Walks

I am arranging a local Walking Club to keep byways, bridal paths and footpaths open to the public. They will be great fun and will be between Chilmark, Teffont, Tisbury, Fonthill and Hindon and start as well as end at an appropriate Pub.

So for fitness and sociable fun, join us by emailing - Chilmark@email.com

THOUGHTS, WALKS AND MEMORIES FROM DIANA FORBES

Bridleways and footpaths to Chicksgrove

From Chilmark, if you go down the road past the quarries, you will come to a gap in the RAF fencing, leading to the bridleway which goes north-east over the hill to Teffont Evias; or you can take a turn at the top of the hill and go back to Chilmark. A little further on you will find a path on the opposite side marked Footpath.  Take the left fork.  The other leads through the wood to some fields, and used to go past the guard dog kennels which are no longer there.

Follow the signed path to the top of the hill.  Ignore the junction leading back to the quarry road.  You will find on your right an ancient pond, which in the present drought has dried up.  It used to be very deep and many years ago, returning home after a long ride, I stopped to give my horse a drink.  He stepped in and swam to the other side, leaving me holding on to an oak branch which overhung the pond!  I rode home with soaking feet and legs.  It was, I think, November and cold!   Beyond the pond is the remains of an old stone wall, which probably was part of the surround of a yard with buildings an outlier of a local farm used before the advent of motor vehicles.

The path continues past some hazel bushes and then gets steep and narrow down the other side of the hill.  It is very sheltered with high banks on each side.  In the spring the first early primroses come out here.  You will also find Hartstongue ferns and Broad ferns and perhaps violets.  Finally, the path ends when it comes into a steep narrow road running between Teffont and Tisbury.  Turn right and you will find yourself in Lower Chicksgrove, where there used to be a school and chapel, now turned into dwelling houses.

A little way along you will come to the Manor.  There is a mounting block outside, if you wish to rest your horse and maybe get a drink.  A bridleway goes up the hill past the Manor, over a field, through a wood, and across a big field to Lady Down and the Tisbury Chilmark Road.

If you cross the field to another wood, you will find another track, also a bridleway leading down the hill to Upper Chicksgrove.  Cross the Tisbury Road at the bottom and you will find a driveway leading past more homes and a farmyard to the River Nadder.  There is a fine stone bridge over the river and a level crossing on the other side.  From here you can get onto a bridleway through a wooded hillside to Swallowcliffe.  Alternatively, you can take a track back to the Compass Inn.

In the old days Chicksgrove was part of Chilmark.  People used to take their corn there to be ground at the mill.  There used to be a third pathway leading to Lower Chicksgrove, past Chilmark Old Quarries.  This is now closed, probably since the RAF took over the quarries at the beginning of the War.  Some of the local inhabitants would like it re-opened.  I remember walking down it with my father.  Gypsies used to camp along it in the sheltered part, where there were high banks on each side.

Diana Forbes

Pugpits Wood

Pits Wood, or Pugpits as it used to be called, lies on the north slope of the hill between Chilmark and Tisbury, next to the road. Pug is an old word for fox. It is ancient woodland of oak, ash and thorn. The Romans dug small opencast quarries there to get stone for their buildings. These deep pits are now overgrown.

Before the war, the hazel growing in the wood was coppiced. This let in the light and primroses, violets and various orchids and other wild flowers grew there. They would no doubt come again if light were let in. There are still patches of Colchicum autumnale (Meadow Saffron) or Autumn Crocus growing there. The slender stalked mauve flowers appear about October and the leaves in the spring.

When we were children, our mother took us to Pugpits to pick primroses for Good Friday. On Easter Saturday we used to decorate the church font. Our fingers sometimes got very cold picking primroses but they looked lovely on Easter Day.

Mary Harding used to decorate the choir stalls with primroses in small vases tied to the posts along the chancel these were very pretty. To the south of the wood lies Ladydown which used to be a common where we went for picnics. The rabbits kept down the grass and bushes until Mixamatosis came and wiped them out. In the war the common was ploughed up to grow more food for the populace. Rare wild flowers such as Bee Orchid and Yellow-wort used to grow there. At the moment this piece of land has been set aside. Some of the wild flowers are appearing again. The beautiful Musk Mallow with large pink flowers has come all along inside the fence by the bridleway. I have found Melilot, Centaury and Restharrow there. Scarlet Pimpernel has been found under the crop of beans in quantity.

