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Wingfield

Wingfield maps

Historic maps of Wingfield and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis.   View all Wingfield maps

Wingfield area books

Displaying 1 of 12 books about Wingfield and the local area.   View all books for this area

Memories of Wingfield

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Wiltshire memories

Summer Days

The Swimming Pool c1955
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My Sister Carolynn and I practically lived at the pool in summer even before it was heated and was often a bit chilly. Walking through the park & over the waste ground with our costume rolled in a towel under our arm. Entering the gate and hearing the fountain splashing, children screaming with laughter and the smell of chlorine in our noses, it was magic.
A quick change & walk through the disinfectant pool and we were there with everyone else having fun. When after many happy hours of swimming and jumping in it was time to leave we would put our costume throught the mangle and head home exausted but happy and keen for the next day so we could do it all again.
The Pool has long gone and I am no longer living near Trowbridge myself but the noises, sights and smells remain with me to this day and I am sure I am not the only one who misses those halcyon days of the... Read more

Faraway Castles

Rood Ashton House 1900
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As a child playing on the allotments behind the Fire station in Trowbridge I used to see the white buildings gleaming in the sun of the Manor on the far hills. It was always so beautiful sitting majestically in the distance I longed to see it up close. My father once took us around the estate and lake when access was allowed and I was intrigued by the romance and wildness of the house and garden. Years later after time and destruction had taken their toll I did see it again but sadly it had lost much of the original beauty as well as size. I still think about it today even though I am far away. Whenever I am in England I always go back  to West Ashton to have a look at Rood Ashton Manor. Still beautiful in its own way.

Wigfield Rd

Wingfield Road 1907
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This is a picture of the Roman Catholic Church in Wingfield Rd, facing towards the town. The road on the left is Westbourne Gardens. I used to live opposite this in Westbourne Road for five years in the early 1970s.

Trowbridge High School For Girls

Wingfield Road 1907
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My first day at Trowbridge High School was early September 1949. Our class was form 3 - Miss Metheringham was Form Teacher, Miss Dawes was Headmistress. I travelled by train each day with other pupils from Warminster, where I lived at the time. We had assembly every morning in the Hall. The School Song began with 'Near the Rolling Wiltshire Downs and the Old White Horse'. We had sewing lessons in a wooden hut. Miss Hazel and Miss Quine taught domestic science. My maiden name was Heard. I remember Susan Wickham, Cherry Hobbs,Margaret Newbury, Joan Marks, Paddy Haller and many others.

My Mother's Wartime Memories

Or it could be late 1930s. My mother Ivy Eaglestone, at the age of about 11, was evacuated from London with her brother Leslie to stay at The Black Horse with Mr and Mrs Hughes, Elizabeth and Joe. They had 4 children: Josephine, married to Eddie who sadly died, Bettie a sargeant in the ATS, Lloyd who taught my mother to tell the time, and Donald who she never met. My mother remembers her two and half years there very fondly. Her brother, however, could not settle and was sent back to London. My mother adored every second of her time in Trowbridge. She played with two young brothers, nephews of Mr and Mrs Hughes, Teddie and Leonnard Foster. She also remembers a Tom Keel who was the lodger at the Pub. Being in Trowbridge gave my mother her first experience of cows, which she had only seen in books. There were some in the field behind the pub and they would call them over and stroke them. Although she... Read more

Canter Across The Canal

The Aqueduct c1950
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It must have been around the late 1960s, early 1970s when my sister and I used to ride our ponies down to Avoncliff. We lived a short distance away in Upper Westwood and our mother liked us to ride along the tow path as it kept us away from the roads and any traffic that may spook our ponies.  Avoncliff was a favourite place - at that time the aqueduct was dry and instead of going down and under the bridge we used to take our nimble ponies down the bank, canter across the bottom and leap up the other side!  I'm sure our ponies used to enjoy it as much as we did as they used to start prancing around in anticipation as we came round the last corner and approached the canal.  
The tow path was very overgrown and a haven for wild life. We pretty much had it to ourselves and once across used to canter all the way to Bradford on Avon, only slowing down... Read more

The Old Ride

Frankleigh c1900
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I first saw Frankleigh House through the trees in the distance as I was driven there for my first day at The Old Ride Preparatory School for Boys. The school and its predecessor had been based there for many years. As a seven year old it was an inspiring sight. What seemed to be a huge building in acres of lawns and green fields. Tennis courts, a swimming pool and cricket pavilion just part of the grounds. Inside, a stunning hall with wood panelling, flagstone floor and the smell of furniture polish. The dining hall with a stage at one end swagged with red velvet curtains. A library with an elaborate plaster ceiling. Large dormitories smelling of disinfectant. And the classrooms with underfloor heating (supposedly). Boiled cabbage, tyrannical rules and even as a non-boarder, seven days a week with prep not finishing until 7pm. Happy days.

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