These days a ubiquitous HMO, what was the Ship Inn sits on the corner of Westcott Place, Birch Street, Park Lane and Faringdon Road, opposite the GWR park. In 2006 The Ship relaunched as a music venue, but closed for good in 2012.
Opened in 1847 as a beer house, like many town and city centre public houses, the Ship Inn has enjoyed or endured a chequered history. But it’s arguable that the most interesting part of its story is that of its infamous murder.
‘On September 18, 1903, Edward Richard Palmer, 24, walked into the Ship Inn. He ordered a bottle of Bass. He then pulled a revolver from his pocket and shot dead the 19-year-old barmaid, Esther Swinford.’
Young Esther worked as a live-in servant at the pub when first she met Palmer. In 1902 they became engaged. But events were to take a dark turn. With the date of the nuptials set and the banns read, Esther learned her beloved had been somewhat careless with the hard-earned cash she’d given him for for their shared future.
Let’s suffice it to say, and cutting short a long story, that Palmer paid for his crime of passion with the death sentence. He was hanged at Devizes prison on November 17th 1903.
In the witness stand Palmer confirmed that he was in the habit of carrying a revolver. Though on this occasion he’d only meant to frighten Esther. It appears he was annoyed that she’d not spoken to him. They found a photograph of Esther with the words ‘the curse of my life’ written across it on Palmer after his arrest.
*I can’t find my copy of this book. If I’ve lent it to someone can I please have it back? My house isn’t big enough to lose a book of that size and the only thing I can think is that I’ve lent it out and forgotten about it. I dunno …
Anyway, in his amazing book he describes varying landlords over the years and some of their stories. He also mentions that, in 2006, Enterprise Inns reopened The Ship as the 12 Bar music venue with Dave Young and Anna Sprawson at the helm. Dave Young explained the name 12 Bar as a being familiar to musicians. It’s one of the first things you learn on the guitar.
Enterprise Inns spent £250,000 on the place but sadly stripped out pretty much every vestige of the Victorian internal architecture in the process.
John tells us that the revamped pub opened on October 13th 2006. Sadly initial success didn’t last and the obvious happened. Local property developer Pat Slattery snapped it up and the Ship was sunk.
Below we can see the Ship Inn as it looks today. The internal Victorian features may have beeb stripped away, but externally at least, it hasn’t homogenised. It’s clear to see what its previous life was, with the ghost sign to the left of the top, front window, the pub sign hanging to the left and the window to the left of the door on the corner. All of which is a whole lot better than complete obliteration.
The Ship Inn in 2023 – photo courtesy of Chris Eley
Famous rock star backs folk festival. Rock legend and Jethro Tull frontman Ian Anderson has given a ringing endorsement to Malmesbury’s folk festival plans.
Supported by Malmesbury Town Council, the Folk & Roots Festival is being staged on September 23 in Malmesbury Abbey Cloister Gardens. It’s timed to tie in with the inaugural European Folk Day.
Ian Anderson, who has stars in a promotional video for the event, said: Malmesbury is a beautiful little town. It’s an ancient town, with amazing historic connections. It also has the partially ruined abbey, and the festival is in the grounds. It will be a super event, so do take a trip to Malmesbury and enjoy this folk and roots festival – maybe I’ll see you there!’
Ian Anderson with his band Jethro Tull – Rock star backs Malmesbury folk festival
Organisers
Helping to organise the event on behalf of the town council is local resident Catherine Burke. Catherine runs the popular Purbeck Valley Folk Festival.
Catherine has booked some great acts, including headliners 3 Daft Monkeys. Other performers include Martha Tilston, Old Baby Mackerel, The Carrivick Sisters and Wiltshire band Fly Yeti Fly.
During the day Morris dancers will be performing at different places around the town. And there will be food and drink stalls at the festival itself. Burton Hill campsite is offering a discount to festival-goers. And local cafes, shops and restaurants are getting ready for a busy day’s trading.
Mayor, Cllr Gavin Grant, said he was looking forward to welcoming residents and visitors to the festival. It follows hot on the heels of the successful Music in the Cloisters evening, staged as part of Malmesbury Carnival.
‘Malmesbury is so strong in live music. It seems only natural for our beautiful town to host a folk music festival in this amazing location. I’m delighted that the town council are backing the inaugural festival and a group of musicians and festival organisers have come together to make it happen. It’s all the more impressive knowing that any festival profits could help my Mayoral good causes’ fund too. I hope Malmesbury and folk music lovers will get behind this inaugural festival and make it a great success.’
Athelstan museum member numbers soar as its volunteers celebrate much success.
The Athelstan Museum in Malmesbury is once again thriving. Its membership now exceeds pre-Covid figures with 430 members contributing to its success, including seventy-five regular volunteers. The museum, well known as the home of renowned artist JMW Turner’s watercolour of Malmesbury Abbey, had to close its doors during the pandemic. It then lost around ten of its volunteers.
