2008 Publications

Sarum Chronicle 7, 2007. The seventh issue of this annual publication [running a little late this time] includes the following papers: (copies of all previous issues of Sarum Chronicle are still available – see backlist page). ‘The Last Days of St Clement’s Church, Fisherton Anger’, by Trevor Wright; ‘Heale House and Harold Ainsworth Peto’, by Jane Balfour; ‘College to Council House’, by Helen Wilcockson; ‘Wyndham Park: a late Victorian suburb’, by Jane Howells; ‘The Hall of John Hall’s Victorian Façade: a Personal View’, by David Richards; ‘Salisbury’s Head Post Office reaches its 100th birthday’, by Sue Johnson; ‘The Hazards of Travel in 1784’, by Ruth Newman; ‘Deconstructing Wilton’, by John Chandler. February 2008, 64 pages, illustrations and maps, paperback, £4.50, ISBN 978-0-946418-69-5 (ISSN 1475-1844).

Harnham Mill, by Michael Cowan (Sarum Studies 2). Harnham Mill is one of Salisbury’s best-known landmarks. Built some five centuries ago as a paper mill, it occupies the site of a medieval fulling mill, and it has in turn been used for making cloth, bone fertilizer and candles. Since the 1930s it has been a hotel and restaurant. This comprehensive account describes not only the building and its evolution, but also the industrial processes and their context within the history of the Salisbury area. March 2008, 52 pages, fully iilustrated with photographs and diagrams, paperback, £4.95, ISBN 978-0-946418-67-1.

Little Imber on the Down, by Rex Sawyer, is the first book to be devoted to the history of this Salisbury Plain community, a remote village which until sixty years ago carried on its life to a large extent untouched by the outside world. In 1943 the villagers were all required to leave, so that Imber could be handed over to the army for military training. Everyone believed that after the war those evicted would be allowed to return, and a long campaign against officialdom was waged by their supporters, but to no avail. Imber, except for soldiers, is now deserted and largely destroyed, and most of its former inhabitants have died. But the community and its history live on in memories and photographs, and Rex has had the full co-operation of the surviving villagers and their descendants while writing this moving and poignant book. With an engaging text and over a hundred evocative illustrations, mostly photographs, the unique village of Imber is brought to life again. First published in 2001, and in steady demand ever since, this book now appears in paperback for the first time. March 2008, 176 pages, illustrations and maps, paperback, £9.95, ISBN 978-0-946418-72-5.

Planned for Publication Soon: A third in our Sarum Studies series, devoted to the famous Harnham Water Meadows (by Hadrian Cook, Tim Tatton Brown and Michael Cowan); Reflections in a Pond: a Moonraking Approach to History, a collection of pieces (mostly previously unpublished) by John Chandler; A Tour in Search of Flint, the second part of the anonymous Pedestrians’s spoof journey through the antiquarian world of south Wiltshire in 1808; a history of Chippenham; a history and guide to Corsham and Box; the Bath Pump Room Orchestra; and a companion volume to Footsteps, offering superb walks in north and north-east Wiltshire. Several other books are nearing completion for publication later in 2008.