Today’s excursion involved a short bus journey on the No 55 bus, but getting to this point hasn’t been so straight forward, for just as I was about to come home from work a week ago last Thursday, Iceland had a volcanic eruption, which meant that I was stuck at work for an extra 5 days. I can’t say I’m complaining unduly – I have things to pay and the overtime makes life so much easier, instead of staying in Aberdeen the night I went down and visited David and his family in Edinburgh which was long over due, I still managed to fit a couple of days in to see my kids and by the time I got to Kirkcudbright, I had the house to myself, so a couple of quiet days to unwind before coming down south to Kes and Wiltshire.
Wootton Bassett first pops its head up into the historical records by its old name Wodeton (the town in the woods) in 681AD when King Ethelred gave land there to the local abbot. In 1015 there was an unwelcome visit by some marauding Danes and that seems to be about it for the town until it made the customary appearance in the Doomsday book under the ownership of one Miles Crispin . In 1200 the local landlord became a fellow called Alan Bassett, who’s name can be found on the Magna Carta and who tagged his name onto the back of the town to give it its current name.
In 1446 the town was given the right to send 2 representatives to parliament and went on to become one of the rotten burghs – these were boroughs which previously having gained the rights to send members to parliament retained the right even though most of the population had moved else where. An extreme case of a rotten borough is Old Sarum near Salisbury where they returned 2 members to parliament even though the constituency only consisted of 3 houses and 7 people eligible to vote. The problem with very small electorates is that they were bribeable . In 1754 the elected candidate was buying peoples votes for £30 and with refreshments for voters in the run up to the election, ran up a bar bill in 12 of the towns pubs of £1077 – that’s a lot of beer at £1077 prices (according to a spreadsheet I found on the net, I make that well over 20000 gallons. Around the same time one London pub is reputed to have advertised as “Drunk for a penny, Dead drunk for two pence, Clean straw for nothing”- now there’s a happy hour!).
Now that the history lesson is over, there isn’t a huge amount to tell you about Wootton Bassett. It seems a very pleasant little town, although perhaps it being the first really nice sunny day I had experienced so far this year helped quite a lot. Have a look at the pictures to go with this blog.
A special mention to Mr Owen Collier here who is the town crier in Wootton Bassett who took the time for a good natter and gave me a lump of the history of the town. He was at one time a member of the Sealed Knot and took part in the Battle re-enactments at Kirkcudbright some years ago which I thoroughly enjoyed but predate both this blog and me having a digital camera. In his current roll he takes part in many town crying competitions with some success – I believe he’s competing this weekend so I wish him all the best.
Sandy's witterings 
Five days of overtime, not bad!Seems the politicians today may employ the methods of the rotten boroughs to gain a few more votes.Fine old building, shame to be almost swamped with all those white vans!
The white vans are there because it\’s market day but the view would certainly be improved without them.
Hmm! so rotton borough didn\’t mean quite what I first thut it did ;)Where were you working??!! That volcanic ash must have been very busy to keep you stuck in work for FIVE days!! 😉
Your travels are so fascinating, Sandy…must admit I couldn\’t read you for a bit cuz I knock my left leg up (serious strain and the bruises are pretty colours now!), so had to lie flat for several days with said leg propped on mountain of pillows…now I think I\’m just plain jealous of the amazing places you go, even more so as I\’m walking, but slowly, turtle like..beautiful pics as well…I like the historical bits you put in…have done quite a lot of that myself regarding different towns in Canada, but Britain is so much older, so the stories have more ecclectic flavour…good blog, much enjoyed..love, Katie.
"nice place bassett" i lived there myself for a few year\’s, sorry never made it to avebury,,,,,,,, all the best,,,,billy (white vanman!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
Hello my loverI thought it was National White Van Man day! There\’s not an awful lot in Bassett, there used to be a really nice new age type shop but it couldn\’yt hold off \’progree\’ and is now a hairdressers. Another fact is there are 17 pubs in Bassett, which is the most pubs of anywhere in the near vicintiy! NO! You can\’t go and sample a pint in all of them in one day! Love you babe x x
Greetings ye all and ta for the comments – rather tardy reply here as it was a busy weekend down at Avebury where Kes was naming babies (singular) and the usual gatherings, then it was a bit of travel, then a day with the computer of the ancients which doesn\’t seem to like MSN, then a dunk in the water, then… then… …anyway, here I am at sea a few days later.Glad to see you\’ve still got a blog Billy in the mean time, careful with that van Eugene.Catherine Mary – glad you\’re enjoying my travels – most of the places i go are very ordinary places but even in them there are interesting things to see and find out – I\’m sure Canada is the same, if perhaps not so old as you say.I\’m bobbing about on the Atlantic continental shelf half way to the Faroe Islands Ms Icewolf, though not currently under a cloud
17 pubs my love! even allowing for the one that was closed, I think you would have noticed if I\’d paid homage at each of the sacred alters. Much returned love for thee my sweetness xxxxxxFor those comments on pictures – I can\’t see them just now as BP blocks albums, though if i can get a Norwegain connection later I\’ll have a look.Who\’s that chinese bugger down there trying to flog things via my blog!!!! hasn\’t he heard of e-bay!
17 pubs……..? My Gosh, now there\’s a challenge.
Thank you for your comment Sandy. lol 17 pub\’s If you should visit every pub in one day. Starting with a spoon full of ale in the first one, Then doubling the amount in every pub you visit. That would be a day to remember, if you still had a memory that is lol."THE TOWN IN THE WOODS" How quaint.
