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Illustrated biography of Rudyard Kipling's parents. John Lockwood Kipling and Alice Macdonald Kipling were both born into strict Wesleyan Methodist families, but their similar interests, loving and successful marriage brought them exciting experiences in India, artistic recognition and membership of the Pre-Raphaelite group at the heart of late-Victorian culture. Their son became the most popular and famous poet and writer in the British Empire. Together John and Alice faced the social niceties of life in the Raj, travel and spartan living conditions. They adapted to the difficulties of colonial life, made the most of every opportunity and eventually achieved a peaceful, comfortable community-based retirement in Tisbury in south Wiltshire. This biography of two remarkable individuals is an affectionate look at a happy, adventurous marriage, a challenging family life and long and loving friendships.

Sir Thomas Swymmer Mostyn-Champneys was born in Frome, Somerset in 1769 the last in a line of aristocrats who claimed origins back to William of Normandy. A series of bad judgements resulted in Thomas being born into a third generation of bankruptcy and despite marrying a very rich widow he was never able to extricate himself from this. Regardless of an ever-decreasing amount of funds he spent lavishly on masquerade balls, pageants and building projects - but most of all on litigation.He became involved in a serious legal dispute over the right to appoint the sexton of the local church, he won the case at great expense and published a long and a surreal poem ridiculing his opponents. A segment of this poem contains a description of some original manuscripts that he believed to have been written by William Shakespeare and describes a night Shakespeare spent in Frome where he was ''tricked by the natives.''The book details numerous and often humorous court cases as well as his imprisonment for debt, extravagant building projects and his time as a popular magistrate At one point he was kidnapped from an inn at knifepoint by bailiffs and thrown into the debtor''s prison spending many years imprisoned in London and Ilchester.When not entertaining lavishly he spent much of his time in dispute with local worthies one of whom, a local solicitor, spread rumours about him engaging in homosexual relations which involved a court case for slander which Champneys won - and produced another book as a result.In 1832 he stood in the local election which resulted in three days of rioting and the local militia firing on the crowd. He lost despite being popular with the working people who were not enfranchised. His debts became so large that his mansion, at Orchardleigh was raided by bailiffs on many occasions and the contents sent off to auction until eventually the estate was purchased by a relative and he was allowed to stay there with his wife until his death in 1839.

From 1813 until his death in 1847, Thomas Pinniger kept a detailed daily account of the sheep and corn husbandry he practised first at Little Bedwyn Farm to 1825, and then as the owner of Beckhampton Farm in Avebury parish from 1829. These periods were separated by a stay on Sambourne Farm in Chippenham, when he was more an observer than an active farmer. These 'Farming Memorandums', as Pinniger described them, provide a fascinating and detailed record of the challenges that he faced throughout his long career. Farming practices and developments, prices of corn and livestock, and the weather were all recorded in detail. It is clear that they were not just kept for the sake of posterity, but as a body of knowledge and experience on which he could draw. His relations with his labourers and neighbours, not always cordial, add to the wealth of the content of the diaries. Having moved to Beckhampton, Pinniger bought the eponymously-named established coaching inn in the village. Stables were constructed for both the farm and the inn, with the latter specifically for race horses. The fortunes of the inn faltered with the coming of the railway in the early 1840s. As well as the obvious subject matter, Pinniger also noted the births, marriages and deaths of relatives, friends and acquaintances, revealing the social milieu in which he lived. Dates of funerals and of funeral services were also often provided, the latter rarely recorded in this period. He also provided a first hand account of the unrest of the Swing Riots of 1830, which he viewed as a serious threat. The years 1823 to 1838 have been transcribed, but the whole span is covered in the introduction. In keeping such meticulous daily records over so long a period, Thomas Pinniger stands as the principal representative of the class of yeoman farmers, from early to mid 19th-century Wiltshire.

Sir George Dowty (1901-1975) was a noted inventor and businessman, who pioneered many components used in the aviation industry before, during, and after the Second World War, and founded a string of companies which bore his name. He was a major employer in the Cheltenham and Tewkesbury area of Gloucestershire (as his successor companies still are), a prominent and respected figure in the world of engineering, and a generous supporter of causes in Gloucestershire and elsewhere. His typescript autobiography, dictated shortly before his death, was discovered recently by his son, and is now published for the first time. It offers a unique insight into the drive and enthusiasm of an exceptional man, and of the fledgling aircraft industry of which he played a major part.

