Collection Conversations: Alma Boyes & Helen Harris
2026-05-09 14:00 - 15:30 (Europe/London) | Chippenham Museum, 9-10 Market Pl, Chippenham, SN15 3HF, United Kingdom
In May’s installment of the museum’s free art talk series, they will be joined Alma Boyes and Helen Harris.
Alma Boyes studied ceramics and sculpture at the Bath Academy of Art, Corsham, and a Masters in Ceramic Design at North Staffordshire Polytechnic. Boyes worked as a sculptor and enlarger at the Morris Singer Foundry, working on sculptures for prominent artists such as Eduardo Paolozzi, as well as making her own work in bronze. Her work both in ceramics and bronze has been heavily influenced by her early days exploring ceramic techniques at the Bath Academy of Art.
Helen Harris studied visual communication at the Bath Academy of Art, Corsham, becoming a Fellow in Photography in 1981-2. She taught photography at Corsham and Central Saint Martins, continuing to teach at Bath Spa University until 2020. Her photographic practice explores the experience of time and place, with a particular focus on the weaving of cultural and natural histories within the landscape of the South West of England. Walking and collecting are an integral part of her process. In these encounters she is drawn to the poetry of the local and commonplace and its capacity to speak of other times and worlds.
Free, booking essential.
Image captions:
Left Image: Lone Magpie, undated, Alma Boyes, agateware in porcelain
Right Image: Corsham Court, Wiltshire, February 1982, 1982, Helen Harris, photographic print

Louise Ryland-Epton talk: Agnes Mylles and the murder by witchcraft of William Bayntun
2026-06-04 19:15 - 20:30 | Chippenham Library
In 1563 a witchcraft act was passed by the English parliament. It formed the legal basis for all English witchcraft trials. In early 1564, a baby, William Bayntun died in north Wiltshire, allegedly murdered by witchcraft. Three legal cases followed, and three women were implicated in the murder plot — a local widow, Agnes Mylles from Stanley near Chippenham, the child’s aunt, Dorothy Bayntun, and his mother, Agnes Bayntun, a cousin to Queen Elizabeth I. The three were accused by a fourth woman, a witchfinder. The cases had dreadful consequences for almost all the protagonists, leading to imprisonment, torture, and ultimately the execution of Agnes Mylles, the first recorded person to be executed in England for the crime of witchcraft. This is a tragic tale of toxic family relationships played out in the Chippenham area against the backdrop of the Tudor Reformation.
The event is FREE but please register at Chippenham Library, or call the library on 01249 6750536.

Find out more about the Chippenham – Our History project on this website here.
