Local History News Number 149 Autumn 2023

By Alan Crosby

Recently, I was one of the participants at a study day that looked at a large collection of the broadsides and ballads which were printed and published by John Harkness of Preston, from the end of the 1830s to the beginning of the 1890s. For many years the collection, probably the largest in the country outside London, was held by the city’s Harris Library, but it has now been transferred to Lancashire Archives and digitised, ready to be made available online. I was talking about the broadsides and local history, since over the past 30 years I have made good use of this material.

Numerous broadsides were produced for Preston Guilds (the celebrations that take place every 20 years for which the town has been famous for centuries). Back in 1991 I wrote the official history of the Guild, and these broadsides, with their lively accounts of the festivities and the artless verses describing public excitement, were a valuable source for the Guilds which were held in 1842 and 1882. Their jolly ‘popular’ tone contrasts with the often serious and solemn formality of newspaper reports and gives a quite different perspective upon these extraordinary and infrequent events.

I’ve also researched and written about a poaching case which took place just north of Preston in 1827. A broadside account of this local cause célèbre was later published. It’s called ‘The Claughton Wood Tragedy’ and focuses on the tragic death of a gamekeeper – was it murder or was it accident? – and the subsequent trial of the poachers at Lancaster assizes. They were given unexpectedly lenient sentences: the original murder charge was dropped and one of night-poaching was substituted. Two of the poachers (regarded as the ringleaders) were transported to New South Wales, and four others received short prison terms.

They were regarded almost as local celebrities, and for this research project I was particularly interested in the way that the broadside presented the poachers. They were the heroes of the story, associated with such positive terms as ‘bold’, ‘courageous’ and ‘fought manfully’. The judge who reduced the charge and exercised a significant degree of clemency was lauded as the friend of the people, and the unfairness of the game laws was emphasised. The newspaper reports were, predictably enough, far less supportive of their actions.

These more-or-less spontaneous broadsides are not, of course, objective and impartial – they are a partisan source, and none the worse for that. Often, they seem like ‘the voice of the people’, expressing anti-establishment and even subversive sentiments, rarely advocating what might be thought of as outright revolt or revolution, but very often urging reform, change and the improvement of the conditions and circumstances of working people. Only very occasionally is there any evidence as to their authorship (not least, attributing this might have been unwise at the times when the authorities were tightening restrictions on dissent and were suppressing ‘subversion’).

Neither are they dated. While the broadsides which describe current events – colliery disasters, railway accidents, murders, executions, calamitous fires – are clearly linked to a specific date, many others remained in print and circulating long afterwards. The ‘Claughton Wood Poachers’ describes events in January 1827, but the copy I used must have been printed in about 1841, to judge by the address of John Harkness, the printer, which is given on the document. Several other pirated printings of this broadside are known from as late as about 1858 (produced in Manchester), and three of these are accompanied by a poem/ballad about Peterloo, which happened in August 1819, some 40 years before.

Despite these reservations, the broadsides are an important and rewarding source. My examples related to Lancashire, which is naturally enough the focus of the output of the Preston-based printer, but all over the country there were similar local producers, drawing upon the public delight in gory murders, sensational hangings, and miserable and heart-rending catastrophes. But they also acted as a vital mouthpiece for working class political dissent at a time when the franchise was tightly restricted and there were few other outlets for the voices of protest. And, as a historian, I love the fact that they are invariably very quotable!

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BALH Outstanding Individual Contribution award winner Stuart Antrobus, from Bedford Architectural, Archaeological & Local History Society has a BA degree in History and an MA in Library & Information Studies. After a career in teaching and then arts administration, he took early retirement and taught in adult education (part time), while doing historical research.

He developed a keen interest in life on the home front in England during the Second World War. He taught adult education courses in the subject for the Workers Educational Association (WEA) in and around Bedfordshire and at Rothsay Education Centre in Bedford.

Out of this he developed an in-depth research interest in the Women’s Land Army (WLA) in Bedfordshire. In addition to documentary research in both national and local archives, Stuart began a major oral history programme of interviews with scores of individual former Land Girls and feedback from over 200 questionnaires from 2002 onwards.

He published his research in three ways: by writing a detailed, illustrated book, We Wouldn’t Have Missed It for the World: The Women’s Land Army in Bedfordshire, 1939–1950 (Book Castle Publishing, 2008); by developing a large online website, Bedfordshire Women’s Land Army, in conjunction with Bedfordshire ‘Virtual Library’; and through over 150 talks, media interviews and articles in historical journals over the last 20 years. His book attracted favourable national reviews and the website received the Library Trust award for local history publishing in 2008.

Stuart’s research went one stage further when he created a team of other volunteer history enthusiasts who spent many months searching through 200,000 WLA index cards held by the Imperial War Museum (the first time this had been done) to identify and record the names of over 3,300 young women who served in Bedfordshire during the Second World War. He was able to add this county roll call of names as an appendix to his book and went on to create web pages on each individual Bedfordshire WLA member, not only giving their service record but also (as he received material from former Land Girls and their relatives over the years) photographs and additional information, creating a resource for family historians.

He remains a contributor to the national website: www.womenslandarmy.co.uk

To nominate someone for next year’s BALH Outstanding Individual Contributions awards, visit www.balh.org.uk/resources-balh-annual-awards (deadline 31 December).

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By Gavin Bowyer

The digital recording of home ownership by the Land Registry has meant that many homeowners do not have the original deeds of their home. However, if you are fortunate and have your house deeds then this can be a great starting point for researching local history.

I live in a later Victorian house in East Dulwich, south-east London. In 1993, when we moved in, we were given the original deeds, including the purchase from the British Land Company of the plot by the builder in 1880. The purchase document referred to an earlier land purchase by the British Land Company in 1865 from a Lieutenant General William Cartwright. In 1961, H. J. Dyos, a University of Leicester lecturer in economic history, had published a comprehensive book titled Victorian Suburb: A Study of the Growth of Camberwell, which covered East Dulwich. He had subdivided the area into specific developments. Our house fell within an area he designated the Friern Manor Farm Estate. However, his book and other local history books had no mention of a General Cartwright. In the early 2000s, I began family history research using the internet. When TheGenealogist.co.uk put tithe maps online, I was able to examine the one of the parish of St Giles Camberwell for the late 1830s. It listed ownership by William Cartwright of the area covered by the Friern Manor Farm Estate. The tithe map also showed the names of the tenants of the two farms on the estate and other lesser landholdings.

Southwark has a history library with a card index of all the property documents it holds. Many of the historic British Land documents no longer exist, but there was a card for the 1865 land sale by General Cartwright and his son to the company. It was a lengthy, 71-page, typed abstract of the original. I was able to photograph the pages. It detailed ownership of the Friern Manor Farm Estate back to the 1770s. The estate had been purchased in two tranches by Henry Jones and it was through marriage to his granddaughter Anne that the estate had come into the ownership of William Cartwright and his son Fairfax. It named the original tenants and the final tenants at the time of the 1865 sale and included a map of the land sold and the expiry dates of the tenancies. This document provided a valuable detailed reference for further research both online and at other local history archives.

British Land Company Ltd. To a freehold estate at Dulwich: Friern Manor Estate. Abstract of Title [1865]. By kind permission of Southwark Archives. Not to be reproduced.

Henry Jones was a common name and might have been hard to trace. Fortunately, both the Jones family and the Cartwrights had left detailed paper trails. Using the sale document and lists of late 18th-century Surrey freeholders eligible for jury service on Ancestry.co.uk, I was able to identify the Henry Jones who made the original purchases. He had been born in fashionable Soho and then moved to Bedford Square. The sales document referred to annuities that he had sold. Further research at London Metropolitan Archives provided evidence of other land purchases. He had used the revenue from the sale of the annuities to provide capital for the land purchases with the rental income from the land covering interest payments on the annuities. I also learned that he had two sons who had gone to Eton College. The entry on the Eton archive for the elder son, also Henry, mentioned the marriage of his daughter Anne to William Cartwright. Henry junior died young and the British Newspaper Archive turned up a report of his death at Friern Manor Farm. Anne’s mother remarried but sadly died young and Anne was made a ward of Chancery under the protection of her aunt, who was married to the Prince Regent’s Brighton physician.

The sale document identified William Cartwright as belonging to a long-established landowning Northamptonshire family at Aynho. He was the second son and served in the army in the final campaigns of the Napoleonic Wars. After going to Sandhurst, he served first in an infantry regiment at the end of the Peninsula Campaign and then joined a dragoon regiment. Details of his different commissions are available on Lionel S. Challis’s Peninsula Roll Call. At Waterloo, he was an 18-year-old lieutenant in the 10th Royal (Prince of Wales’s Own) Hussars. The regiment’s actions in the battle are detailed on a dedicated website, which includes two letters that William Cartwright wrote home.

From the social columns of newspapers, it seems Anne and William probably met at a society ball in Brighton. They married in 1825, in the fashionable church of St George’s in Hanover Square. Anne was under 21 years old, so still a minor, and her inheritance was legally protected in case William became bankrupt. The wedding certificate lists the names of the more important guests, which provided names for further lines of enquiry, including a lawyer, William Le Blanc. He had acted for Henry Jones and was a legal partner with the Shawes, a prominent local Dulwich family.

William and Anne settled in Flore, Northamptonshire. The Flore Heritage Society provided more information, especially on Anne’s local charity work. William became one of the first regional police inspectors and his police career is documented in ‘The history of Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary – the first 150 years’ (available online). He stayed in the army reserve, eventually becoming a lieutenant general before his death in 1873. His promotions were reported in the London Gazette, a valuable online resource for announcements of civil and military awards.

William and Anne had two sons, Fairfax and Aubrey. Both had military careers. Aubrey was killed at Inkerman, in the Crimean War. Fairfax went on to become a member of Parliament but died childless. Anne predeceased William, which meant he and Fairfax formally inherited the Friern Manor Farm Estate.

Lieutenant General Cartwright referenced in Crebor Street Property Deed. Possession of Gavin Bowyer. Not to be reproduced.

To complete my research, I visited the Cartwright family church in Aynho, which contains marble memorials for William, Anne and their two sons, with inscriptions highlighting the major events in their lives. I visited the Northamptonshire County Archives in Northampton, where I was shown a painting of William in middle age.

During my initial research, I was not sure how to bring it to a wider audience. I had been a member of my local community society, the Dulwich Society. It has a Local History Study Group, which I joined. With the encouragement of its members, my findings have been published in the quarterly journal of the society and the text is available on their website with a link to an illustrated talk on YouTube.

The Jones and Cartwright families are now part of the local history of East Dulwich and their story is available to future local historians, all thanks to a discovery in a set of original house deeds.

Gavin Bowyer is a retired geologist. He has been a member of the Dulwich Society Local History Study Group since 2019.

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By Kevin Newman

The pandemic bequeathed us a huge range of consequences, political, social, medical and economic. I was travelling round some rather remote locations on the Isle of Wight in a very cramped and damp Mazda MX-5 with my father when I realised a consequence for me of Covid would be that further research trips like that one would now be curtailed.

This would be a bit of a problem as the visits I was undertaking were to the various sites around the nation where you could find clock towers, those often now obsolete buildings which grace our city, town and even village centres or other prime locations and were built by the Victorians and Edwardians in large numbers. The spread of clock towers in towns has lots of reasons, but the biggest seems to be civic pride, reflection of identity and general oneupmanship as local authorities developed. They were also an architectural trend as technology progressed to produce clocks which could fit in towers but which would also withstand the elements. Big Ben’s tower of course spurred on lots of imitators too and Victoria’s jubilees created further impetus.

