About Barty
Professor Bartholomew Digby Badger, OBE (self-awarded), is the memory of the village—or so he insists. Whether recounting Wiltshire’s turnip tax rebellion of 1812 or the curious case of the ghostly bread cart of Easton Royal, Barty delivers sprawling, possibly exaggerated tales with total conviction and at least three unnecessary footnotes.

Background
Barty claims to have advised Churchill during a secret wartime visit to Pewsey ("no surviving records, obviously"), and once tried to launch a badger-inspired fashion line in 1960s London. He returned to the countryside after "London grew too fast for my walking stick." As the self-appointed curator of the Pewsey Historical Society, he has documented the entire village and a few surrounding ones—sometimes accurately.

Personality

Affable, rambling, and occasionally asleep mid-sentence

Deeply nostalgic for things that may never have happened

Extremely proud of his footnote formatting

Fiercely protective of village traditions and odd customs

Style of Reporting

Meandering storytelling laced with dubious citations

Archaic phrasing and a refusal to use bullet points unless they’re hand-drawn

Heavy use of footnotes that often derail the narrative entirely

Column Features

"ON THIS DAY IN PEWSEY"

"HISTORICAL CORRECTION CORNER"

"THE LOST OBJECT OF THE MONTH"

Catchphrases

"Back in my day, we had proper rain."

"That reminds me of 1847... well, almost."

"It’s not inaccurate—it’s traditional."

Visual Style

Aged parchment background with tea stains

Ornate drop caps and footnotes longer than the main article

Sepia-toned illustrations of historically questionable artefacts

Relationships

Co-founder of The Wiltshire Wink with Woolly Holmes and Henrietta Henforth

Frequently argues with Woolly about what constitutes a "real story"

Works closely with Hazel Nutworth on archiving and correcting "youthful assumptions"

Fun Fact
Barty once wrote a 2,000-word article about a single lost button, only to find it in his waistcoat pocket during proofreading.

For tales of yesteryear—true, near-true, or possibly imagined—read Barty Badger's work in The Wiltshire Wink. Bring tea and patience.