Local history

Out and about in Ken Rogers

rowbridge is the smallest town with a branch of the This is more than one of our conventional ‘Out and About THistorical Association. It is also a town that quite recently in Local History’ items because Ken Rogers introduces us to regarded itself as of little historic interest, and indeed knew little a process whereby visual architectural and industrial history of its long and fascinating history. The way in which this has of Trowbridge has been saved from destruction; and then he changed is outlined here, and its wide range of buildings briefly gives us some clear guidance as to where to go and to see so described. as to celebrate and share this remarkable heritage. Trowbridge is the county town of . This often causes surprise, as people expect the cathedral city of to occupy that position. Until the coming of the railways, Castle factory, 1828 Trowbridge had no pretensions to be a county centre but to get by rail from ancient Salisbury to growing , or from either to central , the traveller had to go through Trowbridge. Therefore when the county council was set up in 1889 it decided to concentrate most of the county administration at Trowbridge. When I was a boy, in the 1930s and 1940s, nobody regarded Trowbridge as of any historical interest. A visitor looking for ‘history’ would have been directed to the road to nearby Bradford-on-Avon, a town only three miles away with a picturesque hillside site, a Saxon church, two medieval bridges, a tithe barn, and a more copious survival of early buildings. We in Trowbridge knew that we had had a castle, but it was gone; that we had an old church, but, we were told, it had been ‘ruined by Victorian restoration’. We might timidly mention our Georgian houses, and one or two more perceptive guide books did so. Most either ignored the town or dismissed it. ‘If this growing industrial town ever had any charms’, wrote Ralph Dutton in 1950, ‘they have now been submerged beneath the buildings of progress and prosperity.....the eighteenth century market town.....has been transmogrified into a minor industrial centre’. A wonderful misunderstanding of the town’s past. Industrial buildings – how could they be of any interest? The first listing of buildings did not include any of the woollen factories - only two were listed in Wiltshire. So, in the 1960s, one, begun in 1808, gave way to what then passed for a supermarket, and another, from 1812 onwards, made way for an inner relief road. Nor did the list include any of the several hundred working class houses which were built between 1790 and 1830, when the town doubled in size, and they were rapidly demolished as ‘sub-standard’. Other losses included the 16th century rectory, sold for inevitable demolition by the church authorities; parts of the 17th century Duke Street; the 1793 cavalry barracks; and a large and prominently-placed Methodist church of 1835. A few ‘modern’ structures of this period still disfigure the town centre, the worst of them a Post Office which replaced a fine Victorian hotel in 1964. But times were changing. When Pevsner’s Wiltshire volume came out in 1963, we learned that the Georgian houses on The Parade were ‘really a stretch of palaces’; that one further up was ‘amazingly stately’; and another ‘so grand as to call in mind Genoa’. These had always been valued locally. Now they even began to be mentioned in books on architecture! Handle House Industrial Archaeology came in with the publication of Kenneth Hudson’s seminal book [1963]. Locally, my own

28 The Historian / Summer 2010 Nat-West bank, 1851 Lloyds bank, early 18th century with a re-fronted medieval house to its right

Wiltshire and Somerset Woollen Mills It was a start, and raised hopes, in her title on the town: ‘It is curious that appeared in 1976. Of the ten Trowbridge which seemed at that time incredibly Trowbridge has taken so little interest in factories then still standing, two were optimistic, that we should eventually its past’. I found this particularly galling, already derelict and went shortly have something better. At a time when since my Book of Trowbridge, based on afterwards; the major parts of the other the last cloth mills were closing, several years of documentary research, had been eight remain. All but one are in use, pieces of machinery were saved and put published in 1984, whereas Bradford- and none appear at present to be at any into store by a rather reluctant county on-Avon, held up to Trowbridge as risk of demolition. It would be foolish museum service. A pair of fulling stocks, an example of a town interested in its to pretend that books in themselves bought from a scrap dealer, remained in past, was then, and indeed still is now, can ensure the survival of buildings, my garden. without any adequately researched but they do fire a warning shot – that A Civic Society was formed in 1977, history. those mentioned in them have an and began to exert influence over the She went on to draw contrasts interest which might provide successful fate of individual buildings. The 1860 between active conservation policies arguments in favour of their retention. façade of the former George Hotel was pursued, for instance, at Bath and It was gradually dawning on people saved at a public enquiry, taken down Bradford-on-Avon, and Trowbridge, that Trowbridge had both historical stone by stone, and re-erected in front ‘which lags far behind’. The comparison interest and much that was worthy of of a new structure. Re-listing on a more with Bath, a World Heritage Site, seemed preservation. An Historical Association generous scale, and the establishment a bit unfair, especially considering its branch was established, with a strong of conservation areas, helped to create a horrendous record of conservation local history content to its activities. new atmosphere. One Georgian frontage in the 50s and 60s. And surely our In 1972 it organised an exhibition of of decaying brickwork was rebuilt with problems were greater than those of the collection of prints, drawings, and all the original woodwork and new Bradford? Trowbridge is larger and ephemera which the Urban District hand-made bricks. A shop of 1692, has far more town centre shops, and so Council had acquired, somewhat about to collapse. was rebuilt in exact more need of car parking and far more haphazardly, over the years, and which facsimile. commercial pressures. the chairman in 1967 had described In 1985 the organization Save However, the Save report received as mostly rubbish. For the exhibition a Britain’s Heritage produced a some sympathetic local publicity, brief history of the town was produced, report called Trowbridge, the Fastest and perhaps helped on the change of and the branch also published three Disappearing Mill Town in the West attitudes already well underway. Since pamphlets on local topics. In 1977 we which described it as the Cinderella of its publication virtually no building blossomed forth with a museum to show west country towns. The writer fully of historic interest has been lost. Even the material; it was actually one room in appreciated the town’s heritage – ‘it is a better, many have been restored. The the new Civic Hall, run by the new Town town of many splendid buildings’ – and early 18th century Conigre Parsonage, Council, and opened a couple of times a laid special emphasis on its industrial disgracefully neglected for years, and week by volunteers. past. But she also put the blame implicit the neighbouring Westcroft of 1784,

