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Longleat
Longleat maps
Historic maps of Longleat and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Longleat maps
Longleat area books
Displaying 1 of 12 books about Longleat and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Longleat
Displaying a selection of personal
memories of Longleat.
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or of a photo of Longleat.
Gamekeeper at Longleat.
Hi Geoff, yes I was on the Longleat Estate in the 1960s, only for three years, I was gamekeeper, on the Corsley side of the Estate. Mr Minter owned the shooting rights over the Estate, with Mr Bill Buckett retained by Lord Bath to manage the deer herd in the park, and the lakes around Longleat House,. I started work at Longleat a few months before the lions arrived. After working for Mr Minter for one year, he decided to let off the Corsley side of the Estate, together with Lower Woods and Rodenbury, to a shooting syndicate, called The Corsley Syndicate. I was taken on as their gamekeeper, our young family lived in Sturford Lane, but after two years of hard work, I realized the large wooded areas of Longleat were more than I could sensibly manage, so I then took a gamekeeper's job on a smaller estate at Codford in the Wylye valley. But I have many happy memories of Longleat.
Sixties Longleat
Many fond memories of Longleat over the last 46 years: the freedom we all enjoyed as villagers to roam across the estate - the sixth Marquess was always very generous in this respect. The remains of the American hospital were still much in evidence then; dad would drive the car to one of the old stone ramps so that he could work underneath it! We'd walk across the park from Corsley before the reserve was built, and when it was finished and the lions introduced, we all worried that one might escape, but to our knowledge, they never did! Mum worked part time for the catering company J.G. Boyes who originally set up a cafe marquee near the house; this later moved to the new cafe/restaurant building that stands today. Dad also got a p/t job driving a Boyes ice cream van based in the park. Other memories include the pop concerts mounted on the front steps of the house including the Rolling Stones I seem to remember, but sadly... Read more
Wiltshire memories
Race You to The Water
I am ordering a copy of this picture to send to my dear childhood friend, Peta Fenner. Peta celebrates her 50th birthday soon and it is quite possible that both her and I are in the photo. We would spend many days of our summer holidays playing in the paddling pool. The big pool was always cold and swamped with older children and we would have to build up courage to venture there. Our childhood was filled with laughter. We would giggle at anything and everything. From peering through the holes in the wood partitions separating the cubicles at the end of the pool. To laughing at how courting teenagers behaved. I remember us nearly wetting ourselves laughing at dog ends and kinky boots. We once dared each other to wear our swimming hats through the town on our homeward journey from the park. Not a good idea as we both had long hair and removing the rubber hats later was very... Read more
Crickets & Formaldehyde
My mother lived in Warminster as a child and had lots of friends in the area. One worked at Longleat and she lived in what was called 'The Inkwell House' in the grounds. We went for tea. There were lots of very strange things pickled in jars & they weren't onions! The long grass outside was full of crickets. What happened to crickets in England and what happened to my mother's friend and the ink well house?
The Old Bell Hotel
Well not my memories exactly, but those from my father's diaries. He was John Welch and married a Peggie Richens who had grown up in Warminster. They married in the Minster Church and he left immediately for the war. When he came back he was stationed in Westbury for a while and wanted to make the area his home. He spoke of having tea and going to dances at the Old Bell. The entries stopped and in his next diary he was back in Essex, but we stayed at the Old Bell in the early 50's and although small I can remember coming out of the door and walking through the colums, which seemed huge then. We visited the Jeffries, Audrey Jeffries still lives there and an Aunty Biddy came to see us and we visited The Frazers who ran a small school in the area. She had married and remarried but we still called them by that name. They had a small girl called Nicola but I don't know... Read more
Great Meal & Lovely Landlord
The Tea Rooms are charming and re thatching has taken place (every 10 years), the food served by the charming lady was superb and affordable. I glanced into the lovers nook and it is very cosy, afterwards a pleasant walk around Shearwater which is but a few yards out of the front door. Food for the soul and eye !!
Warminster Community Website ( www.warminster-forum.co.uk )
The Town Park
As a child in the late 1950's and early 1960's, I and a whole bunch of mates used to go to the Regal cinema on Saturday mornings. We went through the town park as the most direct route and would often stop off on the way back to fish for minnows and sticklebacks in the lake.
During the winter of the big freeze (1963 I think) the lake froze over and the sight of all that frozen water acted like a magnet. Before long we were out in the middle, completely ignoring the ominous creaking noises all around us. When the creaking started to sound more like cracking we finally started to take notice. It's strange how ice only seems to become slippery when you are frantically trying to get off it. Fortunately we all made it to the other side unscathed and dry.
