WHEN we moved to Melksham 24 years ago, I wanted to learn the history of the town. But I was a bit disappointed to find very few historical books about Melksham. Books existed; they just weren’t in the obvious places. So, I looked around and collected.
My latest find is called Just Barbara written by Barbara Woodhouse who once lived in Withleigh on Spa Road. Her name might be familiar if you have ever watched Crufts or owned a dog or had a mother, as I did, who enjoyed saying “walkies!” quite joyfully and frequently.
But this book isn’t about dog behaviour; it’s about her life, written in a humorous way and covers “Early Days” (the first chapter) through her years proving her favourite adage that “life begins at seventy”. I was fortunate to find a first edition in pristine condition, signed by herself and it was with great excitement that as soon as it arrived, I tore open the too-taped-up packaging to skip to the back index. With great relief, I found there would be an entry for “Melksham”.
In the chapter “Marriage and early war years”, Barbara writes of meeting her husband Michael and getting married in 1940. In her own nonchalant wit, she describes a disastrous wedding day and honeymoon and then soon after — I quote from page 59 — “[Michael] took over a practice in Melksham in Wiltshire from a young doctor who had been called up for the Navy.”
But it was the first line in the next paragraph that curbed my enthusiasm where she summed up her Melksham years with, “I will pass over the years that followed as I have written about them elsewhere…”
Barbara Kathleen Vera (Blackburn) Hill Woodhouse suffered a stroke and died in Buckinghamshire in 1988 at the age of 78.
A less whimsical book collected a few years ago was co-written by another female author and expert in her field who also lived in Melksham. Julia de Lacy Mann was regarded as one of Britain’s foremost economic historians in the 20th century and pioneer of women’s education at Oxford. Her research focused on the cotton industry and the Industrial Revolution.
Miss Mann retired to Bowerhill in 1955 after 27 years as principal of St Hilda’s College, Oxford. She began researching the extensive textile history in this region and in 1971 wrote The Cloth Industry in the West of England from 1640 to 1880. It remains the authoritative text on the early modern prosperity and industrial-age decline of textile production in Wiltshire and nearby counties.
In it she argues the decline in local trade was caused by the failure to keep up with northern competition and a decrease in coal supplies. Her research was so thorough that this work is still an important source of debates about textile history to this day. More publications followed and she was elected the first female Honorary Fellow of Merton in 1979.
Miss Mann died in her home, The Cottage, Bowerhill, in 1985 at the age of 93 and is buried in Melksham.
