Following a hugely successful exhibition held two years ago in the village hall, the Chiseldon Local History group talked about the idea of having a permanent museum, but then it seemed like a far off dream.

Interior view of Chiseldon's new museum during preparations for its opening.

Then, out of the blue, the parish council offered the use of a former chapel of rest, half of which is still used by the council for their meetings.

The group accepted the council's offer without any hesitation and have been spending the last few months preparing the room for its grand opening in August by Phil Harding from Channel Four's Time Team programme.

When members of the group first had a look around their new 'home' they realised that it wouldn't be a simple case of just moving in.

"The parish council had the whole thing refurbished, and gave us the keys and said, "there you are," more or less!"

The group has appealed to villagers to come forward with artefacts, photographs and memories of Chiseldon, which can be added to the museum's already well-established collection

Sheila says, "We'll change the displays as we get material, to add interest, and when the children come round from the school, if they've got a particular theme going, we'll try and cater for it."

One idea to get youngsters interested in the history of their village involves a bran tub into which they can delve in and pull out various artefacts from different periods of Chiseldon's past.

One of the display boards showing Chiseldon's history.

Amongst the other displays is a historical timeline that reflects the history of Chilseldon from pre-history up to the year 2000. This has been enhanced by a series of maps showing how the landscape has changed over the years and a number of display cases showing items that have been found in and around the village.

One end of the museum has been devoted to revealing the amazing discoveries made at Burderop Park, where Sheila and other keen local archaeologists had an opportunity to carry out a dig, revealing a number of interesting historical facts about the building's past.

David Bailey, another member of Chiseldon's local history group, has also been helping with the new museum.

He told BBC Wiltshire about a series of display boards reflecting three main themes, agriculture, Chiseldon camp and the railway.

David's interest in Victorian postcards includes a number of views of Chiseldon's railway, which transformed the village after the Midland and South Western Junction Railway was opened there in 1881.

Chiseldon Railway Station 1881. • Click here for a larger view

One particular photograph shows a general view of the station area taken immediately before the railway was opened for traffic and shows platforms, signal box, station buildings and the line disappearing into the distance as it makes its way towards Swindon.

Sheila pointed out that her house is just visible in the distance - but things look very different now.

"It's our house that you can see from here, all the line is open - trees cutback - it's just flat beyond the village, but now if you stand in the same spot all you see is a sort of path vanishing into lots of trees as if it's going into woodland.

"It's all grown up since the railway closed - the men no longer go along at intervals cutting back the undergrowth - it's just grown up and it's a small forest!

The photograph (and others taken on the same day) shows the same group of children, in their Victorian clothes, clearly taking a keen interest in the man with his 'magic' camera.

David explained, "The photographer obviously moved them around and positioned them - you can see the one of the lamp boy by the shelter on the second platform.

"The lamp boy looked after the lamps in the station, the signal lamps and also he used to do the carriage lamps. This was of course in the days before electricity on trains and at dusk, presumably, the trains would stop at a convenient station and the lamp boy would go along and drop down from the roof into each carriage an oil lamp so that the carriages were illuminated internally."

Both Sheila and David are immensely proud of the group's achievement.

David Bailey and Sheila Passmore

" I think it's great," says David, "I'm enjoying it but, not only that, I think it's going to be something that we can pass on to somebody else maybe in a few year's time - it's a facility that this village will be proud of."

And adding to David's enthusiasm, Sheila explains, "This is something we've wanted to do for a long time but there's never been the facility and to be just handed this out of the blue and to be able to step in and do this - well, I think we'll have left our mark on the village for the rest of its history.