A NEW project to create a First World War-themed heritage trail and exhibition for Melksham and surrounding villages is being launched next month.
The Melksham Remembers project will explore the role and contribution of the community to the war effort on the ‘home front’ in 1914 to 1918, as well as finding out more about the impact that the First World War had on the area.
The project will be asking questions like; What was happening in and around Melksham in those years? How did it change people’s lives? How did it change Melksham, Melksham Without, Atworth, Broughton Gifford, Steeple Ashton, Bulkington, Keevil, Great Hinton, Poulshot, Semington and Seend? Also, what is the legacy of those years?
The Melksham Remembers team is looking for volunteers to help with the project and will be hosting an information evening at Melksham Library on Thursday 19th October.
Project coordinator, Beth Thomas said, “There are various aspects of the project which will rely on volunteers for their success and we would love to hear from you if you would like to get involved. Please come along if you think that you would like to find out how to research into people, places and events using the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre and other public archives; or get involved in interviewing local people, about memories of life in Melksham; collecting photos, documents; researching and visiting places and looking at the census and other records of life at the time. Training will be given.”
The project will run until November 2018.
For more information come along to the event at Melksham Library on Thursday 19th October from 3pm until 7pm, or contact Beth Thomas, at hello@melkshamremembers. org.uk, 01225 685 426 or check out the website www.melkshamremembers .org.uk.
![Melksham Times Past
A column about days gone by in Melksham by local historian Lisa Ellis
The Independent Chapel and Women’s Rights in the 1840s
A document I recently transcribed lists the baptisms performed at the Independent Chapel. This record is especially helpful in that, along with baptisms, a lot of them include birth dates - one of the ways I discover which day someone was born.
The following is taken from a Wiltshire Times article published on 9th November 1878 which reports a speech given during the 100-year services and to celebrate their renovations (what we now know to be the Rachel Fowler Centre).
One speaker, Rev. T. Mann, minister in Trowbridge, talked about the Chapel’s origins when he related how Rev. Honywill came to Melksham and how he’d gone on to remain as the minister for the Independent Chapel for almost 60 years. [Honywill and his family lived on King Street in what we now call “Legion House”.]
Read more on our website, the link is in our bio.](https://scontent-lhr6-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.75761-15/505444438_18038424887647822_3264519508333556874_n.jpg?stp=dst-jpg_e35_tt6&_nc_cat=110&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=18de74&_nc_ohc=gXZQJoHTNiEQ7kNvwHezuPI&_nc_oc=AdlrJvMDapuork_EjycPOcegNeMnCA37GEIudkxkTeCfTgvB5iijE05ojpwlYCd5gN8&_nc_zt=23&_nc_ht=scontent-lhr6-1.cdninstagram.com&edm=ANo9K5cEAAAA&_nc_gid=QNvAO5SMZpVXmVytNQqVSQ&oh=00_AfPCRkqHgOSMvuudIx2c3c6tPfxG8yxgXENMsL7kQCav3g&oe=685475CA "Melksham Times Past
A column about days gone by in Melksham by local historian Lisa Ellis
The Independent Chapel and Women’s Rights in the 1840s
A document I recently transcribed lists the baptisms performed at the Independent Chapel. This record is especially helpful in that, along with baptisms, a lot of them include birth dates - one of the ways I discover which day someone was born.
The following is taken from a Wiltshire Times article published on 9th November 1878 which reports a speech given during the 100-year services and to celebrate their renovations (what we now know to be the Rachel Fowler Centre).
One speaker, Rev. T. Mann, minister in Trowbridge, talked about the Chapel’s origins when he related how Rev. Honywill came to Melksham and how he’d gone on to remain as the minister for the Independent Chapel for almost 60 years. [Honywill and his family lived on King Street in what we now call “Legion House”.]
Read more on our website, the link is in our bio.")
