Wootton Bassett Museum is a

local museum A local museum or local history museum is a type of museum that shows the historical development of a place/region (local history) using exhibits. These museums usually maintain a collection of historic three-dimensional objects which are exh ...

in the market town of

Royal Wootton Bassett Royal Wootton Bassett , formerly Wootton Bassett, is a market town and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, with a population of 11,043 in 2001, increasing to 11,385 in 2011. Situated in the north of the county, it lies to the west of the major ...

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

, England. It is located in the town hall which is a Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

History

The town hall was a gift to the town from

Laurence Hyde, 1st Earl of Rochester Laurence Hyde, 1st Earl of Rochester, (March 1642 – 2 May 1711) was an English statesman and writer. He was originally a supporter of James II but later supported the Glorious Revolution in 1688. He held high office under Queen Anne, daugh ...

, who had served as

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for Wootton Basset, and was built in 1690. The design involved an open ground floor and an upper storey supported on 15 tapered

oolite Oolite or oölite (''egg stone'') is a sedimentary rock formed from ooids, spherical grains composed of concentric layers. The name derives from the Ancient Greek word for egg (ᾠόν). Strictly, oolites consist of ooids of diameter 0.25–2 ...

columns. The ground floor was the venue for local butter and cheese markets and the upper storey served as both a council chamber and a courthouse. Facilities on the ground floor included a "blind house" under the staircase where

drunkard Alcoholism is, broadly, any drinking of alcohol that results in significant mental or physical health problems. Because there is disagreement on the definition of the word ''alcoholism'', it is not a recognized diagnostic entity. Predominan ...

s were held until they were completely

sober In cryptography, SOBER is a family of stream ciphers initially designed by Greg Rose of QUALCOMM Australia starting in 1997. The name is a contrived acronym for ''S''eventeen ''O''ctet ''B''yte ''E''nabled ''R''egister. Initially the cipher wa ...

and a storage facility for the hand-worked fire engine. By the late 19th century, the building was in an extremely dilapidated state and under threat of demolition, before being extensively restored by the socialite,

Lady Meux Valerie Susan, Lady Meux (pronounced "Mews"; ; 1852–1910), was a Devon-born socialite of the Victorian era. She was the wife of Sir Henry Bruce Meux, 3rd Baronet (1856–1900), who came from one of Britain’s richest brewing dynasties, Meux ...

and her husband, in 1889. The restoration included the removal of both the "blind house" under the stairs and the storage facility for the hand-worked fire engine, thereby creating a completely open space on the ground floor. The town hall was used as a meeting place by Cricklade and Wootton Bassett Rural District Council until 1972, when it fell vacant after the council converted the old primary school building in Station Road into a Civic Centre. Following an initiative by Dr Alan Stebbens, the then Chairman of Wootton Bassett Historical Society, the Wootton Bassett Museum was established in the empty town hall later that year. The museum subsequently built up a photographic collection covering life in Wootton Bassett during the 19th and 20th centuries as well as a

ducking stool Cucking stools or ducking stools were chairs formerly used for punishment of disorderly women, scolds, and dishonest tradesmen in England, Scotland, and elsewhere. The cucking-stool was a form of or "women's punishment," as referred to in La ...

dating from 1686, geological items,

stocks Stocks are feet restraining devices that were used as a form of corporal punishment and public humiliation. The use of stocks is seen as early as Ancient Greece, where they are described as being in use in Solon's law code. The law describing ...

, and a

whipping post The pillory is a device made of a wooden or metal framework erected on a post, with holes for securing the head and hands, formerly used for punishment by public humiliation and often further physical abuse. The pillory is related to the stock ...

. It also created a scale model of Wootton Bassett railway station as it would have looked before closure in 1965.

Notes

References

{{reflist Historic house museums in Wiltshire Local museums in Wiltshire City and town halls in Wiltshire Grade II listed buildings in Wiltshire Royal Wootton Bassett Government buildings completed in 1690

History

See also

Notes

References