The Historian / Summer 2010 29 Local history

a medieval hall and cross wing house in Church Street, and the former St. James’s church hall are examples of many that could be mentioned. One scheme, funded by an appeal, restored the Studley Mill handle house, a building of perforated brickwork used to store the teazles used in the cloth industry, one of very few in existence. In 1989-90 a new shopping precinct called The Shires was laid out, incorporating the lower floors of the 1862 Home Mill, the town’s last woollen factory, which closed in 1982. The developers offered the use of its second floor to the town on favourable terms as a museum. This immediately raised a problem; as we saw, the Town Council Restored medieval house, Church Street had been running the small museum in the Civic Hall without significant Jenny spinning workshops, 1830 expenditure. But as a ‘third-tier’ authority, a parish council, our council was not, and still is not, a ‘museum authority’. Yet it was clear that neither the County Council, whose interest in and expenditure on museums has always been derisory, nor the West Wilts District Council, would be willing to take on a museum. In the end a legal way was found, and the Town Council took on both the setting up and the running of the new museum. Since it opened in 1990 the Trowbridge Museum has attracted respectable numbers of visitors and has run a professional and highly-praised education service. Although funded by the Town Council, the staff are assisted by a body of Friends of the Museum who run a shop and help in other ways, and who raise money to purchase exhibits. the wonderful collection of objects from with his daughter in marriage to The Friends have an active publication the home of the Whitaker family in Humphrey de Bohun. This gift formed programme in progress, with a series of Bratton which she described in her book the nucleus of the de Bohun barony, the over a dozen pamphlets and four issues Sheep Bell and Ploughshare. Honour of Trowbridge The head places of a periodical, Trowbridge History. The foundation of the museum of the majority of honours were castles, It is the only museum in the former has, I hope, been a final step in raising and to conform to this custom a castle West of England textile area with Trowbridge’s historical profile from was built here, probably in the early 12th comprehensive displays illustrating the the low base it occupied less than fifty century. It fell into decay later in the history of the industry. These include years ago. And it is bringing in visitors. Middle Ages, and by Leland’s time only material from the time when much of The best starting point is the Museum parts of two towers remained. the work was done domestically, with itself, which is right in the middle of the Topographically the building of the the workshops of a handloom weaver town. From it various town trails can be castle had an effect still to be seen today; and of a shearman. Machinery from obtained. Excavations have shown that it blocked the route down to the river the factory period includes a carding the origin of today’s Trowbridge was an crossing, so that travellers coming from machine, a spinning jenny, a mule, two early Saxon village probably running the east had to turn at a right angle and power looms, a pair of fulling stocks, a down to a crossing of the River Biss skirt its defensive ditch to a new river rotary fulling machine, and a teazle gig. about where the crossing into The Shires crossing where the present Town Bridge The museum also has displays from the car park near ASDA is today. is. Fore Street is a quarter circle running illustrating many aspects of domestic It must have been here that the ‘Tree from the Town Hall to the Town Bridge. and commercial life in the town and the Bridge’ which gave Trowbridge its name Like so many landowners of the surrounding villages. Among many are a stood, though the name is not recorded time, the de Bohuns decided to lay out draper’s shop, material from a chemist’s until Domesday Book. Also found were a new borough outside their castle. A shop and a brewery, and a manual fire the foundations of a church of about 950. market place with a new church and a engine. There are memorabilia of Isaac In 1086 Trowbridge was no more series of burgage plots facing the ditch Pitman, the shorthand man, who was than a village, and still in the possession were laid out, and a charter granting the born in the town, and George Crabbe, of a Saxon landowner. Shortly afterwards right to hold a weekly market and an the poet, who was rector 1814-1832. The it passed to the Norman Edward of annual fair was obtained in 1200. The late Marjorie Reeves gave the museum Salisbury, who gave it and other lands excavations suggested that the former

