Describes the rise and fall of one of the most powerful landowning families in England from the 15th to the 20th century. The Long family's various branches were centred in Wiltshire, and included politicians, statesmen, courtiers and traitors.

The authors take a fresh approach to the telling of Mary Sidney's fascinating story. She was a remarkable woman who spent a significant part of her life at Wilton House. Married at the age of fifteen to one of England's richest men, she was close to Queen Elizabeth I. As she lived at a time of political and religious change, her story is told against that background. The untimely death of her beloved brother, the courtier and poet, Sir Philip Sidney, altered the course of her life. Mary Sidney became a trend-setter, forging a pathway for women writers: a talented poet, a skilful translator and editor and an influential patron of the arts. She wrote a version of Antony and Cleopatra. Her metrical psalms inspired poets, including a distant relative, George Herbert. Her legacy is traced to the wider world and the poetry of New England. Closer to home her relationship to key figures of the day is explored: James I, William Shakespeare and Edmund Spenser, to name a few. Mary Sidney Herbert's contribution to literature has never been sufficiently acknowledged but this book redresses that neglect and offers an engaging insight into an influential woman's life.

Wansdyke is one of the great linear, bank-and-ditch earthworks of England. From end to end it stretches 35 miles across Somerset and Wiltshire. Only the Devil's Dyke, near Newmarket, is higher. Archaeologists Sir Cyril and Lady Aileen Fox described it as 'a formidable barrier'. Yet it is not nearly as well known, for example, as that other great linear earthwork on the English-Welsh border, Offa's Dyke.

This book seeks to bring Wansdyke into the spotlight, to describe this magnificent earthwork and examine the controversies about where it starts and finishes. The quest to understand Wansdyke has been a long one, and the attempts to decipher its secrets by antiquaries and archaeologists are chronicled. But Wansdyke does not give up its secrets easily. Only by putting it into its wider archaeological and historical context do we begin to move to a closer understanding of its origins.

Packed with maps and photographs, this comprehensive study of the earthwork aims to stimulate the interest in the monument that it deserves and to encourage others to take up the Quest for Wansdyke!

The Haunch of Venison, Salisbury, is an English pub where the over-used adjective 'iconic' is truly justified as a description. It has stood for centuries in the heart of Salisbury (Wiltshire), opposite the Poultry Cross, on the edge of the city's chartered market, and neighbouring the graveyard of St Thomas's Church. Its stuccoed front, sandwiched between two black and white beamed buildings, and its Edwardian pewter-topped bar, are familiar from engravings, paintings and photographs from over the years. But how many people know its history? For whom was the building erected? Who owned it? Who lived there? Who worked there? And who drank there? This book can certainly answer some of those questions. What happened to the real severed hand? Did Churchill visit the pub? Who were some of the celebrities who have frequented it over the years? And do ghosts really exist? Comprehensive A-Z history and description of all aspects of the building, its owners, licensees and distinguished customers.

Stephen Allen is a doctor and clinical scientist, now semi-retired, who has had a long and demanding career as a consultant physician, and who has published more than 200 items, mostly research papers, chapters and textbooks. English literature has been one of his abiding passions, and he has read and written poetry since early adult life. His poems reflect his interest in the natural world, wildlife conservation, fly fishing and our distant past. The poems in this collection were mostly written between 2019 and 2022. They span the range of poetic styles Stephen has used in recent years. He and his wife live in Salisbury, in England's West Country, and many of the poems describe or are inspired by the landscapes of the region.

Brought up in her grandmother's Lincolnshire cottage during World War Two, Judith Nicholls has lived in Wiltshire since 1970. Her first collection of poems, Magic Mirror, was published by Faber in 1985, and she has written or compiled more than forty poetry collections for children; her poems have also appeared in hundreds of anthologies. Judith sees poetry as pattern, understanding, exploration, exhortation and explanation. Her interest has always remained in crafting words, in finding echoes in the poems. In many hundreds of visits to schools, she would always unfold the sequence of the drafts that usually preceded the smallest poem. Although her poems are still to be found in many anthologies, Judith's books are now largely out of print, so it has been lovely, she says, to have been able to make a selection from them for Hobnob Press.

This book offers succinct but informative and well researched histories of forty-two Wiltshire parishes, from Bromham, Seend and Erlestoke in the west to Wootton Rivers in the north-east and Netheravon in the south, including Devizes, Pewsey and Pewsey Vale. The author has gained a reputation for the quality of his writing, and these lovingly written historical essays are complemented by exquisite, specially commissioned illustrations by Michael Charlton, as well as facsimiles of historic maps. For everyone living in the Devizes area who is interested in their history and surroundings, and for the region's many enthusiastic visitors, this book is the indispensable companion. First published in 2003 and now reissued.

