Local History News Number 99 Spring 2011

THOUGHTS ON TINTERN ABBEY
 

Thoughts composed about Tintern Abbey, on Revisiting the Banks of the Wye during a Tour, April 9, 2011

 
After many years absence, revisiting Tintern early in April was a great pleasure. It was a brilliant day, almost hot, with transparent blue skies and glorious sunshine. The woodlands were only dusted with pale green, so the dramatic topography of the Wye gorge was more apparent than in high summer—the bones of the landscape were more prominent. Driving along the road from Chepstow and approaching Tintern, and even more so afterwards when heading north towards Monmouth, I was struck by how much it resembled the valley of the Dordogne near Sarlat: here, as there, inns and cottages, tourist attractions and ancient buildings cling to the narrow strip of land between river and giddy slope. Then, observing my observations, I decided that this sounded extremely pretentious, but that I’d write it all the same. Pretentious? Moi?
 
Now for the abbey: somehow it’s curiously unimpressive when first seen from the road. The impact it makes is, to me, nothing like as powerful as, say, Rievaulx or Furness. I suppose that is the consequence of the fringed hem of car parks, gift shops and tearooms which is tacked onto the abbey’s skirts. But that is itself of historic interest. The abbey guesthouses were situated exactly that area, and the emergence of sites such as Tintern as modest summer resorts for excursions and teas, bicycling and motoring was a key feature of the inland tourist trade in the late Victorian and Edwardian period. Romantic ruins, a lazy river and towering slopes clothed in magnificent woodland, and (in those days) an enchanting branch railway which perched on a narrow shelf high above the river, threading the woodlands up to Monmouth (with its two inconveniently sited stations bearing the splendid names of ‘May Hill’ and ‘Troy’: to go to Chepstow station and buy a ticket for Monmouth Troy is an impossible dream, alas!).   
 
Back to Tintern. An agreeable visitor centre, with an interesting but frustrating display of the many chunks and pieces of the fabulous stone pulpitum which used to span the nave … there are vague plans to reconstruct it, but where? If rebuilt in the nave, it will block one of the most famous views in any monastic site, but if rebuilt somewhere else it will be out of context. Anyway, no money is likely to be forthcoming (Big Society volunteers? All hands to the pulpitum?). And then the ruins themselves, where despite the beautiful weather few people were getting in my way (as a serious visitor, on occasions even a researcher, I object of course to mere tourists and trippers, in the snobbish hierarchy of these things).
 
The magical interplay of light and shade, the complex geometries of pillars and arches which overlap and interlock, the almost miraculous preservation of the soaring crossing arches and the great east and west windows … all these are the joy of Tintern. It is by no means the best place to reconstruct in the mind’s eye the form of a monastic complex, for the domestic ranges are not well preserved, but for the beauty of the pared down structure of the church it has few parallels. I know full well that the church was subdivided by screens (and that pulpitum), its walls were plastered, whitewashed and painted, its windows filled with fine glass, and that the views we see bear almost no resemblance to those which residents saw. But the minimalism of arches and columns, spaces and solids, shapes and patterns, filled me with delight.    

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THE ROTHSCHILD ARCHIVE
 

Local History at The Rothschild Archive

 
They managed to get gold to Wellington during the Napoleonic Wars, provided loans to many governments across the world, traded vast amounts of commodities with the Americas, and established banking houses in five European countries in the early nineteenth century: the Rothschilds headed one of the first, and most prominent, truly global businesses.
 
The Rothschild Bank in the City of London has lived through many global crises over its 200 years of history, and with offices in over fifty locations worldwide it has remained true to its global approach.
 
To local historians, it might therefore seem incongruous to learn that The Rothschild Archive is a resource with relevance to their studies and research. But it is, in fact, home to an extensive collection of records pertaining to areas such as the Vale of Aylesbury, Hampshire, and areas of today’s Greater London, where the Rothschild family owned property.
 
The collections in The Rothschild Archive comprise business records, not surprisingly, as well as documents and artefacts donated by Rothschild family members. The examples given below are just a few highlights of a particularly rich and diverse range of papers.
Lionel de Rothschild (1882-1942) bought the Exbury estate in Hampshire in 1919 with the proceeds from the sale of his uncle Alfred’s house at Halton in Buckinghamshire, which he had inherited. Aside from being a banker, Lionel was an M.P., a photographer, a horticulturalist and a motorist, to cite but a few of his occupations and the archives associated with him reflect all these aspects of his life.  He was a keen user of the world’s first commercial colour photographic process, the Autochrome, a technique which has been the subject of several exhibitions in recent years. Lionel’s collection of autochromes, housed in the Archive, is the largest by a single photographer anywhere in the UK. The images prove an interest in horticulture, and capture the estates and gardens of family and friends around England, as well as locations in Europe. His papers contain documents as varied as his correspondence as Unionist MP for Mid-Buckinghamshire and the Mid-Buckinghamshire Unionist Association, correspondence concerning Littlecote Farm near Aylesbury, letters concerning postal services in Chesham, or documents related to Stone Point at the mouth of Beaulieu River, owned by Lionel de Rothschild and currently used by the Admiralty.
 
Members of the Rothschild family tended to organise around their respective estates a network of facilities catering for their employees’ needs, and this is well reflected in the papers of these estates. Nathaniel Mayer, 1st Lord Rothschild (1840-1915), who was the eldest son of the first Jewish MP in the UK and who eventually became the first Jewish peer, was concerned with welfare issues for his employees at Tring in particular, and in the wider world. Following in the family tradition of philanthropy, he showed a particular interest in housing in the East End of London, through the founding of the Four Per Cent Industrial Dwellings Company. He took over the senior partnership of the London House from his father who died in 1879 and, like his father, Natty was an M.P., gaining Aylesbury for the Liberals in 1865. When, in 1885, he became the first Jewish peer, he retained his own name in his new title - Lord Rothschild of Tring. Amongst the papers presented to the Archive by his descendants is a leather-bound, illuminated, seventieth-birthday testimonial from the inhabitants of Tring, indicative of his commitment to the local community.
 
Throughout the main collection, that of the business itself, papers relevant to local history research can be found in abundance. These relate to the Rothschilds’ estates in Aston Clinton, Mentmore, Waddesdon, Gunnersbury, Exbury, Ascott, Ashton Wold in Northamptonshire, and more.
 
The Rothschild Archive, a charitable trust formed in 1999, is based in the City of London, in the very location where Nathan Mayer Rothschild established himself two hundred years ago. It is an international research centre with a reading room which is open every weekday, and it welcomes applications to use any aspect of the collection. Enquiries should be directed to the Archive’s website at www.rothschildarchive.org. All researchers are required to provide two written references in advance of their visit, and to sign the standard agreement form.   
 
