Local History News Number 95 Spring 2010

CZECHING THE ARCHIVES
 

In Prague at the end of March, going round the great royal castle at Hradèany above the city, we were surprised, and very pleased, to see some impressively-detailed information boards explaining archival history and documentary sources. Written in exemplary English (better, I’m afraid, than that employed in quite a few museums which I’ve visited in this country) they told the story of the Land Rolls Room and its contents. From the reign of Otakar II (1253-1278) until the beginning of the 19th century, the land rolls of Bohemia and Moravia were the means of recording and formally registering all land transactions, ownership details, disputes over land and boundaries, and liberties and privileges attached to land. The rolls were in Latin until the early 17th century, though with some use of Czech for vernacular text, but thereafter in German.

 
Disastrously, there was a great fire in the castle precincts in 1541, and the majority of the medieval Land Rolls were burned to ashes. They were at that time being stored in the royal wine-cellars (admittedly not sound archival practice, and not matching Bohemian Standard 4545 [in-joke for archivists'>more... but helpful for the supply of refreshments). Unfortunately, as the chronicler Vacláv Hájek (who was an eyewitness) reported, ‘Across the road … was a grocer’s shop … and some people believe that when this burned some sparks flew from there to the cellar’. The only land rolls to survive were those from the period 1316-1325, and that was only because an official had taken those volumes home (demonstrating a time-honoured problem—the surreptitious removal of records by bureaucrats). After the fire the series resumed, this time housed in purpose-designed accommodation with extra-strong fireproof metal doors and beautifully-crafted cabinets referenced with index numbers. And there they stayed—even during the sieges and defenestrations of the Thirty Years War (politicians were thrown out of windows but the archives stayed in their cupboards). Even during the brutal Swedish sacking and occupation of the city in 1648, at the end of that war, the archives survived, thanks to the intervention of a priest at the nearby cathedral.
 
The Land Rolls, and other records of the Royal Court of Justice, were meticulously bound into wonderful volumes, their spines decorated and painted not only with reference numbers but also with beautiful symbols—leaves, birds, flowers, geometric patterns, all to help with ready identification. By 1795, when the Austrian authorities introduced legal reforms and abolished the procedure, there were over 1,700 volumes.
The walls and ceilings of the room were gradually covered with the coats or arms and shields of the staff who worked there, custodians of the precious archives that were, in a real sense, the collective memory as well as the definitive legal record of the nation.
 
The detail of the entries, as given in a translated example on the information board, is fascinating: Jaroslav Miclan of Klinstejn and Roztoky swore before the Prague authorities that he had given a dowry of 300 Prague groschen to his wife, Afra of Tetov, from his property, namely his half of the fort in Vodlochovice, his half of the farm, his property in Vodlochovice, and the farms of the peasants there who paid him dues, and all that belonged to him there, hereditary lands, meadows, woods, streams, ponds, domestic fowl, eggs. He submitted all of these to her in his dotal pledge in the aforementioned sum. And because of his fondness for his wife, he added to his dowry for his wife Afra all of his other things, such as bed linen, clothes, pewter, valuables, cash and furniture, as well as horses, cows, sheep, pigs, ducks and other things [and'>more... he had this written down. 
 
It was very refreshing to see, in a top tourist attraction, historical explanation of such quality, and to realise that the importance of the archival sources was so well appreciated by those who designed the displays. And I very much liked the idea which came to me that, in the manner of those sixteenth-century archivists in Prague, modern archivists might paint their personal insignia on the walls of our record offices—a tithe map rampant, a sessions roll quartered, a correspondence bundled, a microfilm passant?

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The 1939 Register for England and Wales
 
The NHS Information Centre has introduced a fee-paying service to provide information from the 1939 Register, but only in respect of deceased persons.
 
Created under The National Registration Act 1939, the 1939 Register for England and Wales was originally the responsibility of the Registrar General who, under the 1939 Act created a register of the civilian population.
 
This enumeration occurred on 29 September 1939 and a National Registration number was assigned to each person after the following data was collected from each household:
 
·        ·        Names.
·        ·        Sex.
·        ·        Date of birth.
·        ·        Occupation, profession, trade or employment.
·        ·        Residence.
·        ·        Condition as to marriage.
·        ·        Membership of Naval, Military or Air Force Reserves or Auxiliary Forces or of Civil Defence Services or Reserves.
 
The 1939 Register was structured by geographical area and was used for a range of purposes including the issue of identity cards during and after the Second World War.
 
An application form and more information can be obtained from www.ic.nhs.uk/news-and-events/news.  The cost of each application is £42.00 and there is no refund for unsuccessful searches.
 
Thanks to Steven Smyrl of the Council of Irish Genealogical Organisations for background information on this.  You can read more at www.cigo.ie/news.html.
 
Information about data in respect of Scotland can be obtained here.  The cost is a more reasonable £13, with a charge of only £5 where there is no trace of the individual.
 
There is no news of a similar facility for Northern Ireland.
 

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2009 BALH AWARD WINNER DIANA WINTERBOTHAM
 

Diana Winterbotham was born at Swinton near Salford, brought up in Worsley and educated at Eccles Grammar School. She began work, somewhat reluctantly, as the most junior library assistant for Salford Libraries, gradually obtaining professional qualifications, moving from branch to branch, exploiting her gifts of communication and sympathetic understanding, and discovering her particular interest in local history. In the early 1960s she joined Eccles & District Local History Society, of which she eventually became president, and at much the same time used the opportunities of specialisation within her career to focus on this new area of the service.

 
In her professional life Diana Winterbotham was well known and much appreciated by local historians in Lancashire. As the first county local studies librarian she worked for over twenty-two years, building up an invaluable collection of resources, and supporting a great variety of users, including school children and undergraduates, teachers on in-service training, family historians and local societies. She was nationally-known: the Library Association gave her the first Dorothy McCulla Award in 1981, and in 1993 she received an MBE in the New Years Honours, both for her contribution to local history librarianship.
 
Since her retirement Diana has remained actively involved as a promoter of the local history cause and as a researcher, and it is for this continuing commitment that she was recognised with a BALH Award for Personal Achievement in 2009.
 
In the past fifteen years Diana has participated in numerous county and regional local history events, and taught and lectured throughout the county and beyond, including being the principal day-school organiser for the Lancashire Local History Federation. She has been an active council or committee member of the Chetham Society, the Lancashire & Cheshire Antiquarian Society (of which she is a vice-president), the Historic Society of Lancashire & Cheshire, the Friends of Lancashire Archives, and the Lancashire Local History Federation, to all of which she has generously given time, knowledge and organisational skills. One particularly massive project she completed was indexing the 150 years of theTransactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire & Cheshire.
 
Diana’s own research interests are wide-ranging. She has been a leading member of the Ranulph Higden Society which is devoted to the translation and publication of important medieval Latin texts from Lancashire and Cheshire. The early modern linen industry of the Manchester area, place-name analysis, the history of Lancashire agriculture, domestic life, and the experiences of travellers on Lancashire’s roads have also come under her scrutiny. Currently she is closely concerned with a project to develop the restoration and interpretation of Philips Park, a 14th century deer park at Pilkington near Bury in the Irwell valley which requires both her meticulous approach to documentary analysis and her specialised knowledge of cartography as well as tramping muddy paths to identify original boundaries on the ground.
 
Diana Winterbotham is an unfailing source of support and encouragement for local historians; her contributions to the discipline are recognised as outstanding, and she commands respect and affection from all those who know her work. She is also (probably) the only local historian ever to be presented with an inscribed bicycle pump; it reads ‘In reCOGnition of 25 years of unTYREing service to the LLHF [Lancashire Local History Federation'>more... often as SPOKESperson’.
 
Thanks to Diana Winterbotham, Alan Crosby, Christine Storey and Geoff Timmins.

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2009 BALH AWARD WINNER JAMES WISDOM
 

Local history in West London owes a large debt of gratitude to James Wisdom. For more than a quarter of a century he has been involved in many ways, and has inspired and encouraged others to follow in his footsteps.

 
James Wisdom comes from London, and in his professional life is a consultant advising universities on the improvement of their teaching. His interest in local history began when he taught history at Kingston FE College in the early 1970s. He studied for an MA in English Local History at Leicester University and in 1976 wrote his dissertation on The Suburban Development of Chiswick.
 
After joining Brentford & Chiswick Local History Society, he was invited on to the committee and became chairman in 1984. Presiding over the programme of talks and outings, he co-edited the early issues of the society’s journal and ran evening classes. For several years he chaired the consortium of local and family history societies that puts on the annual West London Local History Conference. He is widely in demand as a lecturer on Chiswick and Thames historical topics.
 
