Welcome

The Well House Collection is comprised of documents, ephemera, books, photographs and audio/visual files that chronicle the history of Melksham and closely surrounding villages in Wiltshire, England.

Acquisitions are privately funded, donated and loaned. The Well House Collection is passionate about Melksham history, and if you are too, and enjoy puzzles, forensics, research and learning, you might want to consider volunteering to help!

See us on Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/thewellhousecollection

Including daily updates of "On this day ..." An interesting collection of local births, deaths and newspaper headlines of the day.

Current projects

Updated Thursday, 1 May, 2025

  • More than 1,700 photos added to profiles. If you have a photo of your relative, please send it!
  • Spouses are now click-able in the right hand column.
  • We continue to grow and amend the people database. In April alone, we added 218 new names and added to/corrected 1,044 records, including a large number of burials.
  • RESEARCH: Adding to the database has been ongoing and we're now past 52,0000 local names. Because of the addresses and occupations given in the 1921 census, your relative has now a more complete story.
  • 1841–1911 CENSUSES: Because of constant updates, the current downloads on this site are not up to date. Until I have all these revisions updated and posted, please do email me for a current copy.
  • LECTURES: Upcoming talks -- May 2025 "The Melksham Murderer" and October 2025 -- "The Trials of Rev Barnwell".
  • EMAIL ADDRESS CHANGE: If you have not updated your records, please note my new email address.
  • Lisa Ellis lisa@sn12.net
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