Box People and Places
Latest Issue 30 Winter 2020-21 
  • This Issue
    • Rudloe History
    • Roman Mosaics in Box
    • Drewetts and Bassetts
    • Hatt House
    • Leslie Bence
    • Bill Peter
    • Odee After Maisie
    • Crane 57
    • Guyana and Box
    • Kingsdown Residents
    • Ashley Farm
    • Cricket Club Part 2
    • Land Girl Remembers
    • Historic Tour of Box
    • The Boxfields Bungalows
    • Remembering Dr Jim
    • Bullocks of Melksham
  • Northeys
    • Early Family
    • World of the Northeys
    • Unpaid Bill: Smith & Northey
    • Family Tree
    • George Wilbraham
    • Life in Box
    • George Edward
    • Safe & Steady Son
    • Army Life
    • Theatrical Events
    • Rolls-Royce Pioneer
    • Northey Donkey Cart
    • Other Children
    • Later Family
    • Selling Up
    • Northey Legacy
  • Previous
    • Issue 29 - Darkest Hour
    • Issue 28 - VE Day
    • Issue 27 - Northey
    • Issue 26 - Heritage Trail
    • Earlier Issues 1 - 25 >
      • Issue 25 - Slave Owners
      • Issue 24 - Highwaymen
      • Issue 23 - Georgian
      • Issue 22 - War Memorial
      • Issue 21 - Childhood 1949-59
      • Issue 20 - Box Home Guard
      • Issue 19 - Outbreak WW2
      • Issue 18 - Building Bargates
      • Issue 17 - Railway Changes
      • Issue 16 - Quarries
      • Issue 15 - Rail & Quarry
      • Issue 14 - Civil War
      • Issue 13: Box Revels
      • Issue 12 - Where You Live
      • Issue 11 - Tudor & Stuart
      • Issue 10 - End of Era 1912
      • Issue 9 - Health & Leisure
      • Issue 8 - Farming & Rural
      • Issue 7 - Manufacturing
      • Issue 6 - Celebrations
      • Issue 5 - Victorian Centre
      • Issue 4 - Slump after WW1
      • Issue 3 - Great War 1914-18
      • Issue 2 - 1950s & 1960s
      • Issue 1 - 1920s
    • Index By Author
    • Partner Sites & Book Reviews
    • Currency Converter
  • People
  • Places
  • General
  • Series
    • Box School Series >
      • Box Charity School
      • Formation of Box Schools
      • Schools WW1 to WW2
      • Box Schools, 1920s
      • Boys' School, 1927
      • Evacuee Schoolboy 1941
      • Box School 1945-83
      • Class of 1954
    • Box Farms >
      • Weavern Farm and Mill
      • Old Jockey Farm
      • Hill House Farm
      • Coles Farm
    • Box Library Project
    • NATS Trails >
      • Heritage Trails 2019
      • Conservation Areas
      • Box NATS Trails 2018
      • Alcombe and Shockerwick
      • Mills on Box Brook
      • Saxon Footpaths
      • New History Trails 2017
      • Roman Road
      • Box Hill Trail
      • Georgian Middlehill
      • History Trails 2016
      • Mad House
      • Thomas Railway
      • Market Place Origins
    • Prehistory >
      • Kingsdown's Menhir Secrets
    • Roman >
      • Early History Hoard
      • Roman Road Finds
      • Ancient Discovery
    • Early Medieval
    • Feudal >
      • Magna Carta in Box
      • Monk's Tale
      • Norman Conquest of Box
      • Tracing Bartholomew Bigod
      • When it Rained and Rained
    • Late Medieval
    • Tudor & Stuart >
      • Box in Civil War 1642 - 51
      • Wolf Hall and Box
      • Marsh Family
      • People during Civil War
      • Original Box Revels
      • Tudor Local Government
      • Ordinary People
      • Religion in Box, 1475-1660
      • Where You Live in 1626 >
        • Ashley
        • Central Box
        • Ditteridge
        • Hatt, Old Jockey and Blue Vein
        • Hazelbury
        • Henley and Washwells
        • Kingsdown
        • Middlehill
        • Rudloe
      • Hugh Speke Shaped Box
      • Walter Bushnell
      • Reformation in Box, 1535
      • Ten Tudor & Stuart Mansions
      • Death at Thomas à Becket >
        • For Whom Box Bell Tolled
      • Tudor & Stuart Timeline
      • John Aubrey's Box
    • Georgian >
      • Napoleon versus Box
      • Revolutionary Times
      • Coaches in 1830
      • Agricultral Census 1803
      • Tithe Apportionment
      • Slavery Families
      • Mullins Family, Schoolmasters
