The Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society was founded in 1853, [1] and is one of the largest county-based archaeological societies in the United Kingdom. It runs the Wiltshire Museum in Devizes, Wiltshire which has the best Bronze Age collections in Britain, including finds from Avebury and Stonehenge. It also publishes the annual Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine .
The society has in the past published books of Wiltshire interest, such as the Tropenell Cartulary . [2] The present-day Wiltshire Record Society began life as the Records Branch of the society.
A motivation for the creation of the society was an 1852 proposal [3] by the antiquarian and writer John Britton (1771–1857) to sell his collection of Wiltshire-related books, drawings etc. William Cunnington III (grandson of the pioneering excavator of the same name) formed a Devizes-based committee which purchased the collection for £150. [4]
The inaugural meeting of the society was held at Devizes Town Hall on 12 October 1853, and attracted between 200 and 300 people including "many of the neighbouring Gentry and Clergy". [3] The resolution to form the society stated that its objects would be "to cultivate and collect information on Archaeology and Natural History in their various branches, and to form a Library and Museum, illustrating the History, natural, civil and ecclesiastic, of the County of Wilts". [5] George Poulett Scrope, a geologist and MP for Stroud, was elected as the president and gave an address. [6] Membership subscriptions were set at 21 shillings for the first year and 10s 6d thereafter. [7]
In 1893, the society had 393 members. [8]
A history of the society was published in 1953, under the title The Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society: 1853–1952: a centenary history. [9]
Lieutenant General Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt Rivers was an English officer in the British Army, ethnologist, and archaeologist. He was noted for innovations in archaeological methodology, and in the museum display of archaeological and ethnological collections. His international collection of about 22,000 objects was the founding collection of the Pitt Rivers Museum at the University of Oxford while his collection of English archaeology from the area around Stonehenge forms the basis of the collection at The Salisbury Museum in Wiltshire.
George Julius Poulett Scrope FRS was an English geologist and political economist as well as a Member of Parliament and magistrate for Stroud in Gloucestershire.
Great Bedwyn is a village and civil parish in east Wiltshire, England. The village is on the River Dun about 4.5 miles (7.2 km) southwest of Hungerford, 14 miles (23 km) southeast of Swindon and 6 miles (9.7 km) southeast of Marlborough.
Maud Edith Cunnington was a Welsh archaeologist, best known for her pioneering work on some of the most important prehistoric sites of Salisbury Plain.
Highworth is a market town and civil parish in the Borough of Swindon, England, about 6 miles (10 km) north-east of Swindon town centre. The 2021 Census recorded a population of 8,258. The town is notable for its Queen Anne and Georgian buildings, dating from its pre-eminence in the 18th century. It also has a 13th-century church, St. Michael and All Angels. The parish includes Sevenhampton village and the hamlets of Hampton and Redlands.
Roundway Down and Covert is an area of sloping chalk grassland close to the hamlet of Roundway, near Devizes in Wiltshire, England. It is part of the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. At the summit of the slope are ancient earthworks, evidence of a Bronze Age human settlement and Iron Age hillfort.
Figsbury Ring is an 11.2 hectare biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Wiltshire, England, notified in 1975. It is owned and managed by the National Trust.
Sir Harold Brakspear KCVO was an English restoration architect and archaeologist.
John Britton was an English antiquary, topographer, author and editor. He was a prolific populariser of the work of others, rather than an undertaker of original research. He is remembered as co-author of nine volumes in the series The Beauties of England and Wales (1801–1814); and as sole author of the Architectural Antiquities of Great Britain and Cathedral Antiquities of England.
The Wiltshire Museum, formerly known as Wiltshire Heritage Museum and Devizes Museum, is a museum, archive and library and art gallery established in 1874 in Devizes, Wiltshire, England. The museum was created and is run by the Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society, a registered charity founded in 1853.
Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine is a county journal published by the Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society (WANHS), based in Devizes, England. It has been published almost annually since 1854 and is distributed to the Society's members and subscribers, and exchanged with other linked societies.
The Wiltshire Record Society is a text publication society in Wiltshire, England, which edits and publishes historic documents concerned with the history of Wiltshire.
Thomas Tropenell, sometimes Tropenelle and Tropnell, was an English lawyer and landowner in Wiltshire in the west of England.
The Tropenell Cartulary is an English medieval manuscript cartulary compiled for Thomas Tropenell, a Wiltshire landowner, in the 15th century.
Eric James Bodington was an eminent Anglican priest and author in the early decades of the twentieth century.
John Edward Jackson was an English clergyman of the Church of England, antiquary, and archivist.
Henry de la River of Tormarton in Gloucestershire was a Member (MP) of the Parliament of England for Gloucestershire in 1394.
Robert Awdry was an English cricketer who later became chairman of Wiltshire County Council. He played nine first-class matches for Oxford University Cricket Club between 1902 and 1904.
Sir Henry Bruce Meux, 3rd Baronet was an English baronet, the son of Sir Henry Meux, 2nd Baronet (1817–1883), a brewer and politician.
William Christopher Boyd was a British entomologist and numismatist.