The bridleway and footpath runs along the wood down to the old Chilmark Common. This is now fenced in and used for sheep and pheasant breeding. When I was young, we used to go to Chilmark Common to pick Cowslips in the spring and Blackberries in the autumn. We can still walk or ride around it as the bridleway is preserved. At the lower end of the bridleway, before you get to the Common, grows a rare plant. This is a kind of vetch with white flowers called Wild Liquorice. I do not know how the sweets were made from it. Wild Marjoram also grows here you can use this for flavouring soups and pies. In the wood are a few patches of Wild Garlic you can use the leaves for flavouring your cooking.

Diana Forbes

Hindon Lane

If you can tell the age of a lane or road by the number of different kinds of bushes and trees that grow in the hedges, Hindon Lane must be at least 1000 years old. Originally, it would have been a track way leading up past Manor Farm and crossing the ancient Ox drove and going up Warminster Bottom, crossing the A303 and going through Great Ridge Wood where the old track way still leads down to Codford with branches off to Stockton and Wylye and westward to Heytesbury and Warminster. There used to be an old signpost in Sutton Veney pointing up a track to Chilmark.

We can imagine wagonloads of grain being pulled by strong carthorses with bells hung above them on their way to different markets. Some of these bells used to be hung by the entrance of Manor House when I was a child.

The village winterbourne rises from springs in Kents Hill fields that border our lane on the south side. The springs form pools by the hedge when they rise. The water flows through a pipe into the ditch then goes under the road into the stream. These pools never freeze and are a haven for thrushes, blackbirds, redwings and fieldfares in the winter frost and snow. Also, the ponies love to paddle and drink from them. Bushes of Snowberry grow along the side of the lane while beyond the garden on the north side of the lane, Yew, Beech, Horse chestnut and Sycamore trees grow.

There is a streambed behind the bank on this side of the road that fills with water when the springs are high. No doubt the tall trees soak up much of the water helping to prevent flooding. Further up the lane, different bushes grow. Blackthorn has long sharp spikes making a strong hedge to keep the cattle in. It provides sloes to flavour your gin, or excellent jelly. Sloes are very bitter but when frosted you can eat them raw. Hazel gives us nuts in autumn and pea sticks if allowed to grow tall. This part of the hedge has been laid. This allows it to grow thick and strong from the base. It need not be laid again for seven years. The sides just need trimming back in the winter. Hawthorn gives us beautiful white May blossom in the spring and red haws for the birds in autumn. Sycamore provides seeds used as aeroplanes by children. Ash provides strong sticks and good firewood. Spindle has beautiful red berries that split to show bright orange seeds; these are poison. Maple has winged seeds that spin when thrown in the air. Kipling called this the warmest tree in the wood. It has rough brown bark and bright red and orange leaves in autumn. Privet is evergreen with black berries. Elder berries can be used to make wine or to flavour apple jelly. Whistles can be made from its hollow stems. There are a few Elm suckers that grow into small trees. These soon die when attacked by the elm bark beetle.

Diana Forbes

Snoopy

Snoopy first came to Cheriton in 1983.  He was a strongly built New Forest bay pony of 14 hands, probably crossed with a thoroughbred.  He had been bought for about 120 by a mother for her daughter aged 12, who had learnt the basics of riding, grooming etc in my riding school.

Although my pupil could ride him quite well once she was helped to mount him, her mother wanted to sell him.  Unfortunately he must have been badly handled and possibly teased by children before he came to us and was in somewhat poor condition when he came here.  He would not let any child near him, unless there was a responsible adult with the child, and would bite or kick them if they tried to groom him.

I said I would like to keep him for a year until he was in good condition, and then sell him, so I bought him from her.

Soon after he came, during a visit from the blacksmith he suddenly had a bad nose bleed.  We sent for the vet who had only come across this condition before in race horses!

His treatment was to stay in the stable for two weeks, being fed only on dry food.  Twice a day he had to have medicine puffed up his nose morning and evening.  After this treatment, which he hated, he was alright and did not get ill again.  It took two of us to give him this treatment, as of course he struggled against us.

After this, some of the older girls found they could manage him and became very fond of him.  Diane, one of the girls, then bought a half share in him from me on the understanding that I wanted to buy him back when she no longer wanted to ride him.  Later in 1983 Diane took him on one of our sponsored rides in aid of charity to Baverstock and back by bridleways.  He did another long sponsored ride in 1984.