I grew up near to Brighton’s Preston Park, which has one of the most beautiful examples and when I wrote a children’s novel a few years ago clock towers seemed great buildings to use for time travelling ‘bases’. Researching them for the novel, I realised the Victorians and Edwardians had gone a bit crazy and engaged in a building spree of these enigmatic structures and I wanted to find out why and that was the nucleus of my new book.

The forthcoming restrictions we were expecting would mean further ‘travels with my father’ would now be difficult, and even my visits to my university library as part of my PhD thesis on the rationale behind the construction of clock towers wouldn’t be possible on the scale I’d hoped. There would be only so much I could order from Abebooks, Amazon and my local bookshop in the nearby town of Steyning and only so many online articles I could access.

Thankfully the latest edition of Local History News had just arrived on my return from the Isle of Wight and gave me an idea of how I could continue to write a book featuring locations around the nation at a time when walking more than an hour or so in the proximity of my home was prohibited. I would connect with local history hubs around the nation, much like the way that the TV news show Nationwide used to link up with the various regions. This would be crucial to stop my first solo nationwide book (I co-wrote school history textbooks previously) being too Sussex-centric.

I contacted the team at the BALH e-newsletter, who kindly connected me with members of local history societies nationwide. Due to this, the book definitely became a collaboration with a range of BALH local history groups and I owe a large debt to these indispensable societies and the individuals in them who provided information and images of their local clock towers. This was crucial, especially in locations I knew little about and had planned to visit but now would not be able to.

After months of correspondence with local history groups, I was able to make headway towards completing the book. My acknowledgements section in the book rightly highlights the many saviours of my book. I’d also like to express my thanks here and hopefully members of BALH local history societies up and down the land realise the vital knowledge they possess – this is not just a valuable local resource, but also a national one when their efforts combine.

So, my deep and sincere thanks to all the following. First, there was Mr J. Alan Clarke, for allowing access to text and permission to use photos. His website SalisburyPlaques.org is brilliant. Joan McPherson kindly provided details on the clock tower in Tynemouth, North Tyneside and took photos for me. To Jeremy Harte of Bourne Hall Museum, my thanks for your help with information about Epsom clock tower and also to Peter Reed of Epsom and Ewell History Explorer for his image of the town.

Patrick Brady was wonderful with help about Sunbury Cross’s clock tower, as was Huddersfield LHS’s David Griffiths and Dave Pattern too from the fascinating Huddersfield Exposed website (https://huddersfield.exposed). Enid Minter kindly gave permission for her late husband Gordon’s information on Lindley’s clock tower to be digitised for all to use.

April Marjoram helped incredibly regarding both Exmouth and Surbiton as did Pauline Stevens, secretary of Stroud LHS. Pauline also connected me with Howard Beard, who generously supplied further photos of Stroud. Pat Rowland, from Cartmel Peninsula LHS was another saviour who also provided huge amounts of information, and my grateful thanks to Margaret Robinson for permission to reprint her article. John Frankland, chairman of the South Woodham Ferrers LHS, was also extremely helpful with information and images about their unique tower in Essex – I would urge fans of clock towers (there are some!) and of architecture to see their lauded fairly recent developments and tower.

So, local history societies and members of the BALH: my thanks to you all. And I now have a range of places I’m looking forward to visiting for future breaks away and holidays – and some kind folks I want to meet in person around these isles. How ironic to have produced a book on a selection of English buildings that tell the time that was largely written during a worldwide event where many of us had too much time on our hands.

Clock Towers of England is published by Amberley Books. Kevin presents an online and in-person talk on the book and can be contacted on 07504 863867 or at knewman74@sky.com

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The Treasurer oversees all the financial affairs of the charity. Working with our management consultants Moore Insight, who provide BALH with basic secretariat, bookkeeping and audit services, the Treasurer is responsible for the following:

• Setting the financial strategy, including budgets

• Providing written and verbal reports at quarterly Trustees’ meetings (usually online)

• Supervising the audit

• Presenting the annual results to the membership at the AGM

• Approving all expenditure and monitoring the online bank account

• Overseeing all areas of income, especially subscriptions (together with the Membership Secretary)

Although formal accounting and bookkeeping qualifications are not essential, the Treasurer needs to have a good understanding of balance sheets, profit and loss accounts, cashflows and the nominal ledger. He or she needs to be thoroughly IT literate and have a good understanding of managing an online bank account.

The Treasurer is responsible to the Chair on day-to-day affairs, to the Trustees on all strategic issues and ultimately to the membership. The total time commitment is about 2-3 days a month, on average. The role is voluntary but reasonable expenses will be met.

Expressions of interest should be made to the Chair, Dr Paul Dryburgh, at chair@balh.org.uk.

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By Simon Fowler

At the beginning of lockdown I started writing for a local online newspaper – the Twickenham and Richmond Tribune. Some 130 separate subjects across 130 issues have followed. Each piece consisted of about 460 words – or put another way, I have written about 60,000 words or the length of a book. I had hoped that readers might suggest topics to be covered or least there might be some feedback. But, depressingly, there was almost none. Meeting readers, I was often told how much they enjoyed the pieces though.

The London Borough of Richmond upon Thames has more than its fair share of history – three royal palaces, a necklace of gorgeous Georgian villas along the river, parks and cemeteries, and not forgetting the famous people who made the area their home. But with imagination and good research skills it should be possible to write similar articles for almost anywhere else.

I tried to shy away from the timeworn stories about the great and the good which have endlessly been recycled in the popular histories of Richmond and Twickenham for two centuries. Inevitably the articles were based on my own interests, so, shamefully, there was almost nothing about the medieval or Tudor periods, let alone sport. However, I couldn’t resist including a brilliant account of the first live broadcast of Rugby from Twickenham in January 1927.

There was probably too much about food. The revolting sounding Richmond Pie – basically eels in a white sauce – featured in one piece. This followed an article on the eels of Eel Pie Island, better known today as an iconic music venue in the 1960s, but which got its name from the delicacy made from eels which lived in the reeds surrounding the island. It turns out that there were half a dozen similar establishments around London, where freshly caught eels from the local marshes were made into pies.

And inevitably there were many pieces about the two world wars, which when time was running short allowed me to recycle material from other projects.

There is a wide range of sources online and at the excellent Local Studies Library as well as at The National Archives nearby. The Borough of Twickenham Local History Society’s newsletters inspired a number of articles as they are all online. But the most important source was newspapers, particularly after the Richmond Herald was included in the British Newspaper Archive in 2021.

British History Online was also useful. From the Calendar of State Papers I included a nice item about Thomas Soane, the vicar of staunchly Royalist Twickenham, who refused to be dismissed by Parliament in 1643. It took three years for him to be replaced by a local schoolmaster and preacher Thomas Willis, who in turn had to be dismissed after the Restoration for, among other things, thanking God ‘publicly for delivering the country from that bloody family the Stuarts’.

But my favourite source was the letters of the 18th-century wit and gossip Horace Walpole, who lived for much of his life at Strawberry Hill. They are full of observations about life in Twickenham. In particular there is a graphic account about being robbed by a highwayman on his way to a dinner party in October 1781. Coincidentally, a few weeks later I found a newspaper account about how a woman sent a highwayman packing while out walking along Kew Road with a group of male friends who cowered as the rogue approached. How readers must have applauded her brave action, as these bandits were a menace praying on respectable (and wealthy) travellers.

Highwaymen only disappeared with the introduction of effective policing. Several articles looked at the police. The local beadle made himself scarce during a riot at Barnes Fair in 1801, which was only quelled by a local magistrate Sir Robert Baker, who told the Home Office that after he marched into the crowd they sang ‘“God save the King” twice over and thank[ed] me for my conduct’.

Some surprising material also turned up. A parliamentary inquiry in 1861 looked at the health of the Thames and heard evidence from a number of local fishermen who remembered that salmon and other fish which had once been common had died out almost overnight during the 1820s as the result of sewage flowing downstream from London.

In March 1973, there was an audacious raid on Twickenham’s Crown Post Office, in which nearly half a million pounds was stolen – the third largest mail robbery ever. It would have been more but the gang was disturbed before they could break into the main vault, which the press speculated contained more than £1.5m. There’s a fascinating file at the Royal Mail Archives about the subsequent investigation. Nobody was ever caught nor were the proceeds recovered.

My favourite story is the case of the Reverend William Stukeley and the Kew Gardens druids. As readers will know, Stukeley was the pre-eminent antiquarian of the day. When an Iron Age axe head was found in the grounds of Kew Palace in 1754, he was asked to investigate. Unfortunately, the good doctor had an unhealthy obsession with druids and, without a shred of evidence, proclaimed that the axe was ‘a sacrificing knife of the ox-kind’.

How many of these articles could be regarded as serious local history? After all, there was little rhyme or reason to the articles, except the subjects were those which interested me. And can you really say very much in 460 words?

However, some of the pieces at least looked at subjects which hadn’t been studied by other local historians, particular those relating to the environment and economy of the Thames. And, personally, it encouraged me to widen my historical interests.

After 130 different topics it was time to call it a day. Not that I was running out of ideas, but writing the articles was becoming a chore rather than a pleasure. Providing pieces like this can be hard work, but it can be very rewarding. But more importantly, with luck it will encourage readers to take more interest in the past around them, and perhaps take up local history as a serious pursuit.

Simon Fowler is vice-chair of Richmond Local History Society. He has also written a number of books on the area’s history. A long-time member of BALH, he has just joined the Outreach Team. By trade he is a professional researcher specialising in records of the 19th and 20th centuries.

For more guidance on writing for the local press, see Barry Shurlock’s article in LHN147.

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BALH, in collaboration with our Education Partner Pharos Tutors, has created two online four-week courses. These are both running twice in 2024.

‘Getting Started with Local History’ is aimed at any local historian looking for inspiration and advice, though it will especially appeal to those of you who have recently started or would like to start researching local history. It introduces you to local history as a subject and discusses key skills and sources to help you with your research. The focus is on modern British history from c.1780 to the present day. See: www.pharostutors.com/getting-started-with-local-history

‘Progressing your Local History Research’ develops research skills and moves to the period before the Industrial Revolution. We begin by looking at your place in the context of Britain’s landscape and physical environment, looking at topics such as place name origin, landscape, structures and archaeology. The middle weeks of the course are focused on historical sources and how they can be used in local history. See: www.pharostutors.com/progressing-your-local-history-research

A discount on these courses is available for BALH members. A code can be accessed in the members’ area of the website. Students on the course who are not BALH members receive a code for a year’s discounted BALH membership.

The course tutor is Joe Saunders, currently a BALH Trustee and Outreach Chair. He is a freelance researcher and PhD candidate at the University of York.

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By Barry Shurlock

Virtually every archive includes a large number of pictures, mainly photographs – and with the advent of ‘one click’ digital photography the number will surely increase exponentially. Some photos have captions and dates, others do not. Some can be worked out – perhaps by the style of dress or the presence or otherwise of telephone poles and the like – but others cannot. However, taken together they generally tell a fascinating story – since some photos may be from the late 1800s or even earlier it may be possible to create a pictorial record of 150 years or more.

In some ways, pictures tell a better story than words – they often contain a vast amount of information that would need more than the proverbial thousand words. They can provide an immediate impression of a place or an event without the editorial overlay always associated with a written description. Hence, any reasonable archive has a ‘book of pictures’ in it, and so it was with the holdings of the Worthys Local History Group (WLHG), which covers four villages strung out along the upper Itchen valley above Winchester. Since it was founded in 1982, it has acquired a huge number of images. The vast majority have been digitised and grouped under such headings as: churches and chapels, schools, public buildings, mills, people – families, events and unusual occurrences etc.

