Local History News Number 93 Autumn 2009

HERE PRINCE CHARLES EDWARD STUART HAS HIS QUARTERS 1745

Among the lesser-known facts about Bonnie Prince Charlie is that he was a devotee of Marks & Spencer. Though in his long and extremely unsatisfactory life of 68 years he didn’t spend all that much time on British shores (July 1745 to September 1746 to be precise) he certainly had a feeling for the emotional pulse of the nation. What better way for a man born in Rome, son of a half-Italian father and a Polish mother, to prove his through and through Britishness, than by giving his allegiance to our favourite High Street store? I didn’t realise this significant but curiously little-known dimension to Jacobite history until I was in Carlisle a few weeks ago, when I happened to look above ground-floor level while walking through the market place, and noticed the plaque on the upper storey of Marks & Spencer which proudly proclaims the title to this piece.

How different history might have been if only the PR people employed by Charles Edward Stuart had spread the word. Unquestionably, that parvenu princeling George II, being more than usually full of his own importance and anxious to curry favour with the chattering classes, did not shop at M&S, let alone stay there. Mein Gott! Nein!

There was still a lot of suspicion about the Hanoverians. Did they fit into English society? Choosing a suitable store was surely part of that cultural acclimatisation process? Though evidence is strangely lacking, I am convinced that George and Caroline (were they known as Georgie and Cazza?) frequented Harrods - though there can be no doubt at all Frederick, Prince of Wales was a Marks and Spencer’s man, just to be perverse and annoy his parents in that amusing Hanoverian way. So George’s penchant for elitist stores would have been a godsend to BPC’s people if only they’d realised the propaganda value. The headlines would have been politically devastating: ‘German George Shops At Toff Store But Darling Charlie Is A People’s Prince’ … ‘I’m No Pretender Says Charlie: I Really Love M&S’.

Of course, most M&S stores in 1745 didn’t have accommodation for visitors, but at Carlisle they evidently made an exception, given the importance of the occasion. After all, a royal visit was something special, particularly as the visitor had threatened to lay waste the city, then received its surrender and ridden in on a white charger preceded by more than a hundred Scots pipers. My investigations suggest that rooms were fitted out for the prince in the area close to the manager’s office, probably using a line in Royal Stewart home furnishings that by happy chance was on sale. The accommodation was, as contemporary correspondence confirms, rented to the prince at £5 per day for four days, a very reasonable charge considering the availability of delicious ready meals in the food hall. If only a till receipt had survived to let us know which dishes he preferred – Chicken a la King, perhaps, or maybe Sole Royale.

But we do know that he and his retinue made use of the excellent range of choice wines stocked by M&S – a letter from 1745 states that some two or three dozen bottles were consumed by the guests during their stay. An eyewitness also reported that a large map of England was pinned to the wall, but (since M&S don’t stock this item) it must have come from W.H. Smith just across the street. And of course if only he hadn’t retreated from Derby and come a cropper at Culloden, the advertising in the later 1740s might have been spectacular. ‘Charles isn’t just any prince - he is from the Marks and Spencer Young Chevalier range’.

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BALH AWARDS 2009 BARBARA APPLIN
 

It is a coincidence that both our award winners profiled in this issue of Local History News are graduates in English, though as you read it becomes clear that writing has remained important to both of them. Barbara Applin studied at Newcastle (when it was King’s College, University of Durham), and joined in the excavations at Hadrian’s Wall. After various administrative posts with the Museums Association, evening classes and then a diploma in Archaeology, she became Assistant Curator at the Willis Museum, Basingstoke, when the town was being redeveloped for London overspill. This meant rescue digs on vast housing estates, and on the route of the M3. With the founding of Hampshire Museums Service, Barbara became Keeper of Archaeology. She was invited back to the Museums Association as Acting Secretary for a short spell, and then moved to Macmillan where she edited books teaching English as a foreign language, and wrote some children’s readers.

 
Barbara was a founding member of Basingstoke Archaeological & Historical Society (BAHS) in 1971, and is described as ‘one of its driving forces ever since’. Her diverse skills and interests are revealed in the products of her involvement in local history and archaeology. In 1986 she co-wrote (with ian Cullen) a play 'Swing Swang lane' based on Basingstoke history, that was performed locally, and in 1993 she wrote the script (and participated in the narration) for a video (now a DVD) on Basingstoke’s archaeology Beneath Basingtsoke. Her abilities as a playwright were used again for ‘A day in Tudor Basingstoke’ where she brought research into sixteenth century records to life for a modern audience, resulting in at least one person becoming hooked on local history!
 
Some readers will be aware of Basingstoke’s reputation as ‘Doughnut City’. Undeterred by this nickname, one of Barbara’s books is Roundabout Basingstoke which examines historical stories relating to some of the many roundabouts on local roads in the area.
 
Becoming less fit for digging, Barbara has continued to work on a database of Basingstoke. It began as a card index of billheads, has subsequently expanded to include many more sources, been computerised, and now provides information for enquirers. Barbara and her husband have also been closely involved with the volunteer project to revise the Basingstoke Hundred section of Hampshire Victoria County History (see LHN 88 p6 and 89 p5).
 
In recent years Barbara’s main focus has been the Basingstoke Talking History Project. She has spearheaded this programme, leading a group of volunteers who have recorded interviews with people in the area, capturing memories before, during and after the town’s rapid expansion of the 1960s and 1970s. Well over 200 have been recorded, transcribed and deposited with the Wessex Film and Sound Archive at Hampshire Record Office. The team has also transcribed some earlier recordings held at the Willis Museum, making them much more accessible. It doesn’t stop there: the project isusing their results. The first book Taking the Pulse of Basingstoke is a collection of memories of health before and after the introduction of the National Health Service.Happy Christmas Basingstoke! has just been published.
 
Barbara Applin’s enthusiasm for her home town is infectious. She has not only worked hard for local history over many years, through involvement in organisations like Basingstoke Archaeological & Historical Society, Friends of Willis Museum, Friends of Basing House, Hampshire Field Club, and Basingstoke Heritage Society, but has also been instrumental in encouraging others to follow in her footsteps.
 
 Thanks to Barbara Applin, David Lee, Mark Preyer, and Derek Spruce

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BALH AWARDS 2009 ALISTAIR DAVIDSON
 

Alistair Davidson has masterminded a highly successful research programme for Colinton Local History Society gaining admiration and respect from colleagues in the society and in the local history community in Edinburgh. He received a British Association for Local History Personal Achievement Award 2009 for this work. Of particular note is the way many members of the society have become active researchers under Alistair’s meticulous planning and guidance, resulting, so far, in six books on nineteenth century Colinton.

 
Like many of our members he became involved in local history after retirement. Admitting to having dropped history in favour of geography at secondary school, he took a degree at Glasgow University in English Language and Literature, became a teacher of English, and subsequently an HM Inspector of Schools in Scotland. Although he had been attending meetings of CLHS for a few years, pressures of work prevented him being an active member. However in 1991 this became possible; he has subsequently served as Chairman, and also played a valuable role in establishing the archive.
 
In common with numerous local history societies, Colinton had a few members who were interested in research, with their own ideas that tended to be ambitious and demanding both in time and skills. In the early 1990s Alistair and Dick Lewis decided to try a new coordinated style of project that they hoped would attract people who had never before dreamed of becoming involved in research. As he puts it ‘we defined our approach as asking members to contribute individual ‘bricks’ to a research ‘wall’ planned by the Society’. To encourage participation they promised that no ‘brick’ would demand more than 25 hours work over a three-month period.
 
Alistair Davidson has been a coordinator throughout, with a colleague to start with and recently working on his own. Their role was to divide the tasks into 25 hour blocks, draft a set of briefing papers for each, and draw together the final reports into a Society book. Critical to success was devising the detailed instructions. Believing it was equally important to involve people with many different levels of skill and experience, each set was written specifically for the person who would be doing the research, to guide without inhibiting personal initiative. This of course all required breaking the 25 hour rule for the coordinators!
 
