Local History News Number 102 Winter 2012

The most eye-catching headline I have seen in recent months was surely ‘Heroin found in National Archives’, on the BBC News website. The mind boggled … it would of course be a reasonably salubrious place in which to indulge in the habit, far preferable to underneath a railway arch or behind the bushes in a muddy corner of a park, but did researchers really feel that desperate? Or was it a member of staff, a dope fiend lurking in the guise of a mild-mannered archivist? And how had the discovery been made? Were sniffer dogs now part of the TNA scene, or was it a tip-off which led to a dramatic police raid on MH12 or HO9 (records relating to convict prison hulks, so perhaps the police were suspicious)? Unless perhaps there was a missing ‘e’ and it was actually aheroine who wandered the searchrooms – maybe the pale ghost of Grace Darling?

But no, the evil drug it was. Rather less than a gram of off-white powder, divided among 19 tiny sachets contained in a sealed packet, was discovered by a member of the public among papers relating to a 1928 court case and sent from the British Consulate in Cairo (which is excellent, as a Middle Eastern connection adds a suitable touch of exoticism and spice to any drugs-related story – this being the late 1920s, there ought to also to be a mysterious and beautiful spy, an open-topped tourer, and a Russian agent, but they’d be more obvious and conspicuous in TNA). The offending item was sent for analysis and then handed over to the Metropolitan Police, to be replaced by a photograph, a prosaic end for a novel news item.

Discovering alien objects among archives is an occupational hazard for archivists (though possibly the librarians do even better, with their lists of the things people use as bookmarks – I recall reading years ago of the librarian who found a rasher of bacon employed as such in a returned volume, and seemingly £5 notes, extremely private correspondence, and unused rail tickets are commonplace). In the case of archives the most productive records are probably coroners’ files. I’ve heard of bloodstained handkerchiefs and even a bloodstained knife falling out of bundles of papers, having been produced as Exhibit A at the inquest many years before. An archivist of my acquaintance (not Mrs Crosby, in case you wonder) tells of finding a revolver in among the deeds and legal papers contained in a tin box which had been brought from a local solicitor’s office.

Gentler finds – locks of hair, pressed leaves and flowers, fragments of lace – are often revealed in letters and pocketbooks. A friend told me of the discovery of a desiccated digestive biscuit, rolled up inside a tithe map – the suspicion would normally be that a wayward and deviant searcher had been surreptitiously munching, but it was known among the cognoscenti at that particular record office that the county archivist was a very heavy consumer of the products of McVitie & Co.    

In all my years of archival research I’ve never found anything exciting, apart from archival discoveries themselves. But there can be something poignant about the detritus at the bottom of boxes – the crumbled red wax of a disintegrated seal, the brass pin that once held some papers together, the squares of faded pink blotting paper used by an anonymous clerk in an office long ago, the fine powdery grit of the pounce that was used to dry the ink on a parchment document three hundred years before and which still lingers in its folds and creases. Better by far, I think, than bloodstains or Class A drugs.       

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The Rural Museums Network has recently published two major pieces of work.

The report 'Rural Museums: Ten Years On' was written by Hilary McGowan following an approach by the Museums Libraries and Archives Council. Ten years ago rural museums faced particular difficulties. Many museums were struggling to manage the increasing demands of holding agricultural collections and meet the changing expectations of visitors. Through a programme of interviews, seminars and site visits Hilary has thoroughly got to know the sector and the issues facing it. Many museums and museum services throughout the UK can learn from Hilary's account of the journeys taken by particular museums, and the Network, over this period.

'Rural Museums: Ten Years On' (55.3MB) is available online:

http://www.ruralmuseums.specialistnetwork.org.uk/asset_arena/textual/2011%2011%2008%20TYO%20report%20v2.pdf

The Network is also working on Ploughs as a Museums Association Effective Collections project. Ploughs are numerous in rural museums but they can be a challenge to display or store. As a start Catherine Wilson carried out a survey of the ploughs held in UK publically accessible collections and reviewed their significance. This is to be followed by a study on the different ways museums interpret ploughs.

The plough report 'Digging Deep' (5.54MB) is also available online:

http://www.ruralmuseums.specialistnetwork.org.uk/asset_arena/textual/Digging%20Deep.pdf

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The Hornsey Historical Society celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2011. Since 2002 Kenneth Gay has been the society’s president, and before that held the positions of vice-chairman, chairman, and vice-president. Under his skilful chairmanship during the 1980s, developments included lectures, outings and guided walks, and he made a point of extending the relationships of the society with other local organisations. He has represented the society on two conservation area committees, the Alexandra Palace Consultative Committee and on the committee of Friends of Hornsey Church Tower. Until very recently Ken continued to be involved in outreach activities with schools and residents groups.

As chairman of the society’s publications committee Ken Gay has overseen the production of more than thirty titles, seven written by him. He has contributed numerous articles to the society’s annual Bulletin, to local newspapers and other periodicals. A knowledgeable and prolific author himself, he has also played an important role in stimulating and encouraging others, always maintaining high standards of research and writing.   His advice and support to new authors has been appreciated by many who might not otherwise have seen their work in print.

Born in 1923, the son of a postman, Ken Gay received, as he puts it, ‘a respectable Church of England upbringing and a first class grammar school education’, where ‘his History master introduced him to period buildings and his English master encouraged his love of the English language’. He was evacuated with West Ham Municipal Secondary School first to Essex and then to Cornwall. Exempted from conscription on medical grounds, Ken went to the London School of Economics (then in Cambridge) where he graduated with a 2i BSc (Economics) in 1944.

Joining the Miners’ Welfare Commission, he was absorbed into the National Coal Board where he was employed until made redundant in 1984. There his first job was as production manager to an NCB Film Unit that he helped set up, which produced hundreds of training films to facilitate the technical changes needed to update what was still effectively a Victorian industry.  He was promoted to producing training packages, satisfying his love of writing as this involved creating manuals based on coalfield visits and research.  At the same time Ken had married and had a family, and also began working as a freelance journalist, including 30 years writing on documentary film for the monthly magazine Films and Filming.

