Notice Board
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Widcombe News and Photos Welcome!We always welcome contributions of news and photos of Widcombe - You can find the editor's postal address under the 'contact' link above, or Email bj.doyle@btinternet.com
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The Holloway Horse Trough
Sarah Lewis writes:Before the Wellsway was built, The Holloway – now a quiet backwater - was the main route into Bath from the South. On a recent walk organized by the Widcombe & Lyncombe Local History Society, a group of us learnt that this poem (now reinstated with the help of the Widcombe Association, B&NES and other donations) used to hang above the horse trough that is built into the wall opposite Magdalen Chapel.
More information has recently come to light. As the reinstated poem (shown above) was being unveiled on June 5th, 2010, the following email was received by the Association from sisters Lorna Webb and Margaret Cant (nee Hurn) in Angaston, South Australia: I read with a great deal of interest your account of the reinstatement of the poem by the Holloway Horse Trough. I am currently researching the surname HURN for a friend's family history and located the following article in a South Australian newspaper, The Advertiser, Wednesday, 4 January 1905: The article may be found at this link: http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/5034997?searchTerm=William Hurn William Hurn sailed to South Australia in 1850. It is obvious that the poem meant a great deal to him and so we are delighted to know that the poem is still there. Regards, Lorna Webb and Margaret Cant (nee Hurn) Note that the version quoted is not exactly the same as the version we are familiar with. Any more information about the poem will be gratefully received. Email sarahAlewis@btinternet.com The sisters also supply the following information about their ancestor. If anyone can add anything which might further enlighten their research into family history, let me know, and I will forward it to them.
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So far I have seen the following suggestions about the poem's author: Crabbe, Cowper and Bloomfield. I have muddied these waters by suggesting it was a Shaker called Robert White in the 1840s. However, my research has since led me to a version in a book of 1813. I have also learnt that the poem was popular in religious and in animal welfare writings throughout the nineteenth century. 