Owing to the ubiquitous Rothschild presence in the area, Buckinghamshire was once nicknamed “Rothschildshire”, and the collections owned by The Rothschild Archive are testimony to this. A collection of receipts associated with building works carried out on various estates owned in Burston, Cublington, and Littlecote, provide further insight into the history of the Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Berkshire countryside.

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A FORMIDABLE RESEARCHER, AND A MUSICIAN
 

LHN 99

 
Profile Jeremy Moody
 
A formidable researcher, and a musician
 
Frogg (as he is affectionately – and always – known!) was born in Salisbury where he still resides. The outcomes of his prolific knowledge of the city’s history in the Victorian and Edwardian periods are many and varied, not only books, exhibitions and lectures but also theatre and music.
 
At first sight the topics that he has researched and presented in innovative ways have focused on what might be called ‘human interest’ and indeed ‘melodramatic’ stories. But one of his particular abilities is the way events such as a train crash, the sinking of the Titanic, and a notorious local murder case have been used to explore the connection between local people and national issues, and also to demonstrate how local history connects to the present day community.
 
As a researcher Jeremy’s energy and concentration are described as ‘formidable’; as one of his referees says ‘he never gives up on a trail’ so ‘valuable nuggets’ of information have come to light because of his persistence, and indeed some well-earned luck. His easy manner draws people into his enthusiasms, and results in presentations and performances that break new ground for many audiences.
 
In 2004 he formed the Salisbury Timezone Group, and worked in partnership with historian George Fleming onThe Great Salisbury Rail Disaster of 1906 (Timezone Publishing 2006), also organising a centenary commemoration service at the station for an event that seemed in danger of going unnoticed in Salisbury. Two years later If I did it, I don’t remember (Hobnob Press 2008) co-authored with Bruce Purvis, then Salisbury Local Studies Librarian, investigated the murder of twelve-year old Teddy Haskell and resulted not only in the book but also a dramatised re-trial of his mother in the same court room as her original appearance in 1909. 2012 will see a return to the life of young Salisbury woman Eileen McNamee who died in the Titanic disaster that has already been the subject of a multi-media theatrical production, with David Taylor, Daughter of Destiny – the true Titanic love story of which Frogg was composer and concept director.
 
Frogg is a talented musician, and composer, and a well-known face of the local Salisbury music scene. In a joint project with author Richard Nash he has researched the history of popular music in the city, resulting in two books, Hold Tight (Timezone 2007) and Endless Beat(Timezone 2010), a major exhibition in Salisbury & South Wiltshire Museum, plus workshops with local schools, performances and talks. Recently, Frogg has become editor of the Salisbury based music magazine, ‘Beat Route’.
 
In order to bring projects to fruition Jeremy has developed great skill at seeking sponsorship and partnerships in fundraising; his links with professionals in many fields have enabled his ideas and enthusiasms to be shared with the community.
 
In addition to his Salisbury interests, Frogg is development director of The Whitechapel Society, and carries out the production their magazine The Whitechapel Journal. This organisation has expanded from a group devoted to the ‘Jack the Ripper’ phenomenon to a serious world-wide society covering the history of London’s East End. Frogg is organising the speakers, presentations and events at an International Film Conference for the society in October2011.
 
Frogg’s innovative and diverse approach to sharing his local history research, always a ‘labour of love’, has been recognised in the presentation of a 2010 BALH Award for Personal Achievement.
 
 
www.timezonepublishing.com
www.whitechapelsociety.com
 
with thanks to Frogg Moody, Petrina Thompson, George Fleming and Ruth Jones.

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Principal joists timber conversion  Friday Cottage, Little Walsingham, Norfolk
 
 
Friday Cottage is situated in the southwest corner of Friday Market, Little Walsingham, Norfolk, on an axis roughly northeast / southwest. It is provisionally dated to the late 15th- early 16th Century. It is built of flint rubble, faced with knapped flint and brick quoins on the NE elevation up to the first floor, with a timber framed upper storey. This forms a continuous jetty facing Friday Market. There is evidence that the frame once supported a four bay crown post roof. This, together with high ceilings on the ground floor and surviving painted beams and fragments of wall paintings, suggest a building of some status. It is likely that it was built for domestic purposes as well as serving as a pilgrim hostelry.
 
The two principal joists supporting the first floor common joists, form a T shape. The principal transverse joist spans the SW end of the building and sits against the chimney stack and winder stairs, both in original positions, but much altered.
Slightly off centre, to compensate for the jetty, the principal axial joist runs the full length of the building to the later inserted stack at the northeast end. Originally, it must have run to the gable end, a total of 33 feet (approx 10 metres).
 
The axial joist is 1ft. (30cm) wide at the junction with the transverse joist tapering to 9inches (23cm) at the NE end. Ogee and quarter circle mouldings run for 21feet (6m. 42cm) then taper out. At this point, the joist is too narrow and irregular for mouldings.
 
Over time, a noticeable shake line has developed along the axial joist. At the SW end, it starts at the edge of the joist and runs diagonally to the point where the mouldings run out. A substantial knot at the side of the joist suggests that a large, but bent branch at this point, was a continuation of the tree trunk.  This seems to indicate that a side branch, which grew more inline with the trunk, was utilised to obtain the full length of the joist. This branch was only just big enough to enable the carpenter to cut the required length of joist. The last 10 feet (3 m) is not fully squared off along this section. It is a testament to the carpenter, who had to choose a suitable tree for conversion, that he could envisage the outcome while the tree was still standing in the wood!
  
NB This article first appeared in the spring edition of
the Norfolk Historic Buildings Group Newsletter.
 

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Lodge, Locality and Livelihood: Exploring Masonic lodges and their local links
 
Freemasonry in England is approaching its 300th birthday, which it will celebrate in 2017. Freemasonry is one of the country’s longest established and widely dispersed social organisations and one that draws its membership from a wide range of social groups. During the course of those three centuries thousands of documents have been created by Masonic lodges and studying them can tell historians a great deal about the history of the local society in which they operated.
 
A glance at the relationship between freemasonry and the locality is well illustrated by their complimentary development in Sheffield, where the development of Masonic lodges tracked the city’s expanding boundary and its economic and civic activity. Its first lodge, Britannia, was founded in 1765, contemporary with the earliest middle-class residents and the first economic prosperity generated from silver plating. Royal Brunswick Lodge was formed in 1793, its name emphasising its loyal credentials during a time of war and revolution. Four new lodges were founded in the 1888-1895 period, in response to the growth in the town’s population, which had nearly quadrupled in the previous 50 years, and wealth generated by the steel and cutlery industries. Further lodges followed in the early 20thcentury, reflecting the town’s promotion to city status. University Lodge (1918) was the country’s first red brick university lodge and was founded barely a decade after the university. The establishment of Beauchief Abbey (1917) and Ryecroft (1927) lodges shadowed the development of the city’s southwestern suburbs. Lodge membership attracted many of the most important people in the city. Prominent Sheffield freemasons included Robert Abbott Hadfield (1858-1940), chairman of the steel making firm of the same name and discoverer of manganese steel and William Henry Brittain (1835-1922), principal of the firm of William Hall, Iron and Steel works, twice Mayor and twice Master Cutler. But alongside them were also many local doctors, merchants and lawyers. The city had its own Masonic hall in Surrey Street in the city centre and after its closure, halls in the western suburbs at Tapton and to the south in Dore are still used for meetings.
 