Ken’s interest in local history really began in 1977 when he joined Hornsey Historical Society. His lifelong fascination with films has given him a particular affinity with 20th century history; but his interests range widely, including an enthusiasm for architecture about which, as one of his referees expressed it, ‘he writes with considerable skill and judgement’. Muswell Hill is his ‘home patch’ and his recently published autobiography inevitably contains a great deal of authoritative history of the area, as well as photographs from his collection, and an appendix of poems, representing  another of his interests and abilities.

In both his speaking and writing, Ken has been dedicated to spreading the word about the pleasures of local history, making it accessible to as many people as possible, and encouraging others to become involved.

With thanks to Ken Gay, Albert Pinching, Bridget Cherry, and Peter Barber.

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This is the title of a leaflet available from the Heritage Lottery Fund offering help for projects marking the series of centenaries of the events from the First World War that will be starting from 2014.

HLF is working with the Imperial War Museum to support local community groups and organisations commemorate these anniversaries, and the leaflet provides ideas and information. Funds are available to help groups explore the history and legacy of the war and its impact on communities across the UK. Projects of all sizes can apply for funds through the open grants programme, Your Heritage, and Heritage Grants, as well as through Your Roots, targeted at 13-25 year olds. Funding can be provided for the conservation of a war memorial as part of a wider project which will increase understanding of the stories behind the memorial.

www.hlf.org.uk/FirstWorldWar  0207591 6042/44

See Notes News Issues on page 35 for announcement about one of the ways in which BALH will be getting involved with these very special anniversaries. There will be more in forthcoming issues. Do get in touch and let us know about initiatives in your area.

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Every building in this street displayed  a poster about its history one in a weekend in June.  Over a hundred buildings or sites of buildings were the subject of an exhibition about one of the historic streets of Romsey, a small town near Southampton.

The origins of Middlebridge Street are lost somewhere in the Saxon origins of Romsey.  The local history society, (LTVAS Group) has been collecting information about the street and the buildings within it for nearly 40 years and we decided it was so interesting that we should make it the subject of an exhibition.  Our last single street exhibition was of the Market Place which we held in the Town Hall, and is currently on display in the Hampshire Record Office.

This time we decided that it would be more fun for the audience to be able to walk along the street and read about each property as they came to it.  We had two active members who live in the street and they persuaded their neighbours to participate.

Our collection of material was augmented by residents who provided us with much more, both copies of deeds and documents and a wealth of photographs.  For the exhibition we limited ourselves to one A4 sheet per building containing a brief text and an old photograph or two.  Each sheet was shown to the relevant residents, then printed and laminated.  Every building in the street displayed its poster and we arranged to put up posters on sites where there are no longer any buildings.

The owners of a former public hall allowed us the use of their foyer where we displayed some big posters telling the story of the street itself, and where we sheltered from the heavy rain on our first evening.  The owners of another property produced an additional display about their courtyard and its surrounding buildings.  The pub had lots of additional trade and at least 600 people came specially to see what we had done.  We provided stewards on Friday evening and all day Saturday, but residents mostly left their posters up beyond Saturday and visitors were still reading them in the days that followed.

Middlebridge Street is a charming street that was once the route of the main road to the west from Romsey.  A stream runs alongside the road, and since the highway authority stopped traffic turning into the street from the By Pass it has developed a community spirit so it was a good place to choose.  Subsequently we printed a collection of the posters – we made a mistake there, we should have had them available on the open weekend and we would have sold many more copies.

The event entailed a lot of work, including several rounds of consultation with the residents.  Picking a street of that length was challenging:  one member says next time we will pick the street with 10 houses, but it has raised our profile and both residents and visitors enjoyed the event.

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February 6th 2012, the 60th anniversary of Her Majesty the Queen’s accession to the throne, is the day  her Diamond Jubilee year officially begins. It is also the start of a very special year for the Victoria County History. We will be celebrating the Jubilee with a rededication of the series to the present Queen, who has graciously permitted the University of London to mark the occasion in what, for us, is a particularly appropriate way; for it was the present Queen’s great-great grandmother to whom the VCH series was originally dedicated and who gave the history the title, which we will keep. 

Do look out on the VCH website (http://www.victoriacountyhistory.ac.uk/ ) and in the local press for news of the events which the counties involved in VCH work will be putting on to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee, and sign up for our e-newsletter, VCH News, to keep in touch with their progress.  The Institute of Historical Research, which has managed the project since 1933, is devoting the annual Marc Fitch lecture to the Diamond Jubilee celebration, with a lecture to be given by Dr David Starkey entitled ‘ “Head of Our Morality”: why the twentieth-century British monarchy matters’. All are welcome to attend the lecture and reception to be held at Senate House on June 25th at 6.30pm. If you would like to come, please RSVP to VCH.Events@sas.ac.uk.   You will be able to buy our commemorative publication at that event, or purchase an ebook version which will be available for download to your Kindle. The book will include new research by Professor John Beckett, former VCH Director, into how the VCH was founded, its early royal connections and how the original dedication – and series title – came about. The special character and research of VCH counties and notable contributors to VCH success as a scholarly project will be highlighted, in order to spread the word about our present activities as well as our past achievements. Look out, too, for the publication of the first books to bear the new dedication – Yorkshire East Riding IX: Great Driffield and its Townships, and Essex XI: the North-East Essex Coast, about Clacton and neighbouring resorts – which will appear in the spring, to be followed in the summer by Oxfordshire XVII, a volume on southern parishes which include Kelmscott, the home of William Morriss. 

