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A letter to Kintbury
Saturday, 29th February, 1772: the Rev Nowes Lloyd, vicar of Enborne, has travelled the 65 miles from his home in West Berkshire to Vine Street, in London. His journey is an important one as he has come to discuss a commission for a new monument from the celebrated sculptor, Thomas Scheemakers. Scheemakers is the youngest…
“Rough Music” comes to Kintbury
Throughout the nineteenth century, “rough music” was a popular form of protest amongst some sections of society. In parts of the north, these protests were known as “stang riding” and in the midlands, “Lewbelling”. In Dorset the term “skimmington” or “skimmity ride” was used. Thomas Hardy describes one such in his novel of 1886, The…
Our Kintbury neighbours, the newts
Back in the nineteenth and early twentieth century, two industries which have long since disappeared from Kintbury were brick making and the production of whiting. Bricks, of course, made from locally extracted clay, were for use in construction. The use of whiting, however, is perhaps not so obvious. Made from the naturally occurring chalk, crushed…
Isambard Kingdom Brunel & the pair of rails on Vicarage Bridge, Kintbury.
If you walk westwards along the canal tow path out of Kintbury, you pass under Vicarage Bridge. You will notice, as you approach the bridge, a pair of rails attached to the brickwork on the right hand side. You could easily mistake these rails for a pair of butresses but that was not their original…
Celebrating Ethel King Martyn and the murals of Inkpen church
In Medieval England, many church walls were decorated with colourful murals depicting Biblical scenes or the lives of saints. In an age of mass illiteracy, these images helped in the teaching of scripture and often provided a warning of what might happen to those who strayed from the narrow path of righteousness. “Doom” paintings depicting…
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Kintbury and Beyond 