The initial choice of topic was also important, as not everything would be amenable to being tackled in small pieces, and also have accessible resources for those beginning on their research careers. Colinton parish in the nineteenth century was chosen, and clear guidance provided on using census records, newspapers, minute books of local churches and other organisations.
 
After thirteen years Alistair and over sixty members of the Local History Society have produced five reports and a summary volume on nineteenth century Colinton. They draw a detailed picture of the community, and set very high standards on all counts. Without the continuity provided by Alistair’s presence this would never have been achieved. The variety of verbs applied to his contributions demonstrate how vital he has been: he advised, cajoled, supported, devised, collated, wrote, edited …
 
 
 
Thanks to Iain Copland, Alistair Davidson, Richard Illingworth, and Derek Douglas

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COMMUNITY ARCHIVES
 

Launched in 2006, the Community Archives website is a national database of local history and archive sites, bringing together groups, individuals, and local community archives and histories that makes up our local and national picture.

The website hosts an ever growing bank of local archive and local history groups’ sites, at present around 800, and provides a legacy of local history built up by local communities and individuals who want to keep their past alive.
Community Archives also offers resources, hints and tips for anyone looking to set up their own site or to discover local community history, exchange news, events, and ideas from all over the country. The initiative, motivation, and ownership of these community archives is independent of the website which allows a community archivist to still maintain control of their history and yet be part of a national database of community histories around the country that brings their local history to a wider audience.
There are plenty of local community archivists out there, estimates range between 1,000 and 5,000 groups currently operating in the UK who are beavering away in isolation. To this end the website is set up with a broad definition of 'community archive' so that any local heritage initiative (large or small), professional or voluntary, the long-established or the novice, group or individual busy recording a unique interpretation of local history of any kind: local; occupational; ethnic; religious; national; or special interest with collections that include photographs, documents, scripts, oral histories, artefacts etc – everything and (almost) anything is welcome.
Some of the local community archives that can be found include the Alan
Acykbourn’s writing career in the Bob Watson Archive which, among many
other records, holds all his original scripts and reflects his time as a playwright and theatre director; the Durham Miners Heritage Group which provides an exhibition of mining memorabilia collected over the last 20 years; an archive built around a knitted map of the 1792 Map of Brighton, looking at the local geography of Kemp Town, images of the streets of Bournemouth endorsed by Bill Bryson and much more.
Dedicated volunteer editors are at the heart of the website. A team of a dozen enthusiasts seek out local archive groups across the country to build on the current list, linking new sites and increasing the depth of knowledge that’s out there. As the website grows and establishes itself as a national local history database, the volunteers attend history events where the public can meet them and find out more about Community Archives such as the Who Do You Think You Are? event held in February, and hold their own annual Community Archives Conference held in July.
But let’s not forget the many local community archive sites without whom the website could not exist or grow in importance. It is thanks to them that the Community Archives website can work towards turning a local, community, sense of identity into a national sense of identity; building a national database of local community history: a living working picture of our local history, a useful national resource, and making the past come to life in the present.
Community Archives needs you
Want to become a volunteer or are you one of the many sites who are working away in isolation, building a history of your area? Can the Community Archives website help you, or can you help them? Well our local heritage needs you to build up the national picture of our history, culture and 
ever-changing world.
Find out more at www.communityarchives.co.uk

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MONKS, MONASTERIES AND YORKSHIREFOLK
 

The hulk of Rievaulx Abbey stood solid and ark-like through the deluge. A shadowy figure appeared sou’wester dripping water – could it be Noah? “So much for weather forecasters” said Freda. At that point we all headed for the historians’ universal refuge – the nearest pub. Twenty minutes later gathered round a fire, with steaming bowls of soup and with bacon butties, we took the decision that early March was not the ideal time for field trips.

 
We are lucky – in our part of Yorkshire we are less than an hour’s drive away from the remains of some of the most important and impressive Mediaeval monasteries in the Country. When, some months earlier, a meeting had been held to set up our local U3A (“University of the Third Age”) I was foolish enough to point this out – the inevitable happened – I found myself running a Mediaeval Monastery group. Whilst I had given similar courses specifically for architectural students in the past, this was different. Would anyone be interested? Would they have the enthusiasm to ferret out facts for themselves? Would they, perhaps, even bring their own specialist expertise so that we could view monasteries, their architecture and their history, from a different slant?
 
I was to be pleasantly surprised. We immediately had a group of nearly twenty enthusiasts drawn from a really wide range of backgrounds – from a retired Prison Governor to an ex-director of a large international company. Some, but certainly not all, had been to university. One at least, as an undergraduate, had read Tudor history at Oxford. On the other hand many had given their time solely to raising families with everything that that entails. All, though, had much to offer to the group.
 
We started by examining how Christian Monasticism had developed. Its origins, its growth in the East and most importantly, the Rule of St Benedict. The Rule that was to form the inspiration and bedrock particularly for many of the monasteries we would be studying in our area. We saw how Celtic monasticism grew in the West with examples in Yorkshire at places like Whitby and Lastingham. How Cluny provided ideal conditions for the development of art and the liturgy and how the zeal of the Cistercians gave us the solid beauty and spiritual example epitomised by monasteries like Rievaulx and Fountains.
 
Having set the scene rather formally through talks we then began to work as a group. After our dousing at Rievaulx we decided that spring and summer were the time for field trips and that late autumn and winter the time to “get under the skin” of the buildings, their history and the way of life that formed them. Gradually individuals in the group have taken on responsibility for investigating particular themes so that our winter meetings are much more akin to seminars, with perhaps three or four short papers from different people at each monthly session. From time to time we are lucky enough to have experts in a particular field joining us to explore a specific subject in greater depth. Our site visits in the summer build on these foundations. If a local expert is on hand to expand on the work we have already done, so much the better. If not, we have, in the winter, built up sufficient knowledge to interpret the buildings and to understand and question their historical and religious context. On these field trips we invariably rely on the expertise of one of our most valued members who has developed the knack of finding a superb pub within a few miles of any given monastery. 
 
So, over time our group has built up a reasonable understanding of our local monasteries and their context in the Middle Ages. We have then moved on in our seminars to look in more detail at specific themes. We were particularly interested in the Dissolution of the Monasteries in Yorkshire and the effect this had on the population both during the Suppression and in the decades afterwards. This of course is both a difficult and contentious subject – one has only to look at the legacy of research from the last century to realise the fixed standpoints from which it was often approached. Thankfully today scholars are taking a much more objective view. Early last Spring, when we were wallowing in the aftermath of the Dissolution, Professor Clare Cross joined us for an afternoon session and gave an excellent talk followed by a discussion that sorted out so many of the problems we had been facing. 
 
This winter we are returning to the Twelfth Century and examining how the Cistercians came to Yorkshire and used Rievaulx as a hub from which to colonise the North. So much of what we have done seemed worthwhile the other week when one of our members who claimed there was no way she could possibly do any research, produced a super short paper on the early Cistercian foundations in this Country.
 
In our efforts to understand the driving force that took the Mediaeval monk “far from the concourse of men” we have on two occasions spent a day with the monks of Ampleforth Abbey. This fascinating experience has helped us to put flesh on the “bare ruined choirs” we have seen in places like Byland and Kirkham.    To be standing next to a monk in church chanting the Office brings one very close to St Ailred and his companions at Rievaulx. So, gradually all of us in the group have realised that history is not just about what happened when, but much more importantly it is about understanding and getting close to the people in our locality – the farmers, craftsmen, merchants and even the monks – who have gone before.