Another important VCH event in 2012 will be our first Local History Summer School, to be held at the Institute of Historical Research from 25th – 27th June. This will be an ideal opportunity to update or expand your knowledge of methods and sources and meet others engaged in similar research at workshops and lectures exploring Palaeography, Computers for Local History, Landscape and the Built Environment, Family and Neighbourhood and many other topics, with expert tutors from the University of London, the National Archives, the British Library, the Victoria County History and the London Metropolitan Archives. Some inexpensive accommodation has been pre-booked for those who wish to stay, and there are small bursaries available for VCH volunteers and those who enjoy the usual concessions. Find out more about it on the VCH website or write to Manjeet Sambi, IHR, Senate House, London WC1E 7HU (email:manjeet.sambi@sas.ac.uk) for a leaflet.

Finally, a great surprise for all those interested in locality has been the way in which, thanks to David Hockney, the Yorkshire Wolds have hit the headlines! All local historians who have been to, or plan to go to, his exhibition at the Royal Academy will of course want to know more about the places he paints, and three VCH Yorkshire East Riding volumes cover the history of the suddenly famous Yorkshire Wolds: volume VIII on Sledmere and the northern Wolds, volume IV on the southern Wolds,  and the forthcoming book on Driffield. We hope that many, many more people will be introduced to local history and the VCH in this Diamond Jubilee year, and help us by their support to keep the series alive until each English parish has its own Victoria History.

Elizabeth Williamson, Executive Editor 

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Presented by John Sergeant, Britain’s First Photo Album is a ten part series due to air on BBC Two between 12thand 23rd March. The series focuses on the extraordinary achievements of Francis Frith, the pioneer Victorian photographer. To harness enthusiasm generated from the programme we, BBC Learning, are working with a range of partners, including museums, libraries and historical societies to support free events which link to the key ideas from the series. There is a ‘call to action’ at the beginning of the series, we hope that events will take place from the weekend 16th – 18th March.

Get involved!
We will be encouraging organisations to host events and activities which encourage the public to find out about their local heritage and the history of photography. There are lots of ways you can get involved - host an event or talk, design a walk, showcase local photographer’s work or the work of Francis Frith and much more.

We are producing a number of resources to support events and activities of many sizes these include: 

- Suggested Activity Guide
- Marketing Materials e.g. Posters and Postcards
- Souvenir learning booklets to accompany the series 
- Stickers
- Downloadable bunting

Want more information?
If you are interested in run a Britain’s First Photo Albumevent, open workshop or exhibition the team can offer support, and help add your event to the Things To Do website, bbc.co.uk/thingstodo

If you would like more details about Britain’s First Photo Album, or would like to order resources, please contactbritainsfirstphotoalbum@bbc.co.uk . We are keen to support your ideas and please do get in touch with the team if you have any questions and we will be happy to talk these through with you.

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The computer, high quality printing equipment, ready access to inexpensive writing materials, together with high standards of presentation and the attention to appearance mean that the delete button and shredder have replaced earlier methods of correcting documents. A mistake in a manuscript is far more likely to have been struck through, rather than the rewriting of a whole page or section. Furthermore instances in which the re-using documents found occasionally in archive collections, with the possibilities and excitement of serendipitous discovery, will become even rarer.

I have come across letters used as backstops on the file string (the precursor of the treasury tag) with bundles in 17thquarter sessions and Diocesan archives threads for bundles of papers: And a 17thcentury letter used to wrap the fragments of a broken seal.

What might have been regarded as inconsequential ephemera at the time gains historical significance with age.

There are many examples in archives throughout the country of 16th and 17threcords being covered in medieval illuminated manuscripts of religious and scientific texts, and music scores: A sad reminder of the cultural destruction caused by the dissolution of the monasteries and resulting destruction of their libraries.

One interesting outcome of the programme of flattening and repackaging the Salisbury Diocesan probate collection was the discovery of two documents, which had been cut up and used as bundle wrappers. The first was a lease dated 1651 of a house in West Street, Wilton, belonging to St. John’s Hospital, that had been cut up into six strips. These have now been placed in the archives of the Hospital. The other was a much more unusual document unique among the diocesan archives. It was an account of the provisions for Bishop Seth Ward’s household in the manor house at West Lavington for one week in July 1673. The bishop’s palace in Salisbury Close was undergoing extensive refurbishment and he had resorted to one of his manor houses for the duration. Renowned for his hospitality, particularly to the clergy of his diocese, the Bishop appears to have lived up to this reputation during his sojourn. Mutton, beef, rabbit, duck and goose were complemented by carrots, beans and turnips, and washed down with beer and wines like claret and canary. On the Thursday four lobsters and ‘souce’ meat (probably bird of prey) were purchased for consumption on meatless Friday. The document has been reconstituted from twelve strips and placed with Seth Ward’s personal papers.

In terms of its historical significance a draft agreement for a lease of a cottage to Charles Holton, a carpenter, by George Seagram is pretty small beer since it lacks the crucial contextual details of time and place. (Its style and handwriting places it in the mid19th century, and census indexes suggest Warminster). However, its importance is not in its content, but its format as it reveals a brief moment of mundane and ordinary life. Holton found the only available writing material; a piece of glass paper, and wrote on its back. The picture created is a powerful one and a useful emotional counterpoint to the intellectual purposes for which archives are more generally studied by historians.

However, I finish on a cautionary tale about highlighting such examples. Over twenty years ago an English teacher brought her a group of students to the Somerset Record Office to gain some background context to their understanding of a novel set in World War Two. My job was to show them some archives from the period. I had just been listing the building control plans for the Wincanton RDC, and had come across an application for a garage, which normally I would not have kept. Post war shortages presumably led the applicant, to use the back of an aircraft identification sheet for a Heinkel HE 111, probably indicating his role in the war. My brief description of the context of this prompted a question which I probably should have foreseen, but which completely floored me. ‘What was the plane’s the bomb-carrying capacity?’ How useful Google would have been!