30 The Historian / Summer 2010 church, which was within the castle, fell standing and others of which details and Mill on Road. The latter out of use about this time. Somewhat illustrations remain. A good example has the only remaining single storey later, as the castle decayed, its defences behind 2-3 Fore Street is well seen from weaving shed. Studley Mill and Home were built over, so giving Fore Street its the museum, and another is joined to a Mill have impressive Victorian office and inner side, and an outer street grew at house at the bottom of Stallard Street. warehouse blocks, and in Stallard Street the back end of the burgage plots, also a The most extensive group stands behind are handsome warehouses used by firms quarter circle; it was called Back Street No. 12 Hill Street. Others which are which marketed cloth. until 1860, but now most of it is Church accessible are best found by using the Although so much working class Street. pamphlet. housing has been lost, rows of houses Apart from the town plan, the main There is still a good deal of minor with top-floor workshops from the survival of medieval Trowbridge is the Georgian building to be seen in the 1790s remain in Newtown and Yerbury parish church of St. James. Of this the town. A pleasing row of late 18th century Street, and some rather later ones in tower and tall thin spire are 14th century, houses is in The Halve, a street name Castle Street. Middle class terraces the nave and aisles of about 1460, and recalling the common fields which of the Regency period are in Stallard the chancel of 1846. Inside, notice the remained until enclosure in the late Street, Union Street, and Newtown. fine panelled timber ceiling with angels 1600s; each strip was conventionally a Road was the preferred in the nave, and the stone panelled half acre. The Town Bridge bears the address of the wealthy, and has a fine one in the north east chapel. Standing date 1777, and near it is the stone domed display of opulence, well worth a walk upright under the tower is one of the blindhouse, a lock-up of 1758. from the plain Bellefield of 1794 to finest Norman gravestones in existence, The introduction of machinery in the exuberant Highfield of 1859. And with an inscription to a girl named the cloth manufacture began about 1790 the town is full of enjoyable Victorian Acelina. It was found on the castle site. with the introduction of carding and buildings – the former Parochial School There are many interesting monuments, spinning machinery, and was complete of 1846, the dignified Nat-West Bank of including one to the poet Crabbe. by the 1870s, when the last handloom 1851, galleried almshouses of 1860, the Opposite the churchyard in Church weavers gave way to power looms. Early frontage of the Market House of 1861, Street is the only remaining medieval factories in the area were driven by the United Church of 1884, and the house to retain its outward appearance, water power, but the Biss only provided ‘wildly Franco-Elizabethan’ Town Hall of with a hall range parallel to the street one site in the town centre. The part 1889, to name only a few. and a two-storeyed cross wing. A few of the Stone Mill (which adjoins The others remain hidden by later facades. Shires) nearer to the river probably dates By the 15th century great fortunes from the 1790s; the taller part dates were being made by clothiers, who from 1819, when a steam engine was organised the whole process of added. It was steam power that pushed manufacture domestically, buying Trowbridge ahead of its rivals. It became Ken Rogers is a retired County wool, having it carded and spun into possible to bring coal by canal from Archivist of Wiltshire, and has yarn, then having the cloth woven, the Somerset pits in 1805, and the first written widely on the history of his sending it to the fulling mill to be felted engine in the area was fitted in the same native Trowbridge and the local and shrunk, having the cloth finished year. The first steam driven factory was woollen industry by raising and shearing the nap, and built in 1808; in 1814 the open ground then selling it, usually in London. The which had once been the outer parts of wealthiest clothier of his time was James the castle was sold for Terumber, who in 1483 left houses and building, and a line of lands in and around the town to found a factories and dyehouses chantry in the church and an almshouse was built along the river. nearby. A clothier’s house of a slightly The town doubled in later period is that of the Langford size, and by 1830 there family, Nos. 66-67 Fore Street (partly at were about twenty present the Crowing Cock restaurant), factories at work. hidden by a frontage of about 1700. The best early ones The clothier’s houses which Pevsner remaining are in Court admired are of the 18th century. By Street, handsomely this time there is ample evidence that built of brick with stone Trowbridge and its neighbour Bradford window surrounds. Brick were using merino wool imported from Mill dates from 1815, Spain to make the finest cloth produced and the three blocks in England, and the grandeur of the of Castle Factory from houses in both towns reflects this. 1828-36. Also there is a There are about twenty in Trowbridge, spinning jenny workshop seen at their best in The Parade (the of 1830. After a period of lower part of Fore Street), and then by stagnation, the industry walking up to Roundstone Street. Some enjoyed a revival from of the houses have workshops, in which 1850 to 1875, and from the clothier would employ people to that period we have carry out some work under his own Studley Mill and Innox supervision. Some of these are hidden Mill both near the behind, and so of course private and Town Bridge, Home not easy to see. A pamphlet on sale in Mill which houses the Weaver’s houses, Castle Street c1820 the museum describes 18 examples still museum, and Ashton All photographs supplied by and copyright Ken Rogers

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