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WASSU STONE CIRCLES
 

The Wassu stone circles are the greatest historic monument in the tiny West African country of The Gambia, famous because from its Atlantic shore the nation pierces Senegal like a dagger, following the course of the 487km River Gambia. The stone circles are on the north bank of the river, in the Niani District of Central River Region. The approach along the north bank entails taking a ferry (they hold one or two large trucks, or four smaller ones, or eight to ten cars, and a vast melee of foot passengers) from the capital, Banjul, to Barra. It is always a colourful crossing! From Barra you proceed east to Farafenni, just 3km from the Senegalese border, then for another hour to Kuntaur, whence it is 2 km inland to Wassu village. Just through the hamlet, immediately on the left, visitors turn at the huge ‘Wassu Stone Circles’ billboard, which is sponsored by TBL (Trust Bank Ltd) and followed a pitted track, for 4x4s only, about 750 metres to the enigmatic monuments.

 
However, we approached from the south side of the river, travelling west from Basse to Sankulay Kunda, where a small two-vehicle (or one lorry or tractor or fifteen head of cattle) ferry takes you across the 10 metre narrows to the southern side of Janjanbureh island. From there it’s a ten-minute vehicle drive to Janjanbureh town (formerly Georgetown), where a slightly larger ferry (four cars, or one car plus an American-style school bus and a small cart complete with recalcitrant donkey) takes you across to Lamin Koto on the north bank.
 
As well as the fascinating stone circles (there are eleven of them), the site has an informative small museum, clean and functional restrooms (essential in a country where they are very scarce) and a small reception area selling canned soft drinks (sometimes they are even cold), Wassu & Kerbatch stone circlesbrochures sponsored by—of course—TBL, and postcards. Part of the stone circles are represented on the back of the Gambian 50 dalasi note—though this is perhaps the only encounter which most Gambian have with their great national monument.
 
Wassu is part of the wider Senegambian stone circle complex, extending across the two countries. What makes this unique in comparison with other megalithic monuments in Britain (such as Avebury and Stonehenge) or even in Africa (they are found in, for example, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Ethiopia, Mali, and Nigeria) is the prodigious concentration of monuments. Those at Wassu are among the most visited of many hundreds of stone circle sites scattered throughout the region. Nearby is a quarry, and a standing stone measuring 2,59 metres—the tallest in the region. The circles, The Gambia’s most famous and only carbon-dated site, were constructed between AD600 and AD1000. Nobody knows exactly who built them, but across the Senegambian complex as a whole archaeological excavation and carbon dating indicates that stone circles were created over a long period, between about 400BC to AD1400 the West African Iron Age. There are thousands of skilfully-dressed stones placed in circles and other alignments, supplying evidence of a large technical expertise combined with a first-rate understanding of local geology.
 
The Senegambian complex is composed entirely of laterite, found throughout the region. However, as is shown by the numerous broken monoliths left in situ in the quarries, identification of appropriate lateritic protrusions for carving required great proficiency. This was especially so in locating those outcrops with the minimum of iron deposits (which led to splitting during carving and removal). Furthermore, the transportation and erection of the monoliths implies a social organisation to harness the labour force. Some of the laterite blocks, for example, weigh up to seven tons.
 
Archaeological investigation indicates that most of the sites were burial places, so the complex seems to be a huge necropolis for a distinct cultural group which is no longer extant in the Senegambian region. Study of the grave-sites reveals a culture with an abundant and intricate set of burial practices. As the information booklet says, the entire complex seems to have resulted ‘from a colossal investment of time [and'>more... energy, reflect[ing'>more... the spiritual life and a distinct perception of death which has no equivalent in West Africa [testifying'>more... to an African religiosity which, carved in [laterite'>more..., has survived until today’. Wassu, easily accessible and well-preserved, is a fascinating showpiece for the 2006 UNESCO World Heritage inscription of the entire Senegambian stone complex.

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THE LANGUAGE OF ARCHIVES
 

Against the name of Mary Murry in the calendar of prisoners for the Wiltshire Quarter Sessions held in January 1698 is the note that she be ‘inlarged’. Was this a cruel punishment in the torturer’s armoury, the direct opposite of peine forte et dure, whereby a prisoner was pressed under a heavy weight until he pleaded or died? Fortunately not for Mary: The answer is provided in Sessions order book for Easter 1704 in which two other prisoners were to be forthwith enlarged and set at liberty. This is an unusual meaning of the word although familiar to those who remember news reports from the not too distant past in which escaped prisoners were described as being still at large.

 
The point is that the English language is constantly evolving and developing, with words acquiring new meanings or even dropping out of use altogether. Stephen Fry has likened this process ‘to a long sticky flypaper to which influences of church, aristocracy, industry, commerce and international entertainment have accreted themselves. Add to this mix Latin, Norse, French, and more recently the indigenous languages countries of the British Empire and we have a tongue that has spread and blossomed across the globe. In celebrating the evolution and democratizing of English he takes issue with pedants like Lynne Truss and argues that there is no correct or received language, and that as long as we understand it is acceptable.
 
This has important implications for the historian who is unlikely to be instinctively attuned to the linguistic subtleties of his chosen period of study, and must immerse himself in contemporary sources and rely on the Oxford English Dictionary to be able to understand and thus interpret his material. Historians of our own era will need assistance and guidance through the minefields of 21st century colloquialisms and linguistic anarchy celebrated by Stephen Fry.
We take amusement at the language of what is called management speak. Blue sky thinking, the helicopter view, paradigm shift, product evangelist, forward planning and strategic staircase, are all examples of the tautological pomposities that epitomise this style of communication. Yet these suffuse the records of government, both national and local, and business, that will be the raw material for future historical research. There will be a real need for a phrase book to sit on reference library bookshelves alongside Medieval Latin Wordlist.
 
They will need to tackle the proliferation of the verbing of nouns (it is acceptable to medal at the Olympics, but not to meddle), and the use of words and phrases that may have an intense but short currency; ‘It’s not rocket science’, ‘basically’, and ‘at this point in time’, all deserve to be sent to the waste bin of cliché and tautology, but not before they have been recorded by the lexicographer.
Linguistic style is clearly important in infusing archives with vitality and realism; pithy and fresh phrases make them memorable and engage us as we sit metaphorically at the shoulder of the person creating the record. The following examples from the 17thcentury, which have all stood the test of time, illustrate this point.
 
Writing to the registrar about the number of local nonconformists in 1674 Edward Wells, vicar of Corsham, sent ‘the best account I could get of our squadron of irregulars: you may imagine what encouragement a minister is like to find, who lives amidst such a nest of wasps.’
Asked in a case of sexual misconduct heard in 1636 why she ‘lay without her husband so long’ Christian Barret, probably of Lyme Regis, replied ‘that seeing that they could frame no better together it was not amise to them to live asunder’

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CHURCH HOUSES
 

The cover of the most recent Local History News (LHN) number 92, Summer 2009 includes a picture of an interesting 15th century house. The location is Hallaton in Leicestershire and the building is the grey stucco and thatch one in the background, distinguished by steep pitched roofs and a bay window. It lies opposite the churchyard and near the former market-place. An earlierLHN cover illustration (Winter 2008) showed a similar building of half-timbered close-studded type – the Old School house at Stalisfield, Kent. This building, too, lies close to both church and manor house.   A third building was illustrated on page 232 of the 25th anniversary issue of The Local Historian (November 2007). The 1840 sketch shows Deddington market-place and church. Between the market-house and church is a two-storeyed building with a pentice (to protect market stalls from the weather).   Only the southern half of this building appears to be shown and its back abuts directly on to the churchyard.

