ABC of Chippenham: History Centre


It's been really hard choosing this week's H because there are quite a few good ones to choose from as far as Chippenham's concerned. In the end I plumped for the History Centre because I went there for the first time whilst researching D for Donkey Field.

As you can see the centre is for the whole of Wiltshire and is one of the latest (and largest) public buildings to be built in the town. It's built on part of the old cattle market (which closed in 2004) close to the railway station and opened to the public in October 2007. The move of the various records held at Trowbridge (our county town) and Salisbury to Chippenham was quite controversial at the time because whilst Chippenham has relatively good transport links, it's neither in the centre of Wiltshire, nor is it the largest (which is Swindon) or the county town.

The History Centre is the focal point for all heritage services relating to Wiltshire and Swindon which includes the collections of the county's local studies library, museums service, archaeology service, Wiltshire buildings record and the conservation service. It has purpose built archive storage and research facilities and covers an area of about 5 football pitches (4,000 square metres) in size. All kinds of items are stored there: documents, film, microfiche, newspapers, video, CDs etc. etc. Some of the more unusual items can be found on the Records Office blog.

About 10,000 people use the archives each year, many of whom are researching their family history and have found links to Wiltshire. My visit was slightly different as I was trying to find out some of the history of a local name and area of land.

Like all visitors I had to register on arrival (unless they've done so already) and store my coat and bag in one of the lockers provided. No food or drink is allowed inside the archive area in order to help preserve the materials and I was only allowed to carry a notebook and pencil. I then asked one of the staff on duty about my query who then scurried off to find the right set of indexes for us to look through.

As my query was about land belonging to the previous Chippenham Borough Council, I was told at the outset that it was highly likely that the information I wanted would be at the Town Hall in the middle of town as the town council have decided to store those records there instead of making them available at county level.

However, there was just one likely looking reference in the index which I then ordered up from the archive storage area. I was then shown into the 'inner sanctum', the silent study area where a few people were seated at tables making notes from various books. After about 10 minutes my document arrived tied up with white ribbon and I was able to find just what I needed for my letter D :)

I'm hoping they'll have behind the scene tours for the national Heritage Open Days in September as this is the most fascinating of places.

This is for ABC Wednesday and is the eighth in my themed round of posts about Chippenham.

Comments

  1. Roger Owen Green9 March 2011 at 10:52

    History is so important in our understanding of ourselves.
    ROG, ABC Wednesday team

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hermes9 March 2011 at 11:26

    Keep meaning to use this centre, Hear really good reports. Often used to use it when it was in Trowbridge.

    ReplyDelete
  3. petoskystone9 March 2011 at 15:41

    history archives are fascinating places--meeting the people & places which came before you!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Chubskulit Rose9 March 2011 at 19:28

    Very informative H.

    Come and see my letter H, have a nice day.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anna9 March 2011 at 22:00

    What an excellent resource for the good citizens of Wiltshire. Enjoying this theme VP and may follow in your footsteps next time round with a Liverpool theme.

    ReplyDelete
  6. The bike shed9 March 2011 at 22:02

    I keep meaning to go but never seem get round to it.
    I must make the effort
    Mark

    ReplyDelete
  7. Leslie:9 March 2011 at 22:41

    Good to know about that place as I love everything about England - always looking for new places to explore.

    Leslie
    ABCW Team

    ReplyDelete
  8. Robert Webber10 March 2011 at 07:30

    Great resource to have on your doorstep!
    If only life were less hectic you could spend a heap of time in such places persuing chains of thought and fact - the internet is only so good.
    Guess thats my retirement occupation sorted!
    best
    R

    ReplyDelete
  9. Su-sieee! Mac10 March 2011 at 11:12

    I like going through historical archives. Doesn't matter where. I wish our local archives were open more than once a month.

    ReplyDelete
  10. VP14 March 2011 at 08:32

    ROG - too true

    Hermes - it was my first time there and I suspect not my last

    Petoskystone - what a great observation :)

    Chubskulit - welcome!

    Anna glad you like it and I look forward to finding out more about Liverpool

    Mark - I think a tour round on Heritage Open Day will be good as they take quite a few of the interesting objects out of the archives and put them on display

    Leslie - perhaps see you when you visit?

    Robert - it was so tempting to follow those chains of thought ;)

    Su-sieee Mac - only once a month? That's sad :(

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anonymous22 February 2024 at 22:46

    The first 16 years of my life were in Chippenham. I left a little over 50 years ago. I have hardly visited it at all since. I have very clear memories of the town as it was. Your blog entries in respect of hospital facilities seem silent about the former town hospital that was on the left hand side of the road ("the London Road"?) extending beyond the Causeway moving away from the town.
    In my earliest years, from our house, we looked out at the elegant nurses' home at what had been the old workhouse. The old workhouse buildings in my day were known as St Andrews Hospital and housed many people as a type of sad "dustbin" (horrible language but, very sadly, quite apt based on observations during my visits to it) (noting that I am not suggesting occupants were not cared for by the staff because I believe that they were because people were more caring in those times) for NHS (state care) of the elderly and disabled including, I believe, some people who did not recover adequately after the world wars. In the late 1980s a lot of the establishments like St Andrews as it was then were closed in the "care in the community" movement. We have had increasing life expectancies from birth for decades until very recent years, but, nevertheless, I have wondered if the same description of people who were in St Andrews when I visited it would have lived as long if they had been elderly after the "care in the community" closures. Or, if they would have shorter lives in the community would there be compensations such as happier lives when aged? I dearly wish I knew the answers.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. VP26 February 2024 at 12:29

      Thanks for this and your follow-up email. Always interesting to hear from people who grew up in Chippenham. I mentioned you to a friend on Saturday as you were at school around the same time as her brothers. In the ABC of Chippenham series I focused on the places seen at the time of writing, hence the mention of St Andrews only as this is the only hospital in Chippenham today. I can just about remember the one on the London Road when we moved here in 1984, but it was replaced by housing not long afterwards. I think St Andrews is more of a general, community style hospital today compared to your memories of it. I go there for cancer screening checks, plus I had physio there when I broke my wrist. I've also been to the minor injuries unit on a couple of memorable occasions. Greenways maternity hospital is no more, so St Andrews now houses the local maternity unit.

      Delete

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