In his third and final look at Wiltshire’s almshouses for Wiltshire Life magazine, Gary Lawrence visits two rural communities that provide a secure, happy home for people from an incredible variety of backgrounds.
“It is a long way from the troubled hills of Romania in the carefully manicured splendour of St John’s hospital in Heytesbury but Alex Wilson has many reminders of her homeland around her.
She and her husband Barnabus’ well-ordered flat on the first floor of the Grade II listed almshouse, which gazes out over beautiful lawns, is decorated with paintings and photographs that trace her circuitous route here.
She and her English mother fled the communists who had seized power and came to England, the place of her mother’s birth, in 1955 when her father, the celebrated philosopher and author Constantin Noica was arrested and eventually jailed. “My father was not liked by the regime because he was a philosopher and they rook him away,” recalls the 78-year-old. “His only sin in this world was being able to think and write things that were nor communist based.”
Her father was eventually freed in 1964 after a campaign by the fledgling Amnesty International and support from the likes of Graham Greene, a friend of her mother. “it was a difficult time, very hard but so long ago now,” she adds….
Gary Lawrence, Wiltshire Life December 22
Wiltshire Life has kindly provided us with a full copy of this third article which can be read in full here.
Our thanks to Gary Lawrence for taking the time to raise the profile of the almshouse movement through his sensitively written articles about the beautiful almshouses of Wiltshire and shining a light on the work of the volunteers and staff and the lives of their residents.
Further reading:
Providing a safe haven over the centuries | (almshouses.org) | November 22
Almshouses in Wiltshire Life: Centuries of supporting independence | | October 22
December 2022