Chippenham

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, might.

Deuteronomy 6: 5 ( … fear the Lord to keep all His statutes and commandments verse 2)

Come with me we have time. I can’t promise joy but it will be interesting. We have just walked through some high railway arches. Look at the name on the Pub/ Inn/lodgings.

Brunel was a 27 -year -old engineer when he was given the task of laying the first stretch of the railway between London and Bristol. He was known to have lodged in Chippenham where the pub is today.

Both his parents spent time in prison:

– his mother during the French Revolution under suspicion of being a British spy

– his father for running up debts in his work as an engineer and inventor

Here is a famous quote of his

If we must have heroes and wars whereinto make them, there is no war so brilliant as a war with the wrong, no hero so fit to be sung, as he who has gained the bloodless VICTORY of truth and mercy.

Isambard Kingdom Brunel ( His most famous achievement was his pioneering work in the design and construction of the Thames Tunnel.)

It is easy to go into the free museum where there are few contrasting surprises. ‘Did you know products made in Chippenham were used in railways all over the world?’ This is a question that you read through a glass.

In stark contrast there is a separate exhibition with space of its own and no other modern exhibition. It has its own full space. It is from our time 2022. I will let it speak for itself.

Harm Joy

We will be walking out the museum but look at this:

The story goes that it was the 12th night, of Christmas 878 AD, King Alfred was celebrating Christmas possibly in his hunting lodge where this museum stands today. The Vikings attacked. Alfred rallied his troops defeating the Vikings here in Chippenham.

Then there is one more person to meet , Dame Florence Hancock. She was born in 1893 in Chippenham. One of 15 children. The family were poor. She started campaigning for workers rights and was involved in her first strike at age 20. She played an important role in the development of the labour party. Travelling and speaking in many parts of the world.

It seems strange this but at the information centre in the museum I find another story. Chippenham was the place of a fatal accident, sad for many music lovers.

Cochran ( famous for Summertime Blues , )Sharon Sheeley and Gene Vincent were involved in a serious high speed car accident here in Chippenham. The story goes that Tony Sheridan also wanted to travel in the same taxi but his request was rejected.

There is a memorial to Cochran who was only 21 when he died in St Martin’s hospital Bath, Somerset.

We really must leave we have a train to catch but there are a group of people forming in front of the largest church in Chippenham.

I speak to one of the crowd dressed in colourful stripes. It’s not an afternoon concert it’s a funeral. Would I like to enjoy the music they ask? Who has passed I ask. Ah, a well loved lady in her 60th year. She loved singing and making music with crafts as well.

We are all outside the largest church because she was loved in the town.

Respectfully I show you the colourful inside of the church and then the church at a distance.

Looking down the long aisle.

It is always important to me to notice the constants of a town; rivers, trees and sometimes birds or animals. Here is a pigeon looking at me as I come too close.

Goodbye Chippenham I really didn’t expect to find so much.

Thank you for being with me.

Sandy 🙂