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In April 2010 the conference ‘Researching and writing local histories of the twentieth century’ was held in Lincoln. The proceedings of the conference have just been published in the latest volume of the International Journal of Regional and Local Studies, as a special themed edition. The event was organised and supported by the British Association for Local History, the Society for Lincolnshire History and Archaeology, the University of Lincoln and Bishop Grosseteste University College Lincoln. Thanks are expressed to the various representatives of these organisations and institutions who assisted in the planning and delivery of the conference, and in contributing to the production of the proceedings. The conference developed out of an initiative to provide a national, residential, local history tutors’ conference. Such a tradition had been maintained up to 2008 by the Association of Local History Tutors. This Association merged with the BALH in 2009 (Local History News, 90, 2009, 9-10). In the manner of ALHT events, the BALH conference aimed to appeal to a national constituency of local and regional history academics and practitioners, while also drawing upon the assistance and contribution of local societies.

The 2010 event chose a theme that had been featuring prominently in agenda-setting articles in the The Local Historian and other publications: engagement with the local past of the twentieth century. The choice of Lincoln as a place to host the event was especially appropriate. In 1989 Lincolnshire had offered up the first county history of the twentieth century, and in so doing established something of a model for other regions to follow in bringing their local histories more closely up to the present. The editor, Dennis Mills, referred to the understandable hesitance shown by local historians towards tackling the volume of primary material that the twentieth century has left and the various and numerous lines of enquiry that could arise from such material, as well as their discomfort in confronting a past seemingly so near to the current. Nonetheless, for Mills, the task was essential while memories were relatively rich. Moreover, the acceptance that the future will inevitably bring rounds of critical revision and review should not discourage local historians from rising to the challenge. Indeed, over the last decade, historians of the county have been coming together to produce a ‘Survey of Lincoln’ series, which, among its achievements, is ensuring that aspects of local twentieth century change are adequately chronicled, better understood and more popularly appreciated:http://www.thesurveyoflincoln.co.uk.

In the conference proceedings Kate Tiller discusses the formidable task of approaching twentieth-century local history, and how well local history as a subject is equipped for the undertaking. The article outlines an agenda for local history, setting out a thematic approach to the study of the twentieth century, and reflects on watersheds and endings - in particular, what point in the later twentieth century is far enough from the present for objective assessment not to be compromised?  A second paper, by Andrew Jackson, is a historiographical discussion of the evolution of local history, making a series of connections between the development of local history and of community history. The article considers the emergence in the present of a ‘community-focused’ local history driven by cultural and political agenda, and the example of work on a 1950s council estate in north Lincoln. In a third piece, by Andrew Walker, local and regional case-study work features, as does a key theme, the relations between the urban and the rural. Here the specific conceptual context is relations played out between a city, Lincoln, and its rural hinterland. The article also prompts consideration of when does or should local historical investigation of a ‘long twentieth century’ begin. The final article, by Shirley Brook, is a synthesising of landscape, architectural and oral history in the study of smallholder farming in areas of Lincolnshire. The paper’s value is in, among other things, the reminder that it issues to local historians of the already vulnerable state of the primary sources available for investigating local history of the twentieth century, and an illustration of how strong political and ideological impulses have set government policies in train, only to see them fade, and all within the course of the twentieth century.

The proceedings selected touch on many issues and considerations faced by the local historian setting out on the study of twentieth-century history, as did the conference itself. In the content of the articles are to be found cautionary tales and compromises, as well as promising lines of enquiry and new approaches. Unifying the articles is the authors’ call upon local historians to engage now: to save and to record primary sources, before those that are fragile crumble away, and those that are less tangible disappear; to set out agendas and systems of organisation to guide and assist future local historical enquiry; to name and to challenge the prejudices and misconceptions that are so readily arrived at and assimilated, even within a generation or two; and to set down interpretations and lines of argument – if to see only some endure, and others passed over. For further information on the proceedings, please contact Dr Andrew Jackson at andrew.jackson@bishopg.ac.uk or Bishop Grosseteste University College Lincoln, Lincoln, LN1 3DY.

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To commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Exeter Blitz in May 2012, the Exeter Blitz Project is collecting testimonies of the nineteen occasions between 1940 and 1942 when the West Country city was bombed by the Luftwaffe. A collaboration between The Bike Shed Theatre and Viva Voce, the aim of the project is to share and celebrate the real-life stories of those who experienced the Exeter Blitz. The results will be varied events and performances that create artistic experiences using the words and memories of personal witnesses. Anyone who has a personal or family connection please get in touch as soon as possibleblitz@bikeshedtheatre.co.uk, or write to Jessica Beck and Helena Enright at The Bike Shed Theatre, 162/163 Fore St Exeter EX4 3AT.

Later in the year, Jessica and Helena will be writing an article for LHN reflecting on this project, a truly innovative way of sharing local and family history.

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The History of Parliament is now available online atwww.historyofparliamentonline.org. The History is the authoritative record of Members of Parliament and elections, starting in 1386 and going well into the nineteenth century. The researchers at the History are still writing articles – on the nineteenth, eighteenth, seventeenth and fifteenth centuries – but there are already more than 21,000 biographies and nearly 3,000 articles about politics and elections across the country available on the website.

The History of Parliament’s volumes have long been a standard feature of British research libraries. The 41 volumes cover three and a quarter centuries of parliamentary and political life. The first of them was published in 1964 under the editorship of Sir Lewis Namier and John Brooke; the most recent, dealing with the early Stuart ‘crisis of Parliaments’, 1604-29, was published only last year.

Developed by the History of Parliament Trust and maintained by the Institute of Historical Research, the website makes this material easily accessible to those who cannot get to a university library – as well as more easily searchable even for those who can. The site is work in progress: we are still checking and cleaning the data that has been transferred into the website from a number of sources, including the CD-Rom the History published in collaboration with Cambridge University Press in 1999. Our most recent publications – 1604-29, and 1820-32, published in 2009 – will only become available two years after publication in print. 1820-32 will therefore be available on the site late this year.