Along with the closure itself, this created a challenge for the museum. It treats its community engagement responsibilities with seriousness and prides itself on being open six days a week, forty-nine weeks of the year. Post pandemic the team had to work hard to not only get the Turner on display, but to get the museum back on track.
Athelstan Museum Member Numbers Soar – Susan Mockler, vice chair of the Athelstan Museum management team
Athelstan museum management
Susan Mockler, vice-chair of the Athelstan Museum management team explains why the museum is now thriving again.
‘Our member numbers are well up on pre-Covid figures. With 430 people, that’s 100 more than we had before the pandemic,’ she says.
‘What’s particularly interesting is that many those new members are international and found us during lockdown. It’s lovely to have membership from home and abroad and to know that the history and heritage of Malmesbury is reaching all corners of the globe!’
This is also reflected in the numbers visiting the museum’s website. It’s seen 7,220 users from various countries including America, New Zealand, South Africa and Sweden. And with a total number of website visitors of 18,396 in the last twelve months.
The museum also says its following on social media, including Facebook and Twitter has seen significant increases. And the number of people who have signed up to their mailing list is at an all-time high.
A vital volunteer team
Sharon Nolan is chair of the museum’s trustees. She said:
Athelstan Museum is very fortunate to have a steady team of valued volunteers. A good number of them have been loyal to us for many years. Over the last year we have recruited new volunteers. Often they’re recommended by word of mouth. Or may be new residents in the town.
Volunteering in the museum is a great way to meet new people, learn about the history of Malmesbury and contribute in a positive way to the community. There are many different roles. They range from the front desk, to helping with our amazing collection, education and outreach, exhibitions, events or the museum shop. There is something for everyone.’
With volunteer numbers being back up to pre-pandemic levels, seventy-five local people now donate their time on a day-to-day basis to help the Athelstan go from strength to strength.
Volunteers are vital to the museum’s ability to thrive as a community hub. Further they’re an important touch point for visitors, especially school groups. The management team believe that the hard work of the volunteers have made a significant contribution to the growing success of the Athelstan. For sure they were instrumental in the acquisition of the Turner watercolour.
The added high profile provided by the Turner painting and collections such as the Malmesbury Coin Hoard — a collection of more than 1,200 Roman coins discovered by a metal-detecting enthusiast in a Wiltshire field ten years ago — has helped drive the museum’s success.
Public engagement
The museum has also been taking history outside of its walls to local schools and out into the community. An example of this included Sue Poolman delivering an engaging talk about the acquisition and history of the Turner painting to local residential homes. And they all received a framed print of the watercolour.
Our accessibility to the people of Malmesbury is so important to us,’ says Susan Mockler. ‘And we consider ourselves to be a crucial point of access for anyone interested in the heritage of the area and the collections we hold. We look after objects that provide us with so much information about our past. They tell the story of the local area, but those objects wouldn’t have any tales to tell us without the people who made them part of their lives. We want to engage with the community more and more. That’s because, when it comes down to it, it’s people who have helped make our history and continue to help us keep those stories alive for future generations.’
To become a member involves a commitment to donate at least £12 a year or £200 to secure a life-time membership.
I’ll take a moment here to mention Swindon museum and art gallery – as was and as is becoming. Housed in Apsley House in Swindon’s Old Town, Swindon Borough Council elected not to reopen it when the Covid collar finally was lifted. Thus followed a long and somewhat sorry saga of campaigning by some of the museum Friends. They too, as with the Athelstan museum, undertook varying roles to support the museum.
But there’s now a light on the horizon. Work is at last underway to convert the first floor of the civic offices into a new museum and gallery.
Debuting in 1973, at London’s Royal Court theatre, and now a cult classic, the Rocky Horror Show remains one of the sexiest – and funniest – shows in stage and film. Fifty years and going strong. The blog, Europeana, describes it as drawing inspiration from B-movies, science fiction and horror. And indeed that’s not hard to see.
Richard O’Brien, famous for the Crystal Maze game show, wrote the musical. Glam rock inspired the music and visuals of this tale of a newly-engaged couple, Brad and Janet. Caught in a storm, they seek help at the home of scientist, Dr Frank-N-Furter. During proceedings he unveils his new creation, Rocky, a monster in tanned, muscular, blonde, male form.
The Europeana blog further describes how the show found itself being influenced by, and in turn being an influence on, the counter-cultural and sexual liberation movements of the 1970s and 1980s. Further it was at the vanguard of musicals that depicted liberated characters with fluid sexualities. As such, LGBTQ+ communities hold it in huge affection and celebrate it for its subversive portrayal of sexuality and gender.
Rocky Horror Show 2023 – programme cover
The cast
Well here was a novelty – for me ( I live a sheltered life) – a familiar name in the cast list in the form of Joe McFadden as the narrator. It’s an important role is that one. Sometimes the audience for the RHS can be, shall we say, a bit lively*, interacting with the narrator. And they then have to respond to that – all off the cuff like. And last night a section of the audience were clearly RHS devotees – they knew the lines and were interjecting with the narrator at every available moment.