There was obviously no shortage of subjects, but how to make a book of them? Fortunately, a few years ago Tim Underwood was looking for a project for an MA in Book Design and chose the Worthys to complete his course. His design project has now led to The Four Worthys, a book of nearly 400 images, just published by the WLHG with the support of a generous grant from the Hampshire Archives Trust.

When Tim and I met up there were some obvious decisions to make. First, we had to decide on the size of the book – number of pages and format. Since many of the photos were postcard size, a landscape format made sense. This worked well, since each section could start with a large picture, while with cunning design Tim avoided every page having just four images to view. The number of pages, a working even of 112 (seven 16-page sections), was based on cost estimates from the printer, Sarsen Press. To set the ball rolling, we printed a flyer and sought subscriptions, which was an arduous admin exercise but obtained sales of 140 copies at a pre-publication price. My job was to select the pictures and write the captions.

Selecting the pictures, arranging them and writing captions turned out to be much harder than I had anticipated. Just discovering what the thousands of pictures in the archive showed was a lengthy exercise as there was no definitive index. Curiously, because the images were all digital, they could not be laid out on the desk and shuffled into some kind of order. To tackle the problem, I decided first to write a summary of about 500 words for each section. Together with a ‘cover picture’ chosen for exceptional quality, these summaries front each of the 13 sections in the book. Writing the ‘short story’ identified key subjects and led to lists of possible pictures, each given a unique finding number.

At last, we had a final selection and then I ‘only’ had to write the captions. For some pictures this was extremely easy, but others needed a lot of detective work. Instead of citing references or sources for every image – which was not practical – a Further Reading section was compiled.

Eventually Tim had made his design judgements and laid out the pages, cropping some pictures either to fit the layout or focus on the essence of a subject. The proofs had been read and re-read and all was ready to send the text file to the printers. The cover was designed, with a blurb and barcode on the back and spine copy set to the correct width. We chose a conventional print route, but Amazon and others offer print-on-demand options.

What had we learned in the process? The first thing is the importance of deciding the main stories and structuring the book accordingly. Then, to accept that some compromises must be made as there will not be suitable pictures for all subjects. Captions should be carefully written – not just making an obvious statement about the picture, but trying to weave in some background and make a little story.

The Four Worthys is available from the Worthys Local History Group, price £15 plus p & p from: wlhg.chair@gmail.com.

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By Eric Miller

One Sunday early in 1984, as I was leaving the morning service at St Peter’s church in Leckhampton on the outskirts of Cheltenham, Canon Smith, the parish priest, asked me quite out of the blue, ‘Would you write a history of the church?’ My only credentials were producing a visitors’ guide, cobbled together from what others had written,, but I persevered. Luckily I had a colleague who was chairman of a local history society in a neighbouring parish. He handed me a long list of sources, which I looked up on Saturday mornings or during the odd half-day’s leave in Cheltenham Library or Gloucestershire Archives. A request locally for any information was rewarded when a member of an old Leckhampton family brought me some early parish magazines and – best of all – a thick ledger crammed with a variety of details transcribed from early parish registers.

Nearly three years later I had written out the text in longhand, using a fountain pen. I took this draft to a typing agency and presented the result to Canon Smith, who as a sideline operated an offset litho printing press in his rectory. An assistant retyped the words, and these pages and some black and white illustrations were then transferred to metal plates. It was quite a thrill to see the resulting book. A second printing was soon needed, and altogether some 750 copies were sold, not only in church but also in local businesses.

In due course a second edition was called for, enlarged to include newly discovered information. By then I had invested in an Amstrad word processor and an Epson printer. These enabled me to do all the typesetting myself and I printed the text and pasted the illustrations on A5 sheets of paper. A local connection with a commercial
printing firm kept down the cost. Everything had to be presented as ‘camera-ready’.

Now the time has come for a third edition, further enlarged. Thanks to the internet, online access to archive material is straightforward. For example, from the Lambeth Palace Archive I have been able to download plans of the church interior as it was before its 19th-century reordering. The Church of England Clergy database has enabled me to refine the list of incumbents, while on eBay a colleague bought a 19th-century drawing in full heraldic colours of one of the effigies in the church, which led to further discoveries.

The printing arrangements have been straightforward. On the internet I found a printing company’s website on which I gave the book’s specifications and obtained an immediate quote. I sent off PDFs of the cover and contents and within a week took delivery of 250 beautifully produced books. The launch is scheduled to coincide with Harvest Festival.

Canon Smith’s few words set me off on a hunt for knowledge that has never stopped and I am immensely grateful to him.

Eric Miller is a member of both Leckhampton and Cheltenham Local History Societies. He has written previous articles in LHN about using parish magazines for information and gravestones for social history.

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By Carol Dougherty

The first comprehensive survey of the production of millstones and grindstones in the wider north-west of England and the Pennines has been undertaken by a small group of volunteers led by landscape archaeologist Dr David Johnson. The industry has been studied in the past in the Peak District and Northumberland – the two main centres of millstone production – but this new survey has as its focus the large geographical area incorporating the central, south, north and west Pennines and the Forest of Bowland, where millstone production has hitherto been under-studied and little researched.

Over 50 production sites were identified in the survey area. Few of them were large-scale industrial sites but even so the staggering number of roughouts (preliminary millstones) which were littered across many of the sites spoke of a thriving enterprise. Documentary evidence was scant and many millstone sites were abandoned before 1800 but, nonetheless, the survey has been able to provide evidence of production in a variety of locations and situations across a wide timescale from the medieval period to the decline of the industry. Throughout the survey, the team endeavoured to create a chronological order for some of the production sites by researching written sources and carrying out systematic field work; sometimes workers left their mark by carving their initials and date in a stone and this gave a tangible link to a now abandoned place.

At each survey site the evidence of the industry was recorded and photographed. The task of creating the millstones left roughouts, tool marks and ‘negatives’ (waste) as quite significant features in the landscape, either in situ at the outcrop or among the boulder fields below the crags. Roughouts and ‘pastry cutter’ edges were discovered in a variety of stages and in one particular site in the valley of Mallerstang in Westmorland it was possible to identify about 30 roughouts displaying every stage in the production process from the first scribing of a line of wedge pits to final completion. The site of Woodhall Greets in Wensleydale revealed 17 roughouts in various stages and some indicate an early date of production, identified by a domed upper surface and smaller diameter. The survey also noted and recorded that larger sites often had simple, crude shelters where workers could gain some cover from any bad weather which upland northern England threw at them. Some abandoned roughouts seemed to be complete and in a good state, so the team was often left wondering why the millstone had been abandoned.

Throughout the survey one particular question kept arising: how were these stones taken down off the fells? Some documents hint at loading and moving millstones but give no detail as to how this was achieved. In one instance in the 17th century some millstones were to be transported an impressive 20 km (12.5 miles) across rough moorland to Bongate Mill in Appleby-in-Westmorland. In several places sleds were used where wagons could not go. Some sledways are still visible today and in Wharfdale there is what was almost certainly a base for a stanchion by which a chain or cable would be supported for lowering millstones to a sledway. The team pondered whether sleds were used primarily in winter over frozen ground in order to get the stones across the initial boulder field between the crag and the grassy moorland (often needing to cross several hundred metres of rough boulder field in perhaps boggy ground), but documentary evidence seems to suggest that millstones were ordered as required all year round. To put some kind of perspective on this, David Johnson calculated the weight of one roughout which was lying in peaty, boggy ground over 1 km away from the nearest trackway. It weighed over 600 kg: the team could not see how a sled or wagon could have crossed the ground to reach the stone, let alone get the stone to the trackway. It has not been possible to offer a definitive explanation as to how these stones were successfully removed. There is evidence at many sites of cracked millstones which had to be discarded at some point in their manufacture and also some millstones seemingly very close to completion with a break in them: to say this would have been frustrating for the workers is something of an understatement.

David Johnson has also single-handedly researched grindstones and edge-runners, which operated in the vertical plane and were used for sharpening scythes, pulping, at gunpowder works and in the grinding of flint used in pottery. He investigated several significant producers of these stones. A detailed account of his findings is in his recently published book (see below).

Over 6,000 cornmills were recorded in Domesday Book (1086), with an average of one mill to every two manors. By 1300 there may have been 13,000 mills across England, all needing millstones. This survey has recorded what remains visible of the once essential industry that created these millstones: without them there would have been no flour and people would have gone hungry. Stone hewers and pickers who created millstones deserve a place in our industrial heritage.

Carol Dougherty was a member of the survey group and, living at high altitude in the north Pennines, is aware of the tough conditions those workmen would have experienced. In the 18th century her 5x-great-grandfather left ‘a grindlestone’ in his will: she is now much more appreciative of why he considered it important enough to itemise.

A full account with photographs can be read in Millstones of the Pennines and North West England by David Johnson (Amberley Publishing, 2023).

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Send your letters to: editor.lhn@balh.org.uk

Restricted access

I get the impression that some universities and colleges took advantage of the pandemic to exclude members of the public from using their facilities where previously there were no problems. This includes retired academics and amateurs who don’t have links with universities.

Two of my old institutions (I prefer not to say which) have tightened up access to their campus buildings. To get into one I now need an electronic pass.

When I contacted the other recently with a request to visit their library to make some copies of photographs in my MPhil which I completed in 1984, they were not keen at all on letting me in. They did, however, make copies of the photographs for me which they emailed to me. (I should add that the photocopies I took in 1984 lacked the resolution of present-day ones.)

I’m wondering why this is. It seems unfair because both institutions are former polytechnics which were funded by local taxpayers. Alternatively, it might be about control of staff, who are now being expected to be on campus a lot more than they were.

David Gatley, Stoke-on-Trent

Ten minutes goes a long way

Earlier this year I produced a ‘ten-minute talk’ on George IV’s 1822 visit to Edinburgh and, with some much-appreciated support from Catherine Warr, it was posted up on BALH’s website at the end of February (see www.balh.org.uk/ten-minute-talks).

Recently I received an email from Dave Rendell of the Fortrose and Rosemarkie Local History Group in the Highlands of Scotland. They were holding a meeting via Zoom on 11 September under the title of ‘Highland Connections and the Scottish Crown’. Would I be willing to allow them to use my presentation as a part of the evidence on changing attitudes to the Hanoverian monarchy, fostered in part by the activities of Sir Walter Scott? Needless to say, I replied that I would be delighted for that to happen.

A few days after that, Dave contacted me to say that the king’s visit had been something that few of the members knew about, and he thanked me for my ‘extremely interesting and thought-provoking contribution to our discussion’.

I share this to illustrate that these BALH ten-minute videos can sometimes prove to be valuable resources that other societies might care to consider.

Neil Robson, Wandsworth Historical Society

While reading ‘While out walking...’

In the photo accompanying Jane Howells’ ‘While out walking…’ article (LHN148), I was struck by the strange capitalisation of the phrase on the plaque:

praIse hIM o yee ChILDren

I have worked out that the capital letters are Roman numerals, which can be rearranged (or added together) to give MDCLIII, representing 1653, which is the date of the plaque.

Peter Smith, Thurcaston & Cropston Local History Society

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By Chris Hills

Tamworth Heritage Magazine started out with a different philosophy to most ‘newsletters’. There were three decisive points. The first one was that it would have electronic delivery. It costs the same to deliver to a thousand as to one. This meant we could send it far and wide.

The second, that it would have a magazine format, based on magazines like BBC History and National Geographic History. The third point was that it would be quarterly. It would not be a current ‘what’s on’ – it would carry longer, less time-sensitive articles. What’s on could go out as a separate email.

