SWIAS Publications
PUBLICATIONS
All the following publications are available for sale at the prices indicated below each entry which include post and packing. Payment by sterling cheque on a United Kingdom bank or by bank transfer. If you live abroad enquire for current postal rates.
Orders with a cheque should be posted to: SWIAS, 2 Byways Close, Salisbury SP1 2QS, UK
Orders using bank transfer may be posted to that address or sent by email to Contact SWIAS confirming the transfer.
Credit SWIAS, Sort code 30-97-41 Account number 00948163 reference monographs.
No 25: SCOUT MOTORS OF SALISBURY 1902-1921 by Jim Watkinson & Julie Mettyear.
This is the second edition replacing No 21 which is no longer available. Updated and expanded by Julie Mettyear, daughter of the original author. All about a Salisbury firm in the early world of the internal combustion engine and motor vehicle manufacture. No company records remain to help with research, so this is a compilation of details culled from other sources, including advertisements and brochures plus recent discoveries. A new section covers the Scout car now owned by Salisbury Museum.
48pp A4, many photographs and illustrations.
Price including UK Post and Packing: £8.90p each.
No 24: BURDEN BROTHERS CLOCKMAKERS OF SALISBURY by Julie Mettyear.The firm of Burden Brothers was a clock making enterprise in Salisbury from 1892 to 1902. The brothers amalgamated with the English Clock Company around 1900, then left the business around two years later to enter the fledgling motor industry. A selection of their turret clocks was surveyed and details are given together with information on their factory and showroom premises. Also noted are mantel clocks made during the period when they were known as the English Clock Factory. Examples of these are at the British Museum in London.
16pp A4, many colour and B&W photographs.
Price including UK Post and Packing: £5.00p each.
No 23: NARROW GAUGE RAILWAYS AROUND SALISBURY by Douglas Jackson.A sign warning of trains remains beside the road in Chilmark but the trains have long since departed, as indeed have all the trains from all the sites described in this monograph. Although officialdom provides the image of a steam locomotive, only two of these sites, not this one, had locomotives powered by steam. We also found petrol, diesel, electricity, donkeys and men used as the source of power.
28pp A4, many colour and B&W photographs.
Price including UK Post and Packing: £7.90p each.
No 22: BRICKMAKING IN FISHERTON AND BEMERTON, SALISBURY’S ALMOST FORGOTTEN INDUSTRY by Jamie WrightThis monograph details the findings of a research programme aimed at discovering the history and extent of brickmaking in the area immediately to the west of Salisbury and to survey the buildings of the City, together with its suburbs, to find how widely such bricks were used.
32pp A4, many photographs and tables.
Price including UK post and Packing: £7.90p each.
No 21: SCOUT MOTORS OF SALISBURY 1902-1921 by Jim Watkinson.
A Salisbury firm in the early world of the internal combustion engine and motor vehicle manufacture. No company records remain to help with research, so this is a compilation of details culled from other sources, including advertisements and brochures and from recent writings brought together for the Society’s members to use as a basis for continuing research into Salisbury’s Lost Cause.
40pp A4, many photographs and illustrations.
Out of print, see No 25 for replacement second edition.
No 20: A SHORT HISTORY OF GREYHOUND RACING IN SALISBURY by Kathy Garland.
Based on documentary and anecdotal sources, this is the history of the short-lived existence of 2 greyhound racing tracks in Salisbury in the early 1930s. Although all trace of these has now disappeared, Kathy Garland’s researches have revealed evidence of their use, plans of their construction and the names of some of the greyhounds, their owners and the races they won.
8pp A4 including 3 illustrations.
Price including UK Post and Packing: £2.50p each.
No 19: SALISBURY ELECTRIC LIGHT AND SUPPLY COMPANY by Derek Coe
Describes the founding of this company at the Town Mill in Salisbury in 1894 through to its close in 1970. Includes very detailed descriptions of the operating techniques, machinery and personnel involved throughout this period.
32pp A4 including 6 pp of original photographs and drawings.
Price including UK Post and Packing: £6.90p each.
No 18: HIGH POST AERODROME by Norman Parker.
This traces the history of this grass aerodrome from 1930 through WW2 to the present, though flying here ceased in 1947. Norman Parker is an expert in the subject and the monograph is well illustrated with archive pictures of planes and buildings here, also some of the later uses of the site.
16pp A4, 23 illustrations.
Price including UK Post and Packing: £4.90p each.