In addition to the material available in the printed volumes, the online version of the History has a number of new features. We are writing a series of articles designed to explain details in the biographies and constituency surveys, as well as to explore themes and particular events in parliamentary history. These will be found on the ‘Explore’ section of the website. There will be new articles explaining the background to and events of each of the Parliaments held over the periods covered by the History. And, with the cooperation of the National Portrait Gallery, the Palace of Westminster Works of Art Collection and the Parliamentary Archives, we have included over 150 images, mainly portraits of our Members, but also images relating to constituency politics and elections, and of Parliaments as well. All of these areas will be developed further over time. We are especially keen to obtain more images: especially any images of our earlier Members, perhaps from church monuments and brasses.

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‘I will close K. John in a boxe and send him to you’: another free resource for local history

A celebratory day conference was held last summer  at University College London of its English Monastic Archives project which has identified, described and listed the records of the monastic houses across England. This immensely useful material is available free on a fully searchable database on the websitehttp://www.ucl.ac.uk/history/research_projects/monasticarchives/info

There are in fact two databases: I and II. Database I represents the state of research at the point when the project was completed, while Database II includes much new material which has since been added by project members who continue to work pro bono. The website provides a very clear introduction to the potential of the databases, where material is organised under Religious Houses, Properties and Archives. The first gives up-to-date information about the house, its foundation and dissolution, the gender of it inmates, the county in which it was located, the mother house and the religious order to which it belonged.

The Properties section can be searched in various ways, including by parish. As an experiment I entered Tonbridge (Kent), for example, where there was a house of Augustine canons, about which I knew and indeed have mentioned in publications. This produced five references for properties which formed part of its endowment about which I previously knew nothing. There were references to the VCH for Kent and the work of Edward Hasted, the Kentish topographer, and to Turner and Coxe’s Calendar of Charters and Rolls in the Bodleian. I was surprised to find that one of the local leisure centres was previously a manor belonging to this house. In a sense none of the material in the database is revolutionary: it is being able to consult it in one place which makes it such an excellent starting-point.

Maureen Jurkowski and Nigel Ramsay carefully considered the genres of monastic documents under which records should be listed in the Archives section. Local historians may perhaps start their searches on the many categories of estate and buildings documents but others, such as lists of relics, have their attractions too, and open our eyes to other possibilities for study. Several of the papers at the day conference did just that, for example, John Jenkins demonstrated how he had studied the patterns of recruitment into monastic houses in Devon. Martin Heale pointed out that while Gesta Abbatum are not necessarily an immediately gripping genre, the deeds of abbots were closely connected to the quality of commemoration which they could expect to receive. This was linked not only to their relationships with their fellow monks and their pious lives but also to the building works which they had commenced and in some cases finished, and even how they dealt with the house’s debts. Jessica Beremboim opened up the subtle differences in copying of charters from the Anglo-Saxon period onwards into conventual cartularies and the use of illumination. Maureen Jurkowski made a close study of the collections of antiquaries who were so crucial in seeking out, transcribing and sometimes ‘disappearing’ monastic charters and other material.  Such a study may in the future reveal the whereabouts of the lost cartulary of Bermondsey, whose contents are only known at the moment in antiquarian copies. The quotation at the head of this piece is from a letter from Sir Edward Dering to Sir Robert Cotton, who in 1630 was busy collecting Anglo-Saxon charters at Christ Church Priory, Canterbury, copying them and in time passing some on to Cotton. He was however already in a position to send him ‘ye charter of K. John dat att Running Meade’ which he had liberated from Dover Castle. (1)

Not all history has yet to be carried out using the internet - the quotation was a happy discovery while reading a book on the train on the way to the conference - but it makes much material conveniently available to us. BALH members are concerned to know about what is becoming available and as an organisation we are keen to keep you in the picture. The website and database Monastic Wales also featured in the conference and can be found at www.monasticwales.org. 

However if the internet is not for you, you can read some results of the EMA project in M. Jurkowski and N. Ramsay, with S. Renton,English Monastic Estates (List and Index Society Special Series, vols 40-42, 2007). 

(1) S Keynes, 'Anglo-Saxon Charters: Lost and Found' in Myths, Rulership, Church and Charters, eds J Barrow and A Wareham, Ashgate 2008, pp56-7

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Lucy Bailey, a PhD student at the University of Northampton is researching her doctoral thesis ‘The Village Shop and Rural Life in 18th and 19th century England: Image and Reality’. She needs village shop account books for 1750 to 1900. Not many survive and she asks if anyone has or knows of any suitable records which might be of use. It is possible that such material is within family or community collections and not yet available in county record offices or in publicly accessible catalogues.  If you can help please contact her atlucy.bailey@northampton.ac.uk 01234 353404 07921 386341

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The three publications highlighted here are examples of different objectives for local history and contrasting ways in which local history research can be shared beyond the immediate area or group of people most closely involved with its production. They each serve their purpose well, and would provide valuable starting points for anyone thinking along the same lines and planning a similar project.

Leckhampton Court: Manor House to Hospice

Eric Miller. Revised edn 2011 Published by Matador for Sue Ryder, Leckhampton Court. ISBN 97 81 84 87 66 402

Leckhampton Court has been described as one of the grandest and oldest medieval houses in Gloucestershire. It how has a very modern function, having recently celebrated its thirtieth year as a Sue Ryder Hospice. In earlier times, it was a private house from the beginning of the 14th century to the end of the 19th century, the home of only three families, the Giffards, Norwoods and Tryes, who were interrelated by marriage and also connected to other local dynasties. The Court contained a Red Cross hospital during the First World War, it housed British and American servicemen, followed by German prisoners of war in the Second, and at one time was a boys school.

Eric Miller is coordinator of research for Leckhampton Local History Society and members of the society have made considerable contributions to this publication with extensive revisions, new discoveries and recent developments at the Court. An example of the rich resources they have is the material on the house during the First World War. A booklet ‘Souvenir of Leckhampton Court V.A. Hospital 1914-1919’ lists the names, ranks, regiments and dates of most of the 1,700 British, Commonwealth and Belgian soldiers cared for. In the Gloucestershire archives there is a ‘Gift Book’ that records meticulously the donations in money and kind, including cakes, eggs, flour, fowl, cigarettes, pillowcases, jam and potatoes. Also of especial interest are some scrapbooks containing patients’ drawings, photographs and correspondence, and a photograph album showing staff, patients and helpers in both formal groups and relaxed in the grounds.

