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Local History Group

The Stratford sub Castle Local History Group was formed in November 2018.

If you are interested in joining, please contact the Chairman, David Balston   dmbalston@gmail.com or telephone 01722 411628

Members of the Local History Group have written many of the articles in the Local History section of this website, including a Photo & Picture Quiz.  More details on the Local History Contents page.

 

The History Group is also pleased to allow access to some documents and images that are held on an external storage drive.  Click a link in one of the boxes below to access the relevant file.

History Group documents

Local History Images

Some of the local history images projected onto a screen in the Reading Room during the Jubilee event in June 2022 can be viewed here.

The Miracle of Symon

The village website has a factual webpage about

St Osmund here.

 

Kerry O'Connor has explored this subject further,

Read his article held on the storage drive

'The Miracle of Symon'.

In the mid-17C Parliament began to sell off Crown and Church lands

Surveys were undertaken to list relevant buildings and lands. These records have been accessed and those for the  Mawarden Court and Subchanter estates (including Parsonage Farm) have been examined and transcribed into a new article.

View the article here.

1818 Manor Sale

The village website has a short article here about an auction on 3 June 1818 that included

12 lots of the

Stratford Manor Estate. 

 

View a longer illustrated article by Kerry O'Connor held on the storage drive. 

More to follow...

More articles from the Local History Group are in process. 

Mawarden Court

The village website has several webpages that feature this Grade II* Listed Building. But how did it get its name? 

 

An article by Kerry O'Connor 'Richard and Edith (de) Mawardyn(e)' traces the tenureship of local land by the Mawardyn family back to the 14thC.
Available here on the LHG external storage drive.

A Civil War Tale

In 1644 In the thick of the fighting was William Dollery, Sargeant (sic) in the Parliamentary Dragoons, from Salisbury before,

and Stratford sub Castle after the battle.

​

Read Kerry O'Connor's article here.

Know Your Place
KNP.jpg

The Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre in Chippenham have, during the pandemic in 2020, updated the Tithe Awards layer in Wiltshire on the Know Your Place website. link to WSHC.org.uk blog

 

Tithes (contributing one tenth) were historically paid in kind (for example as produce) until the 1836 Act for the Commutation of Tithes in England and Wales which changed this to variable payments as money (“corn rent”).

 

This is of great interest to local historians because it required detailed maps and lists of land ownership, tenancies, areas, names and usage and the Stratford sub Castle Local History Group has used these in its researches over the years.

Tithe award lists for the whole Woodford valley are now available, with open access, and will be of interest to those tracing their family history. The January 1840 list for our village is available to download below.

 

Kerry O'Connor

January 2021

Local History News

Local History News    (filtered from the News page).

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