Tim Havenith's Blog, page 15

Black Friday Sale! Calne Place Names Ebook

 

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Save over 30% on the E-book price £6.99 instead of £9.99 Offer between: 21-27 November 2020https://amzn.to/2V67jcN

Timeline Calne: 9 November 1937, Calne's First Woman Mayor

Mrs. Edith Mary Spackman.It was Alderman Strange who said that the ancient Borough of Calne was about to open a new page in its book of history as he proposed Mrs. Edith Mary Spackman as Mayor.

Mrs Spackman, a nurse and first female councillor for Calne, was said to have a wide experience of public service, along with a warm interest in the spiritual and material welfare of the town. At the time Spackman was made mayor, she had served on the council for eight years. Mr. Stanley, who seconded her nomination, wanted it known that in the previous five year, Spackman had attended 200 meetings out of a possible 211. She sat on the Health and Housing Committee, the Gas and Electricity Committee, and the Rating Committee.

It was Mrs. Spackman and other women of the town who had previously raised a substantial sum of money when the Brigade required new uniforms.

Clearly a worthy person for the Mayoral Chair, Mrs. Spackman was unanimously elected as Mayor of Calne on 9 November 1937.

References:
'Calne's First Woman Mayor'  Wiltshire Times and Trowbridge Advertiser, Saturday 13 November 1937 [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.c... [Accessed on 14 January 2020]

Place names of Calne: Riverside

Riverside with Lower Quemerford Mill in the background.

Riverside and was built during the late 1970s with Rivermead following in 1980s, at the side of the river Marden, both developments being detached housing.

Place Names of Calne: St. Dunstan Close, St. Dunstan Court, St. Dunstan's House

St. Dunstan Close, St. Dunstan Court and St. Dunstan's House are all located off Lickhill Road at the north of Calne. St. Dunstan Court was built as part of the Phase 6, Sector 4, North Calne Developement (Lansdowne Park) in the early 2000s, by Persimmon homes around 2003. St. Dunstan Close seems to have been built in the late 1980s.

St. Dunstan's House, a Grade II listed building, used to reside next to the Harris bacon factory at New Road before being taken down and rebuilt at what is now St. Dunstan Court on the order of the Harris family, approximately 1920s. At one time this house was a nursing home (known as Dunstan House Retirement Home), but changed to residential in the early 2000s. When the house was moved, to create space for a factory extension, the newly built factory was also called St. Dunstan's.
St. Dunstan HouseThey are all named for St. Dunstan, an archbishop who held the infamous witan in Calne, 978. The story goes:
"A. 978. In this year all the chief 'witan' of the English nation fell at Calne from an upper chamber, except the holy archbishop Dunstan, who supported himself upon a beam; and there some were grievously maimed, and some did not escape with life."[1]

In the recent past, Calne was home to St Dunstan Church of England Primary School. However in 2013 the onsite nursery closed when the children in attendance dropped to 10[2]. In 2014, Ofsted deemed that the school required improvement[3]. The school then stopped operating as St. Dunstan on 31/08/2015[4] when it joined the Diocese of Salisbury Academy Trust and rebranded as Marden Vale[5]. This move was deemed to be a good thing for the childen as the school would have "high quality support" from the Trust, sadly Marden Vale has been deemed 'Inadequate' by Ofsted since September 2018. However things are looking up for the school, as a monitoring inspection in April 2019 reported that the school was taking effective action towards removal of special measures and that the action plan was fit for purpose. 

I seem to have digressed. Anyway, these are the places named for the Archbishop, then St., Dunstan, who apparently avoided falling from the upper chamber of a hall, showing that God approved of Dunstan's holy reforms, which included a return to priests living chastely[6].


References:
[1] https://calnepastandpresent.blogspot.... 
[2] The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald. 2019. School’s nursery is forced to close | The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.gazetteandherald.co.uk/news/10392567.schools-nursery-is-forced-to-close/. [Accessed 20 June 2019].
[3] Ofsted | St Dunstan Church of England Primary School. 2019. Ofsted | St Dunstan Church of England Primary School. [ONLINE] Available at: https://reports.ofsted.gov.uk/provider/21/126312. [Accessed 20 June 2019]. 
[4] St Dunstan Church of England Primary School - GOV.UK. 2019. St Dunstan Church of England Primary School - GOV.UK. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.get-information-schools.service.gov.uk/Establishments/Establishment/Details/126312. [Accessed 20 June 2019].
[5] The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald. 2019. A new chapter begins at Marden Vale Academy in Calne | The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.gazetteandherald.co.uk/news/13778355.a-new-chapter-begins-at-marden-vale-academy-in-calne/. [Accessed 20 June 2019]. 
[6] https://calnepastandpresent.blogspot....