Professor Wisdom was the founder chairman of the Friends of Gunnersbury Park and Museum in 1981. The Museum at Gunnersbury is the local history museum for the two boroughs of Ealing and Hounslow, and in the long term both it and the park have suffered from this joint management. For many years James has been a tireless advocate for Gunnersbury, helping to create conservation plans, lobbying councillors, fund-raising to support the museum, and physically working on restoration projects. He was also a founder member and later chairman of the Friends of Chiswick House.
 
The Thomas Layton Museum Collection of books, prints, maps, coins and archaeological artefacts was in the care of trustees who relied on the Local Studies service of the London Borough of Hounslow. In the late 1970s it was threatened with disposal. James Wisdom spearheaded the public campaign to keep it in its home borough, and make it better known and more widely used, resulting eventually in ownership by a newly formed trust (now under his chairmanship), and a permanent home in the new Hounslow Library that opened in 1988.
 
James Wisdom campaigned to prevent the sale of Hogarth’s House in the 1980s and has contributed to the efforts to secure its long-term future. He helped to raise funds for a millennium statue of Hogarth, and contributed to the celebrations of Hogarth’s tercentenary in 1997 and the centenary of the house being opened to the public in 2004.
 
Amongst his other activities James Wisdom helped set up the Thames Explorer Trust, an innovative charity which works with children and adults on the Thames and its foreshore. He has instigated a range of projects to promote the area’s local history to the community, including working with the Battlefields Trust to commemorate those who died when the first V2 bomb fell on Chiswick, and the Civil War battles of Brentford and Turnham Green.
 
James Wisdom was presented with a BALH Award for Personal Achievement in 2009 in recognition of his knowledge, enthusiasm, and dedication to preserving local heritage and promoting its appreciation in the community.
 
Thanks to James Wisdom, Tess Powell, Andrea Cameron and Vanda Foster.

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NEW RESEARCH CONFERENCES
 

A Local History Conference ‘New Research into the History of Yorkshire’ took place in Hull on Saturday 7th November 2009. The conference divided into two strands and nineteen papers were read to a combined audience of 120. The topics ranged from the mediaeval to the 20th Century and although many of the papers were given by postgraduate and postdoctoral researchers, there were also papers from the Borthwick Institute at York and a report on research by the Locton and Levisham history project. A plenary lecture on the practice of local history was given by Professor Richard Hoyle of the University of Reading. There were stalls from local history societies, publishers and archives and universities.

The abstracts of the papers given at the conference are still to be found at: www.sp12.hull.ac.uk/november.htm

The format was that of an academic conference with content suitable for all local historians, both professional and amateur and it was largely successful. If any society thinks that their area would benefit from a BALH “New Research“ conference, they should contact Helen Good mail@helengood.com.

The next BALH conference in Hull will be smaller, with only a single strand,, and will be on ‘New Research into the History of Hull’. It will be held at the newly opened Hull History Centre on November 6th, 2010.  

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SPECIAL COLLECTIONS
 

Special Collections, University Libraries and the Local Historian

Chris Woolgar, University of Southampton Library
 
The riches of the archive and special collections holdings of university libraries are not as well known to local historians as they might be, yet there is much in these repositories of importance for the discipline. Local historians are very familiar with the network of county and city record offices which developed through the twentieth century, providing a framework for the management of archives from the area. What differentiates university and ‘specialist’ repositories from the local authority ones is that there is often a theme to their collecting, for example, trade union records at Warwick, twentieth-century military archives at King’s College London, Jewish archives at Southampton, and many focus on literary interests. These collections do not exclude a local dimension: just as individuals have wide interests, their archives often exhibit a similar range. Further, some university repositories have substantial collections formed on a topographic basis — the most important of these, such as the Bodleian Library, Cambridge University Library, Durham and Nottingham, predate the network of local authority record offices.
            There are some 150 higher education institutions in this country. A recent survey of collections and collecting in the sector produced 79 returns, of which only one did not report that archives were held.1 Some 25 institutions in the sector hold significant quantities of records, with more than 1,000 linear metres, and the largest archival repositories are very large indeed. Where personal papers are involved — and many university repositories focus in this area — collections tend to be smaller than those created by business or government. Some of these repositories are comparatively new, but others have been collecting for centuries and have impressive holdings. In terms of management, collections of archives are often run alongside those for printed books which need similar standards of curatorial care.
            Discovering information about the collections held by university special collections is now more straightforward than it has ever been before. While serendipity has always been a useful factor in doing research, systematic approaches have been greatly facilitated by the availability of on-line catalogues and gateways to information about archives in the higher education sector. The National Register of Archives (www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/nra/default.asp) has extensive information about the holdings of higher education institutions. There are also collaborative on-line sites that focus on, or have substantial information about, these archives. The Higher Education Archive Hub (www.archiveshub.ac.uk) was established in 1999-2000 and now has an important collection of guide-level descriptions, some with links to more detailed catalogues and institutional servers. Institutions within the M25 area are covered by AIM25 (www.aim25.ac.uk andwww.inform25.ac.uk), also encompassing printed materials as well as unpublished ones. There is a good deal of printed topographical material in the on-line catalogues of university library printed collections — often including their printed special collections. COPAC (www.copac.ac.uk) is a collaborative catalogue of more than 20 of the largest university libraries (those of Research Libraries UK), combined with the catalogues of the British Library, the National Library of Scotland and the National Library of Wales, and a number of specialist institutions. The output of local printing presses, a product of the late eighteenth century onwards, is often most easily traced through catalogues like this.
            It is not easy to categorise the local history holdings of the sector: they are simply too many and various. Some examples, however, will gave a flavour of the potential. There are strengths in ecclesiastical records: Cambridge University Library holds the records of the diocese of Ely; the Borthwick Institute for Archives at the University of York, those of the archdiocese of York; Durham University Library, the records of the bishopric and palatinate of Durham, the records of the Dean and Chapter of Durham Cathedral, and its predecessor, Durham Cathedral Priory; and Leeds University Library, the archives of the Dean and Chapter of Ripon. There are substantial collections of papers of antiquaries, for example, in the Bodleian Library, or of bodies such as the Exeter Diocesan Architectural Society, now in Exeter University Library. Some bodies, especially Oxford and Cambridge colleges, have long sequences of records for their own properties,2 in some cases with thousands of medieval deeds. The University of Sussex Library holds the records of the Tom Harrison Mass Observation Archive, with reports from across the country, and there are also wartime social surveys from the National Institute for Social and Economic Research. Social and economic material is a substantial element in the archives of the London School of Economics. The University of Reading’s Special Collections Services cover the library and archive materials from its Museum of Rural Life, with its agricultural and farming records, through to the archives of publishers and literary materials, formerly held in the University Library. Other major collections for topography can be found at Bangor, the John Rylands University Library of Manchester, and at Edinburgh, Glasgow and St Andrews.
            My own experiences over the last twenty-five years in building the collections at Southampton have taught me that there can be materials of interest to local historians in a wide range of collections. The University’s predecessor, the Hartley Institution, was bequeathed the Hampshire and Isle of Wight collection of Sir William Cope in 1892, and with it came a small quantity of manuscript material. When the papers of the first Duke of Wellington were allocated to Southampton in 1983, they included the papers for the Duke as Lord Lieutenant of Hampshire. The Broadlands Archives — the Palmerston and Mountbatten family records — include extensive estate material for Hampshire and for Ireland. Collections of Jewish records have material for the topography of parts of London, Manchester and other towns and cities where there were communities of a significant size.
            The special collections of institutions in the university sector comprise a major element in the country’s archival heritage. The possibilities that open up for local history from exploring these resources on-line are exceptional in their breadth. Information about these holdings is widely available and readers are welcome: details of access arrangements will appear on institutional websites.
 
References
1          The National Archives Collections and collecting: a survey of university archives (London: TNA, 2009)
2          For the potential of some of these for research, see, for example, D.H.Fletcher The emergence of estate maps: Christ Church, Oxford, 1600 to 1840(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995).