In anticipation of the tercentenary, the Library and Museum of Freemasonry at Freemasons’ Hall in London, the headquarters of freemasonry in England and Wales, has been surveying the extent and whereabouts of surviving records and is now publishing some of its findings.
 
The most extensive survey sought information on records held by all the 10,000 or so active Masonic lodges and chapters in England and Wales. Material surveyed includes minute books, membership registers, photographs and financial records. The earliest material dates from the 1730s. Returns were received from two thirds of the lodges and chapters surveyed. This body of data – information was given on nearly 120,000 individual record items - provides the key to a vast body of primary source material that can shed light not just on the Masonic community that created it, but on the local societies in which freemasonry existed. To find out more about surviving material for a particular lodge, locality, district or region, contact the Library and Museum initially on libmus@freemasonry.london.museum. In the first instance, lodge histories and membership information (items held by the Library and Museum) are likely to be of interest. Prospective users of lodge and chapter records should be aware that these are still the property of the creating body and any access is at their discretion. 
 
The Library and Museum has also recently completed and published three further surveys. The first two are of the whereabouts and types of material relating to freemasonry held by record offices around the country. The first is of the records of individual lodges and chapters which have been deposited by their creating bodies and the second is of surviving lists of members of Masonic lodges submitted to the county magistrates and held among quarter sessions records under the 1799 Unlawful Societies Act. The act ruled that named organisations, including Masonic lodges, could not meet unless they annually supplied the Clerk of the Peace with details of membership and it remained in force until the 1960s. The third is of lodges that no longer exist and the whereabouts of any surviving records. These surveys are available on line on the resources page of the Library and Museum’s website:http://www.freemasonry.london.museum/resources/information-leaflets/. 
 
For information about the location of Masonic lodges, past and present, their whereabouts and their meeting places, an electronic database is available athttp://www.freemasonry.london.museum/resources/lanes-masonic-records/.
 
The Library and Museum is organising a free study day highlighting available Masonic records and the information they contain to encourage research using them, to be held on 12 October 2011 at the Masonic Hall, Bridge Street, Manchester. For more information, please contact Len Reilly, Historical Records Survey, Project Manager, Library and Museum of Freemasonry, Freemasons\' Hall, 60 Great Queen Street, LONDON WC2B 5AZ; tel 0207 395 9256, email lreilly@freemasonry.london.museum.
 
 
 
Len Reilly
Historical Records Survey Project Manager
Library and Museum of Freemasonry
 
 

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LETTING IN THE LIGHT AT LICHFIELD
 
Amongst the many celebrations of the 400thanniversary in 2011 of the publication of the King James Bible. those at Lichfield Cathedral were some of the most interesting. ‘Let in the Light’ was the overall title for a series of events including lunchtime Lent talks in which leading academics spoke on different aspects of the King James Bible. For instance, Professor Gordon Campbell of the University of Leicester discussed how the translation was commissioned, organised and delivered. The role of King James himself; the erudition of the fifty translators; the scrupulous scholarship of the revising committee; reading habits in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries; and the linguistic culture of the time: these were amongst many topics explored in a wide-ranging and entertaining talk. It is testimony to the quality of the lecture series that audiences grew in number week by week: more than a hundred heard Professor Campbell. Free tours of the Cathedral followed each of the talks.
 
The Chapter House of the Cathedral was the location for a very fine small exhibition which included the opportunity to see rarities such as a manuscript copy of Wycliffe’s Bible dated to about 1410, two copies of King Henry VIII’s Great Bible, including the 1540 version with Cranmer’s Preface, a Geneva Breeches Bible, and not one but two versions of the 1611 King James Bible: the ‘he’ version in which Ruth’s gender was changed and the ‘Judas’ version where the printer confused the apostle with Jesus. Three of the King James Bible translators had Lichfield connections including one Low Countries refugee who was Rector of Tatenhill near Burton on Trent, and George Abbot who had the distinction of holding the post of Bishop of Lichfield for all of one month before he was translated to London and subsequently to Canterbury. Also on display was the Lichfield Angel, a medieval sculpture discovered as recently as 2003.
 
One of the ironies of the 2011 celebrations is that it is apparently not known exactly when the new Bible was published – it seems it could have been any time (or times) between mid October 1610 and late March 1612. Anniversaries, even if dates are uncertain, are very useful hooks. The special events at Lichfield Cathedra succeeded in their objective of providing both a national and local historical context for the King James Bible and demonstrated how, in the words of its Preface “Translation it is that openeth the windows to let in the light”.
 

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Seventeen Come Sunday
 
Folk song is one aspect of local history which has been overlooked says Simon Fowler
 
A hundred years ago collectors, like George Butterworth, Ralph Vaughan Williams and Cecil Sharp, toured villages recording folk songs that had been performed and enjoyed by working class singers for generations before they were lost for ever. These songs still have a powerful appeal to musicians and audiences alike.
 
The sheer number and variety of songs amazed collectors. Cecil Sharp, who was the most important collector and propagandist for the nascent folk revival movement, alone collected 1500 mostly from singers in Somerset in five years between 1902 and 1907. Individual singers might know several dozen songs: Harry Burstow of Horsham listed four hundred which he had learnt since childhood in his memoirs, although he was clearly an exceptionally gifted performer.
 
What’s more the existence of this material came as a complete surprise to the local clergy and squires who were supposed to have had such a close interest in the lives of their people, Collectors felt that they were engaged in social anthropology among a people who were hardly known. Vaughan Williams told an audience in 1912, that “I am like a psychical researcher who has actually seen a ghost, for I have been among the more primitive people of England and have noted down their songs.”
 
The collectors regretted that so much had already been lost. Writing in 1907 Cecil Sharp belived that “as recently as thirty or forty years ago every country village… was a nest of singing-birds.” They were clear as were those who followed the early pioneers that they were documenting a tradition which was then rapidly dying out and now has gone for ever. Almost everything we know today of this tradition lies in their notebooks and primitive recordings and in the mouths and fingers of the men and women who have been inspired by these songs.
 
These songs arealso worth consideration for the insights they reveal into working class lives two hundred or more years ago. They tackle the age old plights of love and longing, abandonment, revenge and regret often in surprising ways. Or they document historical events records (generally murders and acts of violence) which otherwise would have long been forgotten, or commentaries on social mores,. Here singers were rather less censorious than might be expected generally reflecting a more liberal attitude towards sexual transgressions than their social betters would have liked.  
 