This is the story of two men from a remote Wiltshire village, father and son Joseph and Josiah Lane, stonemasons, whose lives stretched across the Georgian period, from 1717 to 1833. They became grotto builders, men of artistic genius, acknowledged experts in their speciality, but the sort of ordinary craftsmen whose achievements are not normally recorded in the official pages of history. They were responsible for many of the mysterious, decorative, thrilling grottoes which appeared during the 18th century in English gardens, built to enhance the romantic, poetic and artistic landscapes created by rich landowners. From Stourhead to Fonthill, Wycombe Abbey, Wimborne St Giles, Bowood, Bowden Park, Painshill and Oatlands Park, Claremont, Castle Hill, Ascot Place, Belcombe and Norbiton House, Joseph and Josiah constructed brick, timber and limestone caverns, tunnels, bath houses, gambling dens and cascades. Some were profusely decorated with shells, coral spars, slivers of crystal, amethysts, feldspar and calcite fragments, some appeared savage and rough hewn. Christina Richard has pieced together the story of the lives and work of Joseph and Josiah for the first time from a wide range of local and national sources, and has enhanced her account with imaginative descriptions of village and family life at the time for people of their station. The result is an affectionate and revealing portrait of these two extraordinary men, who contributed so much to the elegance of England's wonderful 18th century gardens.

Believing whole-heartedly that ordinary women of the past were far more than just wives and mothers, author Lucy Whitfield has set out to discover and profile a collection of interesting women from across North Wiltshire. Digging much deeper than the usual suffrage-and-STEM criteria for interesting women's stories, these twenty case studies take in inspirational teachers, gutsy landladies, pioneering social workers, a war hero with her beloved hounds, mental health patients at the mercies of Victorian care, a herbalist accused of murder, a nun who was stoned in the street, a young woman who eloped with her adoptive uncle, a beauty influencer with an acidic tongue, and a charwoman who hid her pregnancy and suffered the consequences. And more . . . These tales of ordinary, extraordinary lives, played out against the canvas of North Wiltshire, show the depth and breadth of women's history out there for the taking. And are intended to inspire people to look harder at the lives of their women-folk, and what's simmering there just under the surface.

Bremhill is a large parish of scattered settlements in north Wiltshire lying between Chippenham and Calne. As a result of an innovative project involving a group of local residents working alongside professional historians researching the area for the Victoria County History, this collaborative community history of the parish was produced in 2021. It formed part of a programme of events celebrating Bremhill's heritage, and was written in parallel with an academic history for inclusion in a forthcoming Victoria History volume. It subsequently won a national award as the best local history publication of the year, and is now reissued by Hobnob Press on behalf of Bremhill Parish History Group in paperback for the first time. The book gives a vivid flavour of life in north Wiltshire from the earliest times to the present day. The stories of the places and people who have lived in this beautiful rural area are fascinating,and the excellent photographs and illustrations enhance and enliven the text. This innovative project has resulted in an accomplished and engaging history of a typical - and at the same time unique - Wiltshire parish. A recent reviewer commented: 'Parish histories are generally considered to be only of interest to local people. This one is different. It is fluently written and is well worth reading even if you have never heard of Bremhill. The book is to be particularly recommended as a model to other groups contemplating their own parish history project.'

This book has been produced to coincide with the 150th anniversary of Gloucester Rugby and includes details of all of the 5156 matches (3106 won,1706 lost and 344 drawn) played by the Club from the very first on 4 October 1873 up to the end of the 2022-23 season. It also includes a summary of every season and team photographs for most seasons. The contributors to this book are all trustees of Gloucester Rugby Heritage, a charity run by volunteers and supported by Gloucester Rugby, the Gloucester Rugby Foundation and Gloucestershire Archives. This book is the last in a series of five, previous volumes having recorded the history of the Kingsholm ground, representative matches played there, Gloucester Rugby in cup competitions, and Gloucester Rugby players.

The history of humans in the Frome area stretches right back to Palaeolithic times and Frome first appears as a settlement as early as the Saxon period. This fascinating book covers the entire period of its growth into an important Somerset market town. From the Stone Age to the Foo Fighters its unique history is told in short, easy to read sections with many of the illustrations being published for the first time. Along with the serious history there are some quirky characters and freaky events, coin hoards, crime and punishment, long lost pubs, a tank, ancient maps, witchcraft, riots and rebellions, a lost head, ancient customs and even a few skeletons and some flying saucers. It is a book to be dipped into at leisure, finding little nuggets that might lead to further research or stimulate new interests.

The poems celebrate the Dorset landscape and how it connects us to the past and the present. Time is a key theme in Chalk Stories, the deep time of geology and archaeology, the cycle of the seasons, events from the recent past and the time that passes as a family is raised. Beth Brooke lives in Dorset. Chalk Stories is her third collection.

Swindon, one of the largest towns in southern England, has a long, diverse and fascinating past, beginning with prehistoric and Roman settlers, and continuing as a medieval market and small town, a place of quarries and canals, and later its showpiece railway village, communal buildings and locomotive works. With a proud industrial heritage and innovative local government, Swindon has embraced periods of rapid expansion, through the later Victorian decades, during the 1950s and since the 1970; and these have brought it impressive infrastructure and a bewildering range of commercial and industrial activities. Much of Swindon's history is still there to be discovered. This book sets out to explain Swindon in terms of its history, and then takes the reader round to explore the town in a series of walking guides. This is an extensively revised and updated third edition, now illustrated in colour throughout, of a work first published in 1992.