 
According to Charles Pythian Adams, who led the Hallaton group visit at the recent ‘Local History after Hoskins conference’, the first of these Tudor buildings includes a three-bay open hall of the guild of Corpus Christi. It is possible that this former market town originally had a separate two-storey church house, too. In smaller places guilds used church houses for their feasts and this led to the interchangeability of the terms church and guild house. Some parish and town houses may also have started life as church houses.
 
The other two examples cited above seem more likely to be church houses than the Hallaton one. Built for holding church ales and feasts in, and as a result raising funds for the church and its ornamentation, church houses were the prototype of the village hall. The pewing out of churches meant that an alternative indoor venue was needed for the whole parish to meet in. Play props and costumes for Robin Hood and his merry men were also stored in church houses. But the most surprising thing about church houses is how common they once were.    Every village south of the river Humber could have had one (the picture to the north is less clear and may reflect a north-south divide). 
 
My interest in church houses began about thirty years ago when I came across the term for the first time while researching my PhD thesis. I had chosen to work on a group of seven exceptionally well-documented parishes in the middle Thames Valley and found that every one had once had a church house and those at Bray and Cookham in Berkshire survived. 
 
The Bray example was built over a lychgate dated 1448 (in Arabic numerals), while that at Cookham was there by 1545 and this hundred year period appears to be when most church houses were first built (though in more Catholic areas building went on rather later). Of the other Berkshire parishes, Binfield’s church house was begun in 1517 and Sunninghill’s noted only at its demise in the 18th century.  Records of the three Middlesex parishes yielded construction dates of 1525 and 1527 for Twickenham and Isleworth examples, with Heston’s church house first noted only in the 17th century, by which time it had become a poorhouse. Measured building plots are noted in the case of Binfield in Berkshire and Isleworth in Middlesex showing that church houses were often built on reclaimed waste land. Often the only clue to a church house’s existence is the payment of an annual ground rent of a few pennies to the lord of the manor who had given the land. Such payments were not necessary  where the church house plot was cut out of the churchyard.
 
Part way through doing the thesis I moved to Cornwall to teach local history for the University of Exeter extramural department.  Devon, where I also worked, is the county par-excellence for church houses. Dispersed patterns of settlement with hamlet-sized church towns are typical of this county.  A number of Devon examples have helpfully become pubs called Church House Inns.  
 
Dendro-dating is pushing church house construction in the West Country as late as the time of the Prayer Book Rebellion.  When the vicar of Poundstock in Cornwall, Simon Morton, was hung in 1549 for supporting the old Catholic religion, the church house there probably had not been finished. Church ales were outlawed by Edward VI in 1548, brought back by Mary, tolerated by Elizabeth and in some places continued into the 17th century and even up to the English Civil War which began in 1642.   A switch to church rates as a means of fund raising accounts for the demise of most church ales. Alternative uses were not hard to find for church houses and many had second lives as poorhouses, schools and pubs. Where schools were held in the old upstairs feasting room, poor people could be housed below. In the case of Poundstock the poor, including a one-legged man, eventually ousted the school children.
 
In pursuit of church houses I have visited numerous villages, sometimes on spec because of an indication in Pevsner, given talks, received information from the National Monuments Register at Swindon, scoured the Access to Archives web site, used original documents in record offices and antiquarian histories in the Institute of Historical Research and elsewhere.  The result is a continually growing card index of church houses and possible church houses.   Definite examples or documentary evidence for their former existence have now been found in 33 counties in England as well as in Wales. I am very keen to hear from anyone who knows of an existing church house or documentary references to one. I am also happy to supply information to local historians within reason.
 
Features to look for when trying to identify church houses include the following: churchyard or near churchyard location, outside steps and a first floor external door, pairs of external doors downstairs, a pentice, quality timberwork especially in roofs, smoke bays or fire places the width of the building (inglenooks for brewing).   Multiple fireplaces relate to later use as poorhouses, jetties, close-studding or ashlar masonry can also occur. 
 
 
References:
Joanna Mattingly, ‘Cookham, Bray and Isleworth Hundreds: A Study in Changing Local Relations in the Middle Thames Valley, 1422-1558’, London University PhD, 1993, p. 241.
P. Cowley, The Church Houses (1970) is a pioneering if old fashioned study.
For Devon church houses see G.W. Copeland articles inTransactions of the Devonshire Association 1960-7.

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THE VCH EPE CONFERENCE IN BRISTOL
 

The Victoria County History hosted a conference in Bristol earlier this month to mark the conclusion of its Heritage Lottery-funded project, England’s Past for Everyone.

 
‘Is England’s Past for Everyone? Learning and Outreach in the Historic Environment’ was held at Armada House, a Grade II-listed Edwardian building in the centre of the city, and was attended by delegates from a wide range of organisations including local authorities, universities, Heritage Lottery Fund, English Heritage, National Trust and the Council for British Archaeology.
 
The two-day event included presentations, panels and a series of workshops and provided an opportunity for delegates to share best practise and lessons learnt with heritage colleagues from across the country.
 
Chaired by Don Henson, Head of Education, CBA, day one opened with a keynote speech from Baroness Kay Andrews, Chair of English Heritage. Baroness Andrews asked delegates to consider the barriers to the idea that England’s past is for everyone and how individuals and organisations can work to overcome these. EPE Project Manager Catherine Cavanagh, then provided an overview of the EPE project and was followed by a panel session on new and traditional approaches to local history publishing, chaired by Noel Osborne, Phillimore & Co. Ltd.
 
The afternoon was opened by historian and broadcaster Michael Wood, who treated the audience to a preview of his new television project, involving the community of a Leicestershire village in an archaeological study of their local area. This was followed by presentations from Simon Townley, Team Leader, VCH Oxfordshire, and Justin Champion, Professor of History and Head of Department, Royal Holloway. The session considered how the media and the web can help bring history to new audiences. The afternoon concluded with a presentation from Hilary Jones and Catherine McHarg, English Heritage, who spoke about education initiatives at EH, in particular the Heritage Explorer website, a resource for teachers and pupils.
 
Day two was chaired by Simon Townley, with the opening keynote speech provided by Lucy Worsley, Chief Curator, Historic Royal Palaces. Lucy spoke about the work of HRP, with particular focus on their recent efforts to bring new audiences to Hampton Court. The panel session was chaired by Robert Gent, Assistant Director of Cultural and Community Services, Derbyshire County Council, and considered partnership and funding opportunities in the heritage sector. The afternoon session included an overview of various community projects currently taking place, including presentations from Coventry and Bristol City Councils, Oxfordshire Buildings Record, London Transport Museum, CBA and the Exmoor National Park Authority.  
 
Delegates also had the opportunity to take part in three workshops. The first with Aretha George, Heritage Lottery Fund, provided case studies and advice on setting up and running successful volunteer projects.  The second, with EPE Historic Environment Research Manager Matthew Bristow, provided an introduction to the visual sources available when studying the historic environment. Finally, author of the Pevsner City Guide to Bristol, Andrew Foyle, provided a very interesting tour of the architecture along the original Anglo-Saxon boundaries of the city.
 
A small exhibition was also held, with stalls provided by BALH, English Heritage and National Monuments Record, Bristol City Council and Hobnob Press. Publishers of the EPE series, Phillimore & Co. Ltd (www.phillimore.co.uk) were also in attendance and did a brisk trade in EPE paperbacks and other local history titles.
 
The England’s Past for Everyone project will conclude in the spring of 2010. The key outputs of the project include a series of 15 paperback books, an interactive website (www.ExploreEnglandsPast.org.uk) and teaching resources developed from school projects and available from the Schools Learning Zone (www.EnglandsPastforEveryone.org.uk/schools). Victoria County History is now developing new ways of working with local communities based on the findings of its EPE project, and will be taking on Baroness Andrew's challenge to consider how best to ensure England's Past IS for Everyone. It is hoped that the thought-provoking discussions about inclusive ways to present the past will continue.
 