No 17: THE NESTLÉ COMPANY IN SALISBURY by John Pothecary.
The factory was built in 1908 and closed 75 years later. First known as the Hygienic Milk Company, farmers brought their milk in churns by horse and cart. Later Nestlé had its own lorries. The factory handled a variety of products for several companies. Originally it had its own electricity generating plant with a steam engine. The war years saw army rations produced and goods were exported round the world.
12pp A4, 17 pictures, 1 map. Includes 3pp pictures old Nestlé labels.
Price including UK Post and Packing: £4.90p each.
No 16: SALISBURY’S WATER SUPPLY 1853 - 2000 by John Illston
We turn on the tap and expect clean water to flow out. This is so only because of works that have been built since 1853, wells, boreholes, pumping machinery, reservoirs and distribution pipes. The development of the works, with ever deeper boreholes and higher reservoirs is charted as well as the introduction of new power sources such as steam and electricity, and of water treatments such as chlorination.
16 pp A4, 16 photos and one map..
Price including UK Post and Packing: £4.90p each.
No 15: EXPERIMENTAL BUILDINGS IN AMESBURY 1919-1937 by Norman Parker
Amesbury became the area in which a number of smallholdings were established for men returning from the Great War. Some 2500 acres of land were acquired by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. Managed from Ratfyn Farm, twenty six smallholdings were created. Residential buildings constructed in various experimental methods and concrete houses in London Road and a cinema are described.
16pp A4, 16 photos, 4 line drawings and one map, photocopy reproduction.
Price including UK Post and Packing: £3.50p each.
No 14: SALISBURY PLAIN PYROTECHNICS by Norman Parker
Wessex Aircraft Engineering Company was formed in 1933 to manufacture pyrotechnics on a site north of Salisbury. It grew from a shaky start to be an important part of an internationally known group. On the way it combined with five other companies in the industry. It was also the source of skills used to form Wallop Industries Ltd in Hampshire. The growth of the company, Pains Wessex Ltd since 1965, is traced.
14pp A4, 13 photos and 10 drawings.
Price including UK Post and Packing: £4.75p each.
No 13: ONE MAN AND HIS CONSTRUCTION COMPANY REED AND MALLIK, 1937 TO 1968 by John Illston
William Edward Reed founded his company in 1937. It grew and prospered without moving from its modest base in Salisbury, Wiltshire. Examples of its work include prefabricated concrete houses and high rise apartment blocks, village halls, dams in Wales and Scotland and Bridges in Australasia. Sources include company files and the house magazine, Strongwork News, as well as Bill's widow, Mrs Brenda Reed.
22pp A4, 21 photos and two drawings.
Price including UK Post and Packing: £4.75p each.
No 12: SALISBURY GAS WORKS Salisbury Gas Light and Coke Company by John H Watts
A history of Salisbury Gasworks with descriptions of the plant used and the personalities involved. The gasworks was the largest public utility in Salisbury and the longest lived, functioning until gas became available by pipeline from Southampton. It contained the largest building in the City. The No.2 gasholder had a greater volume than the Cathedral. All easily recognised remnants of the gasworks have gone.
28 pp A4, 16 photos, 3 constructional plans and 4 maps.
Price including UK Post and Packing: £4.75p each.
No 11: MALTINGS IN SALISBURY by Douglas JacksonWilliams Brothers Maltings covered three and a half acres but are remembered only vaguely by Salisbury's older inhabitants. The buildings which stood for a century and the work which took place there under conditions now considered intolerable are described. Though dwarfed by this firm, there were many more sites in the city where malting was carried on during the past two centuries and these are also described.
16 pp A4, 8 line drawings.
Price including UK Post and Packing: £3.75p each.
No 10: MEDIEVAL ENGINEERING IN SALISBURY CATHEDRAL by William G C BackinsellSalisbury Cathedral is a tribute to the courage and skill of its creators. It is the only remaining complete example of its architectural style. It was built at a time when Medieval engineers were developing daring structural techniques and illustrates their successes and shortcomings in surmounting the problems. The author reviews the state of the art at the time and describes some of the most important technical features.
12pp A4, 18 line drawings.
Price including UK Post and Packing: £3.00p each.
No 9: FLOATED WATER MEADOWS IN THE SALISBURY AREA by Michael CowanFloated water meadows were a significant feature of the agricultural revolution in the Wessex chalk area during the seventeenth century. As an irrigation system they remained in general use until well within living memory. This monograph records the physical aspects of some in the Salisbury area making possible a clearer understanding of their characteristics.