Production was done using Affinity Publisher which is an inexpensive Adobe InDesign-compatible tool used by professionals (in the way Microsoft Publisher isn’t). I would recommend Affinity Publisher to all magazine/newsletter editors. This tool gives us the ability to set up templates to produce multi-column magazine pages with lots of images, speeding up the typesetting process.

As it is a PDF we can embed live links for web pages, videos, audio etc. One click and the picture becomes a video. The other thing is we can put in live links to any sources cited in articles.

The format is A4 so it is easy for people to print copies at home for those who prefer that. However as we are not printing and binding we don’t have to work to sheets of four pages, which also simplifies typesetting.

We have a web page for the magazine (www.tamworthheritage.org.uk/magazine.html) where issues are loaded. Thus apart from emailing out the link we can post the link to social media pages. The cost per year for the web hosting is less than the cost of printing and posting one issue to the members, though the current circulation is many times that number.

The difficult bit as with all magazines is getting content. We were lucky that the articles in the first issues were a mix that people found interesting. Not least the article ‘Pincher Dead! Darkie to Hang?’. Our local MP is Chris Pincher but the article was about a murder in a local pub in 1903 of George ‘Pincher’ Baker by John ‘Darkie’ Stevens. Chris Pincher helpfully reposted the link on his social media page, thus boosting circulation. The result was we are getting a steady trickle of articles coming in.

There is a letters page and in most cases the response to an email to the editor is ‘Thanks, do you want to write something on that?’. A lot of the time the answer is ‘Yes’, so we get follow-up articles. We are not requiring academic papers, but so far all our contributors have kept the standard up, and we do try to assist anyone who wants to contribute. We hope to be working sufficiently ahead to fill the issue after next and this is starting to happen.

The final thing we did was to approach the British Library to get an ISSN, which it granted. The magazine now appears in various indexes and catalogues and is held by the six British and Irish deposit libraries.

Chris Hills is the editor of Tamworth Heritage Magazine, associated with Staffordshire Heritage Group

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By John Sheaf

Following my previous article ‘Running a newsletter’ in issue 148 of LHN, our chairman, Ed Harris (Borough of Twickenham Local History Society – BOTLHS) suggested that we could add further information on production and distribution of a newsletter, hence this follow-up.

The BOTLHS newsletter is produced using Microsoft Word because it’s what I’m used to using, as is just about every contributor. The few Apple Mac users who contribute articles tend to able to convert to Microsoft Word, which is necessary to provide me with the flexibility when formatting images and text, often the most challenging part of the process. Copy editing is largely the duty of the contributor when it comes to checking facts, names, addresses, titles, designations, etc, although best efforts are employed in the spotting of errors in grammar, spelling and punctuation – of which there are generally few.

Our newsletter has increased considerably in length over the years. Initially, 60 years ago, it was just three sides of A4, but with the passage of time and the increased availability of material it has expanded to 24 sides. The format was at one time changed to A5, but it was found that this doesn’t provide for the increase in quality illustrations accompanying articles these days.

Production has also changed from using a local photocopying firm to online printing, which is considerably cheaper and produces far superior results with a better resolution and quality. This process includes creating a PDF, which can then be used for email distribution, especially overseas, what with the price of postage today representing a considerable cost factor. Even domestically, we limit the newsletter to 24 sides of A4 in order to fall below the 100g postal rate tier, although during the pandemic we produced longer newsletters to compensate for the lack of physical meetings.

Despite the convenience of electronic mailing, hard copies remain essential for those members unable to attend perhaps for health reasons. Postage costs can be cut by having, as in our case, valiant membership co-secretaries and others prepared to deliver copies locally by hand. Although an increasing number of members are happy to receive a digital copy of the newsletter, the majority much prefer to receive their edition through the post to sit and enjoy reading a great tool for staying connected with their society and learning more about our shared past.

See also ‘Starting a newsletter’ in LHN147.

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By Joe Saunders

In 2021 BALH was proud to launch a new annual lecture, to be held each winter, welcoming a distinguished academic to share their research with us. We hope this will become a highlight of our annual calendar for our members and the wider public to enjoy. The lecture was named in honour of Dr David Dymond, who died in August 2021. David had been closely involved with BALH for many years including serving as a trustee, chair and numerous other roles.

The inaugural Dymond Lecture was held in December 2021 by Professor Andrew Hopper, who spoke about his research on the human costs of the British Civil Wars of the 17th century. In December 2022 we were pleased to host Professor Briony McDonagh on histories of living with water and floods, examining how the inhabitants and Corporation of Hull managed water and how local history can inform our present and future.

In 2023 we are looking forward to hosting Fiona Edmonds, who is Professor in Regional History at Lancaster University. Her book Gaelic Influence in the Northumbrian Kingdom: the Golden Age and the Viking Age won the Frank Watson Prize 2021. Her lecture is entitled ‘Northumbrian institutions reconsidered: three upland communities in medieval Britain’. She will consider the textual record, place names and archaeological evidence to ask how far we may talk of similarities; and if common features existed, why that was the case.

We are excited to welcome BALH members and the public to this fascinating talk, which will be of interest to all of us working on the medieval period, upland local histories and comparative studies.

The Dymond Lecture will be held at 7pm on Thursday 14 December via Zoom. The event will be free for BALH members with a small charge of £5 for non-members (reduced for members of our member societies). Book now at www.balh.org.uk/dymond2023.

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By Joe Saunders

History societies are run by committed volunteers who give up their time and energy to help groups achieve the things they do. Getting involved with a local history society can be incredibly rewarding. In my time with BALH I have met many new and interesting people, had experiences I otherwise wouldn’t have had and developed my skills. Being able to help others is incredibly fulfilling. I’ve also found an outlet for my passions and ideas and contributed to at least my own local history knowledge.

I meet many young people who like the idea of getting involved in a society but are unsure what it actually entails. So here I share some of my own ups and downs for those thinking about helping out.

It can feel very rewarding to have our enthusiasm and ideas appreciated. This is in the context of a job market where we are so often rejected out of hand in the bitter struggle for work and being at stages of our careers where we are being told what and when to do things. In societies we can find ourselves encouraged to run with our ideas, to operate with relative freedom and take ownership of our work. In the process we can gain great skills and experience.

Young people also bring important qualities to societies. This is as distinct individuals but also because as the demographic in history societies tends to be older we bring an energy that many societies need, especially if the same few people have been carrying business on for years. Our outlooks on the world, perspectives and technological familiarity all make young people especially useful to societies.

There are things that can be frustrating as a young person joining a society committee, depending on our own situations and personalities. As young people we are masters of the possible but can get bogged down in the reality. Sometimes we must effect changes to attitudes or processes before we can action our plans. Older people in societies should be conscious to channel the enthusiasm of young people, rather than dampen or extinguish.

For everyone in a society it can be frustrating to make timings work between many different schedules. For a society to include young people it must be understood that we are often bound by working patterns which keep us away from daytime meetings and events. It can be hard to find mutually suitable times with people in external organisations you are working with, who may only be able to meet or correspond during ‘usual’ working hours which are also our own. Due to life changes such as jobs, houses and family situations, we may have to change our levels of commitment to societies with some frequency. For all of us good communication and patience are key.

We must also be careful to ensure that we do not let ourselves get sucked in beyond our capacities. In an exciting world where we can gain control and responsibility it can feel exciting to say yes to too much. Conversely, we may be able to give less than other members of the committee who have more time. This is something that is easily overcome through clear communication, but it can be hard to feel you are slowing things down.

There may also be a clash of outlooks as a young person on a committee, with our priorities sometimes at odds with older colleagues. Likewise, we may find ourselves frustrated at the ways things are done, or not done, and must consider how much time is spent pushing particular issues and explaining possibilities. This can all be done with time, especially as we gain trust within a committee. Finding our voice may take as long as it does for others to begin to listen to us.

Overall, there are many reasons why it can be hard to join in as a young person: these are outlined here in more detail than the benefits not because they outweigh them but because it is important we are frank about them and discuss how they might be overcome.

I end here with a call. Please do volunteer to help with societies! Be patient, preserve some of your energy, communicate and be confident in your value. Play to your strengths and carve out a role that works for you. Any and all help is appreciated and important. Societies need young people to survive and to thrive. We really can make a difference.

Joe is a BALH Trustee and Outreach Team chair. He works as a freelance historical researcher and teacher, and is studying for a PhD.

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By Geoffrey Carter

Throughout our national history battles – as opposed to the frequent small-scale fights and skirmishes involving a few people on either side – were relatively rare. Bringing two armies together in full-scale conflict was a hazardous business with the ever-present possibility of defeat. Too much could go wrong and often did. A battle is a throw of the dice and the outcome is not always what might have been predicted. Many battles were part of our national story and the location is incidental to the narrative and even accidental in the sense that they could easily have happened somewhere else. Why then should they have a place in the study of ‘local’ history?

In some cases battles were a part of a regional conflict or the regional aspect of a national struggle. The most prominent of these centre on the north-east of England and the Scottish borders. Over a period of more than 500 years the rulers of England and Scotland fought to decide the issue of Scottish sovereignty and this struggle had a major impact on the identity and culture of the people living in that area. The Wars of the Roses were not so much a national civil war as a family squabble between the descendants of Edward III. They were, however, substantially fought on a regional basis and much of England was untouched. For long periods most of the kingdom – the South, Midlands, East Anglia and West Country – was at peace. The British Civil Wars of the 17th century were fought substantially on a regional basis prior to the creation of the New Model Army in 1645, which provided a force able to operate anywhere in the country. On top of all of this, battles happened somewhere and inevitably had an impact on the local population even where the armies were drawn from other parts of the country. People are always interested in ‘history on their doorstep’ and it is said that no one lives more than half an hour’s drive from a battlefield in much of the UK.

Over the past 15 years I have led a number of projects for the Battlefields Trust – www.battlefieldstrust.com – where we have looked in detail at a particular engagement. This has involved not just the few hours of fighting but the wider political, economic and social context, the technology that created the weapons used, the strategic framework and the lasting impact on the locality. Without exception we have had great support from local residents, many of whom had no idea of just what had happened so close to their homes and have become active volunteers in our projects. In addition, these projects have been able to excite interest in younger people through our associated work with schools and youth groups, and we have created a number of free resource packs for use by teachers in schools and colleges. My own experience has been echoed around the country in the many other projects that the Battlefields Trust has undertaken.

Recent discussions between BALH and the Battlefields Trust have led us to believe that combining the resources and experience of our two organisations to work together on local projects centred on some of the 350+ known UK battles would be a beneficial and worthwhile collaboration. Both of our organisations have a mission to engage more people of all ages in understanding and investigating their local history and I look forward to developing ways in which we can achieve this together.

Geoffrey Carter has served in a variety of senior roles with the Battlefields Trust over the past 15 years and has been member of BALH for two years. He has led a number of major battlefield research projects for the Trust in partnership with local community groups and societies.

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With thanks to Jan Bridget, Steve Dent, Heather Falvey, Trevor Fisher, Peter Kean, Stephen Miller,
Helen Palmer, Sue Peebles, Ken Porter, Neil Robson, Joe Saunders

Trinity House is the organisation which looks after the major lighthouses, beacons and buoys around England, Wales and the Channel Islands. It also marks wrecks and provides charitable support to maritime causes. The organisation’s ambassadors offer a 45-minute illustrated talk to clubs and societies, remotely or in person, for free. Interested BALH members can contact ambassadors@trinityhouse.co.uk or visit www.trinityhouse.co.uk to learn more.