The origins of many songs are unknown, while others are based on published chapbooks, ballads and broadsides or music hall songs that oncecirculated in pubs and other gatherings and which were absorbed into the singers’ repertory. Songs were also adapted by singers to meet local needs and the vagaries of their own memories.
 
Take for example the song Botany Bay. There are in fact three different songs, with variants, which were collected from various singers in Hampshire and Sussex. Each one deals with a young man about to be transported to New South Wales and his regrets at his deeds and longing for his family and home. Listening to them being sung, or reading the words, one has a real feel for the enormity of the punishment at a time when most people only ever travelled a few miles.
 
Most the collectors’ notebooks, transcriptions and recordings are now in the Vaughan Williams of the English Folk Dance and Song Society at Cecil Sharp House in London.Notebooks of six collectors are now on online, including those of cGeorge Butterworth, at http://library.efdss.org/archives.
 
Simon Fowler is a freelance writer and researcher. Find out more at www.history-man.co.uk. He is emphatically no singer!
 
 

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A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE AWAY TO THE ARCHIVES
 
Archives are created by an individual, public body or organisation, an individual as they go about their business. They are deemed to be records as long as they fulfil a role in the day to day administration. The decision to keep them after that point marks their transition to becoming archives. They might then be offered to an Archive Service to preserve and make available for researchers. This process is the raison d’etre of the network of Archive Services (formerly, with some exceptions, known as Record Offices) that covers Britain.
 
This implies a logical and orderly process is not always achieved. However, the process of acquisition is not always as straightforward as this implies, and every archive service has examples of chance finds, and sheer strokes of luck which excite and intrigue archivists.
In 2005 two important archives for the parish of Winterbourne Monkton near Avebury emerged. The enclosure award which was agreed in 1815, was found in the archives of a former solicitor from Newbury, Berkshire. The solicitor appointed as clerk to see the process through was never paid his expenses of £72 19s 11d, and the failure to resolve this dispute led his heirs to refuse to hand it over to the parish. The award was implemented; it had been enrolled in Chancery, and a copy of this had been obtained, but it was a poor substitute for the original which is in excellent ‘mint’ condition having been spared the regular examination such documents have usually received.
 
The log books and an admission register of the village school from 1875-1971 was also recovered. It had been rescued from a skip in Cumbria by an alert neighbour and returned to Wiltshire. Removed presumably by a member of staff on the closure of the school in 1972 they had been thrown out during a house clearance. I am sure that the increased awareness of the value of archives, both in historical and financial terms, has prevented the ill-informed destruction of much material, and this is a god example.
 
More often the archivist plays a more proactive role in the acquisition of archives. A visit to an estate office to collect its archives led to a more interesting haul than I had imagined. The records were at the front of a makeshift store constructed primarily to hold the contents of the library of the house, but totally unsafe to enter. Having removed the archives I peered in at the printed books I noticed some parchment covered long narrow books so typical of 18th -19th century manuscript archives. Using a long plank like a baker’s peel l lifted six volumes overseers of the poor and surveyors of highway accounts and rates for two parishes within the estate 1709-1842.
 
Another surprise find occurred during an inspection at Corsley church in West Wiltshire. On close examination the wooden box holding some 20th century records was found to have a hidden drawer, which when opened with some gentle persuasion revealed a series plans and accounts for the building of the parish church, 1830-1835, and a group of Poor Law papers, 1694-1755. These had been overlooked in three previous inspections.
 
A discovery that would not have been out of place in The Antiques Roadshow occurred a year ago when a furniture restorer from South East England opened a secret drawer in an 18th century cabinet he was working on and found some papers of the Hazeland family of Woodborough covering the years 1742-1810. These include two private apprenticeship indentures and an inventory of the goods of John Hazeland, baker, produced on the order of the sheriff of Wilts in 1758.
 
The Wiltshire diaspora has had an impact on its archives. In recent years we have received a register of an independent chapel of Birdbush returned by a lady in Palo Alto California which she found amongst her father’s papers, and a map of the borough of Devizes from 1869 that turned up in New Zealand and was subsequently repatriated.  
 
As Archive Services become established and well known their presence exerts a gravitational pull for archives that have been within its orbit for some time and finally come to ground. A group of papers about parliamentary elections in 18th century Marlborough that had been found in the loft of a house in North East Somerset was recently presented to the Archive Service. With them was a card written in 1951 suggesting to the owner that they were offered to the County Archivist.
 
On very rare occasions finds are made in collections already held by Archives Services. The flattening and repackaging of the documents as part of the project to digitise the Salisbury Diocesan probate collection resulted in the discovery of a document which had been cut into twelve strips and used as bundle wrappers. It was an account of the provisions for Bishop Seth Ward’s household for a week in July 1673. Renowned by his biographer for his hospitality this is the only documentary evidence of his largess. Mutton, beef, rabbit, duck and goose were complemented by carrots, beans and turnips, and washed down with beer, and wines like claret and Canary. On the Thursday four lobsters and ‘souce’ meat (probably reference to a bird of prey) were purchased for consumption on meatless Friday. This record, so ruthlessly recycled took over 300 years to become an archive which could well be another sort of record.
 

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Searching for the early Black presence in the West Midlands

For the past 5 years professionally, and many more personally, SCAWDI (Sparkbrook Caribbean and African Women’s Development Initiative) have been researching the early Black presence in the West Midlands, spanning from 1918 as far back as 300 AD! This has led to three significant projects, working with ‘amateur’ historians to find out more about the experience of these people; how they came to be here, who they connected with, where did they work, how have attitudes to race changed over the centuries at this local level? Our findings to date can be read about in our short publications, In the beginning..., Interwoven Freedoms andHistory Detectives. They respectively look at the link between the early Black presence and the stately homes of England, the abolitionist women’s movement in Birmingham and a more detailed look at some of the individual stories from throughout our research period.
            As part of this last project, History Detectives, we began to put together a database of every Black individual we had found living in this region, to date numbering 233 before 1918 and ever growing. This may not sound like many, but due to the propensity for Blacks, especially during the nineteenth century to be part of the swelling working class and therefore less likely to leave an easily traceable historical footprint, our research suggests a much more complex multi-cultural society here than previously thought. We are now using this information to create a Black History Trail of the West Midlands, to raise awareness of these diverse histories and encourage people to visit the variety of locations that demonstrate these ‘hidden stories’ such as parish churches, theatres, pubs and sports arenas.
            SCAWDI employees and volunteers have spent many hours searching parish records, newspapers, poor law records, estate papers, census records etc. to add to our growing list of individuals. It would be hugely beneficial to our objectives if more people were aware of our work who could help us to cover more ground, more quickly. We would like to appeal to local and family historians, the most prolific users of these sources to bring to our attention any evidence they come across of the Black population at this time and help us to add further pieces to evidence their experience.
            This topic has relevance to all those with an interest in how our social, political and environmental heritage has developed in this region and our findings have demonstrated to us that migrant groups have assimilated into indigenous communities here over the course of many centuries. If you find any relevant information please send to:
David Callaghan
Heritage Officer – SCAWDI
Friends Institute
220 Moseley Road
Birmingham
B12 0DG
david@scawdi.co.uk
0121 4407778
 
If you would like to know more about our work as well, please get in touch. We welcome volunteers to get involved with our new project in many capacities. The Trail has potential locations throughout the countryside and cities of the West Midlands and we are looking for people to visit and feedback there visitor experience, take photos, undertake further research along with many other opportunities for training and engagement with a diverse group of existing SCAWDI members. We have funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund to support your work and will publish the trail in hard copy and online at the end of the year.
 