 
   A full report of the conference, including images and presentations, can be found on the EPE websitewww.EnglandsPastforEveryone.org.uk/conference

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2009 PUBLICATIONS AWARDS
 

As in previous years, the shortlist for the BALH Publications Awards in 2009 included excellent articles on fascinating and challenging topics, a tribute to the enthusiasm of the local historians who researched, analysed and wrote up these subjects.

 
Local history is often about looking at our immediate surroundings, and trying to understand the story of the community, landscape and people. This year’s winner, Greg Finch from Northumberland, investigated the hamlet in which he lives—Dotland near Hexham. In ‘Dotland deserted’ (Hexham Historian no.18, August 2008, pp.28-57), Greg used a wide range of sources from the medieval period onwards to gave a convincing picture of the tenants and freeholders in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, including their occupations (not just farming but also trades such as smithing, weaving and tailoring) and the family tragedies of infant mortality and early death. Dotland’s families scratched a thin, hard living from their cold hilltop, where the cold must have been keenly-felt by the inhabitants of draughty hovels.
 
He showed how the fortunes of the Rowland family of Dotland Park determined the fate of the community. In the late seventeenth century John Rowland, the young squire, began buying property and pushing for enclosure of the commons and open fields. John Ord of Newcastle lent him huge sums of money to buy up the properties. In the summer of 1706 the inevitable happened—the structure of debts collapsed, Ord took over the estate (the security for the loans) and by the 1720s had swept away the old landscape, lifestyles and patterns of community activity.
 
Robert Fenwick, in ‘Occupations of ordinary folk in pre-industrial Auchtergaven’ (Scottish Local History no.73, Summer 2008, pp.22-27), looked at a community near Dunkeld as part of a wider project involving contrasting areas—Auchtergaven, on the border between the Highland and lowland zones; estates in the Highlands; and an area of Edinburgh. He looked at 5490 individuals from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, analysing their economic activity, occupations, social profile, landholdings and tenancy arrangements, in the context of the old statistical accounts, the county and parish surveys for which there is no English equivalent. For me, a South Briton, his work highlighted how Scottish sources are very different from those in England and Wales—for example, only half of Scottish parishes have pre-1700 registers and only one-tenth before 1630
 
Christiane Koebel won an award for her article, ‘A hypothesis on the origins of St Oswald’s church and Lythe parish 650-1100’, published in the Scarborough Archaeological and Historical Society Transactions (no.40, 2007, pp.6-14). This was potentially a daunting task—tracing a pre-Conquest parish church in a world of few sources, unfamiliar to most local historians. When she researched the history of the church she particularly wanted to find out whether it began as a monastery, back in the seventh century. She also investigated its ancient parish boundaries, possible links to nearby Whitby, and the nature of the early settlement in the area. We were all impressed with her imaginative research question and skilful use of challenging sources.
 
Just down the coast, Karen Ounsley wrote ‘From mill worker to musical conductor: Mr S.W. Rogers and the Bridlington Quay Parade Band, 1882-1897’ (East Yorkshire Historian vol.9, 2008, pp.37-54). This involved a biographical approach to local history. It was particularly well constructed, beginning with an account of the development of Bridlington as a resort, and then focusing down on its entertainments and musical attractions, the resident band on the quay and parade, and finally on the conductor himself. Karen analysed the band—its musicians, instruments and repertoire—and described its troubled relationship with the Bridlington Local Board and other agencies. It was an unusual topic, very carefully researched and—despite its specialised content—easily comprehensible to the less musical!
 
Rebecca Roberts turned to the place immortalised as the birthplace of Anne Hathaway. In ‘Fashion, consumption and production in the Shottery home, 1556-1624’ (Warwickshire History vol.13 no.5, Summer 2007, pp.173-179) she looked at the circumstances of Anne’s neighbours and some of her family, using probate inventories to consider the domestic conditions of Shottery families during Shakespeare’s lifetime, considering fashion items, everyday utensils, furnishings and food preparation. We felt that this was an excellent example of a local study which deftly used a familiar source.
 
Finally, we gave the ‘Short article award’ to Keith Bailey for his delightfully-titled piece, ‘Clapham Junction swallows a street’ (Wandsworth Historian no.86, Autumn 2008, pp.1-6). This described how speculative builders constructed streets of houses in outer London in the mid-nineteenth century, normally developing the areas around stations and alongside railway lines. In the case study which Keith investigated, nearly-new houses and streets were, within a couple of decades, being demolished as the railway company acquired new land to widen the line and extend stations and sidings. It was a very good instance of micro-study, uncovering the history of a small area in great detail.

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VCH BOOK LAUNCH IN KENT
 

The first Victoria County History volume on Kent for over 75 years was launched on the Kingswear Paddle Steamer at the Historic Dockyard Chatham on the evening of 22 October 2009. This is another very attractive and readable volume in the VCH/ England’s Past for Everyone series for which the work was funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund. At £14.99 the book is extremely good value. It was produced under the academic leadership of Dr Andrew Hann and the VCH central and county committees with the help of a team of volunteers, most of whom were present at the launch. Also attending were representatives of local history societies and members of the Medway Archives and Local Studies Centre who were helpful and supportive throughout the research project which resulted in this book. The history of industrial change in the lower Medway Valley between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries has not until now received the attention it fully deserves, but this situation is enjoyably remedied by this volume. The book launch on the Kingswear Paddle Steamer and the river journey between Chatham, Rochester and Upnor castle brought home to me the immense scale and complexity of that change which was hard to absorb during the course of one pleasant evening. I was happy to see its details clearly set out in Panel Two of the book, the Development of the Frindsbury Peninsula, and the excellent map regression which accompanies it.

‘Get Involved’ is the motto of England’s Past for Everyone which appears on the back cover. This book demonstrates how successfully this can be done by the cooperation of academics, professionals and volunteers (alphabetical order here!) and it was a particular pleasure to see how past and present students of local and landscape history at the universities in Kent have contributed their skills, personal knowledge of maritime life and hard work to this project. A second EPE project on the history of the Medway towns is underway under the leadership of Dr Sandra Dunster.
The Medway Valley: a Kent Landscape Transformed, by Andrew Hann with contributions from John Newman, John Vigar and Sandra Dunster (Phillimore and Co. Ltd. in association with the Institute of Historical Research, 2009). ISBN 978-1-86077-600-7.

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MAPS OF WILLIAM FADDEN
 

William Faden and his maps of Norfolk and London

 
The second half of the eighteenth century witnessed a revolution in map-making in the British Isles. Changes in agriculture and new industries demanded better maps and from 1775 William Faden, based at Charing Cross in London, was a major figure in this cartographic transformation. County maps had been the staple diet of map-makers for almost two hundred years and Saxton and Speed’s maps had been repeatedly copied from 1574 onwards. From 1750 the county was again the focus for the new maps, but this time to fresh surveys and at a much greater scale - usually one inch to the mile. In one remarkable period from 1765 to 1780 twenty five new English county maps were published, covering 65 percent of the total area of the country.
 
The county maps of this period are used by local historians as a resource but they are under utilised. The reasons for this include the expense of purchasing original maps (rarely for sale at less than a couple of thousand pounds) and the inadequacy of some of the facsimiles that have been produced. Apart from indifferent printing the major problem with these reproductions is that the original map is presented in twenty or so small sheets which inevitably fail to provide an overall view of a county. Not all counties were competently surveyed and few match the high standard of Benjamin Donn’s Devonshire (1765), William Yates’s Lancashire (1786) or Gream’s Sussex (1795). Industrial historians are often disappointed when they examine the county maps with their inconsistent recording of mines and watermills. Similarly landscape historians will find that some county maps excel in their evidence for parkland whereas others are frustratingly inadequate. The county maps were produced by entrepreneurial individuals and it was only with the Ordnance Survey that some standardization of topographical recording was introduced.
 
