2026 marks the 400th anniversary of the birth of John Aubrey: local biographer, archaeologist, scientist and oral historian. This summer, Chippenham Museum will be celebrating his wide-ranging pursuits and scientific interests through the exhibition, Wiltshire and the World: John Aubrey and the Quest for Knowledge.
Aubrey was born in Easton Piercy, Kington St Michael, on the outskirts of Chippenham in 1626. Before he was 20, he had started collecting ‘old wives’ tales’, folk stories, local legends, anecdotes, and gossip about important figures of the age and contemporaries of his time. By his death in 1697, he had produced a great collection of Brief Lives from the famous to the infamous, providing a rich and entertaining commentary on the people of Elizabethan and Stuart England.
Chippenham Museum took inspiration from these mini biographies for its recent 5-week creative writing course for 16-18-year-olds. With funding from the Friends of Chippenham Museum, staff worked with experienced writer and English tutor, Lesley Taylor to run the free after-school sessions. Over the weeks, participating students from local secondary schools developed their writing skills in poetry, lyric writing, dramatic monologue, short stories, and flash fiction. Then, taking inspiration from Aubrey, they went on to use a collection of portraits as creative prompts, to write their own ‘brief life’.
The portraits used came from the museum’s collection of cartes de visites. Mounted onto a piece of card, the images are around the size of a formal visiting card, hence the name. They were introduced to England in the 1850s and made popular by the royal family after Queen Victoria, Prince Albert and their children had carte de visite portraits taken in 1860.
There were several photographers in Chippenham producing carte de visites and surviving examples of those taken locally have become part of the museum collection. Unfortunately, little is known about the identity of many of the sitters and most of the people in the portraits remain anonymous, making the images intriguing and captivating, and providing a wonderful source of inspiration for creative writing. Using the skills they developed, the writers were asked to choose a portrait and imagine a life for the sitter and through poetry and short stories, they have brought these anonymous people to life.
At a time when our young people are facing increasing social pressures and The National Literacy Trust are reporting on a ‘writing crisis among children and young people… with writing and frequency at an unprecedented low’, it was essential for all involved that the course was empowering and meaningful. It was wonderful to find that, when asked what they enjoyed most about the sessions, the young people spoke of the ability to try out different genres, working in a calm atmosphere and having the time set out for creativity. One participant said:
‘This is the one thing I have done like this that puts energy back in the tank rather than spending it.’
What next?
Building on the success of the 5-week course, the museum is currently developing a wider community creative writing project which will celebrate the life of John Aubrey and develop a modern-day snapshot of local lives.
Funding from Chippenham Borough Lands Charity has enabled the museum to once again work with Lesley, and the project will begin with the development and delivery of a series of workshops and resources aimed at year 5 and year 8 pupils. The workshops will engage the young people with John Aubrey and his collection of Brief Lives and encourage them to develop their own series of modern-day brief lives based on adults they know, such as teaching and school staff, family members or sports and club leaders.
Using the work produced by the schools as publicity and inspiration, the project will go on to develop wider community engagement, encouraging people of all ages to add to the Brief Lives archive by producing their own mini biographical accounts, acknowledging and celebrating individuals living and working in the community today.
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