Historical novel, first of a trilogy, set in south-east Wiltshire in 1633. Robert Penny, a twice-widowed father, returns to the parish of his birth with his eleven-year-old son Samuel. Struggling to find food for the table, Robert quickly becomes burdened with the unpaid duties of Parish Waywarden inheriting a legal responsibility to survey and maintain the parish highways or answer to the Justices. As he commences this onerous task, he discovers a young woman's body in a highway ditch. Whilst Robert Penny tries to rebuild his family reputation and regain the pew in church, will he instead be charged with the murder of this stranger to the parish?

West Swindon is a series of linked suburban centres planned and built from the 1980s to the west of the Wiltshire former railway town. But its story stretches back much further than most people realise. Way before the St. John family hunted on what is now Lydiard Park, Romans lived, made bricks - and died here. Should you think of West Swindon as nothing more than a soulless, twentieth-century urban conurbation then time spent within the pages of this book should hold some surprises for you. The authors between them weave a rich tapestry of West Swindon from its Roman beginnings through to the how, why and where of the western expansion of the 1970s and 1980s, encompassing street names, public art and green spaces. Their final flourish is a round-up of the notable 20th century buildings in the area - with a windmill thrown in for good measure.

Clarendon Park, east of Salisbury in south Wiltshire, is unique because it represents a piece of English landscape which has remained largely intact within the same boundaries since the Middle Ages, and probably existed as a discrete area before 1066. This booklet is in two parts: Part I is an account of the development of the Clarendon landscape, medieval royal palace and mansion and Part II is a walkers' guide to the landscape of the park visible from Clarendon Way as it crosses the park and with a special focus on the ruined palace. First published by Salisbury Museum in 2010, this thoroughly revised edition in full colour includes the results of recent excavations and scholarship. It is published by Hobnob Press on behalf of the Friends of Clarendon Palace.

In his first volume of poetry, Days of Dark and Light: Recent poems (Hobnob Press,2021), David Thompson responded tothe Covid-19 pandemic with an eclectic collection of poems of wide-ranging forms and subjects. In Where the Love Is, hecontinues his exploration of themes close to him - memory, imagination, love, nature and the environment, and the linksbetween poetry and other arts. The poems, including several prize-winners, are wise and articulate, sometimes romantic,sometimes lightly whimsical, often poignant. His poetic narrative brings together a variety of forms and moods in anelegant, entertaining and very personal voice.After military service and modern language studies at Oxford and the Sorbonne, David Thompson lived in Spain and England before embarking on a long career in translation, interpreting, editing and publishing with the United Nations in New York and Bangkok and then with the World Health Organization in Geneva. Following a second career as a free-lance based in France, he returned to Frome (Somerset) a few years ago after spending more than half his life abroad.

1929-1942, a Swiss country boy, trained as a banker, works his way up in the hotel business at Brown's Hotel, London. He saves the Prince of Wales Hotel from bankruptcy and survives the Blitz with wife and two children. He becomes the manager of Brown's Hotel.1942-45, childhood memories of Brown's Hotel: sirens and a luxury air raid shelter; a princess; pelicans and tramps in Green Park; bonfire smoke and gas masks; V for Victory.1945, relatives and chewing gum in Lucerne. The Wallimans buy the Savoy Hotel in Cheltenham. A history and a tour of the building.1945-1950s, memories of beetles in the basement, of attics full of Christmas decorations and trunks with exotic stickers, of cellars filled with furniture, giant jars of eggs in lime water, the statue of a naked woman. Six children trying not to be noisy, making themselves useful in hotel and garden, in quarantine with measles and other diseases. Nannies. Welcome visitors from abroad. Ordinary guests and celebrities. Long-stay residents: the Lively Lady with Intellectual Aspirations, the Prince of Chess, the Archdeacon's Widow, the Gentleman who bought Racehorses, the Colonial Colonel and his Artistic Wife, etc. Employees and their work: housekeepers, linen keepers, office staff, chambermaids, porters, waiters and waitresses, dishwashers, gardeners.1952, the family moves to a house in the garden, the hotel gets a bar and a grill room.1960s, addition of a lift and further bedrooms. 1970s, the second generation takes over.1985, the hotel is sold.

'It is a truth universally acknowledged', wrote Jane Austen, 'that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife'. How much more urgent a requirement, then, if that man is possessed of an enormous fortune and an hereditary title? Few have been as vexed by this question than the Herbert Earls of Pembroke. In addressing it, the authors relate the tale of the womenfolk who have helped support, sustain, and supply the answer for approaching five centuries. But this is also the story of Wilton, variously the ancient capital of Wessex, prestigious medieval abbey, and stately home. Royal and Herbert patronage could not but bring remarkable women, who never became Countess of Pembroke, into its orbit. They include icons, such as Mary Sidney and Florence Nightingale, heiresses and eccentrics, a Princess and a Saint. The Authors both work as guides at Wilton House