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HARD TIMES AND GREEN SHOOTS
All local historians are just beginning to feel the effects of spending cuts, including the VCH. Sadly the cuts have meant redundancy for some long-serving editors in counties where local authorities have decided to stop supporting us. Fortunately no counties have lost their VCH presence entirely and in Wiltshire and Staffordshire, where staff are still funded by partnerships between local authorities and universities, VCH offices remain important to the local heritage services. In counties where local authority and university support has been withdrawn, plans are already in place to continue or restart activity with the help of county trusts, some of them newly established to meet the new challenges. 
Several of those who have been made redundant recently have shown great commitment to the VCH and especially to completing the volumes they have already started. Our Essex team of Dr Chris Thornton and Dr Herbert Eiden have just begun VCH Essex work on contract as consultant editors rather than as permanent staff, and will go on from publishing VCH Essex XI: the North-east Essex Resorts in July to working on the earlier history of the area. Similarly, Mary Siraut, who took early retirement at the end of March, will continue VCH work on two Somerset volumes, one on the North Cadbury and Queen Camel area and another on Minehead and Dunster. Mary has led the way in making her VCH micro-site special, filling it with interesting material about her work, about VCH Somerset and about the history of county. 
We have had to bid farewell,alas, to two editors whose skill and experience have been invaluable to the series: Dr Robert Peberdy has recently left VCH Oxfordshire while Dr Simon Draper of VCH Gloucestershire has found new employment on a research project at the University of the West of England.
Of course, some editors are lucky enough to retire after very long VCH careers. Dr John Jurica, who joined Gloucestershire VCH in the 1970s, retired in 2010 with a handsome send-off at the launch of his Gloucestershire XII volume on the Newent and May Hill parishes. His VCH contributions were always ingeniously researched and elegantly written. As architectural editor, I made many rewarding explorations of the county’s buildings with John, who followed up our fieldwork with interesting new information stimulated by what we had seen.
Other editors choose to leave in order to pursue new careers. Dr Sue Parkinson left the VCH at the end of February 2011 having won VCH Yorkshire East Riding many new friends by her infectious enthusiasm for the locality. Her work will culminate in an exhibition and accompanying talks at the Treasure House in Beverley in the autumn, when we will relaunch research into the complicated history of Howdenshire.
To keep abreast of good news in all counties and to read VCH parish histories from all the counties mentioned here before they are published, please remember to consultwww.victoriacountyhistory/counties.
Elizabeth Williamson is Executive Editor VCH
 

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WOMENS HISTORY NETWORK SOUTH
 

Report on Women’s History Network South Study Day - February 2011

Members of Women’s History Network South (WHNS) gathered for a Study Day at the University of Kent’s Medway campus in February. The theme for the day was ‘Women and Civil Society’ and a diverse range of topics was under discussion. As one participant later commented, ‘you don\'t often hear papers about subjects as varied as social policy in the Middle East, and knitting as a subversive activity, in one workshop!’
Ruth Davison (Royal Holloway) started the day with an examination of the activities of the Croydon branch of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom during the 1920s and ‘30s, which was not only a particularly lively period for local civic activism, but also a time of momentous events in international relations. Anne Logan (University of Kent) then spoke on the life and work of S. Margery Fry (1874-1958). Like the pacifist women of Croydon, Fry was deeply interested in international affairs. However, the humanitarian cause around which she built her career in ‘civil society’ was penal reform.
Later, conference participants enjoyed a fascinating panel of papers around the theme of ‘Philanthropy and Voluntarism - International Comparisons’. Gill Draper (University of Kent) revealed something of the lives of women employed by Poor Law Unions in early Victorian Kent and East Sussex, while Claire Soulié (Rothschild Archive) gave a contrasting picture of philanthropy in a very different social setting - the world of Paris salons and high finance inhabited by the 19th century society hostess, Betty Rothschild. Finally, in this section, Rana Jawad (University of Kent) gave an overview of the role of women in religious welfare provision in three countries of the Middle East in recent decades. Although the themes of these papers sound very diverse, it was remarkable how certain common themes emerged, not least the impact of three religions - Christianity, Judaism and Islam - in framing the work of women in civil society.
In the afternoon Jackie Farr (University of Greenwich) introduced the theme of health and fitness, with a fascinating and beautifully illustrated presentation about Madame Österberg, the founder of Dartford College of Physical Education (a forerunner of Greenwich University). Attention then turned to the Arts, with papers from Laura Seddon (City University) and Victoria Tedder (University of Kent) about respectively, women and patronage in music, and in craft-based social and political activism.
In the final session of the day participants heard two papers which examined the gendered role of women in relation to political power. Christine Wheeldon (Goldsmiths) discussed the work of some of the first women employed in Britain in senior civil service roles at the Board of Trade between 1893 and 1910. Lucy Thornton Berry, from Baltimore, USA, finished the day with a fascinating insight into the experiences of Baltimore’s first black woman police officer, who was appointed in 1937.
Speakers and audience alike found the Study Day - the second held by WHNS at the University of Kent - to be an interesting and worthwhile event. I would like to thank Marilyn Morley of the University for all her work in successfully organising the day. Membership of WHNS is open to anyone interested in women’s history. If you would like to join, please contact me, Dr Anne Logan at the University of Kent.