      • Box Churchyard
      • Sheridan's Duel
      • Tree of Life at Middlehill
      • Box's Highwayman
      • 1752: Very Odd Year
      • Witches, Quakers and Chapels
      • The New Road, 1761
      • Vulgarity in Box
      • Rebuilding the Village
      • Speke Family
      • Georgian People
      • Georgian Timeline
    • Rail & Quarry >
      • Railway Men Remembered
      • Old Clay Pipe
      • Recalling Box Quarries >
        • Oily Series
      • Quarrymen and their Families
      • Built in Stoneyards
      • Quarries in 2000
      • Single Ticket
      • Trainspotting in Box
      • Light Through Box Tunnel >
        • More Light on Tunnel
        • Brunel Myth
        • Sunrise at Box Tunnel
      • Marl at Middlehill
      • James Moodey
      • Railway Staff in Box
      • Impact of Railways
      • Vivash Follow-up
      • Underground Quarries
      • Lambert's Stoneyard
      • Cranes at Work
      • Railway Policeman
      • Terror in Tunnels
      • Vivash Family
      • Railway Buildings and More
      • Why Railways Came to Box
      • Box in 1830
      • Building Box Tunnel
      • Boxing and Quarrymen >
        • More Jem Mace
      • Clift Quarry Steam Loco
      • Timeline 1830 - 1870
      • Trial Shaft
      • Underbridges
    • Late Victorian >
      • Edwardian Love Story
      • Northey Estate Sale 1912-1923
      • Box Fete & Friendly Societies
      • Methodism in Box
      • George Reeves, Quarryman Ganger
      • Dipsomania in Box
      • 1870 Start of Era
      • Victorian Farming
      • Ashley Leigh
      • Steam Mill and Cottages
      • Class Division
      • Grove Inn
      • Box House
      • Celebrations >
        • Jubilee Mug 1887
      • Parish Magazine History
      • Postcards of Box >
        • Postcard Solved
      • Skeate, Speck and Ponting
      • 1899 A Year of Festivities
      • Valens Terrace
      • Village Outings >
        • Excitement for Outings
        • Cycling Craze
      • Timeline 1840 to now
      • Local Pubs
    • Great War >
      • Photos 2014
      • Cecil Lambert's War
      • VAD Working Parties
      • After the War
      • Box School Research
      • School WW1 Projects
      • List of Servicemen
      • Embroideries
      • In Memoriam
      • Never Forgotten
      • Where They Lived
      • Christmas 1913 and 1914
      • Children in WW1
      • Neighbour Against Neighbour
      • Home & Far Away
      • Finding Private Hall
      • Box Before the War
    • Inter War Years >
      • Shops in 1920s
      • Fascism
      • Sports Day 1931
    • WW2 Index >
      • World War 2 Scrapbook
      • Box in 1943
      • Aircraft Factories
      • D Day Implications, 1944
      • Peace
      • VE Day 1945
      • After the War
      • Epitaph to WW2
      • Wartime Memories
      • Wartime People
      • Bath Blitz 1942
      • Invasion Threat 1942
      • Children in War
      • Air Raids on Box
      • Military Camps
      • Royal Visits
      • Your WW2 Tributes
      • Dunkirk Evacuation
      • Box Home Guard >
        • Home Guard Names
      • Life at Home
      • Evacuee Children
      • Village & Ammunitions Depot
      • Memories of WW2
      • In Service at Home
      • At War
      • Lead up to War
      • Servicemen & Women
      • Timeline 1939-45
      • VE Day Remembered
      • Dennis Moss >
        • Hazelbury Air Crash
        • Air Crash Wreath
        • Flight Crew Lost
        • Graham Brayshaw
      • Evacuated From Belgium
      • WW2 Resting Place
      • Sherman Tank Disaster
    • Modern >
      • Modern Art
      • Centre of Commerce
      • Shoe Sculpture >
        • Stiletto Sculpture
      • Characters in 1940s
      • Teenage Rebels, 1960s
      • Swingin Sixties or Not?
      • A Box Childhood
      • Box People from 1950s
      • Shops in 1950 Box
      • Box in 1950s
      • Village in 1950s
      • Summer of 1959
      • reCollections
      • Residents After the War
      • Coach Trips 1950s
      • Never Had It So Good !
  • Contact
    • Blog
    • Q&A

