February 27, 1970.

CORSHAM: Corsham Court, with its internationally famous collection of furniture and pictures, the park, Church Street and the adjoining Flemish buildings are to be offered to the National Trust as a gift. This was announced by Lord Methuen at the annual dinner of Corsham Chamber of Commerce on Saturday evening. Lord Methuen told of an “absolute miracle” which had saved the park of Corsham Court from military occupation during the war. “I consider the preservation of the park from the military to be my greatest achievement,” he stated. “We intend to include in the gift, if it goes through, the Flemish buildings, which are of national interest and which we hope will be renovated within the next few years.“ Church Street was also included in the gift and this would guarantee for all time the integrity of buildings of considerable historical and architectural value.

March 2, 1990.

BRADFORD ON AVON: Members of Bradford on Avon town council unanimously agreed to support the application by the new traders’ association, BARTA, to allow Sunday trading in Bradford on Avon and Avoncliff for 18 Sundays a year beginning at Easter. Miss Caroline Tierney, secretary of the group said: “We have also put a petition into shops and already 1,500 people have signed it supporting us.”The number of tourists visiting Bradford and Avoncliff is increasing, she explained, and they expect to come to the area on a Sunday and find shops able to sell them what they want.” Limits would still be imposed on what could be sold, but the range of goods available would be wider. Miss Tierney said another concern of BARTA was the damage to the town by heavy lorries using it as a through-route, and the group was monitoring the situation.

March 4, 2005.

WESTBURY: History was alive and kicking on Saturday when about 100 people brought their archaeological finds to Westbury Visitor Centre. The What Have You Found? day encouraged history fans to take along objects they had discovered in their gardens or houses to get them checked out by professionals. Items produced included Roman coins from the time of Constantine, 18th century building materials and a mystery iron object found by Westbury resident Eric Hinton. Westbury Heritage Society chairman Ivan Clark said: “It was an excellent response, the place was full up. Hopefully in the summer we’ll do a bigger event, which we can hold outside.” Archaeologists Marek Lewcun and Katherine White ran their eyes over the finds and took any that were particularly interesting away for further analysis. The haul included Roman pottery bottles, a 300-year-old lead weight, a Georgian belt clasp and a gold and emerald ring.