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SHROPSHIRE MANORIAL RECORDS PROJECT
 
A large and enthusiastic audience attended the launch of the Shropshire Manorial Records project at the end of February at Shropshire Archives in Shrewsbury. The main objective of the eighteen-month project was to computerise information, previously available only in hard copy form, about manorial records of all types relating to Shropshire and dating from the medieval period onwards. After a welcome from Councillor Steve Charmley, Shropshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Community Services, Professor Paul Harvey outlined different definitions over time of the term ‘manor’ and then Liz Hart of The National Archives described the origins of the Manorial Documents Register (MDR) following legislation in the 1920s designed to secure the preservation of these local archive series. Although original returns to the Register have been microfilmed and can be consulted at The National Archives, information provided was summary and often ill-defined. So partnerships have been sought with archive services holding manorial records to check,update and make information available online. To date all of Wales and twelve English counties have contributed to the computerised database. In all cases funding has come from a number of sources including national charitable bodies, record publishing societies and local county and family history groups, as well as from The National Archives
 
With a team led by archivist Sara Downs, Shropshire is the first county in the West Midlands to complete its project. To be eligible for inclusion, a run of at least ten years of court rolls had to survive and the task of proving whether a manor was a ‘real’ manor was challenging, especially where there was no Victoria County History coverage of areas of the county. Location of archives was a key part of the project. Initially Shropshire Archives had 63% of the total; other repositories had 26%; and 11% were still in private hands. By the end of the project, the last category had dropped to 7% with the transfer of series from an estate on the borders of Shropshire and Staffordshire and in addition 4% of previously unrecorded material had been identified in other repositories. Now there are 1875 new entries on the online MDR, encompassing six thousand documents including two new collections in Shropshire Archives.
 
Much of the checking of details was undertaken by volunteers and Dr Sylvia Watts,a long serving Friend of Shropshire Archives and member of its Latin study group, gave examples both of the types of historical information found in manorial records from different parts of this very large county and how these can be used to further research on new economic, social and legal topics as well as more familiar themes of enclosure, encroachment and maintenance of law and order.
 
The launch event ended with an opportunity to use the MDR database, behind the scenes tours of the office and, most importantly, a display of original manorial documents.
 
What are the benefits of this project? Of course, the availability of a comprehensive list of Shropshire manor courts, the location of their surviving records and the ability to search online are the paramount ones, But Shropshire Archives are building on this foundation by upgrading and enhancing their own finding aids, adding reference numbers, at least to box level, and preparing a guide to holdings which will also provide contextual information, especially about anomalies. Moreover, there will be training opportunities for both staff and volunteers to familiarise themselves with the database and in-house workshops to explore further 
the research potential of the original records.
 
Often manorial records in archive offices are relatively under-used because they are seen as difficult and in the past were often poorly listed. This project demonstrates that, with appropriate guidance, skills in reading and interpreting entries, especially those in Latin, can be developed by researchers with interests in a wide range of topics. With the availability of online and upgraded finding aids, MDR projects such as this one in Shropshire will remove significant deterrents to making the most of these very important local archive series.
 
 
Margaret O’Sullivan
 

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Connected Histories – a new online research tool for historians
 
Connected Histories (www.connectedhistories.org), which was launched at the Institute of Historical Research on 31 March, allows you to search across 11 major digital resources for British history in the period 1500–1900. Encompassing more than two billion words and 140,000 images, it offers access to newspapers, court documents, printed ephemera, images, maps, parliamentary records and other materials in one place, providing a snippet view even for those resources which are only available on a subscription basis. A single search can produce results from British History Online, the British Museum Image Collection, the 17th- and 18th-Century Burney Collection of Newspapers, the Charles Booth Archive, the Clergy of the Church of England Database, the House of Commons Parliamentary Papers, the John Johnson Collection of Printed Ephemera (Bodleian Library), John Strype’s Survey of London Online, London Lives 1690–1800, Origins.net and the Proceedings of the Old Bailey Online.
 
The resources indexed by Connected Histories can be searched by place, name and date, or you can conduct a full-text search for individual words and phrases. The project has used natural language processing software automatically to mark-up individuals, places and dates in the texts and in image metadata to allow for more structured searching across disparate resources. You can, for example, search for a full name (e.g. the Duke of Norfolk, or Hannah Smith), or for a name solely as a surname (e.g. Simon as surname rather than forename), or for a combination of surname and forename. Search results can be refined by type of source, by particular resource or group of resources, and by access arrangements (e.g. you may prefer to exclude results from those resources which are subscription access only).
 
Users of Connected Histories have the option to save searches and individual search results into a personal workspace, or to export them for re-use. Once search results have been saved, you can create connections between them, e.g. grouping together references to a particular town or village. These connections can be made public, to help other users of the site, or kept private within your workspace.
 
The site also includes nine research guides, which will explain how to get the best out of Connected Histories for particular types of research. The ‘Local history’ guide includes information about topography and landownership, local government, social, economic and cultural life, religion, crime and justice, and the strengths and weaknesses of the various sources in this area. It also offers advice on search strategies, and provides information about further reading and related websites.
 
We very much hope that you will enjoy using Connected Histories in your research, and we would love to hear your thoughts on the site. You can contact us via the site’s feedback form in the footer of each page.
 
Connected Histories is a collaboration between the universities of Sheffield and Hertfordshire, and the Institute of Historical Research. It was funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) as part of its e-Content programme.
 
Tim Hitchcock (University of Hertfordshire), Bob Shoemaker (University of Sheffield) and Jane Winters (Institute of Historical Research, University of London).
 

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The Sand House A Victorian Marvel Revisited
 
Richard Bell and Peter Tuffrey
 
Amberley Publishing 2010
£12.99 ISBN 978 1 4456 0117 5
 
The Sand House in Doncaster no longer exists but, the authors of this revised and extended edition of a book first published in 1988 insist, it would surely be a splendid tourist attraction for the town had it not suffered from neglect under local authority ownership resulting in its final disappearance in the 1980s.
 
William Senior (Richard Bell’s maternal great-great-great grandfather) was born a groom’s son, became a gardener and then exploited a local demand for sand – in the building trades and foundries – becoming a sand merchant, and subsequently property speculator, at a time of expansion for Doncaster following the arrival of the railway. The need for an improved drainage system resulted in a tunnel being built through Senior’s land adjoining his sandpit. Seeing the commercial possibilities of public interest he created an adjacent underground cavern with columns and ‘curious passages’, admitting people in Race Week 1853 for sixpence each. TheIllustrated London News drew readers’ attention to a magnificent fungus growing on the tunnel wall in1858.
 
William Senior’s son Henry returned to Doncaster from Barnsley in the 1850s and became involved in his aging father’s sand and property businesses. It is thought to be Henry who created the Sand House, hewn out of solid rock, only its roof being actually ‘built’. At 37m long and 13 m wide, with outside walls 2.7m thick, the house contained ten rooms, including a ballroom to hold some 300 people, beneath which was a stable block. Later the surrounding gardens were developed, and the neighbouring caverns redesigned into cloisters with numerous dramatic carvings, by unknown workmen.
 