William Faden’s 1797 map of Norfolk is one of the better county maps and to ensure its easier availability it has been digitally redrawn - seewww.fadensmapofnorfolk.co.uk It is the subject of a forthcoming book William Faden and Norfolk’s Eighteenth Century Landscape  by Andrew Macnair and Tom Williamson, Oxbow Books. The map has been analysed by placing its different topographical features into different ‘layers’ which are then viewed after external ‘layers’ eg. soils, archaeological data etc. have been imported. The publication will include a DVD with multiple maps based on the original. Tom Williamson has written ‘William Faden’s map of Norfolk is unquestionably the most important source of evidence we have for the landscape history of the county, not only in the eighteenth century but also in more ancient times’. The map of course has errors and omissions and these have been quantified by comparing it with contemporary maps, particularly those produced for Parliamentary Enclosure Acts. A similar exercise is being undertaken with Joseph Hodskinson’s 1783 map of Suffolk and this will be available at the end of 2010.
 
William Faden’s Map ‘the Country Twenty-five Miles Round London’  (see www.fadensmapoflondon.co.uk) was first published in 1788 and it gives us an idea of the countryside in the vicinity of the capital. It records the existence of open fields within a few miles of Paddington, the extensive heathland to the west of the metropolis and one is immediately made aware of the estates of the landed gentry who wanted to be close to the centre of things, but not too close. The map however was not published following a new survey. William Faden made it his business to acquire the copper engraved plates of county maps and these he has combined to produce this London map. It is thus an amalgam of county maps surveyed between 1755 and 1780 and so is perhaps not as inherently valuable as a documentary source as that of his Norfolk map. The French War Department however thought it was of interest and they copied and re-engraved the map in preparation for an invasion of England.

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TEACAKES OR BAGUETTES?
 

In Northumberland in August I bought a copy of John Bird’s slim booklet, Saint Aidan’s Church, Bamburgh, and its story through 1400 years. Few names in English history are as evocative as ‘Bamburgh’, with its connotations of Northumbrian kings on their rocky fastness, early saints and missionaries, references in Bede, and Viking raiders. Much more recently Grace Darling was laid to rest in its churchyard, only 26 years old but already one of the most celebrated of Victorian heroines.

I like church guides. They are quirky and often idiosyncratic, written by experts or rank amateurs, leading scholars or people who can’t tell one end of a churchwarden’s account from another. They might focus on architecture or on incumbents. They may be rambling narratives or tedious recitations of facts. In reading them you might learn all there is to know about a church, or next to nothing. You could be frustrated by the abject failure to convey spirituality, beauty, architectural interest, and the richness of the heritage – or charmed by the love and affection displayed, the wealth of evidence for past centuries, the sense of community and identity.
 
Mr Bird’s history of Bamburgh church disconcerted me greatly. In his introduction he suggests the castle might have begun as a Roman fort built by Agricola (this, I feel, a distinctly dodgy claim) and then disarms – or maybe alarms - the reader: ‘The history of this Church is rather like a teacake: there is a basic substance which holds it all together and there are currants dotted about which are the incidents, often unrelated, which give it colour and flavour. Together they combine to make a fascinating story’.
 
The booklet was written 25 years ago, so maybe this was the currant thinking back in the mid-1980s. That in itself is no raisin to be critical. Indeed, we must record history because otherwise of course it’s scone without a trace. But the view that history is made up of ‘incidents’, with that intriguing analogy of dried fruit held together by a ‘basic substance’, isn’t one which I can espouse. It seems to disregard the continuities and to overlook the significance of the everyday activities of the church and its community.
 
History made up incidents is, to me, history which doesn’t tell a story. It deceives and misleads. It is, as Joseph Hunter, the great early nineteenth-century historian of South Yorkshire, so magnificently commented on the writings of a less illustrious but highly prolific contemporary, ‘a succession of facts detached, a rope of sand’. In wanting a ‘story’ I don’t mean that I need whimsy or fiction, but rather that I demand the reliable description and the plausible explanation of what happened. Of course, reality is infinitely complex, and we are unavoidably selective. Total history is a chimera. We adjust to the space and time at our disposal, as well as the availability of evidence.
 
But we consider processes and patterns, and see the continuum rather than the fragments (which surely cannot be ‘unrelated’, for if nothing else the church and its history are their relationship). The ‘basic substance’ that holds it all together may, in fact, be as interesting, and as full of flavour, than the incidents. Forget the teacake. For my local history I prefer a convoluted analogy with a delicious baguette bought in a bakery in a French village – long, crafted with care, plenty to chew on, tasty (it’s made with the best quality ingredients), crisp on the outside but tenderness within, holes or gaps of different sizes (we all know our lacunae!) but plenty of satisfying sustenance. Straight from the oven when it’s fresh and warm, but before long it’s getting stale, so we, the local historian-bakers, must create another edition to take its place.
 

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NEWS FROM IRELAND
 

Anniversaries

During the weekend of 12-13 June the little town of Clifden, County Galway, marked the 90th anniversary of the first non-stop transatlantic flight. Manchester-born John Alcock and Glaswegian Arthur Brown landed at Clifden on 14 June 1919. The festivities included a display by the world’s only ‘formation‘ wing-walking team, a jet display, a visit by a replica of the Vimy Vickers bomber in which the duo made their historic flight, an Alcock and Brown exhibition curated by Connemara historian Kathleen Villiers-Tuthill, and a ground display by the Irish Defence Forces.
In 1609 Kilkenny was officially given the status of a city following the grant of a royal charter by James I. It replaced an earlier charter of 1207, issued by William Marshall, Earl of Pembroke and Lord of Leinster. There was a well-established settlement here long before the Norman invasion in the 1170s, with a stronghold of the kings of Ossory centred around the cathedral church of St. Canice. After the invasion, Kilkenny was for a time the capital of the Norman colony in Ireland. During 2009 the city has been celebrating the 400th anniversary of this important charter.
 
Arthur Guinness was born in 1725 near Celbridge, County Kildare, and most likely learned the art of brewing from his father Richard, steward to Dr. Arthur Price, archbishop of Cashel. Richard was required to brew beer for those who worked on the archbishop’s estates. The bishop, Arthur\'s godfather, left him £100 in his will. This he used to establish a small brewery close to the family’s Leixlip home. In 1759 he left this operation to this younger brother and moved to Dublin, where he acquired a 4-acre site at St. James\'s Gate complete with brewing equipment, a stable that could accommodate up to twelve horses, and a loft capable of holding up to 200 tons of hay. With an eye to the future, on 31 December 1759 Arthur secured a lease for 9000 years at an annual rent of £45. By 1886 St. James\'s Gate was the largest brewery in the world, and now some 10 million glasses of the miraculous liquid are consumed daily worldwide. The company was a pioneer in staff welfare, paying its workers higher than normal wages and providing free meals, free medical care from a company doctor, and paid holidays. A tradition of philanthropy and community involvement  continues to the present time. Arthur Guiness served as a governor of the Meath Hospital and donated 250 guineas to the chapel schools of St. Patrick\'s Cathedral. The 250th anniversary of the founding of the St. James\'s Gate Brewery, 24 September, was designated  ‘Arthur\'s Day’, and there were celebrations across the world.
 
 
 New on-line resources
 
Ireland’s leading historical journal, the excellent History Ireland, has placed its back issues on-line. The magazine is published six times a year, and the entire series has now been made available in this way—though the most recent three issues will only be accessible to subscribers. To access, and find further information, log ontowww.historyireland.com.
In late September, during Heritage Week, a project which aims to create a database of all sporting venues built in Ireland over the past 150 years was launched. It is funded by the Department of Arts, Sports, and Tourism. By logging on users will be able to upload or place information on sporting venues in their own localities, with photographs, programmes, building plans or text. Hitherto there has been no national inventory of Irish sporting heritage and it is hoped that the new database will fill major gaps in Ireland\'s sporting history and heritage. To access the new website, log on towww.irishsportingheritage.com.
 
