The Wiltshire Times And News, Friday 17 February 1989, reported:
Danny Howell’s current successful lecture tour of the area found him on home ground when he spoke to fellow members of the Warminster History Society on the upper reaches of the Wylye Valley under the title “No Finer Country’.
His reputation had gone before him, and there was standing room only in the meeting room of the Library. The excellent quality of his slides enhanced his relaxed delivery, full of anecdotes of the past – not the big moments of history, but the detail which makes the scene come alive.
The stream which runs by Sutton Parva was illegally dug as a marl pit, and on Good Friday 1439 several people were prosecuted for this.
The hollow elm at Tytherington was once used as pig sty. On one occasion in later years seventeen people crowded into it to have a tea party.
The Carriers at Stockton (in the First World War called the New Inn) used to serve many of the 35,000 troops stationed at Codford. To cope with the numbers, the men used to enter the pub by the back door, dip a jam jar into a bath full of ale, and go out of the other door to drink it in the street.
Residents of the village of Corton today may be surprised to discover that in the early 1800s the village was a lawless place, full of drunkeness and degrading sports, like badger baiting and “kick legs” where the calves of each opponent were savagely assaulted. The Baptists had several attempts at bringing their faith to these heathens before they were able to build a chapel in 1828.
One theory about the thatched cob walls which are peculiar to the county, and of which there is a good example at Corton, is that they were built at the time of the machine riots by rich clothiers and farmers to mark the boundaries of their properties. Once this was breached by rioters they were able to call out the militia.
The wonderful churches in the valley include Sutton Veny, with its 160 feet high spire, and Boyton, where the Gifford chapel has the remarkable wheel window, enclosing six circles which can still turn. The family included Walter, Archbishop of Worcester, and Alexander, the crusader. His tomb in the church bears an otter to commemorate his swim across the River Nile.
Sitting indoors on a bleak February evening it was impossible not to feel gratitude for the richness of the past and the beauty of the countryside in which the town now sits. The views from Cotley Hill above Heytesbury, where hill after hill rolls away, each with ramparts and barrows, its skyscapes, bird song and wild flowers, brought the evening to a close.
Next month the A.G.M. will be held.