Timeline Calne: 18 September 1965, Last passenger train

Calne Branch Railway at Calne Heritage Centre.

The last passenger train to run on the Calne branch was the Calne to Chippenham. It carried 142 passengers with a capacity of 262, leaving at 11:20pm. No passengers boarded at Stanley Bridge Halt, however a single passenger boarded at Black Dog Halt, a Mr. Douglas Lovelock, the last fulltime railwayman to be stationed at the Halt.

The driver was Frank Cannon, a railway man of 30 years standing. Railway police were also aboard to ensure safety, while fog detonators were exploded.

Between Calne and Black Dog Halt, 102 fog detonators were exploded - one for each year this branch line had been in operation.

After celebrations, the train that made this journey was put into the passenger sidings at the Chippenham station.

Reference:
Tanner, G., 1972. The Calne Branch. Oxford Publishing Co.

Place names of Calne: Carnegie Road, Carnegie Mews, Carnegie Building

Carnegie Road, Carnegie Mews and Carnegie Building are all named for Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919). Born in Scotland and later moving to the US, Carnegie was an industrialist known for founding the Carnegie Steel Company.This lead to very generous philantropic acts, such as the founding of the Carnegie Library.


The Carnegie Library scheme lead to libraries being built around the world, which included 600 in the UK, of which the Carnegie Building on New Road was one.


It was built in 1904, with the foundation stone being laid by the Earl of Kerry in the July of 1904. This fascinating building was first listed as Grade II on 8 July 1976.

The building served as a library from 1905 until 2001 when the library service moved into the new building in the town centre. During the second World War, however, the library was used as a Food Office and for the issue and stamping of Ration Books[1]. Since 2004 the building has served as Calne's Heritage Centre.

Carnegie Mews, which is built next to the old Carnegie Library, was built on what was previously the over-powering Harris Bacon factory. This development, which included Bank Row, was completed in 1995 and opened by Michard Needham, MP on 27 October 1995.

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

Carnegie Road is part of the Porte Marsh industrial estate developed in the late 1980s as a response to the loss of the Harris company and now provides a great deal of diverse employment opportunies for the town.

 

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

References:
En.wikipedia.org. (2019). Andrew Carnegie. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Carnegie [Accessed 18 Mar. 2019].
Calne Heritage Centre 
[1] Boddington, S., 1993. A Source of Price: A Brief History of Calne Library. 1st ed. Wiltshire: Wiltshire County Council Library & Museum Service.

Timeline Calne: July 1978, 'Two Pigs' Sculpture unveiled by Lady Lansdowne

1978
     The story of the pigs begins as Richard Cowdy is asked by Dr. Arnold Hare, the chairman of Calne Civic Society, to produce a sculpture to replace a tree which had been destroyed outside of The White Horse.


July 1979
The full size version of the sculpture took Richard Cowdy 8 weeks.
Michael Hadrell assisted Richard Cowdy to install the sculpture, which was cemented in place.
The cost of the sculpture, £148, to cover the metal, was covered by the Civic Society.
The sculpture was unveiled by Lady Lansdowne, with a speech by Cllr Frederick Eley, the Calne Town Mayor as the time.

 
1/10/2017-2/10/2017
     Calne pigs wrenched off their plinth overnight by use of a vehicle in 2 minutes and 45 seconds.
4/10/2017
     The owner of Ronson Reclaim, a reclamation yard in Gloucestershire, called the police to report that he had purchased the pigs before realising the statue was the one stolen from Calne.
6/10/2017
     The statue was picked up by Calne Town Council. Work on the plinth commenced soon after by Calne Council Ground Staff who upgraded the method of fixing the statue to the plinth. The base of the statue was repaired by Andy Blackford of Blackford Engineering free of charge.
10/11/2017
     The Calne Pig statue was back in place and unveiled by Tony Trotman, Mayor of Calne, at 4pm. The unveiling was completed with masses of applause and the pig was climbed upon my multitudes of childen, as he had been so many times in the past. This presentation featured a specially written piece of music performed by Calne Folk and Acoustic Group after the speech by the Mayor.

Place Names of Calne: Priestley Grove and Priestley Primary School

Both Priestley Grove and Priestley Primary School are named for Joseph Priestley who lived in Calne between June 1773 and  August 1780 when he left Calne for Birmingham. There also used to be a youth centre named for Priestley, which is now known as The Former Priestley Youth Centre as it's been for sale since around 2017.

Priestley is best known, particularly in Calne, for discovering the gas later known as oxygen, which he discovered at his laboratory at Bowood House in August 1774.

The school uses an image of a duck on its logo, which is a reference to Doctor's Pond, also named for Priestley, which is discussed in a previous post.

Priestley Primary School
The school, built c. 1968 has recently been enlarged, creating an eight classroom extension with a new main entrance, ancillary room and enlarged staff room. The building works over-ran schedule meaning delaying the start of the 2019 autumn term by a week.The school was original called Calne County Junior and Infant School.

Priestley Grove
Regarding Priestley Grove, grove means a small wood or group of trees. The 32 houses and bungalows on this road were built in 1934 by the borough[1]. While there may well have been trees at this location, considering that in the 1920s Bentley Grove was built. Grove is also one of the terms available to use for residential streets as per the Wiltshire Council policy. So, it could be the grove was simply used because it sounds nice and it ties the two  roads, that border the north and south of the sports ground, together.

 

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

References:
[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#anchorn39. [Accessed 14 January 2019].

Timeline Calne: January 1873, St. Mary's School opens

St. Marys as it is today, Curzon Street, Calne.

Concerned that there were no good schools based on Anglican doctrine and tradition for the girls in Calne and the surrounding area, Canon John Duncan, Vicar of Calne, urged the parish to realise the need for this type of school[1].

After gaining enough support, Duncan based the new school upon the priniciples of Nathaniel Woodward.

The original St. Mary's School,
with St. Mary's Church in the background.

Perhaps the most important supporter of Duncan's plans for this new school was Miss Ellinor Gabriel, not only was she the superintendent, but also bought 30, The Green (now Grade II listed) which became the first home of St. Mary's School. Along with other donors, Miss Gabriel fitted the house out to meet the needs of the school. In 1881, Miss Gabriel gave the income from £1000 to provide scholarships, in 1905, which amounted to £92[2].

When the school opened that January of 1873, it had 6 day girls and 3 boarders. The families of whom had to have connections to St. Mary's church.

Miss Richardson was the first head at the school and held the position for 3 years.

Of course, the school has gone from strength to strength, ranks in the top 3 best boarding schools for girls and has an enrolment of around 350 pupils[3].

Resources:
[1] Christie, E., 2013. Consider the Lilies - A History of St Mary's Calne. 1st ed. London: Third Millenium.
[2] Calne: Education | British History Online. 2019. Calne: Education | British History Online. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/wilts/vol17/pp111-114. [Accessed 03 July 2019].
[3] Wikipedia. 2019. St Mary's School, Calne - Wikipedia. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Mary%27s_School,_Calne#History. [Accessed 03 July 2019].