Local history activities
 
On 26 September the Dublin City Library and Archives hosted ‘Celebrating our past—a Local History Day’. There was a wide range of talks, including papers on the Dublin City Public Libraries 1884-2009; historic sites on the ancient road from Dublin; the early history of the GAA (Gaelic Athletic Association); the 1907 Dublin International Exhibition; and a presentation ‘Stories of Dublin’ by Joe Lee, the City Council’s film-maker in residence.
 
Meanwhile, the Dun Laoghaire Borough Historical Society has published an imaginative booklet, Writers and Artists of the Borough, written by Colin Scudds. It looks at 29 writers and artists who worked or lived  (or indeed are still doing so) in Dun Laoghaire. Each has his or her individual biography, together with illustrations of typical work, and details of their achievements. It is an excellent concise reference book and should be of relevance not only to specialists and to local historians, but also to school students working on art and literature topics.

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NOTES NEWS ISSUES
 

‘What part of the country does BALH cover, then?’: two years as Events and Development Officer.

I often hear this question as I travel around the UK to speak to local societies or set up BALH’s stall at local or family history events. The length of the answer depends on a quick assessment of the enquirer. Family history is a very popular activity but often one in which people are involved for a short time. Some family historians can be attracted to BALH events or membership by the mention of the ‘media personalities’ speaking at our events. Those involved in local history often have a longer-term interest but may not have joined BALH yet. Many people of course study both local and family history.
Increasing BALH’s membership is a major part of my activity and seems to be successful, despite the ‘global economic downturn’. The membership stood at 1818 just after I joined BALH and now stands at 2007.
This increase is very much a joint effort with, for example, Anne Tarver representing BALH this autumn at the Open the Door conference in Nottingham, Win Stokes at the Northern History Fair, Gateshead, and Jane Howells and Phoebe Merrick at the Bristol VCH/EPE conference. In my ‘one-day-a-week’ role, I cannot represent BALH everywhere but a co-coordinator is needed to ensure BALH materials for stalls are transported around the country to events, and also to the academic conferences and seminars co-sponsored by BALH.
Of course we want even more individuals, local history societies, museums, libraries and students to join BALH. There are some suggestions below on how you can help. We also want to raise BALH’s profile by being seen as an important organisation in representing the views of local historians of all kinds. Part of my role also consists in attending meetings or drafting responses to government consultations on issues affecting us for the Assembly to consider.
Enthuse for BALH: what you can do to help develop BALH

Do you belong to a local society which itself belongs to BALH, perhaps in the first place for our insurance scheme? Offer to set up an informal way of passing The Local Historian and Local History News around between members of the society.
 Encourage members of your local society to join as individuals.
Alert local or county history and/or archaeology societies and museums of BALH events which are taking place in your area such as guided visits, co-sponsored conferences and Local History Day. See the details well in advance on our website. Contact the editors of the society newsletters with information about these events.
Organise a small group to attend a BALH guided visit near you.
Take some BALH flyers (general ones or those publicising events such as Local History Day) to your local society meetings and put one on every chair.
Offer a short piece or talk about ‘What BALH can do for you’ to the editor of your local, county or civic society newsletter, or local U3A group. I can supply a suitable photo if necessary.
Let me know of local or family history fairs or similar events taking place in your area so we can arrange for someone living nearby (you?) to attend with a BALH stand. I will help with the arrangements.
Tell me of any new local society so that we can offer them the benefits of BALH membership.
Encourage your local studies library or museum to join BALH and thus have our publications available to users and visitors.
Are you a representative or similar to a local, county or regional history, archaeology or civic societies? Please contact me so that I can supply you with new BALH membership leaflets for distribution each time they are updated, once or twice a year.
Do you visit your county record office or local studies library? Please ask me for some BALH leaflets. A personal contact is very important in persuading them to display them.

Gill Draper development.balh@btinternet.com
 
The first Cambridge History Fair took place on 19 September as part of the Cherry Hinton Festival. Set among the cheerful surroundings of the Festival with its processions, dog show, produce competition and children's activities, was a large marquee devoted to the History Fair. Here BALH had its stall, publications and leaflets together with those of local history societies, field archaeology groups, the Cambridge Record Society and Archives service and the Historical Association, together with more unusual ones such as the Cambridge Time Traveller Group, and a demonstration of flint knapping and arrow making which attracted many young visitors. Outside the marquee the University of Cambridge publicised its local history courses and Cambridgeshire Association for Local History, the organisers, had their stall.
Hundreds of visitors came to the festival and many to the history marquee, giving opportunities to show what BALH does, and to hand out flyers about David Dymond's new book. There was particular interest in this book since David is well known in the county. A new experience for me was to give a short interview to be broadcast on a local radio station.
It was a fine day and visitors were loath to leave when the festival finished at 4 pm (they had not been there setting up at 8.30 am!) but they were gradually encouraged on their way by the swift dismantling of the marquee around us at 5 pm and the slow but insistent approach of a group of pipers. A big thank-you to Michael Farrar, Lyn Brookman of the Landscape and Local History Group, and former BALH award winner, Michelle Bullivant and Ali Klevnäs for minding the BALH stall while I took the odd break and made useful contacts with the other groups.
Gill Draper

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NEWS FROM ARCHIVES
 

The Broadlands Archives: For more than 20 years, Southampton University Library has held in its Special Collections Division the Broadlands Archives, some 4,500 boxes, dating from the sixteenth century to the present, centred on the Temple (Palmerston), Ashley, Cassel and Mountbatten families. It is an exceptional collection, including many materials of the first rank for the history of the UK and its relations with its colonies and foreign powers. The Mountbatten papers are effectively the foundation archive for the modern states of India and Pakistan, and in addition illuminate Britain's first major act of post-war decolonisation; the papers of the third Viscount Palmerston include some 40,000 letters, many from his private correspondence as Foreign Secretary and Prime Minister; and the diaries of the seventh Earl of Shaftesbury, reformer and philanthropist, are one of the great monuments to social progress in Victorian England. The collection also has important resonances for the local area: there are more than 600 boxes of documents relating to Hampshire, including records for land and agricultural management, deeds, rentals and accounts, especially for a large block of property around Romsey and the south of the Test Valley, from the sixteenth century onwards. These documents are essential for understanding the development of the landscape and history of the region, with runs of accounts for timber and underwood, and estate maps. There are manorial records for Romsey infra from 1669 onwards.  In the nineteenth century, the third Viscount Palmerston invested heavily in the estate, consolidating property, and upgrading workers’ cottages, all recorded in the extensive estate correspondence.

The Trustees of the Broadlands Archives have determined to sell the collection and have offered it to the University. The net price is a substantial one, £2.85 million, and there is probably between 6 and 9 months to complete the transaction. The University is undertaking a major fund-raising campaign, working with funding bodies including the National Heritage Memorial Fund, but will need to raise considerable sums from other sources. The expectation is that if this fails the collection will be sold at auction, and may well be broken up and dispersed, with many parts not finding places in public repositories.
Professor Chris Woolgar writes ‘we would very much appreciate your support in acquiring this for the University and in the national interest. If you would like to contribute, please do not hesitate to contact me by e-mail (C.M.Woolgar@soton.ac.uk) or at the Hartley Library, University of Southampton, Highfield, Southampton S017 BJ. This is a national campaign for one of the most important collections of nineteenth- and twentieth-century archives: you can also help by publicising the collection further and by suggesting connections and links that may help us promote the cause. I very much look forward to hearing from you’.
 
