|
|
|
...A town with heritage and history While Trowbridge owes its prosperity and much of its historic architecture to the cloth industry that developed from the 15th century, the town's roots go back much further. The name itself is believed to be derived from the Anglo-Saxon words for tree and bridge - 'treow-brycg' - indicating either that the town was noted for a bridge made of trees or for a bridge close to an unusually prominent tree. Trowbridge's first appearance in recorded history is during the troubled reign of King Steven in the first half of the 12th century, at which time there was a fairly substantial castle held by supporters of Queen Matilda, the rival claimant to the throne of England. While the castle fell into ruin shortly after these events - indeed, nothing was left of the actual structure by the mid-1500s and the site was sold off in lots in 1812 for the building of cloth mills - it has left its trace in the shape of the town. The curving line of Fore Street from the Town Hall to the Town Bridge evidently follows the line of the castle's outer defences. The name Wicker Hill for the lowest part of Fore Street came from a reinforcement of the sides of the moat or ditch by wickerwork or hurdles which old men of the late 18th century could still remember having seen as boys. The centre of the castle was somewhere in the area now covered by The Shires shopping centre, probably under the Home Mill building. The line of the wall and moat was continued from Fore Street back to the river across the site of the present Town Hall, where - in digging the foundations in 1887 - deer antlers, animals bones and the remains of medieval sculptures of saints were unearthed. Trowbridge Museum - Over 22,000 visitors a year are welcomed through the doors of the lively Trowbridge Museum, situated in a former woollen mill in The Shires Shopping Centre. It tells the story of the townspeople and their work. Trowbridge Castle - in ruins as far back as the Middle Ages - has recently been recreated in the Museum and visitors can now step back in time by crossing the drawbridge and experience 12th century Trowbridge. Run by Trowbridge Town Council, admission to the museum is free and the facility has developed a reputation of excellence for education and lifelong learning. For a modest charge schools can take advantage of a wide range of workshops produced to meet various stages of the national curriculum.
|
|
Link to Trowbridge
Museum Trowbridge Museum - Over 22,000 visitors a year are welcomed through the doors of the lively Trowbridge Museum, situated in a former woollen mill in The Shires Shopping Centre. It tells the story of the townspeople and their work. Trowbridge Castle - in ruins as far back as the Middle Ages - has recently been recreated in the Museum and visitors can now step back in time by crossing the drawbridge and experience 12th century Trowbridge. Run by Trowbridge Town Council, admission to the museum is free and the facility has developed a reputation of excellence for education and lifelong learning. For a modest charge schools can take advantage of a wide range of workshops produced to meet various stages of the national curriculum. |
|
...A town with famous citizens One of the earliest families to rise to prominence as a result of Trowbridge's cloth industry was the Langfords in the 1500s. Mary Langford, daughter of a wealthy clothier, married Henry Hyde of Dinton, in South Wiltshire, in 1597 and their son Edward Hyde became Earl of Clarendon, Chief Minister to Charles II. In turn, Edward's daughter Anne was the wife of James II and her daughters - the great granddaughters of Mary Langford - were Queen Mary II and Queen Anne. Of the town's religious figures, the most prominent was Matthew Hutton, rector at St James's from 1726 to 1730 before going on to become Archbishop of Canterbury in 1757. The most famous rector was George Crabbe, generally known as the poet Crabbe. He had made his name as a poet several years before coming to Trowbridge by writing in realistic terms about village life in his home borough of Aldeburgh in Suffolk. Another burst of inspiration on arriving in Trowbridge led him to write more poetry, often sitting beneath a mulberry tree - now gone - in the rectory grounds. In the nearby churchyard, one notable and carefully preserved gravestone is that of trade union martyr Thomas Helliker, a Trowbridge cloth worker arrested in 1802 on suspicion of threatening a night-watchman with a pistol during an anti-machinery mill-burning riot. Although protesting his innocence, he refused to betray the real culprit, a fellow member of the shearmen's union, and was subsequently tried and hanged on his 19th birthday in 1803. The town's most famous citizen was Isaac Pitman who invented the system of shorthand named after him and used around the world. Born and raised in Trowbridge, his early working life was spent in the counting houses of two local woollen mills before he left for London at the age of 19 to train as a teacher. His shorthand system was invented at Wootton-under-Edge and he later settled in Bath. |
