My history haul from the Oxfam bookshop in Marlborough today, including *All for the Empire* by Roger Trayhurn and Mark Child. In 1910 the play *The Village Wedding* written by Charles McEvoy for the Aldbourne Players was performed at The Empire, Swindon #OnePlaceStudy #OnePlaceWednesday

Snowdrop season always brings to mind George Marshall Watts (1854-1937), and a chance encounter with his great-nephew in the Aldbourne post office back in 2014 aldbournearchive.wordpress.com/2020/02/10/g... #OnePlaceWednesday

Paused to check bubbles of blossom just beginning. I'm not sure if this tree IS the one planted in 1937, but every year the blossom is a herald of spring, and it's a joy to watch the flowers appear #Aldbourne

"Highly approved in the Royal Household, Wheeler's Pastry Powder produces a handsome, wholesome and delicious article in pie-crusts ... and all kinds of pastry" As supported by the inventor of the celebrated Agricultural Liquid Drill, Mr Chandler of Aldbourne #OnePlaceAdverts Marlborough Times 1860

Good to stay connected, for #BrewMonday and any day 🫖 @samaritans.bsky.social Remembering 50 years : Aldbourne Beating the Bounds (2014)

A brisk morning today with frost and mists gradually disappearing in bright sunshine. Time to remember 1963 🥶 With thanks to Ron Morley #OnePlaceWednesday www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2gY...

Printing blocks made during the 1970s/early 1980s for postcards showing work by Ann Sullivan. Possibly for Aldbourne Civic Society. These images are created from photos of the plates, flipped and tweaked into black and white with digital magic. #AldbourneInArt #ArtInAldbourne #OnePlaceWednesday

Devizes Assize Court saved and new home for Wiltshire Museum secured. Delighted to announce that The National Lottery Heritage Fund has awarded us funding to transform the derelict Assize Court building into a spectacular new home for the Museum. www.wiltshiremuseum.org.uk/assizes/

Wood and copper printing plates featuring sketches of Aldbourne by Ann Sullivan, who lived in Aldbourne during the 1970s and 1980s. I'm guessing made back in the 1970s (but not 100% sure). Now I know how the postcards were made if not exactly when! #OnePlaceWednesday #AldbourneInArt

Avebury Vocal Ensemble, Music at Christmas, in St Michael's, Aldbourne marlborough.news/event/avebur...

13 November 1925 newspapers reported that Aldbourne's Four Barrows were selected for official preservation as just one of many sites (over 70 according to the paper) on 'Wiltshire's numerous list' (photo 2011)

The Parish News magazine 1980 tells us that veteran Jack Humphries from Aldbourne attended a Christmas Dinner at Buckingham Palace, the event was organised by The Not Forgotten, a charity still very much active today. #OnePlaceWednesday thenotforgotten.org

St Michael's Churchyard is the final resting place of William Henry Walker, who died in 1941 aged 77. The last of a long line of dew pond makers #OnePlaceWednesday #31DaysOfGraves

Inspired to wander up to the top of St Michael's Churchyard for a moment of quiet. Paused on the way up for a breather and the colours on the beech tree are stunning. #31DaysOfGraves #Landscapes #OnePlaceWednesday

Oh wow, what a discovery by @thelineagefinder.bsky.social My most recent find was a copy of A Country Camera by Gordon Winter (1971 edition) in the second-hand bookshop at @valeanddownland.bsky.social featuring Blossom, Golden and Spark in the capable hands of Harry Wootton and Arthur Watts (1911)

One of Aldbourne's great institutions, shared today for #OnePlaceWednesday - with thanks for posting the concert photo to @janh1.bsky.social 🙂 Photo today shows the band in 1885, from the Aldbourne Civic Society Archive ref 155

John Veitch (1856 - 1920), Royal Navy, then Coastguard at Burnham-on-Crouch, Essex and in retirement landlord at both the Crown and Blue Boar pubs in Aldbourne. Remembered at the weekend at the St Michael's Church Discovery Day - our village links with the sea #31DaysOfGraves #OnePlaceWednesday

Welcome once again to #OnePlaceWednesday! As always, we’ll be using the hashtag throughout the day in posts about #OnePlaceStudies, that brilliant blend of #FamilyHistory and #LocalHistory, and we hope you will join us by sharing your OPS news, views, links, pics, questions, suggestions, and more.

