A MOCK retrial inside Salisbury's old law court took place as part of Salisbury History Festival last week.

The festival was organised by Fisherton History Society and all the events were completely sold out!

Monday, August 26, introduced an event in conjunction with the Artisan Wine Shop in Winchester Street and The Old Ale House in Crane Street. Simon Jackson kicked of the proceeding with a presentation charting ‘Beer – Past and Present’. All aspects of the brewing industry were included in Simon’s presentation - it also included beer tasting/matching which was greatly appreciated by those present!

Following on from Simon’s talk was a guided walk by Timezone Tours charting a selection of ‘The Lost Pubs of Salisbury.’ It soon became very apparent that Salisbury has lost a considerable number of pubs over the years, including five in the High Street alone.

Wednesday (August 28) continued with the theme of pubs with an event in conjunction with The Boston Tea Party who provided a wonderful cream tea in the atmospheric upstairs room of what was once The George Inn.

Ruby Vitorino Moody gave an excellent talk on the early history of the ‘George’. Frogg Moody then gave some early examples of the food and lodging a traveller might have expected on a visit to the George in the 1700s. Matt Pike finished the proceedings by highlighting some of the famous guests known or believed to have stayed at the George Inn.

These included Samuel Pepys, Oliver Cromwell, William Shakespeare and Buddy Holly.

Thursday, and Salisbury Library was the location for Frogg Moody’s talk on the Peaky Blinders.

Frogg talked about the rival gangs who created havoc at race track meetings during the 1920s by fighting each other and anyone who stood in their way. Frogg showed how Salisbury race track was not excluded from London’s Sabini Gang….

Friday, August 30 saw the much anticipated Retrial of William John Storer at the Old Oak Court in Salisbury Guildhall.

The Retrial was written by George Fleming and performed by his group, History at Large. Did William Storer kill Emily Blake in Castle Street in 1865?

In this production, the audience was the jury and after hearing all the evidence they had to find him guilty or not guilty. I have to report that William John Storer was unanimously found not guilty!

Saturday, August 31 - The United Reformed Church in Fisherton Street was the location for a whole day of historical talks and presentations. Neil Beagrie presented ‘A Hidden Gem: The Archaeology and History of Bourne Hill Gardens’ - a fascinating talk on the Saxon, Medieval, Georgian and Post-Modern landscape of this often overlooked corner of Salisbury.

Christine Mason then presented her talk, ‘Fanny Nelson – The Hero’s Wife’. Christine gave an excellent account of Fanny Nelson, Lord Nelson’s first wife, whose life has been overlooked due to Nelson’s affection for Lady Emma Hamilton…

Ruth Butler regaled us with ‘The World Turned Upside Down – Wiltshire and the English Civil Wars’. We learnt about the 1642 civil war between King and Parliament. Salisbury mostly escaped the fighting but in 1644 a Royalist army occupied the town but was quickly defeated by the Parliamentary army. A year later another Royalist army attacked Salisbury and drove out the Parliamentary troops – the town remained under the Royalists until 1646 when the King withdrew his troops.

Paul Sample finished the proceedings with his presentation, ‘The Causes, Course and Consequences of The Battle of Pyt House (1830)’. Paul’s talk highlighted a series of uprisings of agricultural labourers, which took place across the country reacting against farmers and landowners which often resulted in the destruction of farm machinery.

For more information about the Fisherton History Society and the festival go to fishertonhistorysociety.org.