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Professor Christopher Elrington (1930-2009)

On 27 February 2010 around 200 people gathered in the Beveridge Hall of the University of London’s Senate House building, to celebrate the life and work of Professor Christopher Elrington, General Editor of the VCH 1977-94. Family, colleagues and friends, heard tributes to Christopher which reflected his many local history interests. Susan Reynolds talked about his (and her) early days at the VCH in the 1950s, David Smith and Ken Rogers talked about his work with, respectively, the Gloucestershire and Wiltshire Record Societies, Michael (FML) Thompson recalled Christopher’s role in the life of the IHR, and Giles Elrington provided an amusing pen-portrait of his father. Current VCH Director, Professor John Beckett, topped and tailed the event, which was partly sponsored by the IHR. Music was provided by two of Christopher’s grandchildren, Rufus and Misty Miller, with a combination of modern songs (one of which Rufus wrote for the occasion) and an unusual but moving rendition by Misty of Handel’s ‘Where’re You Walk’.

Christopher Elrington worked for the VCH throughout his career, and his memorial was a reminder of the remarkable flowering of the organisation in the wake of the 2nd World War. In 1939 it appeared almost beyond rescue, but with a renewed vigour, partly driven by county council funding, after 1945, it was able to resume the great but slow and expensive work of writing the history of every English parish. Well over 3000 have been written, and the work proceeds, in a project which has no parallel anywhere else in the world. Christopher Elrington wrote many histories when he was Gloucestershire county editor 1960-8, and edited considerably more subsequently. He understood the importance for local historians of being able to work with the medieval documents which often seem so impenetrable to amateurs, and he knew how to write without wasting words. The VCH is unique, and it is, inevitably, under financial threat, but the Elrington Memorial event reminded us all of the great work which has been going slowly but surely onwards since Arthur Doubleday conceived of the idea in 1899.

After he retired in 1994 Christopher undertook a ‘Hike for History’ in which he walked through every English county, to raise funds for the future support of the VCH. He set up the County History Trust to administer the funding, and it continues to provide small sums towards the ongoing work of the VCH. Donations to the Trust were made on the day.

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OUR PAST MAPPED OUT BEFORE US
 

Estate maps provide us with the most comprehensive and exact view of the landscape of early modern England. They also offer clues about the earlier history of the manor or estate surveyed, such as long established strips in open fields, or ancient field boundaries, as yet not rubbed out by the intensive agriculture of the last two centuries. When personal and topographical names are provided, either directly on the map or in separate survey books they enable ‘people to be put in their place.’

They are the result of two factors; the development of the science of surveying and accurate recording of the landscape, and the huge re-distribution of land following the break-up of the monastic estates in the mid 16thcentury, which created a new landowning class, eager to know precisely the extent of their estates. They were unwilling to rely on the verbal description the principal resource of the medieval estate owner. The new skill of the surveyor allowed for the plotting of the houses, fields and scattered parcels of land on a map, which was far easier to understand than the inevitable complexities of a survey reliant solely on words. These maps were accurately surveyed and artistically designed: Works of art that informed the client while bolstering his position as a man of property.
   A beautifully drawn and coloured map of the manor of Hill Deverill, produced by a surveyor and a draftsman in 1752 for the duke of Marlborough, reveals a typical chalkland estate with a range of landscapes. An area of downland, above large arable fields, of medieval origin, which in turn overlooked the village by the river, with church, principal farm house and pound, and small closes and meads with names indicating their medieval origins; Grass Cunnygar and the Warren (rabbits), Culver’s mead (pigeons). The name of the downland, Burnt Beak, indicates the more recent innovation of extending arable cultivation by stripping and burning the turf and spreading it on the land before ploughing.
   A particularly fine example is a map of the manor of Fisherton Delamere, in the Wylye valley in south Wiltshire. The duke of Bolton employed William Godson to produce a map and survey 1742, and he must have been satisfied with the result, unless he was a particularly difficult man to please. The carefully measured survey, at a scale of 40 inches to the mile, ensured ample room for detail. Open common fields with their elaborate divisions of strips with each farm’s allocation, dispersed to ensure fair distribution of good and poor land, channels for watering the meadows (which encouraged an earlier crop of grass), and field boundaries of hedges interspersed with trees are shown. Villages with their individual buildings drawn in perspective like small three dimensional models accurate in their detail rather than purely representational, add to a realistic picture of orderly and neat activity.
   The map pays for careful study. Godson’s attention to detail caused him to stray just over the boundary of the manor to include the village of Stockton around its church, including a pillory in front of the churchyard, and western half of the village of Wylye. Here each cottage has its small close, several have staddle barns and stacks of unthreshed corn, and even one stick figure digging his patch; four houses have in signs indicating that they were inns or public houses.  
   Earlier maps might be produced to inferior standards of surveying and presentation. A map of Stockton, recording all the strips and their owners in an open common field in1640, is a much cruder example. Drawn on a sheet of parchment, whose uneven shape reveals the body of the sheep from which it came. A hole made by an insect which had lived on the animal has been stretched to the size of two pence piece by the process of preparing the parchment. This offers an unusually tangible contact with the past.
   One of the delights of working in a local authority archive is to come into contact with many estate maps, and, occasionally, to discover one. I remember the thrill of one find when cataloguing part of the Button archive in the Somerset Record Office. Amongst several rolls of papers relating to a land dispute, whose whiteness and original ties of thin strips of parchment were clear signs that they had been unopened since they were bundled up in the early 17th century, one stood out. Heavy ink markings had bled through even this thick hand-made paper, making it stand out from the other sheets of closely written text. These tell-tale marks were four points of the compass written in bold capitals around the edges of a detailed plan of Bathford village that was drawn in1605. Buildings drawn in perspective, together with roads and paths all combined to provide a most informative record of the village. However, what made this so memorable was that the process of discovery and listing was completed by it being written up and published by a historian, our former president, Joe Bettey. This neatly illustrates the archivist’s role and relationship with the historian.

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MEMORIES OF A HORROR WRITER OF STOKE NEWINGTON
 

One of Stoke Newington\'s most interesting literary associations is with the American writer Edgar Allan Poe,author of the classic horror stories \'\'The Pit and the Pendulum\'\' and \'\'The Fall of the House of Usher\'\'.Between the ages of eight and eleven he was a boarder at a school in Stoke Newington Church Street,and he gave a description of both Stoke Newington and the school in his story \'\'William Wilson\'\'.

   He depicts Stoke Newington as \'\'a misty-looking village of England,where were a vast number of gigantic and gnarled trees,and where all the houses were excessively ancient\'\'.The school was \'\'a large,rambling,Elizabethan house\'\',in which each room was separated from the next by three or four steps so that \'\'it was difficult,at any given time,to say with certainty upon which of its two storeys one happened to be\'\'.The building was so maze-like that \'\'I was never able to ascertain with precision,in what remote locality lay the little sleeping apartment assigned to myself and some eighteen or twenty other scholars\'\'.
   \'\'The schoolroom was the largest in the house ---- I could not help thinking in the world.It was very long,narrow and dismally low,with pointed Gothic windows and a ceiling of oak.\'\'
   The story \'\'William Wilson\'\' was published in 1839,when Poe was thirty,and is thus earlier than the most celebrated of Charles Dickens\'s pen portraits of spooky old buildings and sinister townscapes.And even bearing in mind that Poe was only eleven when he left Stoke Newington to return to the United States with his adoptive parents in 1820,the scale and antiquity and gloom that he evokes seems greatly exaggerated.We have no specific record of the numerous \'\'gigantic and gnarled trees\'\' that he referred to but we know that most of the houses in Stoke Newington were little more than a hundred years old when Poe arrived in 1817:many of them,especially on the south side of Stoke Newington Church Street,are still there today.
   Poe\'s school,just to the east of the site of the Public Library but standing back from Church Street so that the rooms at its rear were more or less where no.17 and no.18 Edwards Lane are today,may have been one of the oldest buildings in the street,but drawings made some time before it was demolished later in the nineteenth century show it to have been a relatively compact structure erected probably about 1600,extended a few decades later ,and provided with a more modern brick facade fronting the street early in the 1700s.
   There were two windows on either side of the front door,suggesting no more than six or seven fair-sized rooms in the entire house.An old photograph,perhaps later than the drawings,shows the front door as part of a small extension at the side of the building,and five windows on the ground floor facade.There was no vast schoolroom with Gothic windows,and since there were fewer than twenty windows in the whole building it should have been fairly easy for Poe to tell where his dormitory was.
   About the only detail which Poe gives correctly is the name of the headmaster,Bransby.Poe calls him Dr.Bransby,descibes him as \'\'the pastor\'\' of the local church,and depicts a figure august and imposing in the pulpit but shabby and sour in the schoolroom.In fact the Rev.John Bransby,who had a M.A. from Cambridge but no doctorate,was a relatively young man of 33 when Poe first encountered him in 1817,and was not the parish priest,only a kind of auxiliary cleric,called a \'\'lecturer\'\',employed to supplement parish services by giving sermons,or \'\'lectures\'\',on weekdays and,perhaps,Sunday evenings.
   The narrator of \'\'William Wilson\'\' is at Bransby\'s school from 1823 to 1828;in real life Bransby left Stoke Newington to become headmaster of King\'s Lynn Grammar School in 1825.He recalled Poe in later life as \'\'a clever boy\'\' who \'\'would have been a very good boy\'\' if only his adoptive parents had not given him too much pocket-money,\'\'which enabled him to get into all manner of mischief\'\'.