12 pp A4, 12 illustrations.
Price including UK Post and Packing: £3.00p each.
No 8: STAGECOACH OPERATION THROUGH WILTSHIRE by John H ChandlerThe reign of the stagecoach covered only a few decades. This study presents the evidence of stagecoach operation in Wiltshire, concentrating mainly on the period from the late eighteenth to mid nineteenth centuries. It details the route networks and density of services of a form of transport that vanished with the coming of the railways.
8 pp A4, includes maps and timetables.
Price including UK Post and Packing: £3.00p each.
No 7: MEDIEVAL WINDLASSES by William G C BackinsellThe towers of Salisbury and Peterborough Cathedrals and of Tewkesbury Abbey contain the remains of three very early lifting machines. They were apparently made for the construction of the towers in which they now stand and are probably the oldest of their kind in England. The machines are described and considered in the context of early lifting equipment and techniques.
8 pp A4, 7 line drawings..
Price including UK Post and Packing: £3.00p each.
No 6: IRON PRINTING PRESSES by Walter PartridgeIron hand presses replaced wooden presses in the early 19th century and, surviving the impact of steam and electricity, still continue in use for fine printing and village notices. Lord Stanhope invented the first iron press in 1800. The last four were made in 1940. The author amassed and used a collection at his home in Wiltshire.
8 pp A4, 9 engravings 2 line drawings.
Price including UK Post and Packing: £3.00p each.
No 5: AVIATION IN WILTSHIRE An historical survey by Norman ParkerThe history of aviation in Wiltshire reaches back almost as far as the dawn of aeronautics in Great Britain. This monograph traces, in outline, the development of flying in the county from its inception only six years after the Wright brothers first flight, to the end of the Second World War. During these four decades nearly forty airfields had been in use, for varying periods of time; their locations are shown on a map.
8 pp A4, 7 line drawings, 1 map.
Price including UK Post and Packing: £3.00p each.
No 4: THE AMESBURY TURNPIKE TRUST by John ChandlerThe Trust, existing from 1761 to 1871, was responsible for developing the most important East-West route in South Wiltshire -the modern A303 -as well as the road from Amesbury to Heytesbury and local roads around Wylye, Amesbury and Thruxton. Apart from the usual sources, this study draws on interesting late 18th century correspondence between the trust's clerk and its principal creditor.
12 pp A4, 6 line drawings, 2 maps, 1 facsimile advertisement.
Price including UK Post and Packing: £3.50p each.
No 3: THE MEDIEVAL CLOCK IN AMESBURY ABBEY William BackinsellThis clock is one of the earliest English turret clocks. Believed to have been built in the 15th century for the Benedictine Abbey church, it would have been similar to the 14th century clock in Salisbury Cathedral. Both use the four-post external countwheel arrangement but with important differences in design and construction. The clock is described in it is now with pendulum and anchor escapement.
4 pp A4, 4 line drawings.
Price including UK Post and Packing: £2.00p each.
No 2: THE MEDIEVAL CLOCK IN SALISBURY CATHEDRAL William BackinsellNot only is this 14th century clock of exceptional horological importance, it is a fine example of Industrial Archaeological interest. Quoted in almost every treatise on ancient clocks it is claimed to be the oldest working clock in existence. Much has been written on its history but its technical significance has received comparatively little consideration. Features regarded as of outstanding importance are highlighted.
8 pp A4, 8 line drawings.
Price including UK Post and Packing: £3.00p each.
No 1: THE SALISBURY RAILWAY & MARKET HOUSE COMPANY William Backinsell
The Bath Stone facade in the north west corner of the Salisbury Market Place was once the terminus and only building of the shortest standard gauge railway in the country. The Salisbury Railway & Market House Company was formed in 1856 and continued to operate until 1964. All that remains are the building’s facade, some scraps of the railway and a scattered assortment of documents.
8 pp A4, 4 illustrations including 1 map.
Price including UK Post and Packing: £3.00p each.
Queries can be sent by email to Contact SWIAS.
Payment by sterling cheque on a United Kingdom bank or by bank transfer. If you live abroad enquire for current postal rates.
Orders with a cheque should be posted to: SWIAS, 2 Byways Close, Salisbury SP1 2QS, UK
Orders using bank transfer may be posted to that address or sent by email to Contact SWIAS confirming the transfer.
Credit SWIAS, Sort code 30-97-41 Account number 00948163 reference monographs.