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SWIAS Items of News

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SEARCH No 93. Members received their copy of the Society’s Spring bulletin in March 2011. Included are details of a guided tour of the Swindon and Cricklade Preserved Railway. This is planned for Saturday 2nd July 2011 and organised by Margaret Fay for members and can include family friends. Cost is £20 which will include a 3 mile ride on the train, visits to various workshops to see the restoration work in progress on several engines, talks by experts and lunch – in a railway carriage of course!
Founder member, Don Cross, has an article on the old Avery Weighbridge in New Canal, Salisbury. The metal surface plate can still be seen on the road surface opposite shops nos 18 and 20 on the East side of the road. Don has investigated the historical background of ‘weighing’ machinery and the various firms associated with its production, particularly the Avery works.
In an update to the Society’s Monograph on Maltings in Salisbury, first published 25 years ago, Douglas Jackson traces the background to the Williams family interest in the business from evidence found in a book by Fiona Crowther on the origins and history of Salisbury United Reformed Church.
John Watts has been busy again: he is currently working on a Monograph about the disposal of Salisbury’s waste – perhaps not the nicest subject but a very essential one with a complicated background which is due to get more urgent. John has also been looking into the subject of mills on the river flowing through Salisbury and what they were used for and whether they still exist.

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SWIAS Monograph No 20:
Greyhound Racing in Salisbury by Kathy Garland.
This monograph has now been produced and distributed to members.
How many people now know or remember the short period in the early 1930s when there were actually two greyhound racing tracts located around the city? One was at a site on the west side of Castle Street adjoining the Sheep Fair Field and the other at West Harnham. Kathy Garland’s researches have revealed much of this sport here, including newspaper reports of the activities, names of some of the dogs and their owners, the races they won and plans of some of the rather rudimentary buildings around the tracks. Nothing remains of these tracks today; the Harnham site is now under housing.
Although the racing seems to have been quite popular, its failure to survive could have been due to opposition coming from those living closest to the tracks who were disturbed by loud barking from dogs kept there.
Price £2. To buy copies please see the information on the SWIAS Publications page.

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Secret Underground Cities was the title of Nick McCamley’s fully illustrated talk to an appreciative audience at the October 2008 meeting. As a 17 year old, he had ‘discovered’ the remains of the secret wartime underground ammunition store in the old stone quarry at Monkton Farleigh; it was just the start of an interest that has led to him becoming an authority on the subject with several books published on underground industrial archaeology.
As early as 1934 the government had realised a war with Germany was likely. Believing that the South East of the country was in the greatest danger from aircraft bombing, the War Office started to take over old quarries outside of this area and secretly convert them for storage of weaponry and as possible emergency centres for wartime operations.
They had not foreseen the possibility of the fall of France.
The quarries around Corsham turned into underground cities; the quarry at Monkton Farleigh alone had 47¼ acres of storage space, a railway, a power station, a ventilation system and all the machinery for handling vast quantities of ammunition down miles of tunnels.

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SWIAS Monograph No 19:
the Salisbury Electric Light and Supply Company, by Derek Coe.
This is a very detailed account of the Company, established at the old Town Mill near Fisherton Bridge in 1894 and utilising water power from the Avon, charts the rise of electricity production in Salisbury from the start of generation in 1898, through nationalisation in 1948 to its close 1970. The Monograph describes the expansion of the generating capacity of the plant and all its equipment in great detail through several updates and replacements. The application for licences and cable laying are included and it also lists those persons, directors and engineers involved with the running of the Company.
Initial problems of raising sufficient monies for the enterprise and competition from the established Salisbury Gas Light and Coke Company were eventually overcome. Salisbury Infirmary was one of the first buildings to benefit from electric lighting.
Highlights in the Company’s history include the Electrical Exhibition of 1905 where a great range of the uses for electricity were on show; electric lighting in the Cathedral in 1915; new showrooms in 1925 and the move to Electric House in New Canal in 1936. Since 1986, Town Mill has been part of a new shopping development.
With 32 pages, including six pages of original photographs and illustrations this is the largest monograph produced by the Society so far. Individual sections are headed by thumbnail illustrations from the 1905 catalogue, which gives a nice touch. Price £4.95. To buy copies please see the information on the SWIAS Publications page. The Salisbury Gas Light and Coal Company is the subject of a further monograph (No.12) by John Watts.

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SWIAS Monograph No 18:
High Post Aerodrome by Norman Parker.
This monograph gives an illustrated account tracing the development of the site of this grass aerodrome from its opening in 1930, through its WW2 career and on to present day use.
High Post was first home to a civilian flying club, then used by the Royal Artillery Flying Club alongside the civilian one. Next came the RCAF and the RAF before it became a production and test flight centre for military aircraft for most of WW2. After the war it returned to civilian flying, but closed in 1947 after a short life of 17 years. A small part is now used for industry, but most of the land has now returned to agriculture.
The monograph is illustrated with many old maps and archive pictures of buildings and aircraft, the latter including the Robinson Redwing; Simmonds Spartan; Gypsy Moth; the prototype Spiteful and the Cagnet undergoing trials.
Price £3.50. To buy copies please see the information on the SWIAS Publications page.