            Issue 9: Health & Leisure: 1870 - 1920s     September 2015

Kingsdown House at the top of Doctors Hill was famous as one of the oldest Lunatic Asylums in Britain started in 1615.
The
full scale of its barbaric methods have been uncovered by David Ibberson and the fascinating story of its occupants in the mid-1800s. You can find out what went on room-by-room
in Inside Box Mad House and you can see the brochure issued by
Dr MacBryan in 1903 when it became more like an Old People's Home.

Picture
Picture
Above Left: The main entrance seen in a brochure of 1907 (courtesy Wilts History Centre) and Right: As we see it today (courtesy Carol Payne)
People Index
Picture
Sports Clubs - The Victorian period witnessed the start of many of Box's social and sports clubs from badminton to tennis.
Gay Nineties Dances - The age of elegance revisited by Box people after the Second World War, long before Strictly Come Dancing attracted mass weekly attention.
Hungarian Revolt - Almost an internationl incident caused over a football match on Box Rec in 1956 until vicar Tom Selwyn-Smith calmed things down. Makes activities at FIFA seem tame.
Box Woman's Story - We launch a series about the lives of Box women with Sheila Bartlett's story of her grandmother Maud Cogswell (left).
Comrades Legion Club - The history of the naming of this building started as help for First World War heroes and, at one time, was almost an unwelcome take-over. The history told by Cecil Lambert who was involved throughout.
Places Index
Ashley Part 2 - The story of Ashley Lane in our last issue only covered part of this area. Now we rectify the omissions, including the medieval pilgrim's chapel (right) at Wormcliffe and the story of Ashley Manor and its residents.
Remains of Box Railway Station - Not much is left of Box Station but we reconstruct the story of Station House right up to its present day when it is part of the accommodation of the Northey Arms Hotel.
Box Horse Show - It ran for a decade and attracted the attention of international show jumping stars. The full story uncovered.
Heleigh House, Middlehill - Martin and Elizabeth Devon record the history of the house and its owners.
Picture
Picture
George and Sarah Reeves (courtesy Graham Matthews)
Victorian Box Index

Alcoholic Women in Box, 1881 - The amazing story of a women's alcohol addiction establishment which existed for a short time in Box in the 1880s.
George Reeves - Fabulous photos of a quarryman who ran his own gang of men and worked two underground cranes.
New Box Schools, 1875 - The social impact on Box. 

We welcome all corrections and additions to the information on the website. And please give us your suggestion for stories about the women of Box.
Contact us via the Contact tab with your suggestions.

URGENT Post Script
The area of Box is under threat from a proposal by Corsham Council to amalgamate Rudloe, Wadswick and Chapel Plaister into Corsham instead of Box. A public meeting is scheduled for 14 October at Springfield Centre. Your views are needed; the views of Alan Payne at Can They Be Saved are that this would be a tragedy for Box and for Rudloe, Wadswick and Chapel Plaister.

Can't Find Something?
All previous issues are still available to access using the Previous Issues tab. You can track the people who have contributed from the Index by Author tab.Or go into People Index or Places Index for a list of articles and the chance to search the whole website for particluar items.