The history of Bishop's Cleeve, a large village four miles to the north of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, is skilfully told by the means of three walking tours around the village centre and six detailed case studies of important sites. The reader will learn how Bishop's Cleeve developed out of small, scattered prehistoric settlements into the early origins of a village in Anglo-Saxon times, followed by the turbulent years of the Middle Ages and the nineteenth century. The modern village developed with the arrival of Smiths Industries in the middle of the last century and has continued with the significant expansion over the last forty years. When and how these changes took place are carefully explained and the reader will meet some of the interesting people who have played their part in shaping the village's history. The book explains how the present landscapes are full of clues which help understanding more fully the historical influences which shaped them. This profusely illustrated book will appeal alike to long-time residents and more recent incomers, as well as anyone with a more general interest in the history of communities.

This is the story of Salisbury Playhouse and its two theatres. In 1869 the Primitive Methodists built a new chapel in Fisherton Street which eventually became the Playhouse, and in 1976 a new Playhouse was built in Malthouse Lane. However, this story is not just about worshippers and theatrical people, it is also about soldiers and cinema audiences, of committees and councils, of theatregoers and critics, of fundraisers and builders, of success and failure, of laughter and tears. But above all it is a story of a Salisbury institution that would grow and flourish - from the little theatre in Fisherton Street to the much loved Playhouse that now stands proud in Malthouse Lane. Two buildings, two theatres with a very chequered history, but it is the wonderful characters associated with these buildings that ultimately tell this remarkable story, from its beginning to the end of the 20th century..

This collection blossomed like a hot-house flower as poet and novelist Crysse Morrison, during her final illness, collaborated with Hazel Stewart to create thematic groupings of the best of her published and unpublished work. Many of these poems were competition winners, many are familiar from Crysse's performances over the last decades - not least her awesome stint on the plinth at Trafalgar Square - and many are undiscovered gems.

This collection is testament to Crysse's multi-faceted talent.

Many great players and many great characters have played for Gloucester Rugby in the 149 years of the Club's history. Choosing the 375 players to include in this book was not an easy task. The reader will find that all players who have made 100 First XV appearances are included, as are all players who played for their country while members of the Club. All club captains are also included and a number of colourful characters and loyal club servants who were keen to play for the First or Second XVs each Saturday (or wet Wednesday evening) throughout long careers. An appendix contains the career statistics of all 1,985 players known to have appeared for the Gloucester 1^st XV. The contributors to this book are all members of Gloucester Rugby Heritage, a charity run by volunteers and supported by Gloucester Rugby and Gloucestershire Archives. The book is the fourth in a series of five books, previous volumes having recorded the history of the Kingsholm ground, representative matches played there, and Gloucester Rugby in cup competitions.

John Leland's Itinerary is one of the key documents of English local history, offering eye-witness descriptions of hundreds of towns and villages, castles, monasteries and gentry houses during the reign of Henry VIII, by one of the most intelligent and learned observers of his era. But it is not straightforward - Leland became insane before he had time to organise his notes into a coherent and systematic account of his journeys. He left for posterity a jumbled mass of material, written partly in Latin, partly in robust Tudor English, to be plundered, damaged and in some cases lost by later antiquaries, and not published until the eighteenth century. John Chandler's modern English version, based on the standard edition by Lucy Toulmin Smith of 1906-10, was first published in 1993 and has been long out of print. In it he identified place and personal names, and rearranged everything of topographical interest into historic English counties, with maps and a detailed introduction. For this new edition he has corrected the text, added parts of the material relating to Leland's travels in Wales, revised the introduction, and established a reliable chronology for the surviving accounts of five journeys which Leland undertook between 1538 and 1544. While Leland's actual words will continue to be quoted by historians of the places he visited, this rendering into modern English offers an accessible and absorbing window on the world of our towns and countryside almost five centuries ago.

Cambridge graduate Will Barry is an idealistic young man who runs a prosperous, hundred acre farm, inherited from his father, in the Wiltshire village of Sandy Barrow. He has a firm belief in the power of education to enrich the lives of the villagers and has built a school on his land, where he teaches the labourers' children basic literacy, with the help of his sister Lucy. He offers the villagers free use of the library he has created at the school and holds evening meetings to discuss literature, religion and politics.

Sir Roger Wanley, who was a close friend of Will's father, owns most of the land on which the village stands and Will grew up playing with the squire's two eldest children, Richard and Maria. It is assumed that one day Will and Maria will marry.

In the autumn of 1641 as the rift between King Charles I and his Parliament widens, Will can see faults on both sides and supports a middle way. He is caught between Squire Wanley, who is loyal to the King and his Puritan friends, who support Parliament. Both sides accuse him of having a foot in both camps and try to win him over. When war breaks out the following year, a dogmatic decision by Wanley forces Will to take the opposite side, breaking with the Wanley family and yielding to pressure from some of the villagers to lead them to join the Parliamentary army.