We also used to go once a year on a long picnic ride, visiting churches on the way; getting sponsor money in aid of Chilmark Church and the Wiltshire Historic Churches Fund.  We used to go by the Holt bridle path to Teffont Evias, back to Teffont Magna, on to Dinton by the old road and across the park and sometimes across fields to Baverstock.  Of course we visited Chilmark when we started out, so that was 5 churches altogether.  At each church we signed our names and were usually given a little refreshment while our ponies grazed or had a tit bit.

One year the girls Louise and Diane took Ashley, our beautiful strawberry roan 14.2 hand pony, and Snoopy on a sponsored ride at Stourhead, with jumps on the way.  Louises uncle gave them lifts with his horse trailer to get there and back.

We taught Snoopy to jump and he became quite good, competing in our gymkhanas with Ashley and Puffin (a little Welsh pony).  They all won our home made rosettes in various classes and races.  Other children from round about brought their ponies and joined in.  Once we had an assault course with jumps all around my fields.

Most Saturdays the older children and usually myself went for long rides on the local bridleways, the riders sometimes changing with the walkers half way.

Each year we laid up one field for hay to feed them in the winter.  For a while we had a Welsh Cob, Gambler, but he was not easy to manage, and I sold him to Wilton Riding School.  He stayed there until he died of old age.

When I became too old to run the riding school I kept Snoopy to ride myself.  He became friends with other horses, whose owners rented the grazing.

Although Snoopy was wary of people, he liked other ponies and horses.  When he came, he made friends straight away with Ashley, almost as if they might have known each other previously, and after that they were always together.

At that time we had Charcoal, a Highland pony, who was big and strong and carried me well when leading the ride.  We also had two Welsh ponies, Puffin and Chalky, and later on Merlin (15 h) and Donna (14.2) came to us when my brother left Shillingstone.  They all got on well together, though Ashley was always the boss.  Gradually we lost all our ponies Except Snoopy (mostly through old age).

Then various horses came whose owners rented the grazing.  An ex race horse, Thomas came for a while, and Snoopy liked to go out with him, and we showed his owner the local bridleways.  Finally when Snoopy reached the age of 27 he began to get thin and poor in the winter months (in spite of being well-fed) so we had him put down so that he should not suffer.

Once he was ridden over to Charlton.  He was put up for the night and entered a gymkhana the next day.

Another time he stayed for a while with a friend in Tisbury who also borrowed my saddle.  This was fortunate, as my other pony saddles were stolen.  A village friend gave us one of her saddles and I was able to get second hand ones from a saddlery on the hill above Semley (now no longer there).

Once we were invited over to Fovant for a ride over the downs and along the old road above Alvediston.  Our ponies were invited to stay the night in a field in Fovant.  It was a big field, and when I went over the next day to collect Snoopy there was another pony in the middle of the field looking exactly like him.  Snoopy was nowhere to be seen.  I caught this pony and rode him home, thinking it was him.  When the owner of this pony came the next day she went to catch Snoopy, thinking he was hers.  Unfortunately he ran at her and bit her, but she still did not realise her mistake.  When one of my girls came, thinking to ride Snoopy, she came to me and said it was not Snoopy.  I said how do you know?  She said Snoopy had one white foot behind.  So we then realised our mistake and she took this pony back to Fovant and brought Snoopy home.

When Snoopy got old he became much more friendly and one day a small girl was seen standing on the gate at the bottom of the hill and stroking him on his nose.  He liked to be caught and came into the yard to have a small feed and be groomed, and have his eyes bathed.

Diana Forbes

Early Days at Chilmark

When we came to Chilmark in 1930 we lived in Chilmark House, and the Hardings lived in the Forge (the cottage opposite).  They kept chickens at the back, and used the old workshop for carpentry work.  Sometimes my mother, whose bedroom looked out over the road to the Forge would hear Tap, Tap, Tap through the night from the Hardings workshop.  She would then know that someone in the village had died, and the coffin was being made ready for the funeral and burial in the churchyard.  There was a special high trolley for wheeling the coffin up the hill to the churchyard, where the coffin would rest under the Lych gate.  The Lych gate was given to the church in memory of Miss Lindsell who was killed when her pony trap overturned in Fonthill Park.  You can see the place, as there is a memorial stone by the road in the park.  Francis Harding had 3 sons and 2 daughters.  The sons were Peter the builder, Ted who became a blacksmith and married and moved to Somerset, but came back to Chilmark in his old age, and John who was a carpenter and organist in the church.  The daughters were Muriel, an excellent cook, now aged 103, and her younger sister Tibby, a widow, whose daughter works in Salisbury District Hospital.  They both live in different residential homes in Amesbury.