Following Henry Senior’s death in 1900 the property and it contents were sold. Doncaster Corporation paid £1000 for the house and grounds, which were allocated to the Sanitary and Cleansing department, though it seems some social events were still held in the ballroom, and curious visitors continued to be admitted. By the 1930s the house was becoming unfit for habitation, night soil was no longer being collected, the corporation used motor vehicles instead of horses, so their needs were changing. From 1935 the house and gardens were used as a tip, gradually being filled up to pre-excavation levels. In later decades the tunnels were visited unofficially, caused subsidence in nearby streets, and were subject to a formal survey when foundations for new taller buildings were being planned for the site. All this activity stimulated reports and correspondence in the local press, generating memories from people who recalled the Sand House in its heyday. In February 1984 a group of Henry Senior’s descendents (including Richard Bell) were allowed to enter the tunnels for a final visit, and a few days later three people gained unauthorised access and staged a brief ‘sit-in’ to protest at the filling-in of these unique excavations. The only remaining tunnel today lies under Hyde Park (Doncaster) Cemetery.
 
Richard Bell expresses anger at the destruction of this special asset and sorrow that such an extraordinary place will never been seen by future generations. It does however survive in the pages of this excellent, generously illustrated account, that could serve as a timely warning for those similar special places at risk elsewhere.  
 
Jane Howells
 

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REVIEW: STAFFORDSHIRE FACTS
 

The Cockin Book of Staffordshire Records: Did you know that …? Series

Malthouse Press 2010 £6.50 ISBN 978 1 907364 01 3
 
The first in a six volume series by Tim Cockin and his Malthouse Press, the subtitle of this book explains further that it contains ‘Facts about Staffordshire, and index to the other volumes. [It is'>more... a handbook of county business, claims, connections, events, politics in the whole of Staffordshire’, plus ‘facts, folklore’ from the title page, and ‘murders, legal sessions, agricultural shows, political representatives, sheriffs, wonders’.
 
Arranged alphabetically, there are valuable summaries of things that would be laborious to find elsewhere - from Africa (links with Staffordshire) to Youth Organisations, where we learn that the first President of Staffordshire Girl Guides was the Countess of Dartmouth in 1917; via cricket (dates of club formations), food and drink unique to Staffordshire, May Day customs, road safety and the ten most beautiful women in Staffordshire. So much information in 160 pages! There is a Day to Day Calendar of notable events through the year, local newspapers, Quarter Sessions Calendar 1640-1840, parliamentary seats, railways set out in tabular form, and lists of Sheriffs 1016 – 2010. It must be said that the rather curious diversity of fonts, and small size of print does not make for easy reading.
 
Due later this year from the same author is An Atlas of Ancient Parish Boundaries in England & Wales. A discounted price is available with registration of interest pre-publication. Timcockin@yahoo.com
 
Jane Howells

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Of architectural or historical interest
 
The headline in the Lancashire Evening Post read ‘Listed gentleman’s residence for sale’. I was mildly interested in the building in question, a reasonably attractive early Victorian house, but paid much more attention to the fact that English Heritage, despite the cuts, has seemingly embarked upon a highly ambitious new heritage project. Presumably because the identification of important buildings and ancient monuments has now been largely completed, at least provided that regular reviews and reappraisals are progressed, the listing of people as being of architectural or historical interest has now been started. The listed gentleman whose house was being sold was not mentioned by name in the article, but I imagined that—his image enhanced by the new-found status—he wanted to move to a finer residence.
 
The process is likely to be rather complicated. Do people nominate others for inspection or possible listing, or is it permissible to nominate one’s self. Who is qualified to do the inspection, and are the successful candidates graded in some way. Will there be published lists arranged by locality, and can gradings be altered on appeal? Will listing affect eligibility for other benefits:
 
‘Wiltshire attractive Grade 2* man GSOH of major historical importance but no structural defects seeks lady with nicely moulded plasterwork, similar grading or Grade 1, for stud and rail infill’
 
Then, too, listing will surely become a matter of social climbing and the stuff for the gossip columnists:
 
“Darling, we’ve been invited to Cynthia’s drinks do next week. It’s all a bit out of the blue so I rang Deirdre to find out what it’s about, and she tells me that it’s to celebrate Cynthia’s being listed. But, honestly, is it worth it? She’s apparently only Grade 2, not even starred. I suppose that since the facelift she isn’t entirely authentic, and inappropriate renovations never please the inspectors. Mind you, Gerald will be there as well – so distinguished, all that lovely silvery hair – and he’s most definitely Grade 1, and I think Deirdre’s secretly rather pleased because since his other half left he’s fully detached. And Deirdre says that Barbara’s going too, but we agreed she’s positively an ancient monument – I’m nominating her for immediate scheduling. That face, the creases look like runic inscriptions and her voussoirs are stepped like I’ve never seen on anyone else. Deirdre was most unkind and said that Barbara is really a portable antiquity, thoughdefinitely not treasure trove”.
 
Delving further, I discovered that what I thought was a joke turns out to be real – some countries do have listing of people. Thus Australia has 96 ‘living national treasures’ (ranging from former prime ministers, via Olympic sport personalities and humanitarian figures, to Germaine Greer, Nicole Kidman and Rolf Harris). Oddly, Dame Edna Everage is not among them, a gross injustice which should be remedied immediately.
 
Of course I began to wonder whether I was myself of sufficient architectural and historical interest to become a listed gentleman (always assuming ‘gentleman’ to be a term that others would use for me … though in this egalitarian age we certainly need listed commoners as well). I suppose that my basic structure is sound, though my joists occasionally creak, and certainly extensive restoration is not yet required. So I’m quite an authentic example of a mid-twentieth century structure, but of course there are many thousands of broadly comparable examples so maybe I’m not of special merit—just of purely local significance. But when I discussed this question with her my wife she, most cruelly and I think unnecessarily, pointed out that while I may indeed be structurally sound, I am in urgent need of complete rethatching.
 

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NEWS FROM ARCHIVES
 

In this issue of Local History News we have, as usual, several items related to archives and archive services which are of course the foundations on which local historians work. As pubic spending cuts take effect, it will be increasingly important to check opening days and times before a visit. Please let us know of reduced access or services in your area. We are working on ways to keep a watching brief on the impact, both short and long term, of these changes (see also Notes News Issues p 35)

 
Coal Mining History Resource Centre includes, amongst much else, a national database of victims of accidents, official reports, photographs, a glossary, poems
http://www.cmhrc.co.uk/site/home/index.html
 
The summer exhibition in May and June at Chester History & Heritage will celebrate Chester Ale from the Northgate Brewery. Chester’s last brewery closed its doors in 1969 and ended over a century as an important employer as well as contributor to the leisure hours of Cestrians. 01244 402110chh@cheshirewestandchester.gov.uk
 
The Community Archives website as been set up as a forum for some of the smaller and less well-known archives around the country. This will prove a valuable resource for anyone seeking indirect references to their locality, material relating to their family history, or specialised and perhaps uncommon topics (long-lost swimming pools is the example given by Wandsworth Hisorical Society who are recommending this site).  http://www.communityarchives.org.uk/index.aspx
www.wandsworthhisory.org.uk
 