British History Online (www.british-history.ac.uk) have announced an important new addition to its Premium Content section: the Parliament Rolls of Medieval England (http://www.british-history.ac.uk/prome). This source consists of scholarly descriptions of every parliament held in England between 1275 and 1504. It covers 10 monarchs, from Edward I to Henry VII (since no parliament was held in the reign of Edward V, he is not included). The rolls for some of these parliaments, particularly the earlier ones, do not survive, but where they are extant have been fully transcribed; supplementary material about the business of the parliament is given in an appendix. Opposite the original text, which may be in Latin, Anglo-Norman, or Middle English, is a modern English translation. To make PROME easier to use, the text and translation have been put into tables, so that the corresponding paragraphs are simple to locate. This new content is available to current subscribers at no extra cost. Subscription details can be found at http://www.british-history.ac.uk/subscribe.aspx.
 
 
Government delays have caused a major ‘digital black hole’ in the collections of the British Library according to recent media reports. The Legal Deposit Libraries Act 2003 gave six libraries – the British Library, the National Library of Scotland, the National Library of Wales, the Bodleian in Oxford, Cambridge University Library, Trinity College, Dublin, the same legal authority to collect digital material that they have for printed works. However, the powers in the act will not now take effect until after the next election. Meanwhile the BL and NLS have made voluntary arrangements to archive some websites, or to make on-off collections on major event, but much else will be lost. The Guardian 5.10.09
 
The National Cataloguing Unit for the Archives of Contemporary Scientists is to be reconstituted as Scientific Archives Centre @ the Science Museum, and will be located at the Science Museum site at Wroughton, Swindon. Archives Awareness for 2010 is focusing on Scientific Archives.
 
Friends of Medway Archives came into being in April 2006, with the aim to promote Medway Archives & Local Studies Centre and to raise funds for projects that could be undertaken by members. The first major achievement was a successful bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund which provided £154,500 for ‘Archives of Great Expectations’ which will get under way on 2010. Its purpose is to conserve and make available for research for the first time the archives of the city of Rochester, some 500 boxes containing 700 years of untapped material. http://www.foma-lsc.org
 
Bedfordshire & Luton Archives & Records Service Newsletter celebrates 90 Years of the Women’s Institute in Bedfordshire, whose records are held in the Archives. The first county chairman was Mrs Whitbread (of the famous brewing family – a tenuous link to our ‘liquids’ theme). The first institute had been formed in Dunstable in 1917, and by the time the county federation came into being there were eight, five of which are still running. www.bedford.gov.uk/archive www.thewi.org.uk
 
A handy do-it-yourself guide ‘Looking after your family documents’ has been produced by the Conservation Unit at Sheffield Archives. It can be downloaded in pdf or Word format, from http://www.sheffield.gov.uk/libraries/archives-and-local-studies/publications
 
Hackney Archives contributes a regular history page to the Council’s fortnightly free newspaper Hackney Today.This looks at stories and events both past and present using material from the Archives and Local Studies Library. An electronic copy (in pdf format) is available online at http://www.hackney.gov.uk/w-hackneytoday.htm
  
The ideal present! Cumbria Archive Service has launched a gift voucher scheme for their Historical Research Service. They can be bought online at http://www.cumbria.gov.uk/archives/research/Online.asp (and type Gift Voucher in the section ‘your instructions’). The CAS Conservation Unit offers a repair and digitisation service for documents, volumes, images, maps and plans. For charges and other details telephone 01228 227281.

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NEWS FROM LIBRARIES
 

There was a recent BALH visit to St Bride Library. Anyone interested in print and printing should also discover Printing History News, and the articles, events and contacts provided therein. As well as St Bride Library www.stbride.org, there is the National Printing Heritage Trust www.npht.org.uk, and the Printing Historical Society www.printinghistoricalsociety.org.uk

 Camden Local Studies and Archives Centre will be closed from Monday 7 to Saturday 12 December (inclusive) for their annual week of tasks that cannot be done when they are open. www.camden.gov.uk/localstudies
 
The current exhibition at The Women’s Library is ‘Ms Understood: Women’s Liberation in 70s Britain’, providing insight into the social, personal and cultural legacies of one of the most significant social movements of the twentieth century. There will be guided tours and other associated events. www.thewomenslibrary.ac.uk
 
Following the ‘liquids’ theme of some of these news pages, the newsletter from Chester Community History and Heritage describes 18th century Northgate Street, Chester, as ‘awash with public inns and hotels’, and quotes Thomas Hughes saying ‘taverns in this locality are as plentiful as blackberries’. The Golden Falcon was for many years considered to be the principal inn of Chester; George Frederick Handel stayed there in 1741. Chester History & Heritage, St Michael’s Church, Bridge Street Row East, Chetser CH1 1NW. 01244 402 110

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NEWS FROM MUSEUMS
 

The Wedgwood Museum, Stoke on Trent, has been awarded the 2009 Art Fund Prize. This annual prize of £100,000 is made to a project ‘that demonstrates originality and excellence, and increases public appreciation of all that museums and galleries have to offer’. From the press release: ‘The WedgwoodMuseum magnificently celebrates the extraordinary achievement of Britain’s industrial history. It is a richly deserving winner of this Prize, and its victory could not have come at a better time for the area, after all the uncertainty there has been over the future of the factory which still operates alongside the museum’. For the first time this year the public was also a judge in the People’s Choice poll.  Over 27,000 people voted on guardian.co.uk, also choosing The Wedgwood Museum as their clear winner.

www.wedgwoodmuseum.org.uk www.artfundprize.org.uk
 
An even larger sum has been granted by the Heritage Lottery Fund to the Mary Rose Trust. Completion of the conservation of this famous Tudor warship, plus construction of a permanent museum at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard will now be possible thanks to £21m from HLF to join the £10 raised by the Trust. The project is due to open in 2012 in time for the Olympics. www.maryrose.org/new_museum/index.html
 
While we are on the subject of funds for museums, £61m (including £15m from HLF) has been spent on the redevelopment of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.The new building, which opened at the beginning of November, provides 100% more display space in a structure that combines its original Victorian identity with exciting modern architecture. 39 new galleries contain innovative interpretations of the collection, and there are an education centre, state of the art conservation facilities and a rooftop restaurant. www.ashmolean.org
 
LHN has been following the British Postal Museum and Archive (BPMA) project at Blists Hill in the Ironbridge Gorge. The latest element to open is The Museum of the Post Office in the Community, housed above the Victorian Post Office in Canal Street (see LHN 92 p 23). The exhibition is in four sections: Post Office Counter Sevices, Delivering the Mail, Letter Boxes, and Changing Times. www.postalheritage.org.uk/ironbridge
  
A new exhibition at Chertsey Museum opened in September. ‘An Image of Itself: fashions inspired by the past’ features key pieces from the Olive Matthews Collection of Costume. It explores the way in which fashion is constantly influenced by styles of the past, through careful juxtaposition of garments, sometimes centuries apart in date. www.chertseymuseum.org.uk
 
Developments at the Galleries of Justice Museum in Nottingham include new audio guides, performance tours, and a special Christmas package of ‘Sheriff’s Banquets’. Their latest exhibition, in association with the Open University, opened in September and tells the story of the 1984 miners’ strike ‘from all sides’. Alongside the museum is the National Centre for Citizenship and the Law (NCCL), a national educational charity working with young people across the UK. NCCL aims to provide innovative and engaging resources to help develop young people’s understanding of the law. The Galleries of Justice provides exciting interactive exhibitions and tours including the Citizen’s Zone, which provides a national and regional citizenship and crime reduction learning resource. This explores social and moral rights and responsibilities, community involvement and legal literacy. Above all, their work is dedicated to teaching young people about the past, helping them act today and empowering them to change tomorrow. www.galleriesofjustice.org.uk www.nccl.org.uk