   It may be that Edgar Allan Poe\'s most important contribution to the mythology of Stoke Newington was that he was the first recorded pre-teen delinquent in the area.

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AUNT OF FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE FOUND IN WARGRAVE
 

Local History News 94, for Winter 2010, includes a note about the events to mark the centenary of the death of Florence Nightingale. The Wargrave Local History Society has recently made a fortunate discovery that, in a way, relates to this. 

At the end of the Annual General Meeting in 2009, two members asked if we might be interested in some albums of photographs that included views of our village. The two loos sample images were clear, of good resolution, and earlier than most we had in our archives. So arrangements made to view the 3 albums, and was suggested that ‘maybe we would be able to identify the owner by comparing the initials on the front with the people listed on the village census’. Maybe.
The albums contained village scenes, but also many from further afield, across England (including Embley, in Hampshire), Scotland and mainland Europe. Some were captioned, with dates and placenames, and the name of a dog and a horse. There was a nice ‘period view’ of an elderly lady in a horse drawn carriage; a sketch of a long gone village building ‘drawn by my mother’, and two views of the interior of a house in the village - a typical Victorian drawing room.
Then we realised the significance of the initials HCS on the front of the albums. Harriette Cooke Smith was the most important Wargrave benefactress of the 19th century. Looking more closely at the table in the drawing room, there is even the first of the albums sitting there! Further research showed that the house in Scotland belonged to Harriette’s brother-in-law. The family also owned a house in Herefordshire (an area which also features well in the collection) - and Embley was the home of Florence Nightingale - Harriette’s niece.
Harriette had been born in 1824, and moved to our village in 1827, when her father became vicar of the parish. Her love of the village meant that she gave generously, providing the village recreation ground, almshouses, electric lighting for the church and, amongst other things, the village hall. Further research has located her diaries in the record office of a different county - and these add to the picture of the life and times of a Victorian lady, including mention of her regular visits to the facilities she provided for the village.
By great good fortune these albums had been retrieved from imminent despatch into a corporation refuse destructor as ‘something that might be of interest’ by a young man some way from our village.

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ADDING SOME SPARKLE ...
 

CALLING ALL LOCAL HISTORIANS

LEND ME YOUR PENS !
The reason I am writing this article is to ask for your help in writing some short (90 to 120 words) articles on local history for our daily reminiscence newspaper, The Daily Sparkle.
I run a company called Everyday Miracles. We produce therapeutic activity products for older people throughout the UK and Ireland. Everyday Miracles is a not-for-profit Social Enterprise dedicated to improving the quality of life for older people, especially those living in care and nursing homes, a mix of ‘general elderly’ (those with no particular health issues) and those with early to mid stage dementia.
Our Daily Sparkle paper contains reminiscence articles based on the small things of life from the 1940s and 50s. Its readers are among the most neglected groups in our society and are often left with little quality of life. Besides serving these residents we also supply the Sparkle to many NHS Trusts (Geriatric and Dementia Wards), Day Centres, Domicilliary Agencies and Occupational Therapists.
The Daily Sparkle has been phenomenally successful in generating interest and stimulation. The residents love it and we are constantly seeking to make it even better for them. Until now our articles have been exclusively about national subjects of everyday life - royalty, popular entertainers, old fashioned products, national habits and customs, fashion etc. But in a recent survey of the homes we serve the number 1 request was for local history articles.
Older people in homes have a strong tendency to suffer from very poor self-esteem. The main pillars of their identity have disappeared. They have no jobs, no ‘home’, and if they do have families these are often remote leaving the residents feeling alone and isolated. We believe that the call for local history is a call to regain some form of identity - my life, my locality, my history.
We want to raise a small army of local historians to write short articles for inclusion in the Daily Sparkle. We know that in order to reach the older people who we serve we must keep our prices to a minimum (otherwise homes say they can’t afford the Sparkles). Therefore we are unable to pay for the articles. What contributors will receive however is the knowledge that they are providing a truly wonderful service to an extremely deserving group of people. There may also be invitations to give talks at homes, and these can be charged for if required.
We have created some web pages where you can see samples of recent issues of the Sparkle. These will give you some idea of style and content. The style is ‘fireside chat’ - very informal and friendly. Our writers have assumed pen identities and have developed their very own ‘cult’ following.
We’re looking for articles based on the 1940s and 50s which can feature local customs and fairs, amusing incidents, local characters and places , local work and leisure activities, in fact anything of interest.
There will also be some opportunities for ‘paid’ articles. We are looking to get more regular articles based on the countries and regions of the UK and Ireland. These would be reminiscences from Scotland, Wales, North and South Ireland, ‘Up North’, The Midlands, East Anglia, Cockney-land, The South East and The South West.

Please do have a look at the webpages at http://www.dailysparkle.co.uk/balh/    and please support us and serve your local community’s most deserving group of people. I would be grateful for whatever you can give, from a single article to a regular contribution. You will most definitely have a positive impact on the quality of life of the older people in your community.

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HOARD MANIA
 

The British are in earnest when they stand in queues. It must be worth it if there is a queue to participate. North Staffordshire people certainly don’t queue for nothing, but in February this year long lines of people have stretched along the galleries and corridors of the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery, down the stairs and out to a freezing cold forecourt, twice round that and then down the street virtually to the City Library more than fifty yards away. It took some almost three hours to get in to see the wonder of the age – Anglo-Saxon gold. They stood there without grumbling – a miracle that – with children, even those in push chairs, all admirably accepting the necessity of physical punishment in order to see the Hoard. 

You must have heard of the Hoard. Nothing has ever been advertised quite like it in the world of archaeology. It’s the Staffordshire Hoard, and it’s ours say the denizens of the county in which it was found. One man and his metal detector revealed it, the British Museum has authenticated it and the Crown has temporary possession of it. For three weeks some 120 items from the over 1,500 dug up in an unidentified field were put on display in the Potteries Museum. Over 52,000 passed through the gallery in 23 days. The purpose was to raise money to buy all these delicate objects, mostly made of gold, under the terms of the Treasure Act 1996 which gave the right of ownership of archaeological objects found in the earth to the landowner. A sale to a museum is compulsory if that institution can meet the price set by an independent valuer. In this case a partnership of Midland museums is bidding to purchase and share the responsibility of conservation and display. The sum they need is around £3.3 million. Much must be found from large grant aiding bodies, the Art Fund being a leader in this instance, but every pound collected from the man in the street is almost worth its weight in gold! The more that comes that way, the more justified public bodies are in contributing large sums. County, city and district authorities are watching closely.

So what did we get by standing in a queue? Was it worth the wait? How should a historian rate the find; and is adding one’s mite a worthwhile investment? Five glass cases held the sample of finds, mostly cleaned enough to study for an initial judgement and to reveal the quality of workmanship, but often with clay still clogging the interstices or clouding the glitter of precious metal. All the publicity had stressed the provisional conclusions about just what the objects were used for, just what they originally looked like before being scrunched up and dumped in a spot for which there is no obvious archaeological context. Photographs brilliantly bring out the intricate, delicate and masterful workmanship which must have gone into the manufacture of what general opinion says are mostly decorative parts of military equipment – bits from swords and protective armour in many instances. What those in the queue were perhaps most struck by was the smallness of the objects they saw in the cases. Exquisite they were as artefacts, but still tiny, very disparate in type to the untutored eye and inevitably betraying their recent burial in raw clay. They provoked huge numbers of questions for which there are as yet few answers. Therein lay their magic appeal – they are mysterious, unprocessed, immediate links with an ancient world, far from the sterile cleanliness of polished, preserved and clinically labelled objects in the usual museum display.   [822 words'>more...