Following the arson attack on the historic Leopard pub-hotel in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent in January 2022 (see LHN 143, 147), a second attack in the West Midlands happened in August this year. The pub concerned – the Crooked House between Dudley and Himley – was originally an 18th-century farmhouse, but became famous when mining subsidence caused one side to lean at a sharp angle. The pub had been empty and weeks before had been sold by Banks’s brewery for speculative development but was struck by a devastating fire. The whole building was demolished shortly thereafter and the incident gained national attention.

Scientists believe they’ve confirmed a Dartmouth urban legend of more than 80 years by ‘finding’ a Royal Navy submarine buried in the town park. Experts from the University of Winchester used ground-penetrating radar to scan the site where the old boat was believed to rest – along with landfill – which created Coronation Park. The vague outline of what is thought to be HMS E52 can be made out on the resulting scans – as well as a second object, a German torpedo boat, longer but also more narrow.

A hoard of 17th-century coins found beneath the remains of a stone fireplace at ‘the summerhouse of Maclain’ – home to clan chief Alasdair ‘Maclain’ MacDonald in Glen Coe, Scotland. MacDonald was killed in the massacre at Glen Coe in 1692, and the hoard, found by archaeologists from the University of Glasgow this summer, is believed to have been abandoned as a result of the killings after the first Jacobite rising.

A rare 18th-century cold bath has been found, appropriately enough, under the Assembly Rooms in Bath – proving that cold water immersion is not just the province of modern wellness gurus such as Wim Hof. A 1778 guidebook described ‘a commodious cold-bath, with convenient dressing-room’, which appears to be the facility now unearthed by a team from Wessex Archaeology.

Refurbishment work at Brighton Dome, an 1867 concert venue originally built as part of a stables and riding school by the Prince Regent in the early 19th century, has revealed various interesting slices of local and architectural history. Eighteen skeletons from a Quaker burial site were found there in 2017, and a collection of letters relating to the connected Corn Exchange’s use as a military hospital for Indian soldiers in the First World War has been found. Many layers of paint at the Corn Exchange have also been stripped to reveal the original wooden beams, spanning 18 metres and forming the widest example of their kind in the country. Other original features have been restored or recovered and the venues are reopening this autumn.

The former Methodist church in Malton, North Yorkshire will reopen in the spring as the new Wesley Centre community hub. As part of the redevelopment, local schoolchildren have been invited to contribute to a time capsule buried at the site. Historic artefacts have been found during work there, including a 1902 opera programme.

Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and Llangollen Canal has been declared the ‘most captivating’ UNESCO World Heritage site in the world, based on a survey using eye-tracking technology to see which images of sites caught viewers’ attention the most.

Shropshire-based estate agent Barbers has revealed items from its company archive dating back 175 years – it was founded by John Barber in 1848. The firm has created a mini museum at its Market Drayton office and put selected items on display.

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In the run-up to the late Queen’s coronation in June 1953, a resident in the south-west London suburb of Putney lent to the local paper his copy of a newspaper covering Queen Victoria’s own crowning in 1838. The idea was for the publishers to put it on display in their front window as part of the district’s festivities. The gesture struck a chord, and within weeks a brand new Wandsworth Historical Society had been formed, and its first public meeting took place that September. Seventy years on from that inaugural evening the society has been celebrating its anniversary in three ways.

First, it secured Justin Colson, a senior lecturer at the Institute for Historical Research, as a keynote speaker for its commemorative meeting this autumn. He outlined the Layers of London project and the possibilities of digital mapping for understanding the history of the city. Second, for five months running the society’s regular email update has included an anecdote highlighting some of its achievements in the past. Finally, the society’s journal the Wandsworth Historian carried a special feature honouring in its early writers, which included one of its members in 1960 recounting a conversation he had had in about 1904 with a man who had been an inmate in a local boys’ reformatory in the 1850s.

The Southern History Society’s annual conference took place at the University of Winchester in November, on the theme of ‘The experience of garrison towns in southern England’. The keynote speaker was Craig Lambert of the University of Southampton, discussing the shipping, seaborne trade and maritime communities of Kent, Hampshire and Dorset c.1350–1600. Other speakers presented on topics including forts, medical care in Henry VIII’s army, Hanoverian troop camps and navy officers’ wives. www.southernhistorysociety.org.uk

Research by Millom and District LHS has found new evidence for the date of the first siege of Millom Castle by the Parliamentarians in 1644, in the form of a nuncupative (declared orally) will by the Rev Nathaniel Ward, who died at the siege. Dates 14 October 1644, it was signed by five Royalists from Teesside. The group also found a document in Cumbria Archives relating to Sir Wilfrid Lawson, who had switched his support from Charles I to Parliament and was commander-in-chief for Cumberland in 1644 – this document details his actions at the siege. The society planned to hold an event in November to share their findings, and a book is expected to be published in the near future.

Alston Moor Historical Society celebrated its golden jubilee in July with a day on the theme ‘History in the North Pennines’. Eleven guest societies from three different counties gathered together to celebrate the anniversary in Aston Town Hall.

Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society (www.sanhs.org) has two funds for promoting understanding of Somerset’s past, the Maltwood Fund for ‘good quality archaeological and historical research related to Somerset’ and the Gray fund ‘to promote participation in the study of the archaeology and history’ of the county. The next deadline for applications is 31 January 2024.

The Wavertree Society has reported the sad news that its mentor and founder member Mike Chitty died in June. Mike was honoured a few years ago by BALH for his unstinting work for both the Wavertree Society and the Gateacre Society based in Liverpool.

A warning from Bristol & Avon Family History Society via the Avon Local History & Archaeology newsletter: the society’s membership software (MemberPress) came under attack and 580 bogus memberships were created by online malefactors in just 24 hours, leading to a lot of cleaning-out admin. Societies are advised to keep an eye on their software security – Wordpress users can use tools such as Wordfence to help lock out attackers, for example. Another ALHA member, Bristol & Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, is organising a local history day combined with a conference marking the bicentenary of colliery owner and politician Handel Cossham on 13 April 2024 – details will appear at www.alha.org.uk. Bristol Record Society has been digitising high resolution maps and ‘prospects’ and uploading them to Wikimedia Commons, which organises images used in
Wikipedia pages.

Dumfriesshire and Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian Society has launched its Young Researcher Competition, aimed at fostering a long-lasting interest in local heritage among secondary school students. Students are invited to produce an original research paper on any topic relating to the human history or natural environment within the region. The deadline is 31 December – details at dgnhas.org.uk/young-researcher-competion (sic).

Dunstable & District Local History Society has now completed its History Trail project – there are now QR stickers displayed on 30 shop fronts in the town, linking to online text, audio and video about each location, some created with the help of actors from the local rep.

Hertfordshire Association for Local History’s 75th anniversary takes place in 2024, and its 45th annual symposium will look at life in the county in the late 1940s – details of this and the AGM on 18 May will be in the spring edition of the group’s News & Events. The 2023 symposium in October explored ‘Rebels, traitors and eccentrics in Hertfordshire’.

Hornsey Historical Society’s September Newsletter reports on the death of career librarian Roy Hidson, who had been a member of the society for an impressive 52 years. The society has a new chair, Walter Merricks, who succeeds Keith Fawkes.

The Cleveland & Teesside LHS newsletter notes that the 200th anniversary of the Stockton and Darlington Railway is looming in 2025, and recommends the Leonard Raisbeck Archive which holds some of the railway’s earliest documents. Find details of the archive at www.balh.org.uk/MXW170

On 5 September 2023 Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society celebrated its 140th anniversary at Manchester Central Library. There was a cake to mark the occasion, and the group shared lots of goodwill, hoping to keep up its momentum and grow membership over the next few months. The society was formed in Manchester in 1883. Since its foundation the society has produced over 110 volumes of its Transactions. The anniversary event saw the launch of double edition of the Transactions, volume 114. New members are welcome – see www.landcas.org.uk

Thanks to the work of Basildon Borough Heritage Society, a plaque was unveiled on 9 August at Nevendon Manor, north of the Essex town, to commemorate pioneering aviation Marion Wilberforce, who lived there for 40 years. With the support of Lady Lord Lieutenant of Essex Jennifer Tolhurst, a team led by theatre director and film maker Graham Watts researched Wilberforce’s life. Born in Aberdeenshire in 1902, she studied agriculture and was a keen mountaineer before gaining her pilot’s licence, and went on to become one of the first eight women to join the Air Transport Auxiliary in World War Two, flying Spitfires, Hurricanes and Lancaster bombers.

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Organisations which hold collections of audio recordings of Scottish traditional music are invited to submit their details for inclusion in the Scottish Traditional Music Archive Directory. The Traditional Music Forum (www.traditionalmusicforum.org) is developing the project as part of its work towards a Scottish Traditional Music Archive. The directory will act as a signpost to help people interested in Scottish traditional music identify pertinent collections, contact collection holders, and make links between material.

Gloucestershire Archives has been awarded a Heritage Lottery Fund grant of almost £250,000 to further environmental action by involving people in green heritage activities. Public workshops will be held to help collect new environmental archives and oral histories, and the grant will also support an online and travelling exhibition, ‘Green Gloucestershire – Our Past, Our Future’.

The Centre for West Midlands History (CWMH) has been renamed the Centre for Midlands History and Cultures (CMHC). For details of its events see www.birmingham.ac.uk/research/cmhc/events

The Port and River Archive at the Museum of London Docklands (see www.balh.org.uk/HYV167), which incorporates the Port of London Authority Archive, has records, publications and photographs relating to the working river, and films of the Thames from the 20th century. It is important for all kinds of researchers interested in the history of the metropolis, including local historians.

The archive has failed to provide access to its collections over the summer of 2023. An archive user told LHN that in early June one contact by email asking to arrange a visit received no response. This was chased two months later and a reply came that the archive service was seeking maternity cover and once this was arranged visits could resume. In early October the new appointee worked through the inbox they had been unfortunate to inherit and began replying to enquiries, booking in visits for the end of the month. Overall, access to the archive has been suspended for over four months. There may be many, no doubt complicated, reasons for this and we are aware of the pressure archives are under, but this lack of access is disappointing. Additionally, visiting hours are at the time of writing just four hours a week, by appointment only.

Durham Record Office continues to be closed during its move to ‘The Story’ at Mount Oswald. This is a momentous undertaking which is taking a significant amount of effort, and will give an excellent foundation for research in the long-term. Local historians in Durham should be aware that opening was still tentatively advertised as ‘late 2023’ in early October. No update has been given for some time on their social media or website. The website and automated email response includes the notice ‘while we will monitor our email inbox periodically, we will not respond to your email unless there is a legal basis for us to do so’. The email out-of-office adds that the record office ‘is now closed for all enquiries (both in person and in writing)’.

Local History News has invited the team at The Story to share news and details of the development and will report here when more information is available.

As users may be aware, London Metropolitan Archives have raised their fee for photography of documents post-Covid. A daily photography permit now costs £7 for up to 20 images or £20 for more than 20 images. Researchers may optimistically hope this is to help fund the relocation/renovation of the LMA site, which is a looming issue, although there are concerns that it might be more a response to rising cuts and decreased footfall. The cost is substantial and likely prohibitive to many ordinary local historians. If it is being trialled to see if users will continue to take out permits, it is perhaps open to renegotiation should objection be made through feedback channels.

The Treasure House, Beverley, home to the East Riding Archives Service closed to visitors in September for building works. The research room will be closed to visitors until alterations have been completed, and the service’s website at www.eastridingculture.co.uk/treasurehouse confirms it is not expected to reopen until ‘late 2024’. It will maintain its research and copying service and will be contactable by telephone, post and email as usual. Depositors are also asked to contact them in advance before bringing in any records.

