The archive
Explore what we have
Everything published so far — 28 items out of eighty-odd in the collection. Pick a place on the plan, move the year slider, or go straight to the full index underneath.
Pick a place, then pick a moment
A schematic plan, not a survey. Empty rings mean we hold nothing there from that period — which is the most useful thing this page can tell you.
Our dates are working estimates, so the slider shows anything within about twenty years of the decade you choose.
Schematic — positions are indicative only. A properly georeferenced map, built on the 1838 tithe map and the 1873 Ordnance Survey, comes later; the plan is also the ground the eventual walkthrough will be assembled on.
Church Street
The predecessor of 109 Church Street
probably 1850s–1870s · probable
The house that stood before 109 Church Street
1850s–1870s · interpretation
Interpretation
Three men outside a village frontage
probably late nineteenth century · unidentified
Open question
Church Street from the north
probably 1900s · probable
Children in a tinted street view
probably early 1900s · possible
Church Street, looking towards the village
probably early 1900s · probable
Children in the lane
probably early 1900s · possible
Open question
Frames and beds
probably mid twentieth century · possible
The water tower
probably mid twentieth century · possible
The glasshouses
probably mid twentieth century · possible
Among the chrysanthemums
probably 1950s–1960s · possible
The Hilperton Nurseries sign
probably 1950s–1960s · probable
The nursery from the air
probably 1960s · possible
The full index
Everything currently published
Every item shows what we think it is, how confident we are, who it came from and whether we have permission to publish it. Where we do not know, it says so.
Two separate questions: what a picture is of — the pub, the Nurseries, Church Street — and what kind of view it is, from a broad prospect down to a single dwelling. Filtering on both is how you find the wide street scenes without wading through close views of people’s houses.
28 of 28 items
Hilperton and Hilperton Marsh on an engraved map
A detail from an engraved county map showing Hilperton, Hilperton Marsh and Whaddon, with the canal running through.
PossiblePrinted map — sheet and publisher not yet identified · Unknown — publication permission to be confirmed
The predecessor of 109 Church Street
The surviving photograph on which the reconstruction is based: a rendered range with a tiled roof, an adjoining stone gable, a sign above the door and a rubble boundary wall.
ProbableSource not yet established · Unknown — publication permission to be confirmed
The house that stood before 109 Church Street
A painterly reconstruction of the older building that stood on the site of the present 109 Church Street, worked up from a single surviving photograph.
InterpretationProject reconstruction, 2026 · Permission granted
Three men outside a village frontage
Three men standing outside a low building with a hanging sign. A note circulating locally associates a photograph of this kind with the Three Horseshoes, but we have not been able to confirm that this is the same building.
UnidentifiedSource not yet established · Unknown — publication permission to be confirmed
A shop price list, annotated 1896
A typed list of goods and prices — barley meal, bacon pigs, mixed fruit cake, safety matches, coffee mixture with chicory — annotated '1896' in pencil.
ProbableSource not yet established · Unknown — publication permission to be confirmed
H. J. C. Fare, grocer and post office — billhead
An engraved billhead: 'H. J. C. Fare, Grocer, Corn & Provision Merchant, Post Office, Hilperton, Trowbridge.'
ProbableSource not yet established · Unknown — publication permission to be confirmed
Residents on the pavement, High Street
A hand-tinted view along a terrace, with men in waistcoats in the foreground and a group of women and children further along.
PossibleSource not yet established · Unknown — publication permission to be confirmed
The cross and the lane
A stone monument set against a wall, with a lane running away beside it and two figures in the distance.
PossibleSource not yet established · Unknown — publication permission to be confirmed
Church Street from the north
A printed view along Church Street with telegraph poles and a stone building close on the left.
ProbablePrinted postcard — publisher not yet identified · Unknown — publication permission to be confirmed
Children in a tinted street view
A hand-coloured view with four children standing in the middle of the road. The colour is an early colourist's guess, not a record.
PossibleSource not yet established · Unknown — publication permission to be confirmed
The long terrace, High Street
A wide view of the terrace running away from the camera, with figures standing at intervals along the pavement.
ProbablePrinted postcard — publisher not yet identified · Unknown — publication permission to be confirmed
A gathering in the road
Villagers and a hand cart in the middle of the road, with the raised pavement and boundary wall behind.
PossibleSource not yet established · Unknown — publication permission to be confirmed
High Street with a delivery cart
A cart drawn up outside a shopfront, with a knot of people gathered at the doorway.
ProbablePrinted postcard — publisher not yet identified · Unknown — publication permission to be confirmed
Church Street, looking towards the village
A printed postcard view along Church Street, with a long rubble wall on the right and a group of figures in the distance.
ProbablePrinted postcard — publisher not yet identified · Unknown — publication permission to be confirmed
Children in the lane
A group of children standing in the road between high boundary walls. Nobody in this photograph has yet been named.
PossibleSource not yet established · Unknown — publication permission to be confirmed
Fare's shop and horse-drawn delivery cart
The shopfront with its window display, a horse-drawn delivery van at the kerb and a man standing at the horse's head.
ProbableSource not yet established · Unknown — publication permission to be confirmed
Horse and cart outside the shop
A horse and cart standing outside a village shop, with a figure in a long apron in the doorway.
PossibleSource not yet established · Unknown — publication permission to be confirmed
The junction
A quiet junction with a tall building on the right and a bicycle propped at the roadside.
PossibleSource not yet established · Unknown — publication permission to be confirmed
Fare's delivery van
A motor van lettered for Fare, baker and confectioner, with a group of children and a woman standing alongside.
ProbableSource not yet established · Unknown — publication permission to be confirmed
A gabled building at the roadside
A tall gabled stone building standing directly on the road, with children in front of it.
PossibleSource not yet established · Unknown — publication permission to be confirmed
Frames and beds
Long rows of cold frames running away towards the glasshouses.
PossibleFamily collection — contributor to be recorded · Unknown — publication permission to be confirmed
The Lion and Fiddle, with the Usher's Ales board
The photograph behind the reconstruction. The Usher's Ales board and the fingerpost to the right are the clearest dating evidence we have so far.
ProbableSource not yet established · Unknown — publication permission to be confirmed
The Lion and Fiddle
A painterly reconstruction of the Lion and Fiddle, working from a single mid-century photograph.
InterpretationProject reconstruction, 2026 · Permission granted
The water tower
Cold frames and a raised water tower — the working infrastructure of the nursery, and useful evidence for a future reconstruction.
PossibleFamily collection — contributor to be recorded · Unknown — publication permission to be confirmed
The glasshouses
A run of glasshouses seen end-on across open ground.
PossibleFamily collection — contributor to be recorded · Unknown — publication permission to be confirmed
Among the chrysanthemums
A group standing in the flower beds behind the house, with blooms in the foreground.
PossibleFamily collection — contributor to be recorded · Unknown — publication permission to be confirmed
The Hilperton Nurseries sign
A family group photographed beside the painted sign reading 'Hilperton Nurseries, E. Schönfeld'.
ProbableFamily collection — contributor to be recorded · Unknown — publication permission to be confirmed
The nursery from the air
An oblique aerial view showing the arrangement of glasshouses, frames and beds. Images like this are the single most useful evidence for a three-dimensional reconstruction.
PossibleAerial survey company — to be identified · Unknown — publication permission to be confirmed
Is there a gap here you could fill?
The thin periods and the empty places on the plan are not gaps in the village’s history. They are gaps in what has reached us so far.