News & Events
The Society publishes a volume each year, holds an annual meeting each summer, and produces a newsletter, The Recorder, in early spring.
Negley Harte
It is with great regret that we have to announce that our President since 2009, Dr Negley Harte, DSc (Econ.), FRHistSoc, FSA, died on 19 March 2026 after suffering ill health for some time. Negley, who was 82, was an Honorary Fellow of University College London, where he taught for many years before retirement to Corsham. We all on the WRS Committee extend our sympathy to his widow Eva, daughter Pendle and son Piran, and their families.
The 2026 AGM
Our 2026 AGM will be held in conjunction with the Wiltshire Local History Network during the lunch break of the network’s Study Day on 16 May 2026 at Easterton Village Hall near Devizes. The theme of the day will be Building on the Past, and there will be short lectures on aspects of Wiltshire’s architectural history. WRS members will be welcome to attend the whole day, which runs from 10 am to 4 pm, or just come for the AGM, which will take place around 1.15 pm. Full details will be sent to all members with the AGM papers a few weeks before the event.
Our Recent Mailing
Once again the little sub post office in New Road, Chippenham, has cheerfully handled our mailing out of our new volume, 78, between February and April 2026. We are pleased to say that copies have now been sent to all our individual and institutional members, and to our individual members has gone with it the latest issue of our annual magazine, The Recorder. An online version in PDF format is available on this website, in the Publications section. It is another bumper issue, with plenty of interesting Wiltshire-related articles. To overseas members the mailing will take a few weeks to arrive, but if anyone has not received their copy by the end of May 2026 please contact us. Grateful thanks to our Hon. Secretary, Helen Taylor, for bearing the brunt of the packaging and labelling, and to Sally Thomson, editor of The Recorder.
Kenneth H Rogers
Ken Rogers, former Wiltshire county archivist, died in January 2025 age 94. He had been a member of our society since 1951, had served on our committee for many decades, and was the editor of two volumes, on Lacock Abbey charters and on early trade directories. He was unviersally liked and respected. An obituary, by Steve Hobbs, has been published in the latest edition of The Recorder, which can be found online in the Publications section of this website. Before he died, and with help from his son Edward, he was able to complete his book on Wiltshire and Somerset Woollen Weavers, a companion to his Wiltshire and Somerset Woollen Mills (1976), and this has now been published (https://www.hobnobpress.co.uk/books/p/wiltshire-and-somerset-woollen-weavers-by-kh-and-ej-rogers)
Latest Volume
78 The Holford Papers, Avebury 1695-1798, edited by Stuart Raymond, 2025
Sir Richard Holford and his descendants were lords of the manor of Avebury for most of the eighteenth century, until the estate descended to Arthur Jones in 1767, and then to General Williamson in 1789. The Holford papers provide a great deal of information on the history of the manor, the parish, and the family. They include the journal of Sir Richard Holford, over two hundred letters written by or to Sir Richard and his heirs, various memoranda on manorial and family affairs, and the accounts of the manorial bailiff, Richard Hickley, which were sent to Anne Williamson when she was in Jamaica. Hickley’s monthly letters to his employer are also included. The topics covered are very varied: farm management and produce, tithe disputes between vicars and parishioners, the bankruptcy of the estate’s farmer, enclosure, the morals of vicars and parishioners, turnpikes and the state of the roads, building work at Avebury Manor, and leisure pursuits, are all covered. More minor matters include politics, the construction of the Kennet and Avon canal, the state of the poor, inn-keeping issues, service with the East India Company, and even advice on keeping the family’s archives. The book was sent for printing in December 2025 and first copies have been received in January 2026. Subscribers’ copies have been mailed out (April 2026), and non-members may purchase copies by contacting the Hon. Secretary, c/o Wiltshire & Swindon History Centre, or online via the Hobnob Press website, www.hobnobpress.co.uk.
Events
Our 2025 Annual Meeting was held on Saturday 14 June at the Kennet Valley Hall, between Lockeridge and West Overton. After the short formal meeting Stuart Raymond, whose volume on the papers of the Holford family of Avebury, 1695-1798, was subsequently published at the end of 2025, gave a very interesting lecture about the Holfords and their activities around Avebury. Our only disappointment was the small number of members who were able to attend, a problem that the committee is trying to address for 2026.
The British Academy’s Hearth Tax Research Project launched its online publication of the Wiltshire returns of 1662 on 30th October 2024 at the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre, Chippenham. The launch event included information on the background of the project and a chance to look at the online resource, as well as to celebrate with some tea and cake! Although not a WRS publication much of the editing was carried out by a member of the society, the late Lorelei Williams, and Steve Hobbs has been working with the Project’s director, Andrew Wareham, to complete the online publication. The online edition may be accessed here: https://gams.uni-graz.at/o:htx.wltshr1
In 2014 the society published Ivor Slocombe’s edition of Wiltshire Quarter Sessions Order book, 1642-54 (volume 67, and now available online ). Ivor has continued his work and has now edited the records covering the subsequent four decades, to 1694. These editions are available on our resources page as PDF files, with indexes.
Forthcoming Volumes
Our volume 79, which we hope to publish during the second half of 2026, will be The Elizabethan Fabric Accounts of Salisbury Cathedral, edited by Dr Sally Wadsworth. Among several volumes in preparation is the third and concluding part of the Salisbury Domesday Books, edited by John Chandler and Douglas Crowley; and The Letters of Lady Dorothy Long, 1661-1710, edited by Timothy Couzens.