lacock memories
Here are memories of Lacock and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of Lacock or a Lacock photo.
The Corner House
My father's cousin, Kitty Mortimer (nee Barratt) lived here with her husband Leslie, and their two daughters Andrea and Lynn - mostly throughout the '60s and '70s. I believe they rented the house from the National Trust, as I remember they had to open it to the public at least once a year. (It was a fascinating house inside, although the biggest problem was flooding in times of heavy rainfall - the house used to flood as much as waist height sometimes, and I think the insurance companies used to groan when the Mortimers phoned up yet again for new furniture, carpets, etc.!)
Dummers Lived at Bowden Hill, Lacock For 400 Years
I recently visited Lacock and Bowden Hill searching for information about our Dummer family. We searched in the churchyards of St Annes at Bowden Hill and at St Cyriacs in Lacock but most of the inscriptions were illegible.
We only found one Dummer that we could read. It was at St Annes and was for my great aunt & uncle James and Sarah Dummer died 1934 & 1931 respectivly.
Does anyone know of any transcriptions before lichen and time disfigured the memorials?
Memories of Wiltshire
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
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
Derry Hill, Wiltshire
I did not live in Derry Hill, but rented a cottage there, Primrose Cottage, in 1990. I was introduced to Wiltshire in the 1980s by my husband's mother who had been based near Pewsey in the Land Army during the Second World War. When I first visited Wiltshire it was to visit Avebury and later to stay at Chisenbury with people that my mother-in-law had known in the 1940s. I fell in love with the county as soon as I crossed the border, loved the landscape, the feel of the place, as if it was a homecoming of a kind. So, in 1990 we rented Primrose Cottage. The youngest of my two sons was four and the other 14. I remember loving the quiet, loving the old houses and the little school, lying in bed in the early morning (it was August) and watching the trees at the end of the garden blowing about in the wind as it was getting light. I thought that I could live here and... Read more
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