So the wait was repaid with pleasurable puzzlement: the historian no less amazed than anyone else and equally stimulated to ask questions. If these objects come from an age and a people supposedly dark and impenetrable then they shine a glaring light reinforcing that already switched on by the books of the time such as the Lindisfarne Gospel. As many mites as possible should be piled into the cash pot as this is the only way that the Staffordshire Hoard will become public property. It says a lot for the people of North Staffordshire that in this time of national debt crisis when public services are at risk they are willing to put their money where their mouth is and boost the cause of museums and art galleries. It also says much about where the public stands in the matter of studying the past, for this campaign for cash is being done in the name of History at a time when universities are heavily pressed to slim down their commitment to the humanities. Most welcome of all, perhaps, is that the campaign is also a symbol of provincial resistance to the cultural hegemony of London. How better could the local historian spend money than in support of such objectives?
 

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SUCCESSFUL EVENTS
 

Conference of the BALH and the Society of Lincolnshire History and Archaeology held at the University of Lincoln, April 23-25th 2010

 
With the flood-lit Cathedral almost afloat above the city, the conference began with the keynote lecture given by Dr Kate Tiller: Practising twentieth century history. It was a stimulating start to an interesting weekend introducing members to the variety of differing sources available to a twentieth century historian.   Much of the debate engendered was extended to the conference dinner held at a local restaurant. 
 
A large number of members from the SLHA joined for the Saturday sessions which continued the above theme. David Stocker unravelled resources for defining a region such as the East Midlands. Dr Andrew Walker considered the part played by markets, fairs and the agricultural show. Abigail Hunt related her experiences and conclusions of an oral history project about the hidden female agricultural force of Lincolnshire. Dr Andrew Jackson used a run of parish magazines to define the Lincoln Ermine estate’s early development in the 50’s and 60’s. The afternoon session included a very successful local visit to the Ermine as well as the local villages of Nettleham and Dunholme, the emphasis consistently on the 20th century impact. For those not on the visit, further fascinating papers were given: Dr Claire Hall (POW Camps in Lincolnshire); Dr Shirley Brook (small holder farm buildings in the fens) and John Makin on pacifist farming in the county in World War II.   The evening gave participants an opportunity to explore the city in what fortunately proved to be very pleasant weather.  
 
Fewer members attended the Sunday’s workshop which allowed delegates to pick up on issues raised by the conference but with a particular emphasis on the rise and use of the internet. The case study of the Oxfordshire website was used as a stimulus. This was followed, before lunch, by a walk through the city’s remains of its industrial Victorian past taking in the Witham industrial sites, the scenes of some of the events associated with the Lincoln riots and the Arboretum.   The whole conference ended with lunch.
 
There was a strong feeling that this had been a very successful conference. The papers had been of a high quality, the visits excellent and the link between BALH and the local society was impressive. The university site had provided a good venue for the event. 
 
 
Jan Shephard
Tim Lomas

VISIT TO WINCHESTER: The BALH visit to Winchester on March 11th provided an opportunity for members to visit one of our oldest and most historically important cities and to be guided around two major sites within the city, as well as to enjoy a tour of mediaeval Winchester.
We were conducted around Winchester College by Dr Geoffrey Day, the Fellows’ Librarian, who described the major architectural features and history of William of Wykeham’s 1394 foundation. Of particular interest to members was the visit to the archives, the oldest records being housed in two muniment rooms; in the lower of these, the “Treasury” of the Statutes, we were able to inspect notable items from the archives, selected for our visit. These included Anglo-Saxon charters, the oldest documents in the archive, one being a tenth or eleventh century forgery, a Bursars’ Book containing the first documentary reference in England to the battle of Agincourt, and the oldest English watercolour illustration. A 1487 letter had survived the attentions of mice under the floorboards until recent times because the cavity had been packed with gorse! This archive is remarkable both for its completeness over a time span from the late fourteenth century to the present and for its still being housed in the room originally intended for that purpose.
We were conducted around the Chantry Chapels of Winchester Cathedral by Cindy Wood and were particularly privileged to be allowed to go inside these impressive monuments. Winchester Cathedral is famous for its Chantry Chapels, where daily masses were said for the bishops buried within them. We saw the two earliest, in the nave: that of William of Edington (1345-66) was designed to stand below the Norman arcade; William of Wykeham\'s was built at the same time as his reconstructed nave. The remaining four stand in the retrochoir. Cardinal Henry Beaufort (1404-47) chose a site next to the final shrine of St Swithun. On the north side we saw the chantry chapel of William Waynflete (1447-86), provost of Eton (1442-7) and founder of Magdalen College, Oxford. The chapel of Richard Fox (1501-28), built during his lifetime, is on the south side of the feretory platform behind the high altar.
Professor Tom James gave us a guided tour of mediaeval Winchester, which provided a synoptic introduction to this compact and evocative townscape. We paused at important features, the smallest but not the least significant being the only visible remains of the Roman town wall.
 
Michael Amphlett

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LTVAS GROUP AND LOCAL AUTHORITIES
 

The Lower Test Valley Archaeological Study Group was established in 1973 to study the archaeology of the Romsey area of Hampshire. Despite its name, its main activity is in the field of local history. The Group is run by a committee and has a structure of sections, currently being history, Friends of the (old) Cemetery, and archaeology. We also have two associated but autonomous village societies.

 
Hampshire County Council
Our chief links are with the Hampshire Record Office (HRO), which we use for research, but have also been instrumental in arranging for a number of deposits, including helping with the removal and sorting of a major collection of records from a local solicitor. We work with Romsey library, for example by supplying them with our digital expanded burial records, answering their queries, and of course borrowing books. The County Archaeologist asked us to survey barns in the area, and the work led to a book on the history of agriculture in Romsey.
 
Test Valley Borough Council
There are a number of local and family history societies within Test Valley. We meet together once a year to exchange information and discuss matters of common interest. Recently we supported the Community Archives Development Officer of HRO when she spoke at a meeting of local parish councils about records and their management.
 
We make our knowledge of old buildings and our extensive photographic collection available to the Borough planners, sometimes at their behest, and sometimes where we think they ‘need guidance’. At our suggestion, the Planning Department bought from TNA microfiche copies of all the tithe award maps for the Borough. We regularly discuss the cemetery management with the Parks department
 
Romsey Town Council
Romsey is divided into two parishes, Romsey Infra and, forming a ring around it, Romsey Extra. Romsey Infra is the larger and richer council. It has a Town Council and a town hall. Some years ago we were offered the use of the town hall basement as a headquarters for a modest rent and it transformed our Group. We keep all our records in the basement and use it for workshops and committee meetings. We also borrow their display boards from time to time and hire meeting rooms.
 
As Archivists to the Town Council we advise them on the management of their documents and artefacts, or tell them where to get professional advice. We provided them with digital images of mayors back to the 1840s which formed the basis of an excellent display prepared by one of their staff. We have advised on and augmented their picture collection. Recently one of our members identified the heraldic shields that were hung in the Court Room and now each is clearly labelled
 
When the town celebrated its borough charter jubilee, we wrote a booklet about the significance of the charter, and a separate shorter one for school children, and the council paid for their printing.
 
We have been instrumental in suggesting names for new roads in the town based on local connections. The result is that Romsey is very short of aesthetonyms such as ‘Heritage Mews’ which we saw off in short order, replacing it with the medieval ‘Chavy Water’.
 
Romsey Extra Parish Council
This is Romsey’s smaller parish council. It does not have its own premises but does produce a very good quarterly newsletter which is delivered to every house in the parish. One of our members contributes historical notes about places in the parish to the newsletter and from time to time is asked to speak at the Annual Parish Meeting.
 
General
We are a research body, so do not campaign on local issues, but provide information for others to use, if we are asked. We feel that our co-operation with councillors and their officials benefits the community and over the years have built up these relationships.

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FAVERSHAM HISTORIANS AT 20
 

A Leicester Square wine bar was the setting for the birth 20 years ago of a successful local historians’ networking group.   It has proved its value by promoting, and facilitating, a huge amount of research.