West Sussex Archives Society celebrated its golden jubilee with an open day at its record office in Chichester on 25 November. On display was a selection of original documents that WSAS has helped to purchase over the last 50 years and there were information boards showcasing the society’s history. This year West Sussex Record Office acquired documents relating to an estate at West Hoathly, with unbroken title dating back to 1524.

Ceredigion Archives is working on a series of attractively illustrated bilingual trails round the towns of the county, using archives and quirky anecdotes to entertain and educate. The ‘History Hunt’ around Aberystwyth is specifically for children, while ‘Pounding the Beat: a walk around Aberystwyth’ is for all enthusiasts of crime and punishment local history. The latest volume is a local history tour along Aberystwyth Prom. Books on Tregaron, Cardigan and Aberaeron will
follow shortly.

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The Sunny Bank Mills Museum and Archive in Farsley, Leeds has been granted £10,000 by the Heritage Lottery Fund, which will be used to create a year-long programme of events, ‘Weaving Voices’, exploring the woven textile history of the area.

Largs Museum, run by Largs and District Historical Society in North Ayrshire, is cataloguing the historical items in its possession, and looking for volunteers to help. www.largsmuseum.org

At the time of writing, the opening of the new Harpenden Museum was expected by the end of 2023, with a preview given to members of Harpenden & District LHS in October. The museum is on the ground floor of the Eric Morecambe Centre in Rothamstead Park, and is expected to be open from 10am to 4pm on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, staffed by volunteers. For the latest information, see www.harpenden-history.org.uk/category/our-museum

A rare early medieval brooch found in Somerset has now been restored and put on display at the Museum of Somerset in Taunton. The Cheddar brooch, dating from the ninth century, was found by a metal detectorist in 2020, who reported it through the Portable Antiquities Scheme, and features ornate interlaced animal and plant designs.

‘A history of Rugby in 50 objects’ opened in October at Rugby Art Gallery & Museum, featuring items such as the old town stocks, used until the 1870s, a ‘boneshaker’ bicycle and the birch first used by Thomas Arnold to whack the boys of Rugby School; also included is a collection of photos dating back to the 1950s, donated by Rugby Local History Research Group.

Bonnie Prince Charlie’s sword and a rare Jacobite wine glass are to go in display in the new Perth Museum. The museum will open in 2024 after a £26.5m redevelopment of the former city hall. The Stone of Destiny (aka the Stone of Scone) will also be displayed at the museum, which is expected to open in the spring.

Kilmartin Museum in Argyll has reopened after a £7m, two-year refurbishment. Its two previous buildings have been joined together and many of its 22,000 prehistoric artefacts can now be displayed for the first time.

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At the end of October, Oxford University Department for Continuing Education held ‘A tribute to W.G. Hoskins: the father of landscape history’, examining his career and publications before his pioneering work The Making of the English Landscape was published in 1955, and how landscape history has evolved and transformed since then. All the speakers had been closely associated with Hoskins and his work. For example, Malcolm Airs and Trevor Rowley were his postgraduate students at Oxford in the 1960s, and Robert Peberdy is writing a definitive biography of Hoskins.

The University of Worcester and Worcestershire Historical Society are jointly organising a conference on ‘Revisiting Worcestershire’s Past’ – it will be held at St John’s Campus, Henwick Grove on the weekend of 6–7 April 2024. Sixteen experts will deliver papers on a wide range of topics including vernacular architecture, football in the county, Worcestershire peasants in the middle ages, the origins of the Worcestershire gentry, Worcestershire parliamentarians in the 17th century, printing and Worcestershire elections in the 18th century, the history of Worcestershire ceramics, and Worcester in the 1950s. Contact whshonsec@gmail.com for more details.

Lancaster University has started to transcribe its final tranche of the notebooks of inventor and chemist Sir Humphry Davy and is looking for volunteers to help transcribe them – see www.balh.org.uk/XJP168. A free online course on Davy’s contributions to science and the arts has also been launched at www.futurelearn.com/courses/humphry-davy

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CILIP, the library and information association, reports that the winner of the 2022 McCulla Award is Tony Pilmer, marked by a Zoom presentation in August 2023. At present he is librarian and archivist at the Royal Aeronautical Society, but has had a long career in local studies in Slough and Hertfordshire. He has been active in CILIP’s Local Studies Group (LSG) and the South sub-group for many years and also belongs to CILIP’s Rare Books Group. He has shared his enthusiasm for local studies through the organisation of study days, visits and contributions to the LSG blog, but most outstanding has been his work over the last four years on the Local Studies Toolkit, an online resource for all who work with local studies collections.

St Paul’s Cathedral Library has reopened to members of the public after five years of restoration work starting in 2018 (www.stpauls.co.uk/access-collections). As part of the conservation project, St Paul’s has cleaned and packed the books and manuscripts, painted the walls, designed a new lighting scheme, constructed desks for readers and a new display case, along with numerous other changes. Situated at Triforium level behind the south-west tower, St Paul’s Library was completed in 1709. The only previous significant modifications to this space had been to install electrical lighting in 1902 and a heating system shortly after. The Library shelves had not been emptied since the Second World War, when their contents were transported to Wales for safe keeping.

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The British Newspaper Archive (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk) has added more than 400,000 pages from The Scotsman from 1951 to 2002; its full collection for The Scotsman now spans 1817–2002.

The new Medieval Murder Maps website (www.medievalmurdermap.co.uk) offers a unique insight into crime and justice in late medieval London, York and Oxford. The site features detailed modern maps with known medieval buildings overlaid (courtesy of maps created by the Historic Towns Trust – see LHN 144), along with pins identifying specific crime locations. The site, created by a team at the University of Cambridge, also features a podcast delving into specific murder stories.

‘In Their Own Write’ is a website (https://intheirownwriteblog.wordpress.com) exploring the experiences of poor people in England and Wales in the 19th century, between 1833 and 1900, using their own words – typically from correspondence between paupers, local officials and poor law authorities. The sources are held at The National Archives and the project has been developed in conjunction with the University of Leicester. The full data, and resources for use with schools, can be found at www.victorianpoor.org

Family history company Findmypast and the National Trust have forged a partnership to uncover stories from the 1921 census and bring them to life at nine places across England looked after by the National Trust. Records relating to the sites taking part in the pilot activity can be viewed via www.findmypast.co.uk/national-trust

In July the General Register Office (GRO) launched its new Online View service (at www.gro.gov.uk), offering instant access to images of historic entries from birth and death registers for England and Wales, covering births 1837–1922 and deaths 1837–1887.

A collection of more than 10,000 photos of Barrow-in-Furness and north-west England taken by the Sankey family has been digitised into a searchable online database. Volunteers have worked on the project for the last three years, and the collection has now been donated to Cumbria Archives. The collection can be explored at www.sankeyphotoarchive.uk

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Elie & Earlsferry History Society in Scotland has launched its 2024 calendar, available in two styles and with each month featuring an old postcard in its archive (order via elieearlsferry@gmail.com) – a great idea other societies could adopt, although now would be the time to plan for a 2025 edition.

Community-led non-profit company Discover Huddersfield has produced a wide variety of materials to showcase the town’s history which other groups might find a source of ideas: these include guided walks throughout the year, more than 20 themed paper trails on topics such as historic buildings, radical heritage and the textile industry, and a web app, ‘Huddersfield on foot’. There is now also a collection of ‘virtual trails’ hosted on YouTube. Contributors to these productions include Huddersfield LHS. See www.discoverhuddersfield.uk

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By Heather Falvey

Kneelers: The unsung folk art of England and Wales by Elizabeth Bingham (Vintage 2023 144pp ISBN: 978-1-784743-96-3) £20,
also ebook

As her book’s title indicates, Elizabeth Bingham argues that designing and crafting church kneelers is a form of folk art, which, she further suggests, is the most widely practised folk art in England and Wales over the past 90 years. Or rather, ‘was’: the book celebrates a dying art, the very purpose of which is fast disappearing. (Think of all the parish churches that have had their pews removed.) Throughout the book beautiful pictures of kneelers illustrate the subject under discussion.

Bingham sketches the history of kneelers (originally called ‘hassocks’, after the matted vegetation that people used to kneel on). Although there are two surviving 17th-century kneelers at Wadham College, Oxford, designing and making seat cushions and kneelers began in the 1930s at Winchester Cathedral and slowly spread to other cathedrals. The coming of war meant that decorative stitching had to be abandoned in favour of practical sewing. She suggests that it was the coronation of Elizabeth II in 1953 that relaunched enthusiasm for making kneelers; certainly it coincided with the end of austerity.

From her inauguration to kneeler-making in the late 1960s for All Hallows by the Tower (London), Bingham then moves on to Boughrood (Radnorshire), through Wadham College, to the Bishop’s Palace and Cathedral at Winchester. Next come ‘Landmarks in the spread of folk art’: Chelsea Old Church – bombed during the Blitz but rebuilt and reopened in May 1958, beautified with kneelers honouring people connected with the church, including Sir Thomas More; Hereford Cathedral; and Lancaster Priory’s embroidered stall backs and panels.

The point about kneelers is that each is designed and crafted individually, with designs reflecting local concerns. (Bingham is very scathing about commercial kneeler kits that were both expensive and anodyne.) In ‘The explosion of folk art’ she discusses the wide variety of subjects for kneelers. Unsurprisingly, Bible stories abound – the Creation, Noah’s Ark, the Nativity. Secular themes include records of the war years: St Mary Magdalene, Woodstock (Oxon) has an ARP warden putting out a raging fire. Elsewhere work and daily life are celebrated: St Andrew, Much Hadham (Herts), records ‘Saunders’, the village shop (with Cash’s name-tapes, Brooke Bond tea, P&B wools); St Bartholomew, Chipping (Lancs), has a cow at Brick House Farm, where Timothy Procter (1915–1973) diversified into cheese-making and milling. Other kneelers depict leisure activities, transport and travel, angels and archangels, and supernatural life.

The final sections briefly explain how to make a kneeler design and discuss stitches used. In conclusion, Elizabeth Bingham notes that the millennium saw a brief revival in kneeler-making, such as that at St Peter, Tewin (Herts), but in general ‘Anglican folk art has all but fizzled out’. She hopes that her lovely book will encourage congregations with interesting locally designed kneelers to preserve them; indeed, her website has an appeal for people to upload images of local kneelers before they disappear (parishkneelers.co.uk).

Hidden Histories: Coventry Jewish Watchmakers by Mark Johnson (Lean Business Vision 2023 94pp ISBN 978-1-739310-21-9) £11.99 pbk; £16.99 hbk; £6.99 ebook

Coventry has a rich and varied industrial heritage, with all of its industries benefiting from the skills of immigrant families. The watchmaking trade (surely a ‘craft’?) started there in 1747 and by the mid 19th century Coventry had become the ‘world centre of watchmaking’. Among the pioneering manufacturers were several significant Jewish watchmakers. This book traces their lives and achievements, and the development of both the city and its Jewish community.

The first section, ‘Watchmakers’ stories’, provides biographies of the various families and shows how they contributed to city life. Initially watchmaking immigrants (both Jewish and non-Jewish) settled in the poorest areas of Coventry but, as their businesses led to the city’s expansion, they moved out into better areas, although, even there, most had their workshop and factory directly attached to their house and lived in very compact accommodation. The watch trade grew rapidly in the 19th century, bringing more immigration, but as the century progressed cheap imports from America and Switzerland caused a rapid decline. Some switched their skills to manufacturing sewing machines, then bicycles and then cars; others moved on to London or elsewhere.

In 1870 the synagogue was opened in Coventry. Watchmakers had been key in the moves to establish it, in particular A.E. Fridlander (1840–1928), who had led much of the planning and development work. Prior to this, in 1863, the Coventry Hebrew Congregation had obtained approval to buy a plot of land in the London Road Cemetery, where some of the individuals discussed by Johnson were buried.