*A million years ago, when I first saw this show in Sheffield, I experienced this. EVERYONE was dressed up (aside from me and my mate), we got in the auditorium and the doors were closed. No interval – it went right through. It was a little raucous!
Stephen Webb as Frank N Furter I’ve seen before – he’s great. As indeed were the entire cast – singing and dancing their stockings and suspenders off. But I must give mention to Kristian Lavercombe who plays Riff Raff. It seems that Kristian has over 2000 Rocky Horror performances under his basque – that’s more than anyone in its 50 year history! But of course they’re all fab. Suffice it to say, the performance has all the energy and fun that you’d expect and want from The Rocky Horror Show.
Though I should point out that a show with a song called Sweet Transvestite is perhaps not for the easily offended. But it’s such a hoot!
Wessex Week in Wiltshire – A PASSION FOR HISTORY & CULTURE LIES BEHIND WESSEX WEEK 2023.
A PASSION for music, history and the arts has led volunteer Julia Bowen to step up again to stage Wessex Week in Malmesbury this autumn.
Julia (73) has been alongside her colleague historian Tony McAleavy and the rest of her team, organising a whole week of events. They’ll celebrate the region’s history, culture and art through the centuries. But putting a particular emphasis on Malmesbury and the Anglo Saxon period. The events take place in the town between Saturday October 14 and Saturday October 21.
Julia Bowen, one of the two founder volunteers of Wessex Week
How it began
The ‘week’ came about after the BBC ran its history week from the town for several years and then pulled out in 2016. Julia, with others, decided to organise events themselves.
‘It had been so successful that when the BBC decided to move to Winchester, we wanted to create our own event. In that first year it was such a success that we made a small profit. So we re-invested it for an event in 2017 and the rest, as they say, is history.
Over the years we’ve had some wonderful speakers. They’ve included historian and author Tom Holland, historian and broadcaster Michael Wood and Dr Janina Ramirez – a cultural historian, broadcaster and author.’
Well known
Julia is well known in Malmesbury for her voluntary work and is involved in local cultural and musical activities. She was Malmesbury’s second lady mayor and chairs Malmesbury & District Twinning Association.
During her working life, she was a music teacher for Wiltshire Music Service. She later became Deputy Head of South Gloucestershire Music Service , taking her colleagues over the world to learn about music from other cultures. Her late husband John was also a well-known artist and fashion designer, involved in the history and culture of Malmesbury and wider Wiltshire. Julia’s own love of music, culture, the arts and performance continues undimmed.
Music is in my DNA and I come from a long line of string players. My great grandfather made and taught the violin and a great uncle was a ‘ cellist in the Halle. I have always been a performing musician, particularly voice and it very much defines who I am.’
It’s not surprising then that music features again during the 2023 line-up of events.
The events
The Story of Malmesbury Abbey 670 to 1539 by Tony McAleavy (7pm Saturday Oct 14 in the Abbey).
Guided walk & talk by Campbell Ritchie on 900 Years of The Monks at Malmesbury Abbey (10.30am Sunday October 15 from Cross Hayes)
A free exhibition ‘Archives, Maces and Bird’s-Eye-View’. This offers a rare opportunity to explore the archives of the Warden and Freemen of Malmesbury including the Queen Anne silver maces. The Warden & Freemen of Malmesbury is an organisation dating back to the time of King Athelstan. It’s still active today (Sunday October 15 10.30am to 4pm Warden and Freeman Office in Market Lane).
Malmesbury & Queens of Mediaeval England (talk & supper) led by Tony McAleavey. Wednesday October 18 6pm at The Old Bell Hotel. You can get separate tickets just for the talk.
The Story of the Warden & Freemen of Malmesbury with Richard Robins, Capital Burgess. Thursday October 19 7pm, Malmesbury Town Hall.
One very special event to close the week on Saturday October 21 will have senior archaeologist Richard Osgood MBE leading. He’ll share the story of The Shallow Grave. It relates to the discovery and excavation of a Saxon burial on private land near Tetbury.
Richard said: ‘Gloucestershire in the 7th Century was a liminal zone -frontier land. There’s limited traces of this age. But yet a Cotswold field has recently yielded some very important finds. There’s evidence for a settlement which has associated burials. One of them was provided with a series of impressive grave goods. Located by a metal detectorist, Gloucestershire Council further investigated the site. Also participants on the Operation Nightingale programme. They used archeology to assist the recovery of military veterans.
‘Hence, the formation of Exercise ‘Shallow Grave’. My talk will explore the site in the Cotswolds and then draw in recent parallels from other sites in Wessex including on the chalklands of the military training area of Salisbury Plain.’
To get tickets
Tickets for any of these events are available online via the Wessex Week websitehttps://wessex-week.org
And there are some also available to buy at the tourist information centre based at Malmesbury Town Hall.
