19/06/2019

Timeline Calne: 1886 Calne's new Town Hall

Calne Town Hall, 2017.
In June 1883 the old Town Hall, that had existed on the West of the High Street, was demolished with the intention of building a replacement on the same site. However, public opinion made it known that this would be a mistake.

Carved stone coat of arms
from the original town hall
is still visible on our current Town Hall.
Therefore, the council purchased the Town Mill from Lord Lansdowne for £950. Additional land was purchased at a later date to include a new police station and two cells (which now form the mayor's parlour), which was to the right of the archway.

Local builder, Beazley had his bid accepted at £4,800. The instruction to begin the work was not given until April of 1884, as additional funds needed to be raised. The original plans by Bryan Oliver of Bath, didn't include the clock tower, but was agreed to during the building process.

While the Council met in the new Town Hall on 3 March 1886, the foundation work was so expensive that it wasn't until 1888 that the building was paid for. The massive cost for the foundation was due to the discovery that the actual ground level was over 7 metres down, incuding the uncovering of some red deer antlers, and over the centuries had appeared higher due to being silted up.

The majority of the building, almost 70%, was paid for by subscribers, who paid £6515 6s 1d of the final cost of £9375 4s 3d. Henry William Harris was the first Calne Town Mayor to serve in the new Town Hall (1886 and 1187).

Resources:
Treloar, P., 1973. Calne Borough Council in the Nineteenth Century. 1st ed. Calne
Marsh, A., 1903. A HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH AND TOWN OF CALNE. 1st ed. London: HAZELL, WATSON AND VINEY, LTD. 

03/06/2019

Place Names of Calne: High Street

High Street is reportedly the most common street name in the UK, with around 5410 in 2009[1]. The name relates to the concept of the street being the 'principle' business centre of the town.

High Street, Calne. Looking south towards the Town Hall.
High Street, as a name, became more common after the 1666 Great Fire of London, when parliament took the opportunity to designate four categories of street according to the width of the carriageway. The high street, being the only place that business were expected to operate, as this kept the shops in an open marketplace, a way of attempting to protect the seller from dubious selling practices[2].

A 1728 map of Calne shows the street that we would come to know as High Street, but on this map it is labelled 'Market'. The 1886 OS map, we see High Street, which is shown to have a public house, police station, and a bank. In 1968, the High Street was split in two for the widening of the A4, see Curzon Street.

The Calne High Street has been home to so much life and so many businesses, that only a brief overview can be given:

There have been at least two schools: Mr. Taylor ran his "High Street Grammar School" in the early to mid-1800s. The Fintragh School operated between approximately the 1930s and the 1950s at what is now known as "The Old School House, The Pippin". Miss Barker and her brother Sid, who took over after Miss Stone retired, are well remembered for running this private school. When the school closed, upon the retirement of Miss Barker and her brother, pupils went across to the school at Westhill, which was demolished when Curzon Street was widened.

Inns: The Crown was one of two inns at the High Street. It was open certainly by 1557, as it is mentioned in Walter Fynamor's will, in which he instructed an annuity be left to establish a school for 10 poor children. It operated until 1946 when it was put up for sale, and later demolished. The King's Arms, formerly the Borough Arms, was open between the late 1700s and was a well used coaching inn. It still has old coach service signs at the gates of this Grade II listed building. The pub was put up for freehold sale in 2013, however by 2017 it was closed and now operates as Infusions Tea Room and Salon XVIII.

Shops: One of the longest running businesses on the High Street was the Ironmongers, Wilkins. This business operated by Henry Wilkins from c. 1802 at 15-17 High Street. Wilkins diversified to selling French Colza oil by 1859 and making dairy in 1861. They became Wilkins and Son, with Henry Wilkins Junior taking over in 1889, when his father died at the age of 90. Edgar Brown took over managerial tasks, when Henry Wilkins and his wife visited New Zealand in 1896. Brown took the opportunity to sell bicycles and make repairs. By 1899 Brown owned the shop due to Wilkins poor health. It was in 1927 when Cecil Trotman took over the business from Edgar Brown. Cecil ran the business with his son John, who took over when Cecil died in 1964. At this point the business becomes Trotman & Sons Ltd, with John's sons, Hugh and Tony, coming into the business. The High Street presence continued until the shop was acquired, in 1970, under compulsory purchase as part of the Phelps Parade development. Trotman and Sons continued their successful business, at The Pippin, until the business was sold in 2009, which now operates as Erols DIY.

Banks: Midland Bank operated from 4 High Street, before it was taken over by HSBC, which itself closed a few years back. Many will also remember Britannia Bjuilding Society operating at 19 High Street. Lloyds bank which has operated from 10 and 11 High Street, possibly as far back as 1915 was Calne's last bank until it closed on 13 July 2020. Interestingly, C. & T. Harris operated an office above the bank for some years.

Calne's High Street, like many others all over the country, has its peaks and troughs. Recently many new businesses have moved to High Street, including Maria's Flowers and Pet Supplies, Family Wise, and Eden Beauty.

 

To discover more about the place names of Calne, buy the book:


References:
[1] High Street - Wikipedia. 2019. High Street - Wikipedia. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Street#Definition_and_usage. [Accessed 11 January 2019].
[2] Benson, J., 2002. A nation of shopkeepers. London : I.B. Taurus, 2003.

01/06/2019

Timeline Calne: 1086, Calne Entry in the Domesday book

Calne entry, Domesday book 1086.
Source: http://opendomesday.org/place/ST9971/calne/
In the Domesday book of 1086 racords Calne as having a total population of 114.5 households, which made this a very large population in comparison to other towns recorded.

Further details in the Calne entry of the Domesday book 1086 include:

King William as Lord
44 villagers (who had the most land),
80 smallholders (who had less land than the villagers),
14 slaves,
10 freedmen,
70 burgesses, with another 11 recorded as other population.

It was also recorded that Calne has 34 ploughlands, which is land that could be ploughed within a year by an 8 oxen plough team. In Calne this was made up of 10 lord's plough teams and 24 men's plough teams. Other resources to be found in Calne at this time were 50 acres of meadow, 9 mills at a value of 5.62, 1 church and 6 church lands.

For further details, please read this previous post.