Apart from lack of clarity about what became of the Court in the inter-war period, and a few copyediting glitches, this is a thorough work of local history in a very deserving cause.

A Timeline of Sefton’s Changing Coastline

Vanessa Holden (Edge Hill University) and Michelle Newton (Sefton Council) editors

2011 from Michelle Newton, Sefton Council, The Ainsdale Discovery Centre, The Promenade, Shore Road, Ainsdale-on-Sea, Southport PR8 2QB

From Crosby on the Mersey estuary in the south to the mouth of the Ribble estuary in the north, this part of England’s north-west coast facing the Irish Sea has a long history, varied natural history, and is the concern of a wide range of organisations and individuals. Along it calls itself a ‘magazine’, the quality of this production reveals its external finance with European Regional Development Funding through an Interreg IVB project called IMCORE (Innovative Management of Europe’s Changing COastal REsource).

Images and text have come from a long list of contributors, both individuals and organisations, and the editors have successfully met the challenging task of creating a whole out of diverse parts. Their choice of a timeline (running along the foot of each page) provides a framework on which to build. It begins ’22,000 years ago’ and ends ‘100 years into the future’, though not, of course, on an even scale! From the early modern period onwards the illustrations reveal the rich archive sources available. The reader discovers both the changing natural landscape of the coastline and the way this has influenced the livelihoods of the people in the area.

Although at first sight the layout might have been designed for visual effect rather than clarity of narrative (especially if you are seeking a strictly chronological approach), each image – from Neolithic footprints to Anthony Gormley’s figures -  and paragraph of text is linked to the timeline, which does help. By the later 20thcentury we start to discover the multiplicity of designations, sources of control and of funding such an area can receive, including half a dozen NNRs, RSPB reserves, Sefton Coast and Ribble Estuary SSSIs, Sefton Coast Partnership, Sefton Council Coastal Defence Team, Million Ponds project and more.

Looking both backwards and forwards, this publication asks its readers‘to rekindle and share your memories of our very special coastline’ but also points out that ‘we need to consider how the coast will change in the future both as a result of natural processes and climate change’.

More of the Mosaic of Alderbury & Whaddon

The Alderbury & Whaddon Local History Research Group.

Hawthorns, Old Rd, Alderbury, Wilts

2011 £9 ISBN 97 80 95 38 00 469

Most readers of LHN will be well aware of the burst of activity in local history around the year 2000, resulting in the production of numerous millennium books, booklets, maps, heritage trails, videos, websites, quilts, and more. It is a source of great satisfaction that some of that work underpinned the formation of new local history societies, and they continued their involvement in research and publication.

In Wiltshire, one such successful outcome was the Alderbury & Whaddon Local History Research Group, a small but diligent set of people who first came together in 1998. They published ‘Alderbury & Whaddon: A Millennium Mosaic of People Places and Progress’ in 2000and have since done six further titles.

‘More of the Mosaic’ is a clear successor to the original book, appropriately named. Its sections focus on more and diverse aspects of the village, including substantial chapters on the school, on World War II and parish administration. Less usually seen in a village history is the chapter on its very early history, up to Domesday Book; and at the opposite extreme there is a valuable section on current businesses located in the area. In some parts the book does feel like a random collection of snippets, but it does build on the earlier work, and does bring to public notice the group’s ongoing interests. A strength is that they are clearly aware of recent academic research relating to the village and its historical context.

The high quality design, including excellent photographs and exquisite hand-drawn maps, adds to the attraction of this book. There is an index, but no notes or references to specific pieces of information, though no doubt these could be supplied on request.

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The Mátyás [Matthias] Church in Budapest is a magnificent building, nominally the parish church of Buda but in fact one of the great civic churches of Hungary. Part of it is medieval, much of it is the result of a spectacular restoration in 1873-1896 producing a neo-Gothic masterpiece. In the past four years the church has undergone a lavish and highly successful conservation programme, with its stonework being the object of particular attention – the tall and elaborately decorated white stone tower which pierces the sky high above the Danube now shines luminously in the sunshine.

Inside, at first floor level towards the east end, is the open stonework gallery, embellished with splendid gilded lions, where members of the royal family could sit to participate in proceedings while remaining separate from the congregation. Behind the gallery a suite of stone-vaulted rooms with beautiful late-nineteenth century art nouveau wall paintings, of stylised flowers, chevrons, and other geometric designs, now houses an excellent display devoted to the conservation work on the church fabric and the plate, vestments and other moveable goods which it possesses.

There, visiting in October last year, I came across a very strange exercise in conservation. The labelling was outstanding - the English text was necessary as, regrettably, my command of Hungarian is less than perfect – and the story told of one of the exhibits seemed truly bizarre. At the top of a copper-sheathed fleche above the crossing of the church is a hollow metal ball, which was opened up for conservation work. Inside were found a set of objects placed there at different times by workmen and others involved in earlier restoration schemes – for example, a decorated copper cylinder contained documents dating from 1935. But one of the objects retrieved, and given the full works of the National Museum’s conservation programme, was … a cigarette.

It was solemnly dated to circa 1960, towards the end of a major scheme of restoration which followed war damage (the church was partly destroyed during the Russian bombardment of Budapest in the winter of 1944-1945). I quote from the text: ‘The filterless cigarette was deformed and completely dried out, and some of the tobacco had fallen from the paper sheath. There were a few, very small, tobacco stains (water stains) on the cigarette paper. The first step was to remove the tobacco from the paper sheath. The paper was then soaked in hand-temperature distilled water. To replace the missing tobacco, Japanese tissue paper was shredded, slightly moistened, mixed with binder and the regenerated tobacco, and placed inside the re-assembled paper sheath. The restored cigarette was then put into a little glass cylinder, and replaced in the metal capsule’.

