Wiltshire church displays 180 years worth of memorabilia

A historic church displays items from weddings, baptisms and funerals that have taken place there since 1844.

Holy Trinity Church in Dilton Marsh, Wiltshire, is celebrating 180 years since it was consecrated by the Bishop of Salisbury – a year after it was built.

The Life Events exhibition on May 25-26 includes wedding dresses, photographs and memorabilia collected from locals.

“Seeing how wedding dress styles have changed over the years is quite intriguing and also quite funny,” said co-organiser Sonja Harris.

The exhibit also features baptismal vestments and parish records, which another member of the church helped research.

“There will be lots of printouts of people’s marriage information from 1844 onwards. And so you can look and see who some of the earliest people were going to marry in the church,” Ms Harris explained.

She said there were also “some pretty incredible newspaper articles listing every person who came to a wedding and the gifts they gave”.

“It’s really an eye-opener,” she added.

Tess Brocksopp, who also helped organize the event, explained that more than 100 photographs will be on display, as well as 13 wedding dresses from 1921 to the present day.

There is also a handmade wedding dress from the 1950s.

Mrs Brocksopp said: “We would like people to come and have a look, walk around, see the exhibits and have the opportunity to write down their memories.”

“A lot of families have had several generations of their family all marry in Holy Trinity. So it’s a family business, really,” she added.

“Even if you don’t go to church every Sunday, I think the people in the village are very grateful that our church is there and open to everyone,” she said.

Regular services will be held throughout the weekend as the exhibition unfolds.

“I’m not sure how that’s going to work – we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” Ms Harris joked.