Wiltshire Public Access Collection: Highlights
Here at the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre we have two collections of books, and it is one of the most enjoyable parts of my job to help look after them. We have our heritage collection which consists of more general history on a wide variety of topics and then we have our Wiltshire collection which holds books on the history of the county of Wiltshire.
Although we are not a lending library, the books in our heritage collection and our public access Wiltshire collection can be borrowed through the Inter Lending Library system and collected from your local library. When you go into your local library you can talk to the librarian there about this service.
A part of my job is to send requested books out to the libraries, and I have noticed a trend for more borrowing from the Heritage collection, which is good, but it does leave some very good books from the Wiltshire collection left as it were on the shelf.
I am using this blog to try to highlight some of the books in this collection. I have chosen eight to write about and there are two in each of four chosen categories, which are place, people, local authors, and general history topics with a strong link to Wiltshire.
Wiltshire Hauntings
Wiltshire is home to many stories and tales of local hauntings, and many local history sections in libraries hold books on ghosts and folklore. Malmesbury is no exception. The abbey is possibly the first site that one would turn to for ghostly encounters, as it towers over the town as one of the few survivors of Henry VIII’s dissolution of monasteries due to its purchase by William Stumpe, who turned it into a parish church (Scanlan, 48). It is said that a former monk has been seen walking through the cemetery, and that monastic singing has been heard in the abbey itself.
Another famous haunted site in the town is the Kings Arms hotel and restaurant, where a deceased landlord seems to have never left his workplace.
Ruth Pierce and the Devizes Incident
The unfortunate sudden death of widow , Ruth Pierce of Potterne, in Devizes Market Place on 26th January 1753.
This is the original inquisition document as carried out by John Clare, coroner in Devizes on 26th January 1753. It details the circumstances leading to Ruth Pierces’ death and his conclusion to the cause.
‘..a Great Quarrel arose between four women in the Market place in the Bourrough of Devizes. Aforsaid whose names was Elizabeth Slade, Sarah Slade, Mary Parker and the aforesaid Ruth Pierce who joined together and bought one sack of wheat of one ffarmer Nathanial Alexander of the price of seventeen shillings......
After the collection of the money by one of the women gathered, it was noted that Ruth Pierce had not handed over her share of the payment which was four shillings. She was openly accused of withholding the money and the following account of what happened was documented in the inquisition, Ruth Pierce then;
‘called upon the Almighty for witness and wished she might drop down dead that minute if she had not paid it the Rash wish was repeated a second time and immediately from the Visitation of the Great and Almighty God was struck down upon the lane and as no marks of Violence appeared upon View of the Body the aforesaid jurors do propose that the aforesaid Ruth Peirce died asforsaid and not otherwise...’
‘Taken at the Burrough of Devizes on Fryday the 26th day of January Upon View of the Body of Ruth Peirce late of potterne Verdict from the Visitation of the Great and Almighty God in a Great Quarrell was struck dead with a lye in her mouth’
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Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre
Cocklebury Road
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