In those days there was a mens choir, including Peter Harding, Mr Cull, Mr Morgan and Mr Jeanes.  Maurice Jeanes joined but left to join the Air Force when the war came.  They also rang the bells to call people to the services.

When Francis Harding retired, his son Peter who had married and lived in Sixpenny Handley, came to Chilmark, and took over as sexton, undertaker and verger from his father.  His wife, May and daughter Mary came too.  Mary had trained in Salisbury as a dressmaker and was in great demand for making bridesmaids dresses for village weddings.  In the war, John worked as a carpenter with the RAF at the old Quarries.  The RAF employed many Chilmark inhabitants during the war.  They were good to the village.

We had a district nurse, who looked after the sick in Chilmark, Fonthill and Hindon.  My mother became secretary to the Nursing Association and would attend meetings at Fonthill House, where Lady Margaret Morrison was President.  Once, at one of the meetings, the cat proceeded to have kittens in their sitting room.  Lady Margaret rang for a maid, who took the family away.  Once a week the district nurse would come to our house to report to my mother on the cases she had attended.  This would take a long time, and often our lunch would be delayed until they had finished, which used to annoy us!

The Mothers Union would meet regularly at the Rectory.  When old Mr Williams and his family retired to Parsons Paddock (the bungalow on the main road) Major Deedes, who had run the Manor Farm during the war, gave the land for a new Rectory to be built on the main road opposite Manora, where old Mrs Flower lived with her two daughters.  The first Rector to inhabit the new Rectory was Mr Perry, with his wife, daughter and 2 sons and their helper Lois Bearder.  The Perry children were teenagers, and we often used to visit them.  Lois used to help in the Sunday School, as did Mary Harding (Peters daughter), Miss Palmer the infant school teacher, and myself when at home.

Of course the church bells could not be rung in the war, and great was our joy when peace came and we heard them again.

Mrs Bertha Yeates used to clean the church with the help of her daughter Brenda.  At Harvest Festival, sheaves of corn would be given for decoration, and Mrs Yeates was always glad to take them home for her chickens.

The Sunday School used to be invited to a tea party on the lawn of the new Rectory once a year in the summer.

When my mother inherited some money from her sister, who died young, she bought part of Fairmead above our orchard, and had a tennis court made for us children and our friends.  When the war came and we all left home, my mother allowed the village to form a club and play on the court, which they enjoyed.  They could play anytime except Sunday mornings when the church service was on.  When the court was being made, some Elizabethan coins were dug up.  They used to have a horse fair in Fairmead in the old days.

The Hardings allowed Dr Illingworth, the Hindon doctor, who served Chilmark, to hold his surgery in their cottage once a week.  The patients would wait in the sitting room with Mrs Harding and Mary and go one by one to the doctor in the room opposite.  The Hardings always had nice fires burning in both rooms.  Mary kept a selection of toys for the children to play with.  She was very fond of children.  The adults enjoyed talking and gossiping together, as we mostly knew each other.  Dr Clay also served Chilmark, and some of us attended his surgery in Fovant or he would visit us.

The Church Fte has always been held in the garden of the old Rectory, as successive owners have allowed it to happen.  This is always well attended and much enjoyed.  The stall holders and providers of teas work hard to make it a success and raise money for the church.  The school children dance round the May pole and often enjoy pony rides and competitions as well as ice cream.

The Flower Show (Chilmark Horticultural Society Show) has always been held once a year.  It used to be in Fairmead but now is usually on the playing field.  There has always been a good show of vegetables and flowers, and strong competition for the various cups which have been given to encourage the show.  In the old days the vegetable cup was usually won by Mr Yeates, Mr Carpenter or Mr Trigwell, and great was the rivalry.    The women of the village always entered a good display of cakes, jams, tarts etc, and flower arrangements, and also won cups.  As children we used to enjoy making miniature gardens on soup plates to put in the show and carry them up to the field. The children drew pictures, made models and examples of their best writing, and one would be the winner of the cup.  After the show a raffle is held and many of the goods are sold in aid of the show.  The hire of the marquee is a big item.   Good judges are invited for the competition and are usually rewarded with lunch after the judging.  The public is kept out of the tent after10.00am until the afternoon, so the judging can take place.