Kenny, I\’ve just done the sums and your spoonful of ale (and I\’m being very sober here and starting with a 5 ml tea spoon) is a very sedate sup in the first pub, hardly a taste I should say – infact i\’d start off inthe pub with the worst looking beer. By pub 4 we\’re getting a mouthfull and by pub 6 we\’re up to 640 mls which I\’ve rounded down to 1 pint – with the spillage that\’s bound to occur later in the day, a 150 mls or so is nothing. I\’m afraid by pub 10 I\’m going to be a bit uncomfortable – for me 4 pints is quite a lot when you\’re already 4 pints into your day. I\’m going to be hospitalised at some point in pub 11 I think but there may be a few brave and hardy souls out there can make it all the way to pub 17 where they can impress the locals by drinking down 574 pints of Wiltshires finest ales, making a daily total of well over a thousand pints (about 2 years worth of the goverments recommended maximum alcohol intake). On that note, I\’m going to have my dinner for I have a stomach to line.
lol never was much good at maths. Wow a 1.000 pint\’s. There was a time when I would drink something in the region of 30 pints a week plus the odd chaser. Mmmmm… now let me see, oh I shall leave it to you to do the maths on that one :)Not sure about "brave and hardy" more like brave and foolhardy !!!
Oh, this is SO great! I got into your site, Sandy! Many thanks for the note on my profile page, btw, and since I\’m here I want to ask you if, when you read another MARVELOUS book, cuz the one you just posted looks really good, if you\’d put up a bit of the plot and tell a little bit about it….I mean you know, if it\’s really gory ( cuz sometimes guys like that sort of thing)…oh sheesh, I\’m kind of rambling here, sorry about that…just so glad to be able to get in and not too sure if it\’s going to stick or not, you know…likely time to shut up now…love, Katie.
Katie, I really just quietly update my reading list mainly for my own benefit and to be honest I\’m not so sure I want to get into the reviewing thing. If I read it, it goes in although you have to go back to the Partisans Daughter to get one I was disappointed in (and Mr de Berniers is usually so good). You\’ll see a lot of people appearing regularly – Bernard Cornwall (generally historical and bloody) and Terry Pratchett (now Sir Tel). So many good books in there but could I lend them to my mother?? If you want know my opinion on something in the list, just ask and I\’ll give it quite happily.
Goodness, I really foamed at the mouth yesterday.! lol! Sorry, Sandy…can you tell I\’m the daughter of a librarian?!? Your book list to me is like a chocoholic finding a Laura Secord shop…what can I say?!? Perhaps, you could just tell a smidge about the last book, it looked so good..I\’ve taken down the various authors and will go check them out at the library and the local book shop…and will do my best to be a little moe sedate with future commentary…love, Katie.
Tis a wonderful world this internet thing Katie – I don\’t have to guess that Laura Secord is the canadian Thorntons, I can look it up and know for sure. Excalibur is book number three of three, so you would want to start at the Winter King and move on to Enemy of God first. It\’s Bernard Cornwell\’s telling of the Arthurian Legends. The dark ages in Britain (between the romans going home and Saxons getting a good foothold or even right up to 1066, I\’m not sure of where they end) were more a bit twilight and don\’t seem to have a gap big enough to drop good old King Arthur and his knights into it – an how some historians have looked for Arthur. Bernard Cornwell levers Arthur into the 6th century or so by using some real but somewhat vague events and by not making Arthur king but a warlord running a large part of the country on behalf of the king. Also there\’s no real magic in here and everything that the Druid Merlin does is quite explainable. Obviously this can\’t be on such firm historical ground as some of his other stuff but he does make it plausable. There is a lot of battles and violence but those were violent times. The fact that there are 8 of his books on the list suggests that I at least would recommend it – as long as you have a nice cup of tea before you go out to remind you that the world (or at least our bit of it) is not like that anymore and it\’s not an option to carve up the next person that annoys you.
A further thought on Excalibur and maybe this is an unrecommendation. I enjoy Bernard Cornwell and will continue to read his books but I find he doesn\’t burrow into me and demand a bit of my soul – I read it and put it down and I\’m pretty much the same person afterwards that I was before. I\’m reading some Annie Proux just now, beautifully written with a good dollop of the stuff that makes napalm stick. I can\’t remember much at all about the details of George mackay Brown\’s Beside an Ocean of Time but the feel of the book is still in me somewhere. I had to stop reading Captain Corelli\’s Mandolin on a bus as I was about to embarass myself. You feel you know Thomas Hardy\’s Tess as well as her mother and Angel put together. Perhaps we need a few books that we can be a bit separate from too.
Many thanks for the review from Bernard Cornwell\’s latest book…sounds like a good read…know what you mean, though-there are books I have that I read and re-read because I know them and they don\’t touch me personally, they\’re just a really good read…can put it down and pick it up again when I want to..because I FINALLY have the time(my kids are grown), I\’ve used the net in conjunction with hard copy to research many things that are real life…the books I\’ve just mentioned come in handy then, because they\’re usually light and known plots and I read them as an offset to the research part of whatever I\’m doing…when I\’m not doing research, I like the book I\’m reading to be more, to get to me..how did you put it? "…demand a bit of my soul" ( well done you!), because then I\’m not involved with anything else and can give it my full attention…Thomas Hardy\’s Tess is an excellent example, and I try never to read Jane Austen along side anything else at all..two authors where I \’live\’ in the plot, the setting, the story right along side them until the last page….Thornton\’s=Laura Secord, hmm? Must remember that if I ever get to visit Britain…books are my first vice, chocs are a near second! Thanks again, Sandy. love, Katie.
love this building\’s patio…