Isn’t that wonderful? All that effort for such a humble and insignificant object, whose fellow conserved treasures include 17th century silverware and the coronation robes worn by the Emperor Francis Joseph II and the Empress Elisabeth when they were crowned king and queen of Hungary in the church in 1867. The cigarette is a Kossuth, the brand named after Lajos Kossuth, the hero of the 1848-1849 uprising which fought for Hungarian freedom (ironic, given that in 1960 the country was under the iron grip of the Soviet Union, only four years after another tragic and abortive rising). I speculate about the precious object – was it dropped in the capsule by accident, or did a workman take it from the packet in the pocket of his overalls and sacrifice it for posterity, little knowing that half a century later it would be a central feature of an exhibition. We will never know – but we can be sure that though cigarettes are a vanishing species across Western Europe, at least one out of untold billions has achieved immortality.

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Church Stretton History Day will be on Saturday 24 March. Organised by Friends of Shropshire Archives and Church Stretton Area Local History Group the programme ranges from geology and prehistory to the coming of the railways, and the Edwardian period.www.friendsofshropshirearchives.org.uk

There will be a conference commemorating the centenary of RMA Titanic at The National Archives on 14 April. For details go to www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/titanic2012. A project is soon to start at TNA to digitise WC95 record series, which consists of unit war diaries from the First World War. These are amongst the most requested items in the reading rooms at Kew, but they are extremely fragile due both to their popularity and their age. Digitising the series and publishing online will make it more accessible.

Professor Chris Woolgar, Head of Special Collections atSouthampton University has confirmed that the acquisition of important Broadlands Archives collection is now complete. The papers of Lord and Lady Mountbatten have been accepted in lieu of inheritance tax and have been permanently allocated to Southampton University under national heritage legislation.  This is the last stage in a long process of fundraising and negotiation which has taken more than five years. Professor Woolgar has expressed his gratitude to everyone who has helped, including members of BALH.  The Special Collections Gallery at the Hartley Library is holding an exhibition ‘Everybody is in admiration of it: Broadlands, a country house in Hampshire’ which features vignettes of daily life drawn from family correspondence and the records of domestic service, horticulture and farming, with engravings and other illustrations of Broadlands taken from the archives.http://www.broadlandsarchives.com/

Bedfordshire & Luton Archives and Records Service will be celebrating its centenary in 2013. Founded in 1913, Bedfordshire Record Office, as it was, is recognised as the first County Record Office in England, and it set the standard for others that followed. They are asking users to nominate documents, types of documents or areas of history that are of particular interest. The suggestions will then be used in the exhibitions and events, actual and online, that will mark the centenary. Emailarchive@bedford.gov.uk, subject line ‘centenary nomination’.

Hampshire Record Office has announced that the Winchester Pipe Rolls were awarded a coveted place on the UNESCO UK Memory of the World Register in 2011. The UNESCO UK Memory of the World programme highlights documentary heritage of cultural significance specific to the UK and raises awareness across the UK and the world, of some of the UK's exceptional documentary riches by awarding them the globally-recognised Memory of the World Status.The Pipe Rolls are the most complete set of manorial accounts in the country, dating from 1208/9 almost unbroken to 1710/11. They depict, in the most minute detail, a record of income and expenditure across the Bishop of Winchester's estates across southern England, from Surrey to Somerset and from the Isle of Wight to Oxfordshire - the richest episcopal estate in England.http://www3.hants.gov.uk/archives

Metal theft is often in the news. Now there is a distressing report from Cheshire Record office of the theft of almost 30 parish microfilm reels from their searchroom. They would like them back. The time and effort needed for stricter monitoring of the issue of microfilms in response to this selfish act leave staff with less time to deliver their regular service to users. CRO Duke Street, Chester CH1 1RL

Chester Community History & Heritage will be holding a Local and Family History Fair on 12 May, at St Michael’s Church, Chester.  Local history groups and experts will be on hand to answer questions and display their collections. Free computer access will be available on the day. chh@cheshirewestandchester.gov.uk

It’s rather worrying to some of us who were alive and well in the 1960s how widely that decade has become ‘history’. Amongst the pile of newsletters being gleaned for this issue of LHN, Friends of Cumbria Archives(www.friendsofcumbriaarchives.org.uk), Hatfield Local History Society (hatfieldhistory@ntlworld.com) andChester Community History (see above) all take us back to ‘the vast changes that happened’ at that time.

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New research guides have been added to the website ofSheffield Local Studies to help people make the most of the resources at the Archives and Local Studies Library. ‘Sheffield Outrages’ includes the TU agitation during the 1860s that culminated in a series of explosions and murders. ‘Harry Brearley and Stainless Steel’ refers to an innovation that revolutionised the metallurgy industry, in 1913 Harry Brearley of Sheffield developed what is widely regarded as the first ‘rustless’ steel. ‘Chinese Community’ provides research information on this long-established community. ‘Music in Sheffield’ ranges from medieval church music to modern posters reflecting Sheffield’s diverse music scene.www.sheffield.gov.uk/libraries/archives-and-local-studies

Lincolnshire’s Carnegie Libraries are the subject of a series of articles in Lincolnshire Past and Present from the Society for Lincolnshire History and Archaeology. Winter 2011/12 reaches Grantham, where perhaps Margaret Roberts borrowed library books from the children’s section? There was a long campaign from the 1890s to secure a public library in the town, led by Henry Preston. In 1893 the Council held a referendum, as required under the Public Libraries Act but the majority were against the extra penny on the rates that would be needed. A second referendum in 1913 overturned this decision, an application was made to the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust, and the new library opened in 1926.  The original building now houses the town’s museum, but is closed at present due to budgetary constraints. It is hoped it will reopen in the summer.www.slha.org.uk

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In December 2011 a High Court Judgment concluded that the collections of the Wedgwood Museum could be sold. These important and extensive collections comprise archives as well as museum objects. Highlights include rare ceramic pieces, such as company founder Josiah Wedgwood's copy of the famous Roman Portland Vase, paintings by Thomas Gainsborough and George Stubbs, Josiah Wedgwood's handwritten notes and Wedgwood family papers. The implications of this judgment are not yet fully known and a campaign, headed by local Stoke on Trent MP Tristram Hunt, is underway to ascertain whether an appeal can be made against the judgment and to develop a strategy to secure the future of the collections. The Museum, administered by a Trust, went into administration last year after being hit with a £134 million claim from the Wedgwood Group Pension Plan. The Pension Protection Fund – which provides compensation for members of defined benefit pension schemes when companies have collapsed – could not accept the Wedgwood scheme because five of its 7,500 members were employees of the still-solvent museum trust.

