The Bratton History Association (BHA) continues to go from strength to strength with over 70 members; the highest it has been since the BHA was relaunched in 2011. Our Chair, Anne Bailey, organised another very popular programme of talks which were very well attended.
Highlights included a talk by TV’s Julian Richards on Stonehenge and a particularly poignant talk by Sally Hendry on the life of Rebecca Smith, a resident of Bratton, who had the distinction of being the last women in Britain to be hanged for infanticide of her own children.
Bob Pearce continued to interview long-standing residents to capture their memories of village life. This research will provide an invaluable resource for writing the next section of ‘Bratton: Between Chalk & Cheese, the BHA’s History of the Village’ which currently ends in 1914. The ‘Finding Littlestoke: Bratton’s Lost Medieval Hamlet’ project, launched in March 2023, continues with a small team of volunteers researching the archives at the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre in Chippenham.
The BHA meets at Bratton Church Institute, in Tynings Lane, Bratton on the third Sunday of the month. See its website brattonhistory.co.uk for more information.