The ringleaders were the late Theo Barker, Professor of Economic History at LSE; Patrica Hyde, who had recently completed her great study of Thomas Arden, murdered in 1551; and two other members of the Faversham Society, a hybrid local amenity / local history society in East Kent.
Faversham has a long, varied and colourful history and the Society had already been encouraging research for over 25 years. A pilot meeting of members actively involved in research was held, with Theo in the chair.   This went well and it was decided that the Faversham Historians should meet quarterly on Sunday mornings.
Initially meetings were held in members’ homes.   Next they took place at the local library, where out of hours, and nobly, the Local Studies Librarian made members welcome, and provided coffee and biscuits.   Then as part of a round of ‘economies’ her job was lost.   The group moved to the Faversham Society’s own Fleur de Lis Hall, conveniently placed in the town centre.  
For many years Theo chaired the meetings.   His vision was of amateurs being offered help and encouragement to conform to the highest professional standards.   There were to be no lecturers, but instead everyone took their turn to talk about their work.   No-one could speak for more than five minutes, a few minutes’ extra time being allowed for questions and discussion.
20 years later, the formula remains exactly the same.   Meetings continue to open at 11 am and close at 1 pm - on the dot.   Both for the record and for the benefit of members unable to be present they are fully minuted.   For almost the whole life of the group this demanding job has been done by Anne Salmon, a town planner by profession.
Members come mostly from the town and surrounding parishes, but others live further away.   One comes to most meetings from a village in Bedfordshire.   Patricia Hyde herself is in Surrey, and other members are in Northumberland, Spain and New Zealand.   There are about 50 in all - drawn from a total Society membership of over 1,000. 
In ‘real life’ members come from a variety of backgrounds.   A handful are academics, not all historians - one is an earth scientist.   Three are professional history researchers.   Others are, or have been, bankers, insurance brokers, farmers, archaeologists, housewives, hairdressers, prison officers - you name it, the group probably has one!   It all makes for an eclectic, and very well-informed, mix.  
Usually some members will arrive with a ‘prop’ they’d like others to see.   One, with service in the police force to his credit, arrived disguised as a ‘Peeler’ to put members tangibly in touch with the past.   Otherwise locally-relevant books, maps, drawings, photographs, ephemera and artefacts are shared. Often these have been rescued from oblivion in shops, at boot or antique fairs, or even skips.   Many are generously presented to the Society’s Museum, one of the biggest independent ones in Kent.   Some significant discoveries are made in this way, and it’s all quite unpredictable - which adds to the fun.
Since the group was formed 20 years ago members between them have published several books and many substantial contributions to the Society’s series of ‘Faversham Papers’ on aspects of the area’s past.    Launched in 1964, this now runs to over 100 titles.
The ‘Historians’ formula has proved itself 100%, and can be recommended to other local societies with an interest in the cross-fertilisation of ideas and information.   Though it costs next to nothing, except a couple of hours every three months and some dedicated work on the part of the Minutes Secretary, the dividends are generous.

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LOCAL HISTORY PUBLISHERS
 

Books from many different types of publishers pass through the hands of the review editor of The Local Historian. This is an attempt to identify some of these publishers and their characteristic books. Many of the books sent for review come from individual local historians or local history societies. These are well designed books, printed by local printers and distributed by the author or the society. Most of these of are of high quality, with references, a bibliography and an index; others lack these additions, but still tell a good story through text and pictures. On the other end of the scale are the university presses and up-market commercial publishers such as Boydell and Brewer. These books are the work of considerable merit, are appropriately analytical and contain the usual scholarly protocols of academic work. Unfortunately, these books are often too expensive to be accessible to all local historians. A notable exception to this is the University of Hertfordshire Press, which continues to publish works of original local history, in a style and price available to all.

Some non-specialist commercial publishers produce local history books. Longman Education for example and Weidenfeld and Nicolson who published John Hatcher’s controversial but popular book The Black Death. The Intimate Story of a Village in Crisis, 1345-1350. In addition there are a group of publishers which concentrate on local history. Founded in 1897 Phillimore is the oldest of this group, and is still trading under the Phillimore imprint despite now being a division of The History Press. Phillimore publishes family and local history. Its books are well researched, and usually contain references and an index, but not always a bibliography, and often the index is in a type face so small a magnifying glass is needed to read it. The authors of these books have obviously spent a great deal of time on research, and have used primary sources effectively, but sometimes one wishes for a little more analytical meat and more attention to comparative material and debates, for example where does a town like Beaconsfield, one of their 2009 offerings, fit into the wider context of small towns.
The History Press not only merged with Phillimore, but also took over Tempus. Some of The History Press books are esoteric, such as Brigid Goddess, Druidess and Saint. Further reading lists are included, but references are not always added. Another publishing house that might have become part of The History Press stable, but managed to disentangle itself was Sutton. Alan Sutton its founder has gone on to found Amberley Press. Amberley Press’s stock list of 700 titles claims on its cover that it is ‘leading the way with local and specialist history’, the latter being archaeology, military and transport history. Much of Amberley Press’s local history list is based on books of photographs, which appeal to those who know the area but not always to a wider audience. Yet these books are valuable records of the past, and could be used as part of a history of photography and subjects chosen by early photographers, or as part of a comparative history of the visual images tracing the development of towns and villages. Notable in the Amberley Press list is the complete diary of a Cotswold parson. Unfortunately, the whole series costs £400! It is interesting that the list states specifically that Amberley is not using print on demand, which is a route that many publishers are pursuing.
Another publishing company which relies heavily on photographs is Breedon Books, now trading as The Derby Book Publishing Company Ltd. This company claims to be ‘Britain’s best sport and local history publisher’, a phrase open to debate. Its books are beautifully produced and reasonably priced, but often lack references, a bibliography and an index, and stronger editorial control is sometimes needed over the content, which as some of the reviews in The Local Historian have shown can sometimes be incorrect. This is a pity as this is a publisher that knows how to produce an attractive quality product, which is too often flawed.
Finally, I have to mention Hob Nob Press, which continues to appeal to those interest in the south west, and Carnegie Publishing which in conjunction with BALH published David Dymond’s new edition of Researching and Writing History .Carnegie publishes well researched and beautifully illustrated books, such as David Hey’s Derbyshire, which are affordable and accessible to anyone interested in local history.
Perhaps I can also mention one of my all-time favourite local history books, Retford 1520-1642 published by the Department of Adult Education of the University of Nottingham in 1993. This is a model for local history publishers, and it is also a reminder of the excellent work that Adult Education Departments used  to do.

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TWO PICTURE BOOKS 
 

This section of LHN is referred to in-house and irreverently as the ‘picture books’ column. It was started many years ago by Evelyn Lord’s predecessor as reviews editor, Peter Christie. In the early days of local societies collecting and publishing images of their village Peter found himself with increasing numbers of volumes that perhaps were felt insufficiently scholarly for a full review in TLH but still of interest to other local historians. Books of old photographs continue to be a popular outlet for society collections and the energies of their members, and have many valuable qualities. Old images of places are often still recognisable to modern readers; they can provide an accessible way in to local history; they are ripe for a comparative ‘new and old’ approach; additional text can be added or not; captions can be long or short; when people are pictured and names are known they have an additional attraction to family historians; and societies often have very skilled DTP operators, with modern technology the quality of the images produced can be excellent.

 
Marcham Remembered: a village in pictures
The Marcham Society 2009
ISBN 978 0 9530220 2 1
Available from various local outlets and from the Society for £10 + £2 p&p c/o 13 The Farthings, Marcham, Abingdon OX13 6QD
 
 
Marcham is a village on the edge of the Vale of the White Horse, in the part of north Berkshire that was transferred to Oxfordshire in 1974. The society’s archive of over 1,000 photographs has been trawled for the splendid selection that is to be found here. Funded by an Awards for All grant that allowed a free copy to go to all local households, and with additional support from Marcham Parish Council and a local private trust, the book was produced by a group of thirteen members putting in an estimated 2,000 hours of work over two years. Different topics have their own authors, and we learn about ‘The Land’, ‘Buildings’, ‘Work’, ‘Sport & Leisure’ and so on. Using A4 format allows the designers flexibility of layout, to exploit the variations in picture quality. A mixture of black-and-white and sepia photographs, with generous captions alongside, and additional text with a tinted background makes for a very attractive product. Its value is reinforced by the comprehensive index of people and places. As the introduction points out ‘with the advent of photography village lives came into focus for the first time’. For the society this book ‘is part of an ongoing project … to record and share Marcham’s past’.
 
The History of Farnham Park
Pat Heather
Farnham & District Museum Society with Waverley Borough Council 2009
ISBN 978 0 90 1638 14 4
Available from the museum and other outlets in Farnham or from the Society c/o Tanglewood, Parkside, Farnham, Surrey GU9 0JP for £10 incl p&p
 
Farnham Park in Surrey is the subject of another beautifully illustrated, equally fascinating but very different book. Written by a single expert author, this volume demonstrates clearly the value of a special source, exploited to the full. The Park was in the hands of the Bishops of Winchester, and their accounts, the Pipe Rolls, exist for five centuries from 1208, throwing a bright light on the administration of the estates. Details of income and expenditure were sent in annually by each of the bishopric’s manors, revealing, for example, that the park provided the bishops’ larder with game and their houses with fuel; bark was sold to tanners, and clay to potters. Royal visits incurred additional costs of stabling the king’s horses and feeding his greyhounds. The clear explanations and detailed description of the park in medieval times make this book particularly special and unusual.
 