Do you remember the 1970s Hovis advert of the boy pushing his bicycle up a very steep hill? That is Gold Hill in Shaftesbury, Dorset, and the museum at the top has recently had a complete refurbishment and has re-opened to visitors. There is now a new building housing a Learning Centre, and space for the local history library, and an objects store, as well as seven rooms in the original listed building for exhibits. These are dedicated to specific subjects, including the oldest fire engine in the county, and local specialisms such as the production of Dorset buttons. Shaftesbury & District Historical Society own, manage and run the museum with a team of volunteers. www.goldhillmuseum.org.uk 

2012 is the centenary of the death of Joseph Lister, surgeon and innovator. The Hunterian Museum is holding a number of events to mark this anniversary, including lunchtime lectures on 6 March and 24 April. Their summer exhibition (and associated events) relates to one of the other landmarks of 2012. From 13 March to 29 September the Qvist Gallery will house ‘Anatomy of an Athlete’. For this the museum has worked with the Medical Artists’ Association of Great Britain to generate new artworks that explore the anatomy and physiology of elite athletes, illustrating the key role played by sports and exercise medicine, and surgery in particular.

Museums at Night 2012 will take place on 18 May. Look out for events near you. The Hunterian, for example, will be marking the 150th anniversary of a man who fought the Royal College of Surgeons every step of the way! Thomas Wakley founded and edited The Lancet, and became known as a medical crusader. Also on display will be some of the stranger items from their collection.www.hunterianmuseum.org

A new museum opens in April in Southampton. Sea City Museum tells the story of the people of Southampton and the city’s historical connections with the sea. 1912 is of course the year of the Titanic disaster. The liner set sail from Southampton so many families were affected by the tragedy. ‘Southampton’s Titanic Story’ is the first special exhibition in the new museum. This will be followed in 2013 by ‘Titanic the Legend’, examining why the legend endures, its impact on ship design, safety and technology, and the notion of a Titanic industry.www.seacitymuseum.co.uk

Kids in Museums has published its Manifesto for 2012. Amongst the 20 Points are ‘Play the generation game’ (many families of more than two generations visit); ‘Invite teenagers into your gang’; ‘Reach beyond your four walls’; ‘Don’t say ssshhhush!’; ‘Do say ‘please touch’ and explain why some things cannot be handled’; ‘keep an eye on visitors’ comfort’ (the one place everyone will go is the toilets!); ‘make the visit live on’ build relationships and keep in touch’. The website has some exciting innovative examples of the way museums are welcoming to children of all ages. Check that our local museum is signed up to the Manifesto.  www.kidsinmuseums.org.uk

A new ‘chocolate-themed visitor attraction’ opens in York in the Spring. The company behind the Jorvik Viking Centre is developing ‘The Sweet History of York’ which will explore the city’s trading and manufacturing past. Rowntree and Terry’s were founded in York, and many well-known popular products came from the city.www.yorkssweetstory.com

A recent publication from Museum of London Archaeology is Londinium: a new map and guide to Roman London. An A0 sheet, folded to (large) pocket-size is not the most manoeuvrable of objects, and you need either a large table or long arms for re-folding to appreciate all the information contained here. One side is a map of Roman London, with detailed topographical evidence relating to 400 years of London’s history. Shadow modern streetlines underly the principal information about London nearly 2000 years ago. The reverse provides a descriptive history of Londinium, beautifully illustrated with important sites and finds, many of which can be found in the Museum’s galleries. It is well worth the effort! ISBN  97 81 90 75 86 057 £6.25www.museumoflondon.org.uk/archaeology

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The Charity Commission has approved the revisions to the BALH Constitution, as put to the Association’s AGM last June, and explained in LHN 99 (Supplement p3). Members should not notice any changes in the way the Association operates. Trustees will henceforward be elected once at the beginning of each of two periods of three years they may serve (rather than being re-elected every year). The role of the Management Committee as a standing committee of Council has been confirmed, and the honorary office of Vice-Chair formalised.

There is an additional supplement in the centre of this issue of Local History News. This deals with the insurance scheme that is one of the benefits to societies. Will all SOCIETY MEMBERS please REMOVE this sheet and KEEP IT SAFELY for reference.

As 2014 gets closer, and the consequent centenaries of events of the First World War, there is increasing activity towards ways of marking these important dates, and their historical context. The news pages of this issue mention several proposals already underway. BALH will be taking part and one possibility, still at an early stage, is to focus on this topic for Local History Day 2014. Meanwhile, beginning in the next issue of Local History News, there will be a series of themed articles, beginning with war memorials, plus an introductory note giving suggestions on issues such as funding, resources, and other sources of advice. Please get in touch and let us know what you and your society are planning.

I am increasingly conscious that, on the news pages, the only contact details provided are websites or email addresses. Often this is because that is the way it is given in the newsletters and journals that are the sources of my information. Please would any reader who feels we are depriving some people of useful contacts by not giving telephone numbers or postal addresses let us know. Of course it takes up space, and is not always available, but I would be happy to revert to maximising the way societies and organisations can be contacted if that is required by members.

Please continue to get in touch if you have any suggestions for visits, joint conferences, or other events that would contribute to your enjoyment of membership of BALH.