Bibles going back to the 1700s were brought out into the light last week – and in turn threw light on family history.

Evidence of a family rift; roses preserved from wedding bouquets; confirmation cards and names of 16 children born over a period of 18 years emerged from the collection put together for Sherston Boules Festival.

People living in and around the village donated the Bibles, seven of them coming from John and Rosemary Venning of Church Street.

Mr Venning, 76, said: “We didn’t realise we had so many until we started looking for them for the exhibition.

“We have collected them up over the years and put them in the cupboard.

“I was expecting it to be a bit boring but it proved to be very interesting both to us and also the people visiting the exhibition.”

Mrs Venning, 74, said: “We found a family Bible from 1761 that lists all the children born in that family, including the date and time of day.

“There seems to be 16 children born between 1821 and 1839 which is almost one a year. I can’t help but feel for the poor mother.

“I think that Bible belonged to my great great grandparents but we’re not exactly sure.”

She added: “We also found the new testament written in Latin in 1799 and another which has the 1611 King James’ Version down one side and the revised edition from 1885 down the other.”

Exhibition organiser Mary Clements, who is secretary of Sherston Community Church, said the Bibles unearthed a host of intriguing family information.

She said: “The whole exercise was most informative and heart-warming.

“It’s one I would recommend to other villages and towns because people discovered things about their families that they had never realised before.

“Dusty tomes were found in garages and lofts with dates of births, marriages and deaths in them.

“Also personal things like preserved roses from wedding bouquets and messages from one generation to another.

“One lady picked up a card that fell from her book and discovered it was given at the confirmation of her mother who was then aged only 15.

“Some Bibles had passages underlined and dated, one had the family history pages ripped out because a rift had occurred at that time.”

Other Bibles included modern, brightly coloured versions, provided by the Revelation Bookshop Chippenham, some were translated specifically for teenagers, plus a Storyteller Bible for children by Bob Hartman.

“With these we can still hand wisdom down through the generations,” said Mrs Clements.