Dorothea Dalrymple
Dorothea Dalrymple


The purpose of the Wiltshire Rural Music School in the 1930s was to re-establish the study and practice of music in the countryside, and Miss Dalrymple, an Associate of the Royal College of Music, was its energetic Director. Although she could talk passionately about the history and joys of the recorder, which she considered a greatly under-appreciated instrument, she didn't just hold children's violin lessons at a room displaying her certificates in Fir Tree Cottage. She organised string orchestras, village orchestras, chamber music groups, choral societies, massed violin bands, village bands, children's orchestras, youth club percussion bands, village song clubs, men's quartettes and, of course, recorder players. Their music could be heard ringing out way beyond Bratton, in Edington, Erlestoke, West Lavington, Devizes, Bradford-on-Avon, Trowbridge, Warminster, Codford and Chitterne.

“I learned the violin as a girl, but gave it up when my family started to arrive” one student explained. “When the music school started at Bratton I got my violin out again and now I'm keener than ever”. Miss Dalrymple's enthusiastic and grateful pupils ranged from “White-haired ladies approaching 70 Summers down to school children of eight years”.

Concerts were regularly organised where her pupil's eyes would be fixed on their conductor as they captivated large audiences at village halls, church harvest festivals, and Wiltshire's great annual Festival of Music. Once, when the Bratton chamber music group performed, the judge confessed “I was so interested that I quite forgot to mark them”.

These performances raised funds to continue the Music School's work, support the village hall, and during the war years, helped support 'Wings for Victory'. To collect for the Red Cross Prisoners of War fund Miss Dalrymple led a group of students around Bratton, door to door, playing and singing Christmas carols, even calling in to enchant the labourers at the Reeves iron foundry. When she died in 1978, aged 86, she had given her life unstintingly to music, teaching hundreds of students.




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Bratton History Association.

The Bratton History Association aims to provide all those curious about local history with an opportunity to meet, exchange ideas, and discover more about the history of Bratton and Wiltshire. Activities include monthly meetings, talks by professional historians, visits to places of interest to historians, and our own local history project.

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