In about 1883 the Royal Society Observatory at Kew established the standard for watches (measuring the precision of timekeeping and the resilience of that accuracy to temperature change and movement). Test results were certified and tables with results of watch trials were published in its annual report from 1886. In 1887 watches made by A.E. Fridlander appeared in the prize list. In 1889 he achieved first place for the most accurate watch in the country. (Although he continued as a watchmaker, in 1904 he became chairman of Coventry’s Triumph Cycle Co.)

There were many connections between the Jewish watchmaker families, which are demonstrated in two interlinked family trees. A map shows where they lived and there follow pictures of the leading watchmakers’ homes with accompanying text. Interestingly the drawing of Spon Street (1891), where Marks Baum and Francis Silveston both lived, shows people propelling themselves around in wheeled vehicles (early cycles?).

Johnson has also provided a detailed catalogue of records and events relating to the leading watchmakers and their families. He demonstrates how these skilled immigrant craftsmen established themselves, despite some local prejudices, and contributed to the economy of their adopted city. His main sources are local newspapers, the various censuses and trade directories, the most descriptive being Where to buy… [in] Coventry (1891). Today the Coventry Watch Museum is situated in the last remaining Spon Street courtyard.

Straw Plaiting: Heritage Techniques for Hats, Trimmings, Bags and Baskets by Veronica Main (Herbert Press 2023 336pp ISBN: 978-1-789940-75-6) £45, also ebook

This beautifully illustrated and well-researched book has two distinct parts, the first of which relates the history of straw plaiting in Great Britain (England and the Orkney and Shetland Islands) and gives an overview of similar crafts worldwide. In England straw plaiting was centred on Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire, although there was some plaiting in other counties. Observations such as those by Samuel Pepys in 1667 indicate that wearing straw hats was popular, but not whether the hats were locally made or imported. However, this cottage industry and its products are recorded in the 18th century, notably by Daniel Defoe, and also by Per Kalm, a Swedish scientist, who in 1748 spent several weeks in Little Gaddesden (Herts) observing the rural economy and way of life. Towards the end of that century the plaiting and making of straw hats as one process within the family or community, with makers selling directly at market, began to decline, not least due to competition from cheap, good-quality imported hats (initially from Italy, Bermuda and the Bahamas). Straw plaiting then became a separate occupation, with plaits being sold to dealers or bonnet makers.

In the 18th century much plaiting was done in workhouses but from the early 19th century until the 1870s many children in straw plaiting areas attended plait schools (illustration on p.17). They produced plaits to be sold by their parents, who had paid for them to attend. During a school day a 10-year-old was expected to make about 30 yards of simple plait (p.23). At 10 or 11 boys went to work on farms but girls continued at the school. As skilled young women, rather than go into service, they could earn quite good money working independently (which Victorian moralists frowned upon).

The plaiting industry also suffered from competition: from the 1850s cheap Chinese plaits were imported. Indeed, by 1886 reports concluded that the home plaiting industry was ‘almost ruined’ due to the high quality of those imports. Furthermore, straw hat factories had been set up in England as suitable machinery was developed. Some plaiters turned to basket-making, which offset some of the downturn, but only until the end of the century.

Today straw plaiting for the hat industry is on the Heritage Crafts’ Red List of Endangered Crafts: thus one of Veronica Main’s purposes is to provide a detailed manual of how to craft the heritage techniques of straw plaiting for various accessories. This forms the book’s second part. In England wheat straw was traditionally used but other plaiting materials include rye, barley and rice straw, various grasses, palms, cabbage tree palm (in Australia), and strips of paper (especially when made from rags). Main describes the straw’s preparation: harvesting, drying, splitting and dyeing. The various traditional plait patterns are recorded in a table (pp.122–3) and there follow 10 chapters on different plaits, with detailed instructions and clear diagrams. This book should fulfil its aims to preserve and promote the skills of straw plaiting.

A History of Badsey Flower Show by Maureen Spinks (The Badsey Society 2023 112pp ISBN: 978-0-954746-97-1) £6 + £3 p&p from www.badseysociety.uk

On St James’s Day (25 July) 1888 the inaugural Badsey Flower show took place (in pouring rain); since then it has taken place every year on or about St James’s Day (the parish church’s dedication) apart from a few disruptions due to war, royal celebrations, flooding and the pandemic. For the first 25 shows the venue changed several times, but from 1920 onwards it has mostly been held in the recreation ground.

Flower shows and horticultural shows were fairly common in Victorian England but many failed to thrive. From this account it is clear that, like most voluntary organisations and events, their continuance depends on strong leadership and fresh blood willing to take over from the ‘old guard’. Badsey Flower Show’s founders were Rev Charles Gepp, the new incumbent in 1887, and Julius Sladden (later Sir) of Seward House, Badsey, a keen exhibitor of gladioli and roses. Classes of exhibits at the show included various flowers, fruits, vegetables and sundries (in 1912 some of the latter were brown hens’ eggs, honey and a child’s cotton dress). As time went on new classes were added, such as photography. Some classes were specifically for women or men or children. As well as cash prizes and certificates, there were special prizes offered in certain classes by various seed merchants and other related wholesalers. Prizes also brought points, which were totalled to determine the winners of various cups. (Appendix III lists all cups and cup winners.)

The show’s success also depended on participation from villagers of all ages and all classes, as this would instil a ‘tradition’ of involvement. To this end artwork from children in the village school was often displayed. (The ‘Painting from Nature’ pictures by 11-year-olds from 1920 on pp.44–45 and on the cover are wonderful.) In 1922 there was a new class for ‘cottage gardens’ – literally the front gardens of cottages in the village; in 1926 Sir Julius observed that the prizes offered for these gardens meant that they were better looked after.

Not much is said about Badsey itself. On p.73 we learn that the population at the end of the 20th century was over 2,000, three times the size when the show started. Originally there were several thriving market gardens, indicating that the local soil was good for growing produce; perhaps another reason why the show has persisted.

Drawing on a wide variety of sources, including local newspapers, photographs, schedules of shows, prize certificates and local memories, Maureen Spinks has provided a detailed history of an event that may be thought of as quintessentially part of English village life.

Books for review should be sent to: Dr Heather Falvey, 119 Winton Drive, Croxley Green, Rickmansworth WD3 3QS – or contact her via reviews.editor@balh.org.uk

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Do you have research challenges or need advice on technology, publishing or aspects of running your society?
Send your questions to ‘Ask BALH’ at editor.lhn@balh.org.uk

A popular strand in this year’s inaugural Local History Live event was ‘Ask Alan’, where we invited local historians to send in their gnarly questions to Alan Crosby, editor of The Local Historian. He was sent some intriguing questions, covering everything from qualifying a rumour about whether an elephant is buried in a Bristol churchyard to the military origins of a village in Lincolnshire.

Now we’d like to invite all readers of Local History News to send in their questions for BALH officers and members to answer – these could be research-related queries, but they could also be about aspects of technology, running a society, producing publications… anything where some expert guidance would help! Please send your questions for ‘Ask BALH’ to editor.lhn@balh.org.uk.

Before we turn to some members’ enquiries, we kick off by sharing Alan’s valuable answer to a general question posed by BALH Chair Paul Dryburgh at Local History Live. If you are considering writing up your story research in detail and perhaps considering submitting it to The Local Historian, read on!

What do you think makes for good local history research?

Alan Crosby (pictured) writes: As editor of The Local Historian, I’ve got two perspectives on that. One is on the technical aspects, and the other is a general view of research. They link together obviously, but technical aspects mean things like needing proper referencing and proper identification of the sources. I do get articles sometimes where I really don’t know where the author has found the material, and obviously other people couldn’t know that either.

It’s very important to have a clear and logical structure and a flow of argument and evidence. Readers are coming to it new; they’re not going to know what’s in the mind of the author. So one thing which I often suggest is that people actually get somebody else to read it or even to read it aloud so that they get a different view of it. We as the authors will know what we mean, but other people
may not.

One of my bugbears is the overuse of highly technical terminology or what I could perhaps more unkindly called jargon. I encourage people to use plain English if they possibly can, and to use technical terms only sparingly and to explain them if necessary. Something very important I think is never to assume knowledge on the part of the reader.

I find that particularly when people are writing about a place, somebody will say ‘on the road past the phone box on the left is such and such…’, and they know where they’re talking about – but other people haven’t a clue. So you always have to think, what’s the outsider’s perspective on this? And yet at the other end, you don’t try and explain everything. I occasionally get papers where people say in the reign of Elizabeth I Queen of England or something, and, well, you don’t need to say Queen of England.

The key I think is to make sure that you know the context to really understand how your study or your investigation fits into the bigger picture, the wider issues. Good local history research makes it very clear how that sort of particular case study relates to something that’s happening more widely. It’s also important to be aware of whether your case study or your topic is actually very unusual… or is it actually standard? Does every place have this sort of phenomenon? I quite often get articles where somebody has found an exciting source and has written an article about it, and then doesn’t realise that that exciting source actually applies in every other parish in the country. That’s not to say there’s anything wrong with that, but I think it’s important to be aware of the commonality of it. That’s achieved by reading as much as possible in the secondary sources as well as trawling as many of the primary sources as possible.

The problem with not using secondary sources is that you might go over the same ground again that somebody else has already investigated, which is a waste of time really. So has that path been trodden before? Are there other published sources and case studies which could be related to that?

And then finally, which may seem silly, but I think is important: make sure you actually find the subject interesting yourself. I’ve been to too many talks when the speaker appears to be bored by the subject himself or herself. So make sure that you find the subject interesting to keep a liveliness to your approach. And think about who you’re writing for. Is it just for yourself or is it for the local community? Or is it the wider readership of, say, The Local Historian? Or is it a specialist interest group? And tailor what you write accordingly to the audience that you are imagining.

From Nigel Webb, Langham Village History Group

To make a primary document, such as a personal diary, available widely, it is possible to scan it in and upload it to the Internet Archive, at archive.org, but a Google search will probably not find it there without searching for something close to the full title. What good, preferably free alternatives are there? Why don’t more people upload such documents and make them available to researchers?

Paul Carter, BALH Digital Manager writes:

I always recommend setting up a personal website, which can be done for free using wordpress.com. I wrote a blog post about this – www.balh.org.uk/HJA166 – which supported the regular (annual) workshop we’ve run for the past few years. With a little work, your website can be made available to Google to search for, and there are directories which such websites can be added to (local history societies, family history societies, Cyndi’s List etc.) Doing it this way also makes it a candidate for the Internet Archive anyway as it will get indexed in time. We have the published BALH Internet Directory and are exploring an online version, which would be another opportunity to promote such a website.

Andrew Chapman, LHN editor, adds:

It’s still worth submitting documents to the Internet Archive too – assuming you know for certain they are in the public domain! If you’re looking to find this sort of material, there are search techniques which can help. For example, at Google you can search within a specific website for specific text like this:

site:archive.org “history of huddersfield”

and the Internet Archive has its own little-known ‘full text’ search – in the main search box, select the radio button underneath marked ‘Search text contents’. Look out for a more detailed guide to search techniques in Local History News soon!

From Kenneth Chapman, Dover

I have an interest in my home town’s history and have built up a small archive of books, photographs, slides, glass plate negatives, ephemera, 16th century tokens, medals and items of local interest – for example, items of crested ware, objects from shops bearing the seller’s name and address, and any item that bears the name ‘Dover’. In all I have 15,000+ images, 2,000+ items of ephemera (letters, guides, auction notices, indentures/mortgages etc.) and 500+ books. What software would you recommend to use with reference to cataloguing? I am Mac based and currently in the process of scanning all my items but would like to put them into one big searchable program.