The experience of nine months of fighting in Devon and Cornwall and a violent event back in Sandy Barrow, which includes a betrayal by someone he trusted, shatters his life and all he has worked for. Events culminate in a denouement on the downs, just before the Battle of Roundway and the necessity to withstand a tense siege in Devizes Castle. A wealth of local characters and their relationships weave a colourful tapestry set against the febrile atmosphere of a civil war.

It's the end of the 20th century and Blair's England is thriving - especially in the affluent south. And where could be a more delightful place to settle than the South-West, with the mellow elegance of Bath and the rural vista of its rivers, woods, and fields? People have owned and worked this land throughout centuries, before planes or pesticides, but to the migrant 'blow-ins' it's a peaceful backwater: internet entrepreneurs, ex-hippy wanderers, nature-loving city-dwellers, they've blown here like tumbleweed to follow their dreams in this painterly paradise. But life is not like art...

Rebecca Smith, from Bratton near Westbury in Wiltshire, southern England, was the last woman in Britain to be hanged for infanticide of her own baby. She suffered her punishment at Devizes. But this unassuming woman who attended chapel and prayed night and morning, had poisoned not just one but eight of her babies. Her crime shocked and puzzled Victorian Britain. So why did she do it? Historian and journalist Sally Hendry delves into the nineteenth century to unpick Rebecca's story, looking at everything from domestic violence through to the unspeakable agonies of death by arsenic poisoning. Victim or villain? You decide.

Six people with unconnected lives all make the same house in Blackberry Lane their home. From newly-wed Peggy with her film-star looks who lives in Two Blackberry Lane just after the end of World War Two, through the decades to reflective poetess, Chloe, whose family convert the property in the twenty-first century. Six stories of love, loss, hopes and dreams, jealousy, greed and the occasional strawberry flan. These compelling characters play out their lives within the walls of this cottage in the deepest Somerset countryside. But are their histories linked in more ways than they will ever know?

'It is a truth universally acknowledged', wrote Jane Austen, 'that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife'. How much more urgent a requirement, then, if that man is possessed of an enormous fortune and an hereditary title? Few have been as vexed by this question than the Herbert Earls of Pembroke. In addressing it, the authors relate the tale of the womenfolk who have helped support, sustain, and supply the answer for approaching five centuries. But this is also the story of Wilton, variously the ancient capital of Wessex, prestigious medieval abbey, and stately home. Royal and Herbert patronage could not but bring remarkable women, who never became Countess of Pembroke, into its orbit. They include icons, such as Mary Sidney and Florence Nightingale, heiresses and eccentrics, a Princess and a Saint. The Authors both work as guides at Wilton House

Excavation in the grounds of Littlecote House in Wiltshire, 1978-1991, revealed a Romano-British villa complex, a twelfth to fifteenth century medieval village, and a seventeenth/eighteenth century hunting lodge. As the excavation progressed the villa remains were consolidated to present a permanent monument for public viewing. Aimed at both the public, archaeologists, and academics this book records the archaeological story of Littlecote from prehistoric activity to a hunting park enjoyed by a king.

1929-1942, a Swiss country boy, trained as a banker, works his way up in the hotel business at Brown's Hotel, London. He saves the Prince of Wales Hotel from bankruptcy and survives the Blitz with wife and two children. He becomes the manager of Brown's Hotel.

1942-45, childhood memories of Brown's Hotel: sirens and a luxury air raid shelter; a princess; pelicans and tramps in Green Park; bonfire smoke and gas masks; V for Victory.

1945, relatives and chewing gum in Lucerne. The Wallimans buy the Savoy Hotel in Cheltenham. A history and a tour of the building.

1945-1950s, memories of beetles in the basement, of attics full of Christmas decorations and trunks with exotic stickers, of cellars filled with furniture, giant jars of eggs in lime water, the statue of a naked woman. Six children trying not to be noisy, making themselves useful in hotel and garden, in quarantine with measles and other diseases. Nannies. Welcome visitors from abroad. Ordinary guests and celebrities. Long-stay residents: the Lively Lady with Intellectual Aspirations, the Prince of Chess, the Archdeacon's Widow, the Gentleman who bought Racehorses, the Colonial Colonel and his Artistic Wife, etc. Employees and their work: housekeepers, linen keepers, office staff, chambermaids, porters, waiters and waitresses, dishwashers, gardeners.

1952, the family moves to a house in the garden, the hotel gets a bar and a grill room.

1960s, addition of a lift and further bedrooms.

1970s, the second generation takes over.

1985, the hotel is sold.