Local history societies are often wary of venturing too far back in time, but as Pat Heather has shown, with knowledge and good fortune, it is entirely possible and can be most rewarding. In this case the history of the park begins in the 7th century and continues into the 21st. With a scholarly bibliography, glossary and index, and of course many and varied illustrations, any one considering such an ambitious project would do well to look at this book. It is the fourth in a series produced by the society, supported by a bequest from a former member to help finance works of local history that would otherwise not see the light of day. Typesetting and layout is done by the authors, and ‘print-on-demand’ allows for tight control of costs and stock, and quick response to a ‘best-seller’ such as this.

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First Welsh-language local history guide
 
Rheinallt Llwyd and Huw Owen, co-editors of this new book, had taught courses on local history for many years, through the medium of both the English and Welsh languages, and came to realise, independently of each other, the need for a Welsh-language volume aimed at community, local and family historians in Wales. The result was the publication in late 2009 of Olrhain hanes bro a theulu: Arweiniad i ffynonellau hanes lleol a theuluol yng Nghymru  [ Tracing community and family history: An introduction to local and family history in Wales  '>more....This represents the first Welsh-language volume of its kind, and has been favourably reviewed in the Welsh-language press. 
 
The volume contains the following chapters by authors considered to be recognised authorities in their respective fields: Antiquarian studies in Wales, the increased interest in, and history of community, local and family history in Wales, the contribution of local and national societies and institutions, publishers; Maps; Pictures [D. Huw Owen'>more...;  Printed sources: books, periodicals, reference works, directories, biographies, newpapers; Oral evidence [Rheinallt Llwyd'>more...;   Genaelogy and heraldry   [Michael Siddons'>more...;   Ecclesiastical sources, The Church and Nonconformity [J. Gwynfor Jones'>more...;Probate Records [Gerald Morgan'>more...; Graveyard inscriptions and information on family sources [EvanJames'>more...;  Administrative and financial archives, Central and local government, Criminal records [Glyn Parry'>more...;   Local government,Workhouses and the poor [Helen Palmer'>more...;  The Census  [Hafina Clwyd'>more...; Estate papers [David Howell'>more...;   Maritime sources, Photographs, postcards [William Troughton'>more...;  Buildings and the landscape [Richard Suggett'>more...;  Place names [Richard Morgan'>more...;  Literary material [Tegwyn Jones'>more...; Location and access: libraries, record offices and museums; the internet, media material l- including ‘archives‘, radio and television [D.Huw Owen, Rheinallt Llwyd'>more....
 
Published by Gwasg Carreg  Gwalch of Llanwrst, the book costs £12, its ISBN is 978 1845 271 336
 

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LOOKING AT LUCIUS CARY
 

In Burford church in Oxfordshire I came face to face with Lucius Cary, 2nd viscount Falkland, who was killed at the first Battle of Newbury in 1643. It’s hardly unusual to see tombs and monuments in an English parish church, but there was something different about Lucius, a haunting quality about the image, and because I knew almost nothing about him I wanted to find out more.

 
The monument on which he is depicted is not in fact his own—he kneels at the feet of his grandparents, Sir Lawrence and Lady Tanfield. His grandfather, Lord Chief Baron of the Court of Exchequer, died in April 1625 and his widow immediately commandeered the medieval chapel of St Katherine and built a huge, almost monstrous, tomb for her husband and herself. At their heads is their only child, Lucius’s mother Elizabeth, and at their feet their eldest grandson and heir, looking away from them. The family are dwarfed by the columns, colonnades, armorial displays, and pinnacles of their burial place.
 
Lucius was born in 1610 and educated at Trinity College Dublin (his father, Henry Cary, was lord deputy of Ireland). After a disastrous episode serving as a soldier in the Netherlands, he returned to England and took up his inheritance of Oxfordshire lands and manors, the estates of his late grandparents. There he became a central figure in a remarkable intellectual circle, which included Ben Jonson, the philosopher Thomas Hobbes, the poet Abraham Cowley, and the politician and (eventually) historian Edward Hyde, known to posterity as the Earl of Clarendon, later the right-hand man of Charles II and author of the first history of ‘The Great Rebellion’. In the 1630s this circle of bright young intellects wrote prose and verse about each other for their own entertainment, and met constantly to discuss ideas and philosophies, current events and political ambitions.  
 
War broke out in 1642, despite efforts by Falkland and others first to tread a middle path and then to broker peace. He was an active negotiator in the autumn of 1642, seeking to arrange a truce, but in 1643, when this had failed, threw himself into fighting for the king. At Newbury, in September 1643, he recklessly charged a group of parliamentary musketeers, and was killed.
 
Clarendon, his closest friend, was frank, writing that Lucius was ‘in no degree attractive or promising. His stature was low and smaller than most men; his motion not graceful’. But he went on to say that the ‘little person and small stature was quickly found to contain a great heart … all mankind could not but admire and love him’. Some, from the manner of his death, suspected suicide, so depressed was he by the war: ‘Sitting amongst his friends, often, after a deep silence and frequent sighs [he would cry'>more... “Peace, Peace”, and would passionately profess that the very agony of the war, and the view of the calamities and desolation the kingdom did and must endure, took his sleep from him and would shortly break his heart’.
 
On the huge tomb in Burford church, kneeling in front of his grandmother’s sensible black shoes, he looks into the distance. Aged seventeen or eighteen, with his hair fashionably brushed up and away from his face, his wispy moustache betokening adulthood, and his bulky clothes and large ruff stiff and uncomfortable, his expression is melancholy, as befits a figure on a monument. It seemed somehow familiar. Later, reading about him, I wondered if this was because it was like gazing at those Edwardian photographs in the family album, showing young men his age who were soon to die in Flanders or France. Was Newbury in 1643 any better?

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NOTES NEWS ISSUES
 

Bequests

BALH was recently honoured to receive an unexpected bequest from a member who was a stalwart supporter of the association and other organisations both in her local area and nationally. Although she asked not to be named, we are pleased to take this opportunity to express our thanks. Such contributions greatly assist our work and allow us to maintain as low a rate of subscription as possible. In times when the returns on our investments are so small, such additional sources of income are particularly valuable. If any other member is considering including BALH in their will, please would they contact the Treasurer?
 
New member of Council
At its meeting in March, BALH Council co-opted Ms Helen Good to be a Trustee of the Association. Helen has been a member of the Events Committee for a number of years. After running a series of conferences in her local area of Hull, she has developed a successful template for a ‘new research conference’ which she is happy to offer to other regions
 
Who do you think you are 2010?
A hectic time was had at Olympia at the end of February when BALH again took a stall at the vast history show that is ‘Who do you think you are live!’ The new Directory of internet sites sold like proverbial hot cakes, and Gill Draper and Kate Thompson gave very well-received talks. We tackled numerous questions about all sorts of issues, met lots of people, including old friends, and (we hope) raised the profile of BALH. It is important to make time for walking round the hall visiting other participants, and making new contacts with a view to arranging visits, or requesting contributions to our publications. Thanks to the team of Gill, Ruth, Kate, Heather, Jane, and Gill’s student volunteers. Next year we will be there again, 25 –27 February 2011, and if anyone reading this would care to offer their help, please get in touch

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NEWS FROM MUSEUMS
 

A major new exhibition on the iconic Lewis Chessmen opened at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh in May. The Lewis Chessmen Unmasked will look at the mystery and intrigue surrounding the chessmen, explore the stories around their discovery, and show how the characters reflected society at the time they were made, It will draw upon new research by National Museums on Scotland on their craftsmanship, origins, and historical context to provide visitors with a new and vibrant perspective on the chessmen. The exhibition will later travel to Aberdeen (October 2010 to January 2011), Shetland (January to March) and Stornoway (April to Sept). Both the exhibition and tour have been made possible with funding from the Scottish Government. www.nms.ac.uk

 
 
The Herbert Art Gallery and Museum in Coventry has won the Guardian family-friendly museum of the year award with its local history collections ‘from Lady Godiva to the Blitz’, and its natural history and art galleries (The Guardian, 2 April 2010). A team of undercover judges, with their children, shortlisted the Herbert, together with The Great North Museum, Newcastle, Beningborough Hall and Gardens, York (NT), the Highland Folk Museum, Newtonmore, The Potteries Museum and Art Gallery, Stoke, and the St Nicholas Priory, Exeter. The museums were assessed on a 20-point Kids in Museums manifesto and the Herbert took the title on the basis of its recent £8 million makeover, its respect for visitors and its welcome for children and parents. It stands in contrast to the Royal Academy where the journalist who founded the Kids in Museums awards, Dea Birkett, was turfed out of the Atzec exhibition with her son who pointed at a scary exhibit and shouted ‘Monster!’
The Coventry History Centre, at the Herbert, states that it holds the major collection of published and original records of the history of Coventry and is ‘currently’ open on Sunday afternoons as well as Tuesdays to Saturdays 10-5, surely an innovation for history centres, even if no document delivery is possible on Sundays.http://www.theherbert.org/
 
