Strolling through history (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Strolling through history

Honorary curator of Wootton Bassett Museum Chris Dunn. 16970/06 WOOTTON Bassett is soon to produce its own heritage trail unveiling the rich history of the town in a bid to bolster tourism.

The trail will focus on buildings along the High Street and nearby streets and give details of their history which in many cases stretches back more than 250 years.

The trail will examine the town's most prominent landmark, the black and white stilted town hall, the myriad of public houses, and numerous other buildings including Priory Cottage on Wood Street which is widely believed to be the oldest in Wootton Bassett.

Honorary curator of Wootton Bassett Museum Chris Dunn has helped draw up the text which will be produced as a leaflet setting out the trail. He said: "Within the text I refer to all the buildings along the High Street from the County Infants' School right up to the top as well as including Wood Street and Church Street.

"Wootton Bassett has a lot of buildings that look about two to three hundred years old from the front but could be three hundred years old from the back.''

The trail could also include areas such as the ancient Row de Dow path which runs from Wood Street to Jubilee Lake and is believed to have been used by monks en route to Malmesbury Abbey.

"Unfortunately there isn't a huge amount of space to include everything so it focuses on the most prominent buildings. Wootton Bassett does need something to offer to visitors and if you're going to protect your interests and bring people in then things like this help.''

Town clerk Jonathan Bourne said: "It's a project that we're running in partnership with the district council and also with the new museum development group.

"Chris has done brilliantly and put together the text for the trail and the next step is to get a map. We've commissioned that and it's going to be produced as a watercolour 3-D map which will effectively look like an aerial view which ties in with the text we've got.''

The council hopes the leaflet will be completed and distributed around the town by the autumn ready for visitors to start their explorations.

"The idea is that people will pick it up and think that's interesting let's go and have a look. The trail tracks round the town and the hope is that it will encourage people to pop into the pubs and shops and all of that helps the local traders.

"There is a lot of history in the town and I'm always being surprised by new things that I didn't know about and that's after 17 years as town clerk,'' said Mr Bourne.

President of the town's chamber of commerce Brian Taylor said: "I think the idea of a trail is a excellent idea and we have some fantastic history on the High Street.

"The church is a grade one listed building and my house dates back to the 16th century.

"It sounds very interesting and I'm sure it'll help local traders.''

Similar trails have already been established in Cricklade and Malmesbury and work is ongoing to produce a trail in Calne.

Regeneration officer for North Wiltshire District Council Caroline Lightfoot said: "The feedback has been very good so far and as a district council we're trying to encourage every town to have one so that we have a whole set and Wootton Bassett is next in line.''