In the old days Girl Guides, Cub-Scouts and later on Youth Clubs would meet in the Reading Room as well as the WI and various . Slide shows in aid of good causes.  Once when repairs were being done in the church, the church service was held in the Reading Room.  At one time, the Salvation Army would hold a service at the Cross.  Chairs were brought out from the Reading Room and we would all enjoy singing hymns accompanied by the Salvation Army trumpets etc.

In Mr Trotmans time the church bells were brought down from the belfry and taken away to be retuned.  It was very interesting to see the enormous heavy bells standing in the church.

At one time Mr Peter Harding used to ring tunes on the bells of various hymns on Sunday evenings for the benefit of his invalid mother.  A villager has started to do this again from time to time and long may she continue.

In the autumn a big sale is held in the Reading Room to raise funds for its upkeep.  A great raffle is held, and cakes, Christmas presents, books etc are sold.  The room is usually choc-a-bloc with buyers.  Recently small sales of vegetables, cakes, books etc have been held once a fortnight in the summer on Saturdays to help keep the Reading Room going.  Visitors can buy coffee, tea and biscuits and sit at the small table.  We enjoy meeting and chatting to our neighbours.

The church now has a good mixed choir run by Mrs Pattenden.  We share with Hindon and Fonthill.  We no longer have a Rector living in Chilmark but are well looked after by the Tisbury Team.

Diana Forbes

Girl Guides, Brownies and Cub Scouts

When I was growing up, I was very keen on becoming a Girl Guide.  There was no company in our village.  Mother did not want me to join Tisbury Guides, so my friend and I became Loan Guides.  We received a monthly letter giving us things to learn and do.  We enjoyed this, but unfortunately our captain became ill and had to give up.

At boarding school I joined a company and gained my second class badge, and astronomers badge.  My father taught us to recognise some stars and constellations, such as the Great Bear and Orion.  In the Navy they had to know certain stars, to guide them on their way at night.  We used to go up on to our roof at night, where we had a wonderful view of the heavens.  Once, during the war, there was a wonderful view of the Northern Lights Aurora Borealis.  I made a painting of it in my nature note book.

One hot day in summer at my boarding school, St Margarets, Bushey, we carried our mattresses and bedding out onto the playing field and slept outside.  Of course we had a wonderful view of the sky, and some of us got our astronomers badges.

As I got older I dreamed of starting a guide company in Chilmark, and camping in the old quarry.  My brothers and I used to play and light fires for cooking, and make homes in the caves.

When I left my boarding school at the age of 17 I came to live at home for 2 years before I could go to the Charlotte Masons Training College.  The quarries were then sold to the RAF.  The Gething family who owned them, moved away to Donhead.

Mary Gething used to run the Dinton Girl Guides.  She asked me to take over.  Of course, I was much too young and inexperienced, but she had trained some very good leaders among the girls.  They ran the weekly meetings for me.

I learnt to drive the car and used to take some Chilmark girls to the meeting.  Then I found two friends to take over the Dinton company, and started our own company.  Mrs Jones, head of Chilmark School, was most encouraging and let us meet in the school.  The children then stayed at Chilmark School till they were 14 and went to work.

Miss Jane Allen then ran a guide company at Hindon.  She invited us to join the camp at Golden Cap, near Lyme Regis.  We had a wonderful time there.  Several girls from Dinton came with me.  Chilmark girls were very shy.

When I went to college, my aunt, Mrs Forbes from Codford, took over the Chilmark company, helped sometimes by her daughter Joan, who was training to be a nurse at Great Ormond Street.  I carried on in the holidays when I was home.

I went to a guiders training camp run by Irene Usher, the Wiltshire Camp Advisor.  I very much enjoyed it, especially crawling through the woods on a stalking game, coming out smelling of garlic, of which the wood was full!  I have liked the smell ever since.  My father took me over and pitched my tent, a small triangular one they took on fishing holidays in Ireland.  When he had gone I was made to take it down and pitch it myself in a different place.  Here I learnt to cook potatoes and cut up a cabbage.

