ABOUT

 

Broad Town inevitably derives its character from the past – its own past as a community, the past of the wider world it lives in, and the individual pasts of the people who have come to live here. This website is intended to publish pictures about those pasts in the hope further information will come forward.

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The site is simply organised by roads in Broad Town plus general subjects. Hover the mouse on any subject you wish and select the subject you are interested in by clicking on it then use the scroll bar on the right of the screen to reveal the contents of that section. If you want to see larger pictures click on the image and you will go into into slide mode where you can use the back < or forward > to navigate through the pictures. Documents can be read by using the scroll bar to navigate up and down.

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Dr Bob Clarke and Malcolm Holland organised events to display what is known about our ancient and modern history and to gather further information about the village's history. Broad Town has been fortunate in having the enthusiasm and commitment of Bob and Malcolm - without doubt their work has been the catalyst to being able to commence this latest project to pull together and expand what has been gathered to date. It will soon become apparent to anyone reading this site that all of the professionally written research is by Dr Bob Clarke.

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We thank Hazel Harris, Nigel & Annie Crocker, Lorraine Billis, Ray Bourton, Roy Davey, Betty Bastin, Rupert Bastin, Marie Maull, Ken Little, Carol Townsend, Sheila Whitaker, Annette Moore, Janine and Sean Brannigan, Cliff & Sylvia Cowtan, Mike & June Broomfield, Dr Gordon Turnbull, Keith Wiffen, Janet & Robin Wain  who contributed articles and photographs that have enabled this site to be created.

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A special thank you to Joyce Rawlins, Carolyn Crocker, David Crocker, Richard Leppard & James Rawlins for re-igniting enthusiasm and gathering more information.

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It is an honour to share the in-depth research undertaken by Ken Hudd, AC Parker and Margaret & Clive Green.

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We are extremely fortunate to be able to share the childhood memories of Joan Thompson and her delightful poetry.

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We are also fortunate to be able to share the family and business memories of Nigel Crocker and Michael Sheppard.

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This pictorial view of Broad Town's history has been brought to life by Mike Stanley's professional photography skills - thank you Mike.

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We thank the Economic & Development Department at Wiltshire Council for allowing us to reproduce the maps indicating the places mentioned and Historic England for giving us permission to use their aerial photographs.

 

The history website is far from complete and with your help we hope to expand it in the near future. Meanwhile we welcome all additions or constructive suggestions for improving the site.

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Please feel free to call Malcolm on 01793 731567 or e-mail mailto:btresearch71@gmail.com

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The copyright to the individual articles rests with the individual authors, and copyright to the photographs and artwork rests with their creators.

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