1871 – Postcard – Ducking Chair

Physical description:

Colour postcard showing a Wiltshire ducking chair.

Museum classification:

Persecution

Size:

140 x 90

Information:

C 1910. Printed in Belgium for Tomkins & Barrett of Swindon. The text on the postcard reads: 'A Wiltshire Ducking Chair. It was customary in olden times to punish scolding women by fastening them into a chair and publicly ducking them. The chair was placed on wheels, two long poles being used for shafts, with a rope attached to each shaft. The pond used for this purpose at Wootton Bassett was situate in the High Street, near the Crown Hotel, and was filled up in 1836. The chair was in Devizes Museum many years, but is now kept in the Town Hall at Wootton Bassett. It is believed to have been last used about 1787 for ducking a woman named Peggy Lawrence. This woman may be distinguished in the corner of the post card entitled, "An Old Wiltshire Election", and appears therein to be sitting down.' See also 1904 and 1905.

Resource:

Picture

Materials:

Card

Copyright ownership:

Treetrunk Ltd.

C 1910. Printed in Belgium for Tomkins & Barrett of Swindon. The text on the postcard reads: 'A Wiltshire Ducking Chair. It was customary in olden times to punish scolding women by fastening them into a chair and publicly ducking them. The chair was placed on wheels, two long poles being used for shafts, with a rope attached to each shaft. The pond used for this purpose at Wootton Bassett was situate in the High Street, near the Crown Hotel, and was filled up in 1836. The chair was in Devizes Museum many years, but is now kept in the Town Hall at Wootton Bassett. It is believed to have been last used about 1787 for ducking a woman named Peggy Lawrence. This woman may be distinguished in the corner of the post card entitled, "An Old Wiltshire Election", and appears therein to be sitting down.' See also 1904 and 1905.