The railway didn't quite make it to Aldbourne, although it looked like a possibility in 1883 - read on ... #OnePlaceStudies #Railway200 @railway200.bsky.social aldbournearchive.wordpress.com/2020/12/05/a...

Join us this Saturday 20th for our annual #heritageopenday this year celebrating all things architectural from our #archives & #localstudies collections. Meet the experts on #househistory & #familyhistory and why not drop in for a cuppa at our pop-up Heritage Café. See poster for more details.👇

"Aldbourne can boast that her name was formerly written Auburn; she can remember that Richard Jefferies, thus misled, sought to identify her with Goldsmith's "Sweet Auburn, loveliest village of the plain" Source: @wiltshiremuseum.bsky.social scrapbooks 1920 #OnePlaceWednesday

Thomas Fairchild (1667-1729) was baptised in Aldbourne. The location of his memorial became known as the Hackney Road Recreation Ground. Renamed Fairchild's Garden in 2017, this open space has now been rejuvenated aldbournearchive.wordpress.com/2022/05/19/t... #OnePlaceWednesday #OnePlaceBaptisms

There's a full day of expert speakers lined up for Wiltshire Buildings Record Study Day on Saturday 18th October on topics as diverse as Model Farms, historic racecourses, William Morris, Quaker architect Brightwen Binyon, & Victorian architectural ornament: wshc.org.uk/the-age-of-i... #architecture

Last weekend I met with a WWII evacuee to Aldbourne in 1939 with many memories and photographs to share. Inspired by this connection, I've been researching Raphael Tuck & Sons postcards. Love this one, showing the 'village council' gathering by the bench in the square Source: www.tuckdbpostcards.org

John Robinson, who played Professor Bernard Quatermass in the 1955 BBC Television serial, lived in Aldbourne from the early 1940s until 1946. His wife Kathleen was the granddaughter of Charles Smith 1818-1886, Maltster and Farmer in South Street #OnePlaceWednesday www.newspapers.com/article/even...

A simple and intensely moving commemoration. The National Two Minute Silence for VJ Day 80 at Aldbourne Memorial Hall on Friday 15 August 2025

Love this little tree. Blossoms and berries make frames in their season. #DiggingBandOfBrothers Operation Nightingale #OnePlaceWednesday #Aldbourne

TODAY: A long standing village institution, supporting an even older village institution! The 21st Aldbourne Artists Exhibition (founded by Andrea & Peter West) in the Aldbourne Memorial Hall. Free entry to view and find a work of art. Profits to Hall funds. 10-4 Sunday 10 August 2025 🎨

As VJ Day 80 approaches, my thoughts turn to the memories shared in Aldbourne for earlier commemorations. #OnePlaceStudies #OnePlaceWednesday

Harvest at Eastleaze, Aldbourne circa 1941. From the Aldbourne Civic Society archives #OnePlaceStudies #OnePlaceWednesday

Each year harebells spring up in a different place in the churchyard, and focus our attention on a different family grave. This year we are thinking about Florence Kate Bowes, died aged 9 years 6 months in March 1914, and her parents Joseph and Rose #HarebellChallenge @wildflowerhour.bsky.social

Is there a wildflower more evocative of long summer days than the beautiful Harebell?! Campanula rotundifolia is of course also known as the Scottish Bluebell. The challenge this week is to see if you can find one for #Wildflowerhour! Share your pics this Sunday 8-9pm! 💙

Definitely not a Dabchick! Thank you to everyone concerned with the Aldbourne Scarecrow Trail this weekend. A truly community inspired event supporting Aldbourne Churches Together and St Michael's School, Aldbourne PSA.