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At the October 2006 meeting, members were treated to “a load of old rubbish” by glass expert, David Orman, who gave an insight into domestic tastes a hundred years ago, as judged by what was thrown away around Dorchester. His talk inspired a range of questions from the audience.
He showed pictures of a selection of glass and ceramics finds. While many bottles were from the local Eldridge Pope brewery, who had over 100 different types of bottle, other finds were medicine and ointment jars, glass lamps, blue glass poison bottles, spirit jars, ink bottles and tobacco pipes. All of these he was able to identify and some had travelled a surprisingly long way.

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RELIC OF BRUNEL'S GREAT EASTERN IS SEEN AGAIN
Part of the number one funnel from The Great Eastern is now on show near to Brunel’s other great ship, the SS Great Britain, in the Great Western Dock in Bristol. This piece of the funnel was cut out in 1859, and acquired by the Weymouth Waterworks when, after an explosion on board, the ill-fated ship put into Weymouth for repair. Holes were drilled in the funnel and for the last 140 years it has lain in a hole in the ground high above Weymouth at the Sutton Poyntz reservoir, acting as a water strainer. SWIAS members had a sneak preview during a summer outing in 1996, when the lid was raised on its hiding place to reveal a rusting cylinder, which, to be honest, required some effort to imagine its past status and glory.
But it is the only known surviving relic of the Great Eastern which was six times larger than any other vessel of her time. Brunel died a few days after news of the explosion reached him. Already a very sick man, this must have been the last straw.
The reservoir was demolished in 2003 and the funnel donated to the Great Britain Trust. A visit to the SS Great Britain was the highlight of another of SWIAS’s summer excursions.

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SWIAS members enjoyed a late Summer outing to Bristol by train on 15 September 2005 to view the most recent restorations to the SS Great Britain, taking in Bristol’s Industrial Museum on the way there.
Since the Society’s last visit much has been done to the ship and preparations are well under way for the ‘Brunel celebrations’ next year. The water-filled glass ceiling to the dry dock gave a good ‘underwater’ impression to inspecting the lower hull. The grand dining room looked splendid, contrasting with the tiny cabins most of the passengers had to squeeze into.
On deck, the model of the cow in her little hutch was also a reminder of conditions for any animals on board, though whether it would have been a black and white Friesian type cow at that time seems unlikely.
The day ended with a ferry trip back up the river in bright sunshine, through the old dockland scenery and grand new developments, to Temple Meads for the return train journey.

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THE FAWCETT DISC …..Have you seen one recently …..? (by Don Cross)
HENRY FAWCETT'S STATUE in Salisbury Market Place is the only one everyone knows in the city. But apart from the brief inscription of his career around his feet, no one gains much other information about him or why he is there.
As Postmaster General in Gladstone's second administration 1880 - 1885, Henry Fawcett introduced a number of new schemes, including the Parcel Post in 1883, the Centenary of which was celebrated by a special GPO postcard in 1983. By looking at the statue however, we can notice that his eyes are closed.
Out pheasant shooting with his father on Harnham Hill in 1858 he was unfortunately blinded for life by a gun accident aged 25. He nevertheless went on to become Professor at Cambridge, an MP and, in the 1880s, Postmaster General.
The Post Box, the idea of another man with Salisbury connections, Anthony Trollope, had been introduce in 1852, and has seen many variations such as GPO pillar, wall and other styles of post boxes, since 1857. (See "Old Letter Boxes" in the Shire booklet series). All had "collection plates" in various styles fixed to the front giving collection times. On going to post in London on one occasion as PMG, Fawcett discovered of course that blind folk cannot read the details. He ordered that an additional "collection tablet" be added with a selection of others, numbered or abbreviated, held in a rack inside the box door - the postman to change the "Fawcett Disc" to the next correct one on emptying the box. The discs were engraved to help the blind folk "feel" the time of the next collection. British postboxes remain all over the "British Empire" countries still - most with Fawcett disc spaces screwed on but empty.
The Post Office this year, with all its labour and service problems, has decided also to remove all evidence of the Fawcett Disc as it can no longer guarantee collection times! What a shame for the only man to anticipate the era of Disability Acts! What would his wife, feminist militant and suffragette, Millicent Garrett DBE, have to say? (it might even have been HER idea!)

PLEASE COULD WE SAVE SOME EXAMPLES OF THE DISC? EVEN PUT AN OLD POST BOX OR PILLAR NEARBY WITH EXAMPLES AND THE FAWCETT STORY FOR VISITORS - AND MAYBE LOCALS TOO? ...Don Cross

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THE EARLY USE OF CONCRETE
The Wiltshire Buildings Record would be interested to hear of any concrete buildings in Wiltshire dating from around 1870. It appears from a recent book 'The English Model Farm' by Susanna Wade, that this county was in the forefront of experiments to use concrete for farm buildings and cottages. Contact the Record on 01225 713740 (Office open on Tuesdays).

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