REVIEWS 



295 



in understanding and cataloguing their own 

 collections and in answering public enquiries. 

 Perhaps above all, however, general readers in 

 Wiltshire will enjoy the insight which this (with the 

 earlier volumes) gives into daily life in South 

 Wiltshire in the Middle Ages. 



The volume was prepared and published with 

 the aid of a grant from the Designation Challenge 

 Fund. The size, scope and quality of the Salisbury 

 Museum collection and the form of its presentation 

 in this catalogue show that this aid was well merited. 



PAUL ROBrNSON 



John Chandler. Marlborough and Eastern 

 Wiltshire: Wiltshire A History of its Landscape 

 and People 1 . Hobnob Press, 2001, xiii, 274 pages; 

 illustrations, maps; Price £20.00, hardback, ISBN 

 946418 07 1 



The appearance of this book, the first of a planned 

 series of eight, marks, to paraphrase Churchill's 

 words, both the end of the beginning and the 

 beginning of the end of a journey of research into 

 the history of Wiltshire by the author which he 

 began in 1984. This bold project will comprise 

 thumbnail sketches of each modern civil parish with 

 a final volume being a synthesis of a 'making of the 

 Wiltshire landscape'. The author's aim is, in his own 

 words, to 'explain the surroundings and humanize 

 the past'. Judging by the high standard of this 

 volume the project will be of major importance for 

 Wiltshire studies. 



This book covers the 34 parishes comprising 

 the Marlborough Downs, Savernake Forest and the 

 Kennet and Upper Bourne valleys. From Avebury 

 to Buttermere and Tidworth to Aldbourne. Each 

 essay has an excellent illustration by Michael 

 Charlton capturing an impression of the place. 

 Furthermore each has a map based on the 1890 

 Ordnance Survey one inch to one mile series with 

 the particularly neat technique of highlighting by 

 background shading. 



Landscape and topography predominate in each 

 essay, which is right since they are the bedrock of 

 local history. The origins of boundaries, settlements 

 and place-names and the development of routes by 

 water, road and rail are succinctly discussed 

 incorporating the latest archaeological research 

 drawn both from unpublished reports and 

 published articles. Historical research is drawn 

 heavily from the Wiltshire Victoria County History 



as it should (only one parish in this book awaits 

 treatment by the V.C.H. and that one will appear 

 in the next Wiltshire volume). The reader is provided 

 with an excellent synthesis of current thought. 

 However there is much more to this book than that: 

 it is by no means a derivative pot-boiler but offers 

 much more substantial and satisfying fare. For the 

 text is full of original research and ideas developed 

 by the author over the many years of the project's 

 gestation. These are expressed with such clarity, 

 simplicity and enthusiasm that the reader is 

 presented with quite sophisticated concepts which 

 can be easily assimilated and thereby are made 

 widely accessible. First and foremost John Chandler 

 is an excellent communicator, able to engage his 

 audience and hold its interest while he presents his 

 well reasoned thoughts on the county's history. 



He sees this series as occupying the middle 

 ground between the academic and excellent Victoria 

 County History project and the more anodyne 

 general and local histories. The real legacy of this 

 ambitious project might well be to raise the standard 

 of the latter works, bringing them up to the ground 

 occupied so securely by himself .Wiltshire historians 

 have never had a better example to follow and, 

 hopefully, will take full advantage of the opportunity 

 offered. 



STEVEN HOBBS 



Rex Sawyer. Little Imber on the Down: 

 Salisbury Plain's ghost village. Hobnob Press, 

 2001, 168 pages; photographs, map. Price £12.50, 

 hardback, ISBN 946418 06 3 



On reading Rex Sawyer's fascinating book on Imber 

 I was reminded of my own first visit to the village. 

 In the late 1 940s an aunt of mine, an Imber native, 

 obtained an entry pass. Most of the buildings were 

 then still standing, though some were missing doors, 

 windows or parts of roofs. The most lasting 

 impression on me, as an eight year old, was the 

 total emptiness of the place and this was the image 

 that the word Imber brought to mind long after. 

 This book has done much to dispel that image, for 

 the community that Rex Sawyer depicts is lively 

 and close knit, welded together by its relative 

 isolation. 



Drawing on written sources and, most 

 importantly, the recollections of surviving 

 inhabitants, the author traces what is known of the 

 development. In particular he gives a deeply 

 interesting picture of the village, its inhabitants and 



