Bowood House, Lansdowne exhibtion

[Moonraker]

Bowood House

 

near Calne and Chippenham in Wiltshire has an exhibition  called" A Patriotic Peace - the 5th Marquis of Lansdowne and World War I", and it's on until  November 4. In November 1917, Lord Lansdowne wrote a letter to the Daily Telegraph about reconsidering what Britain's aims were and considering a negotiated peace with the Central Powers. The

 

Peace Letter

 

ruined his career.

 

Newly-formed Yeomanry units comprising 2,500 men from Wiltshire, Dorset, Somerset and Hampshire spent the summer of 1915 there, with the Army Service Corps unloading goods at Black Dog siding on the Chippenham-Calne branch railway. The park was owned by the Marquis of Lansdowne, Honorary Colonel of the Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry, who allowed water to be pumped from his 10,000-gallon reservoir at Lady Spout, one and a half miles away. A hospital was established in the servants' quarters at Bowood House, though when two yeomen riding a motor-cycle collided at Sandy Lane with a car driven by Sir Audley Neeld, President of the Wiltshire Agriculture Association, they were taken to Calne.

 

Moonraker

[Michelle Young]

Do the great unwashed have to pay the usual entrance fee to view this exhibition do you know? 

[Moonraker]

I imagine so. I only know about it because the organiser wanted to check that it was mOK to use copies of some of my postcards of soldiers in the Park. I can't see anything about it on the website.

 

Perhaps the estate would let the unwashed use the Lady Spout reservoir (see Post 1) to make themselves presentable?

 

Other Great War interest nearby includes Devizes Barrracks, the remains of RFC Yatesbury and the site of Devizes Wireless Station (close to Bishop's Cannings).

 

As it happens, this summer I'm hoping to walk the route of the aforementioned Calne-Chippenham branch railway.

 

Moonraker

[Michelle Young]

It's about a 3 minute walk for me to the Calne Bunk ( as my mother in law calls it)