Custard and the Wiltshire flag

The Wiltshire flag was registered on 1 December 2009 following support from Wiltshire County Council and certified by Graham Bartram, Flag Institute Chief Vexillologist.

The flag was designed by Mike Prior and daughter Helen Pocock. At its centre, the flag features the bustard, a bird that was native to the county, until it became extinct in the country in 1832. However, since 2004, the Great Bustard Group has released many chicks on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire. Having a bustard in gold as the centre of the flag shows the significance placed on having this previously lost species back within our county borders.

Other elements of the flag include the solid green circle, to represent the open grassland of Wiltshire, which is bordered by a circle of alternating green and white to represent the famous stone circles of Averbury and Stonehenge. These alternating portions also represent the 6 counties that border our own: Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Hampshire, Dorset, and Somerset.

The photo on the left shows the flag in action at County Hall, Trowbridge.









Custard the bustard

Custard the bustard lives at the Trowbridge branch of the Wiltshrie library. This sculpture was created after Councillor Jane Scott commissioned it for Wiltshire Council after seeing a collection of similar sculptures during the Queen's visit to Salisbury.

A competition commenced during September and October 2012, for under 12s to name the sculpture. Out of 40 entries, James Coles and Freya Mitchell won, when they both submitted "Custard" as their name choice.

Amesbury Artist, Anna Marie Anderson, painted the sculpture in colours matching the Wiltshire flag.

Custard the bustard was officially unveiled during November 2012.

You can visit Custard yourself during library open hours!

The engraved plaque that sits on the sculpture plinth.

References:
The Flag Institute. 2018. Wiltshire - The Flag Institute. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.flaginstitute.org/wp/flags/wiltshire/. [Accessed 19 July 2018].
Wiltshire Times. 2018. Custard the Bustard unveiled at Trowbridge County Hall | Wiltshire Times. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.wiltshiretimes.co.uk/news/10079818.Custard_the_Bustard_unveiled_at_Trowbridge_County_Hall/?ref=arc. [Accessed 19 July 2018].

Facebook Groups

This year I've created two Facebook groups. The first focusses on photographs of Calne from any period of time, the other concentrates on the history and heritage of our town.

Both groups allow a radius of 6 miles, which stretches through Calne, Calne Without, and a little further - as nothing, especially history happens in isolation. Plus this let's us see the beauty that surrounds us here in Calne!

The groups have been quite successful so far and are active with lots of friendly members. 

Check us out and join if you'd like!

Road Strip Map: The Road from London to Bristol, 1753

The Road from London to Bristol. Photographed at Chippenham Museum during their
Georgian season exhibition.

'Caln' and the Arms of Calne.

This 1753 map was one of many that appeared in Britannia Depicta, an illustrated road atlas covering Britain. It was first printed in 1720 and subsequently updated with engravings by many artists until the 1800s. Britannia Depicta was printed by Emanuel Bowen and John Owen's firm and is based from earlier work by John Ogilby.

This strip map covered the journey from London to Bristol and covered pages 22-26. This page is of interest because is covers Calne, not only showing the familiar castle and feathers that are still included in our coat of arms, but also because it records the name of our town as 'Caln' and 'Calne'.

Other local places covered by this book are Chippenham (which is on the other side of the Calne page), Marlborough, and Devizes, which includes a short history of the castle.

The entire book is available on the Archive.org website. To access or download the book, click this link, or navigate to the website and search from there.

Book Review: Stonehenge and Avebury by Rodney Legg

This is a fantastic gazetteer that covers sites at Avebury and Stonehenge.

Avebury is covered first and begins with a simple labelled map of sites, which aids context when reading the descriptions, but wouldn't easily be used to find the off-road sites within the Avebury World Heritage Site area. However, that's not a problem as OS map references are provided and are likely to be clearly labelled on OS maps of the area.

Along with descriptions of the site and items of special interest within each site, some historical context is provided, which can really help with understanding just how recently a lot of features, particularly underground features, were discovered. Interestingly, I read that Woodhenge was assumed to be a ploughed-out disc barrow until the advent of archeaological aerial reconnaissance in 1925.

There are photographs showing many of the sites and particular features of interest, including a lot of snow scenes, which can allow a lot of detail to be revealed within a site (particularly features on stone).

The Avebury section receives about a third of this book, with the Stonehenge area recieving the rest. Sites covered in the Avebury area include, but not limited to:
Adam and Eve
Avebury
Beckhampton Avenue and Longbarrow
Devil's Den
East Kennet Long Barrow
Lockeridge Dene
Seven Barrows
Silbury Hill
West Kennet Avenue, Henge Monuments, and Long Barrow
Windmill Hill.

As this is a blog focused on the Calne area, I haven't listed the Stonehenge sites, but rest assured that there are many.

This is a good book to read offsite and to have with you onsite to gain insight into these marvellous structures that almost seem to be littered around us. Definitely worth a read.

Jan Ingen Housz: Anniversary of his death at Bowood, 7 Sep 1799 - Part 2.

This plaque is located outside the door of Calne library and reads:

Jan Ingen Housz

The Dutch physician, Jan Ingen Housz MD, FRS (1730-1799) was doctor in the Austrian Royal Family but was in England in 1779. Before returning to Vienna he spent that summer performing over 500 experiments in a house near London.

These proved, for the first time, that the green parts of plants absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen in sunlight: in other words they purify the air we breathe. At the same time the carbon absorbed is converted to starch so that plants are also the ultimate source of all our food. We therefore commemorate the genius of Ingen Housz, the discoverer of what we now call photosynthesis.

He returned to live in England later in life and was a frequent guest at Bowood House, where he died. He is buried in Calne, in a vault under St. Mary's Church.

The decorative paving was created by members of the Calne Artists Group: David Reeves the overall design and ceramic leaves, Vivien ap Rhys Price the head of Ingen Housz from a 1768 medallion. Photocast of Liverpool cast the bronze.