Paul Carter writes:

I’m loath to promote my own software but it is the answer! It is designed for the recording of any sort of local history project, and being cloud based, works just as well on a Mac as any other platform. It is designed to enable detailed cataloguing. While its original intention was for smaller, individual projects, that has now been extended to much larger databases and is in use with several family history societies already. If anyone would like further guidance, do take a look at www.nameandplace.com or email me direct (paul@nameandplace.com).

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At BALH’s inaugural Local History Live event (see pages 30, 34 and 35), we asked attendees how they first became involved with local history. We had some wonderful answers, and the inspiring role that schoolteachers played is particularly noticeable. Here is a selection of the answers received – look out for more in BALH’s online channels.

I think the first time that I was really aware of local history was aged seven when our form teacher, Miss Kirk, told us the story of the lost villages of Cudlow and Ancton in Sussex (I lived at Lyminster in those days and the school was in Littlehampton). I was also addicted to our local museum – then in a vast room at the back of the local library and crammed full of a wonderful assortment of things: very posh ladies’ shoes, stuffed animals (yeugh!), all sorts… Growing up within sight of Arundel Castle also had a big influence.

Helen Whittle, West Sussex Archive Society

I live in the US but I am a huge fan of the history of the UK and Ireland. My first professional librarian position was in the Genealogy and Local History Division of the Indiana State Library, Indianapolis. So I have an interest in US local history also. My interest in UK local history came from my job as humanities bibliographer at Michigan State University Libraries. Our library, amazingly for a land grant institution, has a huge collection of the series volumes put out by various UK and county level historical, archaeological and record societies. I do have ancestors from the UK and Northern Ireland myself, and now that I am retired maybe I will have time to pursue their histories and the places from which they came.

Agnes Haigh Widder, Michigan, USA

I recall when at the local junior school (Linthwaite, Colne Valley, West Yorkshire), the teacher told the class to look out for the oldest building we could find. There were lots of 18th/19th-century weaver/farmer cottages etc in the scattered communities of our township. We finally found that just round the corner from where we lived one of my classmates lived in a farmhouse with a datestone over the door recording (I think I recall correctly) 1754. That taught me to be interested in my local environment and my local community history.

Edward Royle, Warwickshire

I currently study English Local History at Oxford University’s Department for Continuing Education. My journey began at eight years old with my grandmother playing draughts and being enthralled by her stories about her time in the Woman’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) during WW2. My grandmother was an excellent raconteuse and brought history to life, exciting my young mind, and 32 years later I carry on her tradition.

Jean Pennington

My grammar school in Middlesex was housed in a Victorian mansion with an ornamental garden, large pond and a long drive – I could imagine the life of the genteel Victorians who originally lived there. But what really drew me to study local history was a wonderful teacher who showed us old maps and documents about the school, the nearby church and the surrounding village. He asked for help in transcribing genuine old documents and I was hooked!

Elizabeth Randall, Somerset

My husband was a churchwarden and during an interregnum had charge of the parish registers. Among them was a slender leather book, ‘A new Register...’ dated 1633. It was the original BMD register, beautifully written in a clear hand, opened by a vicar newly installed in the benefice and fiercely determined to set the parish to rights after his predecessor’s 50-year sojourn. He kicked out the parish clerk on Day 1! He then instigated a renovation plan for the church fabric and property, the vicarage, the congregation, the lot. He must have been extremely talented, competent and very frightening to some, not least because of his radical views. He was, of course, a Parliamentarian during the Civil Wars. Who could have resisted the opportunity to transcribe the register, complete with comments? Inevitably this led to research and more research…

Margaret King

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By Alan Crosby

We went to Verona with friends in early September, two gentlemen and two ladies (though in the play the two gentlemen of Verona actually went to Milan, so we stretched the point a little). A wonderful city, famed of course for outdoor operas in the vast Roman arena – we booked well ahead and secured excellent seats for Madama Butterfly, a stunning experience marred only by the Englishman immediately behind me who insisted on humming loudly during all the well-known tunes. Philistine!

Verona has some superb churches with magnificent early frescoes and – an important point for me – not ruined by a lavish excess of heavy Baroquery. In so many churches in southern and central Europe, I find myself loathing those monstrous altars embellished with vast quantities of gold, accompanied by simpering statues of the BVM and by acres of 14th-rate late 18th-century paintings. Prejudiced and intolerant, moi?

But Verona’s other great claim to fame (apart from its giant-beating football team, known in Italy as the gialloblu because of its yellow and blue strip) is that it was the home of Romeo and Juliet, and therein lies an intriguing aspect of its local history. Among the tourist attractions is Juliet’s house, in a courtyard off one of the city centre streets, Via Cappello (aka. Capulet), and naturally enough its main attraction is Juliet’s balcony. We passed the lines of visitors who were queuing up to see the house and balcony, they having paid the 6 euro entrance fee online. The house was bought by the city council in 1907, when it was already a visitor attraction – the city’s tourist website carefully states that ‘legend and popular belief… identified it as the birthplace of Giulietta Capuleti, protagonist, along with the beloved Romeo Montecchi, of the famous Shakespearean tragedy’. The note of caution is very wise, I think.

The celebrated balcony is the star attraction, but (do I need to say this?) it’s a fake. The play itself does not mention a balcony anyway (Juliet stood at a window) and the house did not have a balcony in the early 20th century. The balcony which the tourists gaze at and in front of which they take their selfies was actually built at the end of the 1930s, using a heap of stonework (from a demolished medieval building) which had been in store at Castelvecchio, beside the river Adige at the other side of the city centre. This does not worry the visitors, of course, but it worries me.

Behind all this there lies a greater strangeness. We were walking through a busy square in another part of the centre, and came upon a group of English people listening to a guide (a young woman speaking excellent English). She was explaining to them about Romeo and Juliet and their relationship to the city (‘Romeo would have walked along that street when he went to visit Juliet’, ‘the fighting between the Montagues and the Capulets would have taken place over there’). The events of the medieval period came alive once more as she talked enthusiastically. But of course, Romeo and Juliet never existed, their story being exactly that – a highly romanticised piece of pure fiction that circulated widely in 16th-century Europe and was spotted by the genius of Stratford-upon-Avon. The rest, as they say, is history, but the real history begins with William Shakespeare, not with the fictitious teenagers of medieval Verona.

Amazing, though, to think that the greatest tourist attraction in modern Verona is the fake balcony and the falsely attributed house. Romeo and Juliet have become real people, to the extent that she now ‘receives’ over 5,000 letters a year from all over the world, asking her advice about love affairs and emotional entanglements (they are answered by a team of volunteers). Tourist guides tell of their real-life activities, people rub the gleamingly polished right breast of the implausible bronze statue of Juliet which stands in the courtyard of ‘her’ house (it brings them good luck, of course), and the fact that they never existed is overlooked. And I’ve not even mentioned Romeo’s house, which is also on the
tourist circuit …

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By Joe Saunders

In recent months the Outreach Team, ably assisted by our Outreach Coordinator and the Digital Team, have been working on various initiatives for BALH members.

We helped with the new Local History Live, an online event replacing Local History Day which we ran with an Interwar theme in September. This also featured panels on archives, on the future of local history and a Q&A with The Local Historian’s Alan Crosby (see page 30). We have also been planning our third annual Dymond Lecture by Professor Fiona Edmonds who is coming to the end of her term as Head of the Regional History Centre at Lancaster University (see page 17). Plans have already begun to recruit a speaker for 2024, along with a range of other talks in 2024 including a rescheduled talk by the Mercers’ Company and a resumption of Local History Hour.

BALH has also been supporting a local history event for students at Swansea University organised by Lauren Golding. Outreach member Helen Palmer went to speak to the students and BALH contributed a free year’s student membership as one of the prizes for a competition.

In September we sponsored ‘All About That Place’, an event to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Society for One-Place Studies which provided over a hundred free talks with a local history slant.

BALH attends as many events as possible but we can only do so if we are aware of them. Please get in touch with our Outreach Coordinator Stephen Miller if you are running an event and would like us to attend: outreach@balh.org.uk

The BALH blog continues to draw in excellent research as does our popular series of online ten-minute talks. We are always looking for new blogs and videos so please get in touch if you would like to share your local history research with a wide audience. In 2024 we are especially looking to share ideas on ‘doing’ local history from researching to running a society. Get in touch with the Digital Team with your idea for the website, digitalteam@balh.org.uk, or contact editor.lhn@balh.org.uk to discuss ideas for articles here in Local History News.

The BALH Outreach Team, which promotes the association and local history generally, is looking for new members to help with our initiatives. Please get in touch via outreach@balh.org.uk

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By Joe Saunders, Stephen Miller & Andrew Chapman

Helping local historians

BALH aims to advise and inspire local historians. To do this we share excellent research from which you can take encouragement, we inform you of events and new books and offer support in the process of doing your local history through our website, publications and events. It is in this vein that we are asking readers to help us help others with their local history. You possess a wealth of knowledge about the practicalities of local history, whether this is researching, writing, giving talks, publishing, teaching, running societies and more. Please do get in touch if you feel you can share some of your knowledge with us in either a short, written piece for Local History News (please send your proposal to Andrew Chapman, editor.lhn@balh.org.uk), our blog and/or a recorded ten-minute talk (contact Joe Saunders, joseph6.saunders@hotmail.com).

BALH Local History Photographer of the Year

The theme for this year’s BALH photography competition was ‘Up my street’, and we invited people to share a scene around where they live, work or study, within the context of local history. We received an incredible array of entries and it took some doing to identify the winners. But the judges, professional photographer Robert Canis, BALH Digital Strategy Coordinator Megan Kelleher and Local History News editor Andrew Chapman, chaired by BALH Digital Manager Paul Carter (who also provided the clever software to manage the entries), were unanimous in their selection of winners. You can see the overall adult winner Nicola Turner’s entry on the front cover of this magazine. Huge congratulations to her, along with the under 18s winner Micah Reid and the adult runners-up Malcolm Jarvis and Heather Morris – their images are on the back cover. The winners, and the impressive range of other entries, were showcased at Local History Live in September. They receive a cash prize and a certificate to mark their achievement. Do keep an eye out for details of the 2024 competition!

Local and Community History Month

BALH and The Historical Association are working on a project to revamp and relaunch Local and Community History Month from 2025. We aim to emulate the success of other prominent history months and projects such as Heritage Open Days to create a national festival of local history! We want to provide a new brand, event programme, marketing support, resources and guidance to help local history societies, archives, museums and libraries make a bigger impact with their activities. To make this a success we are seeking external funding and would welcome your feedback on the idea:

• Would you or organisation be interested in the project and why?
• What impact might the project have for you and your community?
• What type of event, project or activity would you like to see in your local community?

Please email our Outreach Coordinator, Stephen Miller, with any comments at outreach@balh.org.uk

A Local History News milestone

The next issue of LHN will be No. 150! If you have particular memories of this journal’s history (which stretches back to the 1980s) or perhaps when it helped your society in some way, do please share them via editor.lhn@balh.org.uk. And as for the future…

Upcoming copy deadlines

The next issue of Local History News will be out around the end of February – please note the copy deadline for that issue (No. 150) is
3 January. If you wish to promote a society event here, it will need to take place in March or later – for earlier events, which we may be able to list at www.balh.org.uk/events, contact the BALH Digital Manager, digitalmanager@balh.org.uk

Local History News welcomes your news, articles, ideas and calls for help – please contact
editor.lhn@balh.org.uk

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