Project News

October 2021

We have published a film of George Fleming, our historian, doing his “Looking for Eileen” walk which is the basis for the walks he does for primary school children. Having it on film means that if children miss the walk they can still join in the learning! Also families can watch and then go out and follow George’s footsteps!

September 2021

We’re delighted that our historian George Fleming has restarted his walks for local school children. Two primary schools collectively bring five classes of children on the walk, which always goes down a storm. the children love George’s stories!!

April 2021

We are very sad to hear of the death of Rita Jacob. Rita joined the project from the beginning as both a volunteer and participant. Her wonderful memories are an integral part of the project archive. She really brought to life what it was like growing up on Rampart Road before her family was forced to move out for the construction of the Ring Road. As a volunteer Rita gave a huge amount of time as a researcher, transcriber and as one of the creators of this website. The last page she created was this one https://www.milfordstreetbridgeproject.org.uk/content/places/schools/a-ghost-story-linked-to-st-martins-junior-school and she had some more nearly ready to publish.

You can read more about Rita’s life on Rampart Road here https://www.milfordstreetbridgeproject.org.uk/content/people/home-and-family-life/16-rampart-road where there are some brilliant photos and also a lovely recording of Rita’s poem “Ode to Rampart Road”.

February 2021

We’re part of the Salisbury Community Lottery! Buy a ticket and support us here https://www.salisburycommunitylottery.co.uk/

December 2020

We are delighted to have received a grant from Wiltshire Council Area Board. This will pay for the creation of a film of our historian George Fleming doing the local history walk that he usually does with classes of schoolchildren. Having the film will enable pupils do follow the walk with their families or to just watch and learn from the film. The grant will also pay for an updated print run of the flier for our “Memory Walk” and an upgrade to our website. Many thanks to Wiltshire Council.

October 2020

We haven’t been doing any new projects however we continue to respond to all sorts of queries about our archive. Our educational resources are being used by Salisbury schools although sadly due to the current pandemic they are not able to enjoy their usual history walks with George Fleming. We hope to be able to add these onto the website as films soon!

February 2018

Our Culver Street mosaic is unveiled!

January 2018

Our Greencroft Street mosaic is finished and unveiled!

November 2017

We’re delighted to be making a 3rd mosaic for Culver Street, and the making sessions are underway.

September 2017

The mosaic making sessions are underway! Date for our drop-in day is now Saturday 4th November 10am-4.30pm at St Thomas’ Church. Come along and help make our new mosaic for Greencroft Street.

August 2017

Dates for the Greencroft Street mosaic making sessions are on the Mosaic section of the website. We’re really looking forward to doing another mosaic and have already had lots of people wanting to take part.

July 17

We are going to be starting work on two more community mosaics – one on the history of Greencroft Street and one on the history of Culver Street / The Invicta Leatherworks. If anyone has any photographs of either street please let us know as the more pictorial reference we have the better.

Mar 2017

Our historian, George Fleming, has been busy doing talks about the project to groups across South Wiltshire. We always get great feedback about George’s talks. Contact us if you would like him to do something for your group!

This month we have also been to a meeting of local History Teachers, held at Salisbury Museum, to remind them about our wonderful resources. We are really pleased to have got some bookings for our free resource boxes and for George to take children from Greenfields Primary School on one of his fantastic walks in the summer.

September 2016

We are working on getting other grants to run our mosaic project, and in the meantime we continue to add pages to this website, and answer queries about the project from around the world!

June 2016

We are very pleased to have the backing of Wiltshire Council’s Salisbury Area Board towards our mosaic project.

April 2016

We are pleased to have got our funding off the ground with a grant from Salisbury City Council’s Community Development Grant scheme. We have also got pledges from Salisbury and Stonehenge Tours, and the Friends of St Thomas’ Church. Thanks to all of them.

Mar 2016

We are looking for funding to get even more people exploring our archives, learning about the area’s heritage and having fun making mosaics while they do it! We’re also hoping to be bringing you an insight into life in Culver Street “before the bridge” with a fantastic mural and associated workshops for local people. Watch this space for more news!

July 2015

We are delighted to have been awarded not just one but TWO awards by the Community Archives and Heritage Group!

April 2015

Our community mosaic, depicting some of the history of Winchester Street, is now finished. Over 70 people helped to make it! We will be holding a celebration for everyone who has taken part on Fri 24th April, and then the mosaic will be put into place at the top end of Winchester Street some time after that (we’re in negotiation with Highways England about it).

February 2015

The mosaic workshops have been going really well and have been very busy – nearly 40 people have joined in so far. Some have just come to one session for a couple of hours, and others have come to every session and spent several hours!

Next is our Drop-in Session at Salisbury Arts Centre on Sat 7th March between 11am and 3pm. There will be some final work to do on the border of the mosaic, plus for those who want to take something home there are mosaic tiles which can be made for £3 (to cover materials).

January 2015

This month we start work on a new community mosaic, to be positioned at the top of Winchester Street. The design has been completed by mosaic artist Joanna Dewfall, following consultation with local people. The theme is the history of Winchester Street, and the design includes lots of fascinating elements of this busy highway, including bicycles, sheep, The Titanic (see our page on Eileen O’Leary if you don’t know why) and a drunken brawl!

If you would like to help make the mosaic, sessions are being held on Wednesday afternoon throughout January plus two Sundays (25th Jan and 1st Feb). Contact us for more details.

Many thanks to Community First for funding the mosaic.