Historic Walking Tour of Corsham

I hope you have enjoyed discovering more about the history of Box.​ Here are the answers and more information if you are interested.

​

1. There are 5 stone angels on the outside of the Chapel of Rest. The new cemetery was built in 1858 on land donated by Mr Northey, who owned most of Box and Ashley in this period. For more info on the cemetery http://www.boxpeopleandplaces.co.uk/box-cemetery.html

 

2. This area by the church was rebuilt in the early 1700s by Rev George Millard. Springfield House was the poorhouse with a charity school on the 3rd floor.​ Springfield Cottage behind was the school master’s house. During the building of Box Tunnel, some of the 4000 men building it were housed here. 

​

3. Frederick John Gingell was the submariner in the Royal Marines. He was killed when HM Submarine E15 ran aground on 17 April 1915 and came under enemy fire while trying to pass through the Dardanelles in Turkey. He was awarded the Messina Medal.

For more information on the men who lost their lives in WW1 -http://www.boxpeopleandplaces.co.uk/never-forgotten.html

For more information on the Gingell family and what happened to Frederick http://www.boxpeopleandplaces.co.uk/gingell.html

For more information on the building of the war memorial

http://www.boxpeopleandplaces.co.uk/box-war-memorial.html

​

4. The little building next to the Queen’s Head is the Blind House. It was used to house drunks and petty criminals overnight. It is supposed to have  no windows so when you’re inside you would not be able to see anything! But perhaps you can see one.

http://www.boxpeopleandplaces.co.uk/blind-house.html

​

5. The date on the door of the Queen's Head is 1709. In 1761 it was owned by the enterprising Mrs Lee who noticed more people were going past her house once the new road, now the A4, was built so she turned it into a coaching inn, providing food, drink and accommodation to travellers and the people of Box.

http://www.boxpeopleandplaces.co.uk/queens-head.html

​

6.. The building in the gap is the Methodist Church. Methodism was huge in this area because its doctrine was that you could achieve salvation through faith alone, you didn’t need to spend money doing good works, which was attractive to the working class quarrymen who spent 6 days a week underground. The Methodist Church was funded by subscription and built by the congregation themselves.

http://www.boxpeopleandplaces.co.uk/methodism-in-box.html

​

7. This building was originally Box Brewery so its function was to make beer! It was built in 1864 by George Pinchin who also owned the Northgate brewery in Bath.  In the 1930s the Brewery was sold to Murrary & Baldwin who made tennis racquets and then Dodds, an engineering company, moved to the site in 1962 and are still there today.

http://www.boxpeopleandplaces.co.uk/box-brewery--pinchin-family.html

http://www.boxpeopleandplaces.co.uk/murray--baldwin.html

​

8. This is Townsend House because it marked the end of the village. In 1903 Robert John Dyer and his wife Florence bought the house. Dyer was an undertaker and builder and he built all the houses on Bargates and most of the houses on Brunel Way after the Second World War.

http://www.boxpeopleandplaces.co.uk/robert-john-dyer.html

​

9. Rev Awdry invented Thomas the Tank Engine. He lived in Lorne House, or Journey’s End as it was called in the 1920s, as a boy. He listened to the steam trains as they steamed through Box Tunnel and got the idea that they had different personalities. It wasn’t until the 1940s when Awdry told the stories to his son Christopher that the books were produced. 

http://www.boxpeopleandplaces.co.uk/thomas-railway.html

​

​