LEGENDARY writer and actor Noel Coward used to serve behind the bar at the Northey Arms in Box.

This extraordinary snippet of local history is part of a treasure trove of fascinating stories on the Wiltshire Community History website.

The website, run by Wiltshire County Council, includes a section featuring questions frequently asked by members of the public. It has brought some fascinating stories to light.

Among the questions asked recently was one about Noel Coward's regular visits to Box.

Coward, who wrote the film classic Brief Encounter and the well-known song Mad Dogs and Englishmen, and played crime boss Mr Bridger in the original film of The Italian Job, regularly visited his friend Maisie Gay, who owned the Northey Arms in Box between the First and Second World Wars.

Actors and other people who worked in the theatre often visited Maisie, a music hall artist, at the pub. Some of them amused themselves by serving behind the bar, including Noel Coward.

Another grimmer story tells of possibly Wiltshire's first serial killer. In the 18th and early 19th centuries, a small inn called The Shepherd and Dog stood on the Lydeway, near Urchfont.

The inn had an evil reputation while Thomas Burry was the landlord, as it was said that solitary visitors such as peddlers were never seen again after entering.

One story suggests that more than a dozen bodies were exhumed from shallow graves behind the inn, and that they had become victims of the landlord's greed.

Records suggest that Burry, who died in 1842, was never tried and convicted, but local folklore claims the church bells refused to ring at his funeral.

Local studies librarian, Mike Marshman, said: "We have received inquiries from all over the world, from local people in Trowbridge to inquiries from as far away as Australia and New Zealand.

"Many of the questions we are asked throw up some very interesting stories and show what a fascinating history the county has, beyond the better known aspects such as Stonehenge and Avebury."

The website also reveals the unusual origin of the village name, Maiden Bradley.

The Bradley part of the name means an open woodland space, but Maiden refers to a time when there was a leper hospital there for maidens who had been affected by the disease.

The hospital was founded in 1152 to look after wealthy or aristocratic women who were suffering from leprosy, and later there was also a priory on the site.

By the end of the 13th century, there were no lepers in residence, but the priory continued to prosper until King Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries.

A Pewsey cleric turned detective to solve the murder of a farmer in 1798.

The rector of the village church, the Reverend Joseph Townsend, found an unusual way to unmask the murderer.

Playing on the superstition that the body of a murdered man knows its killer, he hauled the corpse into his church on Sunday.

Every member of the congregation was asked to place their hands on the dead man's face and declare their innocence. One man, whose surname is recorded as Amor, was afraid to take the test and he was later charged with the murder and hanged.

The Wiltshire Community History website will map out the history of every single town and village in the county over the next few years.

The site, which features images and maps, can be visited at www.wiltshire.gov.uk