Collection: Aldbourne Heritage Centre

Collection-level records:

• Collection overview (Wikipedia)

  The Centre presents a changing set of displays, covering a diverse range of subjects, such as:

  • the Aldbourne Cup – a finely-decorated incense cup from the early Bronze Age found in a local barrow;
  • the geology forming the pond and village, and the legend of the dabchick and its relevance to the village;
  • the story of Charles McEvoy’s lost play “The Village Wedding” and its recent discovery;
  • court cases between local tenants and The Crown in 1560 (Queen Elizabeth) and 1607 (King James I);
  • stories of the inhabitants of Aldbourne at the time of the Enclosure Acts in the early 19th century;
  • the development of local industries such as fustian-weaving and chair-making;
  • the important bell founding industry which operated in Aldbourne from the 17th–19th centuries;
  • the effects of fires in the village from the 18th century to the present day;
  • the history of established religion, non-conformism and dissension in the village; and
  • the residence in Aldbourne of Easy Company of the US Army 101st Airborne Division (later popularised in book and film as Band of Brothers) in the lead up to D-Day, and other military units during both World Wars.

  Objects on display include prehistoric flints used as tools and recovered from local Bronze Age barrows; two replicas of the Aldbourne Cup, one in its current, aged and reconstructed state, and a second in its original state (the original is on display at the British Museum); copies of mediaeval and Tudor documents relating to the exercise of manorial rights by the Duchy of Lancaster and the judgments of manorial courts; a range of hand-bells and crotal bells made in Aldbourne by the Corr and Wells families (and others); a 19th-century fireman’s helmet; items of Victorian (and earlier) agricultural hand tools; items relating to the wartime residence of US military personnel in the village; and thousands of photographs of life in Aldbourne from the mid-Victorian period to the present day.

  This article uses material from the Wikipedia article “Aldbourne Heritage Centre”, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

  Source: Wikipedia

  Date: 2025

  Licence: CC-BY-SA