 
The major focus for the British Postal Museum and Archive this year is the London 2010: Festival of Stamps, a year-long celebration of stamps, stamp design and postal heritage. The Festival also marks the centenary of the accession of George V, the philatelist king. As well as a major exhibition ‘Empire Mail: George V & The GPO’, there will be an exciting programme of events arranged by both BPMA and other organisations. One example is ‘Rugby Post – rugby stamps, letters and postcards’ at the Twickenham World Rugby Museum, from May to October. www.london2010.org.uk
 
 
Dean Heritage Museum was damaged by fire in December 2010, but thanks to the response of the fire service the damage was limited, and the hard work of staff and volunteers has resulted in the museum officially re-opening in February, while repairing the building will take place over the spring and summer. The library of the Forest of Dean Local History Society, part of the Gage library, is being stored while the building work is underway, so they are unable for the time being to offer their full enquiry service for local and family historians. Meanwhile the museum held a temporary ‘Fire Damage’ exhibition, and will hold a major event over the bank holiday weekend at the end of May ‘Fire & Wood, celebrating woodland crafts and charcoal burning in the Forest. www.forestofdeanhistory.org.uk
 
Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year. Founded in 1860 its original collection was based on finds from the medieval water channels that ran through the streets of the city until a new drainage system was built in the mid-19th century. A major exhibition Made in 1860 will consist of 150 objects, one representing each year of the museum’s history. Local history Day (19 June), Festival of British Archaeology (17 July) and a weekend conference (2 – 3 October) form part of the programme marking this important birthday. www.salisburymuseum.org.uk
 
The  current exhibition at the Museum of Brands, Packaging and Advertising displays Political Mugs, highlighting political intrigue during the past 200 years, as seen through souvenir mugs and jugs, and contemporary toys and tins. A topical display for election year, it will run until the end of November.www.musuemofbrands.com
 
Arnos Vale Cemetery in Bristol was officially reopened at the end of April after a £5m programme of restoration of its historic landscape, buildings and monuments, and the addition of art, heritage, wildlife and education attractions and services, including a new museum. One of Britain’s finest ‘garden cemeteries’ Arnos Vale opened in 1839. Amongst its most notable occupants are Dr William Budd who transformed public health, Mary Carpenter, a pioneer of women’s education, prison reform and the care of young offenders, and Raja Rammohun Roy, the father of modern India.www.arnosvale.org.uk

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NEWS FROM LIBRARIES
 

The Library of the Society of Friends has begun a new series of introductions to the life and work of prominent Friends. The first on Elizabeth Fry was launched in January, to be followed by George Fox, William Penn and Margaret Fell. They are available atwww.quaker.org.uk/subject-guides

 
FeMail, Suffragettes and the Post is a new foyer display at The Women’s Library that opened on 5 May. It examines the inventive ways n what the suffrage movement harnessed the postal system during the campaign to secure women the vote.www.thewomenslibrary.ac.uk
 
Brighton & Hove City Council’s library service is publishing a new version of the Encyclopaedia of Brighton because of huge demand. The original edition came out in 1990 and was intended chiefly as a reference volume for libraries and schools, however it proved so popular that it has been out of print since 2005. Scores of new photographs and more than 170 new entries appear in the 2010 edition, which covers an A to Z of subjects, from Abattoirs to the Zap Club, and includes sections on famous local figures, literary and art connections, World Wars One and Two, plus lots of fascinating and quirky facts about the city. www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/news
 
The Parker Library, named after Archbishop Matthew Parker (1504 –1575) a former master of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, is a treasure house of Medieval and Renaissance manuscripts and early printed books. A recently-completed four-year digitisation and research project in collaboration between the College, Cambridge University Library and Stanford University in the USA means people around the world now have free access to a website to view the priceless manuscripts in the Library page by page. http://parkerweb.stanford.edu

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NEWS FROM ARCHIVES
 

Archivists give green light to new body

Following discussions between groups representing the archive profession and other partners, a single body called the Archives and Records Association has been created to promote standards, improve access and speak for the sector. Individual Members of the Society of Archivists voted in favour of the proposal to create a new body in partnership with the National Council on Archives (NCA) and Association of Chief Archivists in Local Government (ACALG), marking the final stage in the process to bring together the archival and records community into one new organisation.
The new body will cover the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, providing support to archivists, records managers and conservators, advice to users and the views of the sector as a whole to government and wider society. The ARA will continue to support the work of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Archives, which was administered by the NCA and will organise the annual Archive Awareness Campaign that seeks to engage new audiences with local and national archives.
The ARA, though an independent body, will receive some public funding from The National Archives and the Museums, Libraries & Archives Council with specific objectives within the fields of advocacy, awareness raising and sector development.
 The new organisation will have a consultative forum which will include BALH. It is hoped this forum will enable the user voice to continue to be heard. A meeting of the forum is planned for mid July, at which time more details are expected to be available about its proposed role and remit.
 
The new Highland Archive and Registration Centre at Bught Road, Inverness opened last October. The £10.5 million centre was awarded a Heritage Lottery Fund grant of £4,312,000; it includes an archive conservation unit, a dedicated family history centre, a ceremony suite and modern office accommodation. In addition, specialist atmospheric and environmental controls have been installed to safeguard the storage of parchment, paper and records in other formats allowing the return of archives to the Highlands presently stored in Edinburgh. It holds the records of the former county councils of Sutherland, Ross & Cromarty, Inverness-shire and Nairnshire dating from 1890, and the eleven burghs within these counties, the earliest of which dates frmm 1455. email archives@highland.gov.uk 01463 256444.
 
Bedford and Luton Archives and Records Service has made its new on-line public access catalogue available, despite still having some technical difficulties that are being worked on. They have included advice and information on use of the new catalogue, which is very different from the old one. All the parish church, parish council and many others are now available on-line for the first time. Nearly 60% of the catalogue is now included. Amongst the records deposited during 2009 are Bedfordshire Constabulary police registers 1840s – 1940s, Bedfordshire County Cricket Club 1879-1966, deeds and papers of the Pope family of Biggleswade 173801930; Manor Court Books of Potton 1866 – 1934, company magazines and photographs from Laporte Ltd, Luton 1927 – 1998, and deeds of The Rose, High Street Bedford 1546-1761 and of The Golden Eagle, Castle Lane 1778-1888. www.bedford.gov.uk/archives
  
 
The National Cataloguing Grants programme for Archives, administered by TNA has gathered resources from a number of funding bodies to tackle cataloguing backlogs. A list of successful projects in 2009 is available athttp://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/archives/cataloguing_grants_schemes.ht m and applications are now being made for 2010. The procedure requires evidence of demand from potential users, so members, both societies and individuals, may be able to write in support of local projects.
 

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OUT OF SORTS?
 

BALH is sometimes asked if we have available a model or sample constitution for newly-forming local history societies, or those who wish to revise theirs. We do not, but a new, simplified constitution for small charities has been launched by the Charity Commission in partnership with umbrella bodies, including the National Council for Voluntary Organisations. The new constitution is designed to provide a concise and practical framework for charities with an income of under £5000. It uses clear, direct language that is easy to understand, is only 700 words long and covers all the requirements for a very small charity which does not own land or staff or intend to register with the Charity Commission, as larger ones must do. Consult http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/start_up_a_charity/do_i_need_to_register/sculist.aspx?

or enter the words charity commission small charity into your search enginefor the model constitution for small charities/groups, for  guidance on whether it is appropriate to set up a charity and how to register an organisation as one. The website states that small groups which are not charities are also welcome to use this model constitution, though they would not be covered by charity law. Larger groups will also find guidance and model governance documents on the Charity Commission website.  
The NCVO website is well worth a read and offers thoughts and specific help on many aspects of running a charitable or voluntary group, from ‘managing volunteers’ to funding and finance, and running an effective campaign. http://www.ncvo-vol.org.uk/advice-support
BALH does have leaflets available on our Insurance Scheme and on Gift Aid. Please email info@balh.co.uk for copies of these. We also have an electronic copy of the Commission’s small charities/groups model constitution.