Last year we joined Rev. Francis Kilvert on a visit to the Bath Flower Show in 1870, a very hot and tiring day.
Kilvert (1840-1879) was born in Hardenhuish, Chippenham; his father was the vicar at Langley Burrell just outside the town. Ordained in 1864, he was first a curate at Clyro in Radnorshire until 1872 (frequently returning to Wiltshire to visit the family); then curate to his father in the 1870s and, for the last two years of his life, vicar of Bredwardine in Herefordshire.
We’re now catching up with him again for another visit to Bath from Chippenham to do some shopping.
Monday 14 October 1872
This morning I went down to Bath by the 11 o’clock train.
I took down my silver cup to Payne to be engraved with our crest and arms and the motto which I invented for the scallop shells: ‘Peregrinamus’. ‘We are pilgrims’. The engraving was to cost eight shillings.
Payne & Co. Goldsmiths & Jewellers ‘to the Queen and Royal Family’ were at 21 Old Bond Street (corner of Quiet Street). This was a long-established firm, in the Bath Directory from 1833 until 1895. This address then became the Metropolitan Bank, later Midland Bank, and is now Knoops hot chocolate café. Eight shillings (40p) for the engraving work is about £25-£30 today, which to us sounds very reasonable, but in 1872 it was equivalent to two days’ labour for a skilled tradesman.
I bought a nice second-hand bagatelle board 9 feet long at Becket’s in Quiet St. I brought the bagatelle board up with me and we played the first game on it this evening. It is a beautiful board, cost £7.10s [£7.50] new and I got it for £5, a bargain I think.
Becket & Son, Auctioneers, House Agents & General Furnishers, were at 10 Quiet Street where they had been since 1858.
Their advert (pictured) is from the Bath Herald 24 August 1872. £5 for the bagatelle board is roughly £320 today and, in 1872, 25 days’ labour for our skilled tradesman – an astronomical price! But Kilvert seems pleased with his bargain.
Bagatelle was a very popular indoor game and you can read about it here In the Bath newspapers, whenever there is an auction of household furniture advertised, the featured lots almost always include a bagatelle board, indicating that this was a selling point. The notice from Mr Brumby, auctioneer, is from the Bath Herald 26 August 1871. Boards were also frequently found in pubs, and in 1872 the Weston Club and Reading Room acquired one for their members. It was still a popular game in the 1920s: the illustrations are from Gamage’s 1921 mail order catalogue.
It is somewhat incredible that Kilvert took this 9-feet (3 metres) item back to Chippenham on the train. However, probably the shop’s delivery boy (two boys needed, surely?) carried it to the railway station for him and then a porter would have put it in the luggage van. I wish we had luggage vans now!
More information about Francis Kilvert
Ann Cullis
Trustee & Friend February 2026