War then broke out.  My brother Andrew joined the Navy.  Colin was still at Radley College, but when home kept watch at night with the Home Guard under Col. Marshall Smith.  Our Chilmark guides acted as patients for the Red Cross training under Dr Clay, and collected waste paper and stored it in our granary.

In term time I was at college in the Lake District.  We had games, pretending to stalk parachutists.

In the summer holiday I ran a camp for local guides in Fonthill Abbey Woods.  My cousin Joan was very popular with the girls and led wonderful campfire sing songs.  Our Chilmark carrier Mr Ted Street took me and our bell tents and cooking things in his lorry.

At that time the girls has palliasses to sleep on, which the girls filled with straw which we bought in bales.  Mr Streets daughter Pam, about 9 years old, came for the ride.  Of course, when he came to take me and the equipment home, the straw was all loose, and poor Mr Street did not want to load it on his lorry.  However, I persuaded him, as we had to leave everything tidy, and he relented.

Miss Usher came down to inspect our camp, as I hoped to pass my campers licence, but unfortunately my college friend who was quartermaster, had left a joint of meat outside the store tent.  Of course, Miss Usher noticed this and said a dog might have made off with it.  Also we had not made a proper bed rack and camp furniture from sticks, as we should have done, so I failed, but all the same it was a very happy camp and we all enjoyed it.

Some of us went to early communion at Fonthill Gifford Church.  We hadnt noticed the change of time Double Summer time had arrived an hour early.  We also went to an 11 oclock service, and enjoyed sitting in the cool church, as the weather was very hot that day.  Mr Sutcliffe took the service.

In subsequent camps we camped at Redlynch, Brook, in the New Forest and at a farm between Corfe and Swanwich, near Weymouth, and finally a Wiltshire camp in Fonthill Park, where we visited the stables and the lovely garden by the big house.  Miss Vera Flower used to help with games with the cubs.  Miss Jane Barrington Ward (Mrs Hammond as she is now known) helped at home and took a meeting at Fovant when I was away.  When I became ill in 1972, ending in an ileostomy operation, the guide company came to an end, though the Brownies under Miss Palmer carried on for a few years.  The Cubs also came to an end, though Mrs Hayward carried on for a while.  When I was home again, I started my riding school, which was very popular for some years.

In time Miss Palmer, who was the infant school teacher at Chilmark School, became our lieutenant, and much enjoyed being quartermaster at our guide camps. She trained under Lady Betty, who was a great guider  Miss Palmer started the Chilmark Brownies, who were very popular for a number of years.  We then held meetings in the Reading Room.

After the war Dr Clay asked me to start a Wolf cub pack in Fovant, where they already had a boy Scout troop.  Brenda of the Cross Keys Inn was to help and we started a very happy group of boys meeting in the field above the inn, or in St Georges Hall in the winter.    After a while Chilmark boys joined and the pack moved to Chilmark.  There was a pack in Hindon, and in time we all joined up in Chilmark.  The Hindon pack was run by Mrs Baker.

We used to go for hikes, and cook sausages etc on our camp fire. We often took my horse called Battle, and the boys loved to have rides on him.  The guides enjoyed him too on their hikes.  Every summer we had a guide camp.  The first was a great success.  Heather Chasmar and Carol Scott were very keen camp helpers, and Miss Palmer was quartermaster.  Her first camp was in Dinton Park.  I then passed my campers licence.

In subsequent camps we camped at Redlynch, Brook, in the New Forest and at a farm between Corfe and Swanwich, near Weymouth, and finally a Wiltshire camp in Fonthill Park, where we visited the stables and the lovely garden by the big house.  Miss Vera Ward used to help with games with the cubs.  Miss Jane Barrington Ward (Mrs Hammond as she is now known) helped at home and took a meeting at Fovant when I was away.  When I became ill in 1972, ending in an ileostomy operation, the guide company came to an end, though the Brownies under Miss Palmer carried on for a few years.  The Cubs also came to an end, though Mrs Hayward carried on for a while.  When I was home again, I started my riding school, which was very popular for some years.

Diana Forbes

Ancient Civilisations

Wiltshire is one of the best counties for finding relics of ancient times and civilisations. Avebury and Stonehenge are good examples. Above Chilmark on Stockton Down is an ancient hill fort. You can see the deep ridges and deep ditches the ancient Britons made for shelter and fortification. They liked to live on top of the downs. Below was thick forest inhabited by wolves and bears dangerous to man.