C O Gough, Freeman of the Borough - Wig donated to Calne Heritage Centre

 At Calne Heritage Centre, we recently received this wig, owned by Charles Ogle Gough. A long time Calne Town Clerk and a solicitor. It's a fantastic artifact to add to our collection and as you can't see it in person at the moment, I'm glad to be able to share it here.

Gough was one of only five people to receive the Freedom of the Borough. The text below is taken from the booklet commemorating that event:

Charles Ogle Gough, the second son of the late Mr. and Mrs. George Isaac Gough, was born at 28 Church Street, Calne, where he now has his offices as Senior Partner in the firm of G. I. Gough and Son.

He was educated first at the Bentley Grammar School and afterwards at Monmouth Grammar School. He qualified as a Solicitor in February 1905.

He was married to Isabella Shepherd Hood of Dumfermline on the 25th June, 1915—she died on the 11th July, 1955. There are three children of the marriage—Katherine Muriel Linthwaite now living with her family in Malaya, Isabel Margaret Bowyer living with her family in Letchworth and Charles Cameron Gough, D.S.C., who lives at Caine and is in partnership as a Solicitor in his father’s firm.

Mr. Gough’s father, George Isaac Gough, was Town Clerk from 1891 to 1911 and previously he was Clerk to the old Caine Urban Sanitary Authority from 1873. On the occasion of his father’s illness in 1906, Mr. Gough was appointed Deputy, and in 1911, when his father resigned, he was appointed Town Clerk, an office which he still holds.

During his long term of office there have been many Royal occasions in which Mr. Gough has been responsible for the local arrangements. He is the proud possessor of medals which commemorate the Coronation and Silver Jubilee of King George V, and the Coronations of King George VI and the present Queen.

In his younger days Mr. Gough played football and cricket for Calne Town. He was Captain of the football team in 1907 when Caine won the District League Cup, and he was President of the Caine and Harris’ United Football Club from 1937 to 1948. He also plays golf and is one of the oldest members of the North Wilts Golf Club. He is fond of swimming and is keenly interested in the proposal to provide facilities in Caine.

He has been Clerk to the Governors of St. Mary’s School before and since its incorporation in the year 1928 and Clerk to the Governors of the Bentley Grammar School since 1911. He was one of the deputation appointed to meet the Wiltshire Education Committee in 1934 when proposals had been made to close the School and transfer the children to Chippenham Grammar School. It was largely due to the efforts of Mr. Gough and Alderman F. W. Smith that the School was saved. Mr. Gough has also served the Old Boys and Girls of the School as President of the Old Bentleians’ Association since 1950.

Place Names of Calne: Steets named for rivers

Isis CloseOther than places named after the Marden, the river that flows through Calne from Calstone to the Avon near Chippenham (which will be covered in a separate post), we currently have 4 streets named after rivers.

They are Avon Close, Isis Close, Severn Close, and Kennet Walk. All four are near Fynamore School and were built as part of the Persimmon development, Lansdowne Park, which completed in 2008.

Avon Close: The name Avon means 'river'[1].
There are 2 Avon rivers that flow through Wiltshire. The Salisbury or Hampshire Avon, which begins east of Devizes and east of Pewsey, merges at Upavon and flows through Salisbury before it meets the river Stour at Christchurch. The Bristol Avon, begins near Chipping Sodbury and flows through Chippenham (where our own River Marden joins it), through Lacock and Melksham, and eventually via Bristol to meet the river Severn.

Isis Close: Isis is an alternative name for the River Thames between its source in the Cotswold and Dorchester where is it joined by the River Thame. The Roman name for the Thames was the Tamesis, which in the Middle Ages was wrongly thought to be a combination of "Thame" and "Isis"[2].

Severn Close: Severn is thought to derive from a Celtic original name *sabrinnā[3], which is of unknown meaning. It is the only one of these 4 rivers not to flow through any part of Wiltshire.