Aldbourne Over 60's Club (later Silver Threads) started in 1952, organised by Mrs Marjory Sergeant and a group of friends. Meetings were originally in the Church Room, Marlborough Road. This may be a photo of the First Birthday Party for this excellent group. #OnePlaceWednesday #OnePlaceStudies

Missed out on the purchase of Aldbourne Pond II by Bill Pike at auction recently, with reflections of the fair in the water, and a sketch showing the fountain in place for 1977. I wonder how it looked for Her Majesty's Silver Jubilee? Was a centrepiece created as per the request in the Parish News?

Currently popular on the website - Mark Learey's account of Jon Pertwee's last convention appearance at Aldbourne in 1996, which we published in 2019. oxforddoctorwho-tidesoftime.blog/2019/09/16/p...

Recommend this exhibition at the historic Merchant's House, Marlborough. Four paintings of Aldbourne attributed to George Maton appear alongside his depictions of Marlborough. #OnePlaceStudies #OnePlaceWednesday themerchantshouse.co.uk/event/the-co...

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On the Green, or should that be In the Pink? Hope to see hummingbird hawkmoths and flutterbyes here later in the year 🌸🦋

In 1944 Otto May (F Co), Richard Blake (A Co) & Carl Fenstermaker (Easy Company) 506thPIR, 101st Airborne were all about to play their part in that Day of Days.They took off on this night in readiness for DDay. Our dig team found the dog tags of all 3 men at Aldbourne, Wiltshire. They all survived

Ida Gandy, The Heart of a Village: An Intimate History of Aldbourne, published in the summer of 1975. A Golden Anniversary Gandy Dandy "glowing on every verge and bank, sending its beautiful, mischievous flakes into every garden. No wonder it survived the Ice Age" #OnePlaceWednesday #OnePlaceStudies

Lady Currie 1872-1939, was a driving force for fund-raising and support during the campaign to build Aldbourne Memorial Hall. On the 1921 Census, Hilda Beatrice Currie described herself as a 'Lady at Large' #OnePlaceWednesday #OnePlaceCensus

It was buzzing by the pond today and I saw a bright blue damsel fly - NO chance to catch a photo without falling in the water. Looking back in the archive to June 2020 aldbournearchive.wordpress.com/2020/06/02/y... #OnePlaceStudies #OnePlaceWednesday

There will surely be some gold medal winners found this week for #WildflowerHour! 🏅 The challenge set this week by the lovely team at @wildflowerhour.bsky.social is thrown wide open - anything from single wildflower species to myriad variety. They just have to look spectacular!

#OTD in the early hours 7 May 1945, Germany signed an unconditional surrender. #Churchill declared 8 May #VEDay. Brig. Jack Parham, with the British 2nd Army in Luneberg travelled to the Baltic sea port of Travemunde. His pocket diaries form part of his #archive held at the History Centre. #VEDay80

The Aldbourne Heritage Centre invited me to make a pop-up display by the pond for Aldbourne VE Day 80. I decided to make a summary of the Home Front as seen from the village viewpoint. #OnePlaceStudies #OnePlaceWednesday #VEDay80 aldbournearchive.wordpress.com/2025/05/07/v...

A poem of a morning in Aldbourne #OnePlaceWednesday #OnePlaceStudies "Where the cow-parsley skirts the hawthorn-hedge. 'Tis visible silence, still as the hour-glass" [Rossetti]

It's #localhistorymonth which means a host of events, talks & exhibitions in #libraries across #Wiltshire, promoting local history. As we mark #VEDay80 many events have a wartime theme. Check out the Wiltshire Libraries website for more information. libraries.wiltshire.gov.uk/-/local-hist...

Missed #OnePlaceWednesday, today is #IsItStraight Thursday, with the History Hound checking my display for #VE80 at the weekend. Did you know a lemon sold for £500 during 'War Weapons Week' fundraising? Rusty could tell you ALL about it 🐾So much history, so little time and space to tell the stories.

Paused by the pond this morning (L-R) *Horse chestnut (Silver Jubilee George V 1935) *Thatched Bus Shelter - memorial to one of the young men who helped plant that tree: Flight Lieutenant Guy Richard Brown, DFC, RAF died 6th September 1945 *Cherry tree planted in honour of Mr Oliver Hawkins (1976)