Other hill forts can be seen in Little Ridge Wood above Ridge village, and in the woods between Teffont and Dinton, and also Castle Ditches near Tisbury.

When we were children we liked to picnic on Stockton Down, which was unfenced open country then. We found pieces of broken pottery, some of it, Samian ware, imported from France. This had a glaze on it. Later on this site was excavated, and the pieces of pottery collected up and taken away.

Walking in the fields we were always on the look out for flint arrow heads and scrapers used by the ancient Britons. You can see these in Salisbury Museum. Once, before we came to Chilmark, a boy was breaking flints to scare away crows from picking up the sown seed. A big flint split open and a number of gold coins fell out. The ancient people used hollow flints to store their treasure, plugging the hole with clay.

Roman remains are all around. When Portash House was built, (two cottages were made into one), a Roman soldier was found buried under the fireplace. They knew he was a soldier, as they found the nails from his boots. The little Roman well can be seen by the road at the foot of the little hill below Portash. It is built of large stones and never goes dry.

In the old days before water was piped into the water troughs in the fields, these were filled from water carts, drawn by horses. In the 1920′s, there was a bad drought one year. The water carts were filled from the little well. This never went dry, so all the five dairy herds of cattle as well as pigs and sheep were kept going. An old farm labourer, a friend of mine, remembered this and told me about it. A pond has now been dug in the field below the little well, and a ditch from the well keeps it full.

After the Romans came the Danes and later on the Saxons. The Romans and Saxons introduced Christianity to England. Some Saxon remains still exist. We think that before Chilmark church was built there may have been a stone cross where the village cross now is (in The Street). Perhaps Christianity was first preached here. In the churchyard there are remains of an old stone cross.

Once I was in the churchyard at the east end when a man came along with a dowsing stick. These are normally used to locate underground water for people to dig a well. However they can also locate underground passages. This man said he had found an underground passage outside the church. We wonder whether at one time this led to the Old Rectory. The priest may have used it to get to the church in the time of troubles between Catholics and Protestants, perhaps in the reign of Queen Mary.

Diana Forbes

Chilmark House

Chilmark House was built in 1814 by Mr King, an ancestor of the Flower family.  It was built on to the wall of the previous house which you can still see at the back, with its small mullion windows and old stonework.  It was built in the Regency style, with large square windows and a pillared front door with a balcony above.  They made a lantern in the roof to let light into the hall.  There is a walkway round the lantern where you can get a good view round the village.

There are pretty mouldings round the ceilings of the big dining room and drawing room.  The dining room moulding depicts a pattern of poppies and sheaves of corn.  The drawing room one depicts various flowers.  The moulding in the hall is coloured and has been described in a popular magazine some years back.

Mr King kept greyhounds in the old Elizabethan Granary, and loved to ride his horse up to the downs and course hares with his greyhounds.

The story goes that one day he noticed that his mare and his greyhounds seemed very tired.  He then discovered that his groom would go out coursing hares by moonlight!  We do not know what happened to the groom!

The old Elizabethan Granary is built of ancient bricks smaller than those used today.  It stands on staddle stones shaped like mushrooms.  This is to prevent the rats getting in and eating the corn.  It is very dry inside, and I used to store hay in it for my pony.

Our family moved into Chilmark House in 1930 when my father retired from the Navy.

My brothers and I used the Old Granary as a museum for fossils from the old quarries, and animal skulls roe-deer, rabbit and badger that we found in the woods.  The Old Granary is a listed building of interest to archaeologists and others.

Old Mrs Lucy Flower who died aged 103 lived in Chilmark House as a child with her grandparents.  I was told by Minnie Stevens (an old inhabitant of Chilmark) that when Lucy was married, a red carpet was laid from the front door across the lawn to the village door.  This was for her to walk on and I suppose a horse drawn carriage waited to take her up to the church.

My mother died in June 1977 and we then sold the house by auction, dividing the profits between my two brothers and myself.  I was allowed to stay there until the following spring, and showed many interested buyers around the house, but it was finally bought by Robert Chalk who lived there for some years with his wife and two children who used to ride my ponies when I moved up to Cheriton on the hill above.  Subsequently it has been sold twice, and various alterations and improvements have been made, but basically it remains the same.

Diana Forbes