Kennet Walk: The meaning of Kennet is also one that has been lost to time. The name comes from Cunetio, a late Iron Age oppidum[4], also possibly an early Roman fort.


References:
[1] Gover, J., Mawer, A. and Stenton, F. (1970). The place-names of Wiltshire. Cambridge: At the University Press.
[2] Wikipedia. 2019. The Isis - Wikipedia. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Isis. [Accessed 19 June 2019].
[3] Wikipedia. 2019. River Severn - Wikipedia. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_Severn#Etymology_and_mythology. [Accessed 19 June 2019].
[4]  Royalarchinst.org. (2019). Cunetio, Wiltshire: archaeology and history. [online] Available at: http://www.royalarchinst.org/sites/ro... [Accessed 19 Jun. 2019].

Walking the Horsebrook Nature Trail

 

Calne Town Council recently restarted their Visit Calne tourism blog with a post by the Mayor (Calne Town Mayor and Deputy Mayor).

They asked me to write a short post. I decided to write about the Horsebrook Nature Trail, an area of Calne I enjoy.

Each fortnight will feature a new post on a range of topics, each written by a different person.

If you'd like to have a read, here's the link.

Place Names of Calne: Bank Row, Bank House

Bank Row is so named as it is the row of housing behind the 1901 built bank building, now known as The Old Bank House. This development, which included Carnegie Mews, was completed in 1995 and opened by Richard Needham, MP on 27 October 1995, it occupies part of what used to be the Harris factory site.

Both Carnegie Mews and Bank Row, were built by  ARC properties, designed by Aaron Evans Associates, with funding from the Housing Corporation by a partnership between the District Council, the Knightsbridge Housing Association and Cowlin Developments. The final development consists of 22 houses, 6 flats and
3 shop units designed as terraces.







The Old Bank House has had a varied history, being used by the Harris Factory from the 1920s as the Works Laboratory. In 1960 Martin's Bank took over the building before merging with Barclay's Bank in 1969. Despite all the upheaval of the demolition of the Harris factory and the rebuilding of Calne Town Centre, Barclays Calne branch remained in operation until October 2013.

In 2015 the Old Bank House, which is Grade II listed, was renovated into a cocktail and wine bar.

The building that is attached is called 'Bank House' and is used as the Calne Town Council offices.

Place Names of Calne: Ridgemead

RidgemeadRidgemead was built in the 1950s, after Calne Borough Council bought land at Newcroft Farm in 1954[1], and certainly by 1960[2] as part of a large development called the Newcroft Estate[3]. 

Ridgemead is so named due to it being on land that was known as Ridgemead. In the 1840s Tithe map, this was 309, a piece owned and occupied by Lord Hungerford Crewe, known as a landowner and peer. 

John Field, in his English Field Names[4] describes the two parts of the Ridgemead as follows:
Ridge, a basic unit of ploughing in common arable fields.
Mead(ow), grassland that is kept for mowing.

So, we can assume that this was a common field that was kept for harvesting grass.


[1]  Calne: The town in the 20th century | British History Online. 2019. Calne: The town in the 20th century | British History Online. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/wilts/vol17/pp44-51 . [Accessed 06 March 2019].
[2] Photo of Calne, Ridgemead, Newcroft Estate c.1960. 2019. Photo of Calne, Ridgemead, Newcroft Estate c.1960. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.francisfrith.com/uk/calne/calne-ridgemead-newcroft-estate-c1960_c228084 . [Accessed 06 March 2019].
[3] Calne Heritage Centre, The Growth of Calne over the last Thousand Years.
[4] Field, J., 1983. English Field Names: A Dictionary. Trafalgar Square.

Place Names of Calne: Fish

Carp RoadAll of the fish-related street names in Calne are part of the massive Lansdowne Park development that was built in the first decade of the 21st century by Persimmon Homes.

Most of these streets are reached by Stickleback Road (which leads off the North Calne Distributor Road) / Zander Road, with Carp Road and Bream Close being reached via School Road.


Street Name Main Road to Entry Native? Barbel Close Zander Road Yes Bream Close School Road Yes Carp Road School Road Non-Native Dace Road Zander Road Native Grayling Close Zander Road Native Minnow Close Zander Road Yes Rudd Road Stickleback Road Native Salmon's Leap Stickleback Road Yes Stickleback Road Stickleback Road Yes Tench Road Stickleback Road Yes Zander Road Zander Road Non-Native