Volunteers (see also p 34) are already a vital ingredient in the work of archives, museums and societies, and are likely to become even more essential in the near future.Sheffield Archives & Local Studies News Winter 2011 has the headline ‘Valuing our Volunteers’ which not only expresses appreciation for the commitment of their ‘dedicated team’ but also explains what is available as a result of their work. The growing number of indexes and images online is largely due to this. For example, in keeping with the theme begun under ‘Societies’, there will be a complete index of patients who were admitted to the South Yorkshire Lunatic Asylum (later Middlewood Hospital) 1872-1910. www.sheffield.gov.uk/archives
 
The Spring 2011 newsletter from Friends of Cumbria Archives is a ‘Volunteering Special Edition’. At Whitehaven the Cumberland Pacquet indexing project is ongoing; and there are opportunities in Kendal for photographic indexing and data inputting from the Fleming Manuscripts. Following the recent move to new premises in Carlisle, the Conservation Unit volunteer team is up and running again. The benefits of a new document reception suite, a special room dedicated to packaging and boxmaking, and a quarantine room are much appreciated. www.focas1991.co.uk
 
A report in Lower Test Valley Archaeological Society’sNewsletter January 2011 provides a taster to the BALH visit to Southampton in July. Phoebe Merrick has written about her research at the Broadlands Archives in the University Library Special Collections into architects who worked on the Broadlands estate. Correspondence reveals not only the grander developments by people such as William Eden Nesfield, a prominent member of the Arts & Crafts movement, but also details such as six coats of paint needed on the peach house, and the poor state of repair in the Stables : ‘I noticed the iron pipe flue from stove in Harness room is brought thro’ the floor, between old wooden and very rotten joists (as combustible as touch wood) and in a dangerous manner. No insurance office would take a policy if they knew it …’   01794 513751
 
Lancashire Archives are facing anunavoidable service disruption as the air-conditioning plant, which controls the climatic conditions in the strongrooms and provides the correct environment for preserving their archives, needs to be replaced. Unfortunately this will cause interruption to some facilities and services between 21 March and December this year, including periods of temporary closure of the building.
Up to date information is available on the website:www.archives.lancashire.gov.uk

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NEWS FROM MUSEUMS
 

Forty-four local authority areas show a statistically significant fall in adult visitors to museums and galleries over the last three years, while statistically significant increases were found in only sixteen. Only in the North-east was there not a reduction in the proportion of the adult population going to a museum or gallery at least once a year.http://www/culture.gov.uk/publications/7667.aspx AIM Association of Independent Museums Feb 2011.

 
In the last issue of LHN we mentioned that there was concern over the future of museums in Barnet. Hendon & District Archaeological Society have prepared a discussion document with a view to the society, withFriends of Church Farmhouse Museum, taking over the Grade II* listed Church Farmhouse and its grounds, to continue running it as a community-operated museum, and to expand its range of activities to provide a valuable service to the local community. (HADAS Newsletter March 2011) Since then Barnet Council officials have met the society, and provided financial data, and also announced the closure on the Museum on 31 March. Calculations suggest the society would need to raise about £20,000 per year, and they are now asking their members for their views (HADAS Newsletter April 2011). www.hadas.org.uk
 
The Guardian Family Friendly Award for museums for 2011 has been given to Mansfield Museum in Nottinghamshire, where they have ‘used imagination, innovation and case-loads of enthusiasm’. The other short-listed museums were Corinium Museum, Cirencester, the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery, Stoke on Trent, Kilmartin House Museum, Argyll, the Horniman Museum, London, and Abbey House Museum. Leeds. www kidsinmuseums.org.uk/awards/ www.mansfield.gov.uk/museums/
 
The Happy Museum Project ‘is seeking to create a community of practice in UK museums commited to supporting transition to a high well-bring, sustainable society’. There will be a series of activities taking place during 2011-13. The project is led by Tony Butler, Director of the Museum of East Anglian Life, and funded through the Paul Hamlyn Foundation’s Breakthrough Fund. The Happy Museum is an introductory paper published by the New Economics Foundation and leading museum commentators intended as a provocation to museums to think about how they might achieve these objectives. www.happymuseumproject.org

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NEWS FROM LIBRARIES
 

Six London boroughs have worked with the University of Greenwich to explore ‘the origins and significance of suburbia as revealed through the history of south east London’. Local studies and archives professionals in Southwark, Greenwich, Lambeth, Lewisham, Bromley and Bexley have combined forces to create a website of information and images, and local societies are encouraged to link it to theirs. Parts of the site are Histories, Galleries, Historic Maps, Case Studies and Your Contributions. Visitors should remember that boundaries have changed over the years, so an area might not always have been in its modern borough. Explorewww.ideal-homes.org.uk. Herne Hill the magazine of the Herne Hill Society. Spring 2011

 
A world-class library, archive and education centre opened to the public in Bristol last Autumn. The Brunel Institute is alongside the ship SS Great Britain, and holds some 45,000 items including Brunel’s drawing instruments, his diary and early photographs of the Clifton Suspension Bridge. The David MacGregor Collection and Sir Robert Wall Collections are also available here. Important holdings from the University of Bristol have moved to the Institute to form the National Brunel Archive. Access is free of charge and the facilities should attract researchers and enthusiasts of Brunel and maritime history. www.brunelinstitute.org. AIM the magazine of the Association of Independent Museums. Feb 2011
A 350-year-old notebook which describes the execution of innocent women for consorting with the Devil, has been published online by The University of Manchester’s John Rylands Library. Puritan writer Nehemiah Wallington wrote passages on his attitudes to life, religion, the civil war as well as the witchcraft trials of the period. More details online awww.chiccmanchester.wordpress.com. Open the Insight browser, select Rylands Collection and search for Wallington.


 . Or visithttp://rylibweb.man.ac.uk/insight/rylands_coll.htm

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VOLUNTEER VOICES
 
Open Forum at the Assembly meeting on 5 March was addressed by two volunteers from the VCH groups working in Hampshire (Stan Waight) and Oxfordshire (Barbara Allison), and thanks to their informative presentations a lively discussion followed, raising several important issues in respect of training, motivation, and output. The origin of such groups was the Heritage Lottery Fund grant to the VCH for its England’s Past for Everyone project with its associated educational programme and the publication of a series of paperbacks, and they are now contributing to the writing of sections of the main volume series. Oxfordshire has a well-established VCH tradition that is continuing to publish ‘red books’; in Hampshire there were some volumes in the early years of VCH, but the county scheme there has recently been rejuvenated (see Local History News 88 and 89).
 
Stan Waight’s involvement stemmed originally from a family history interest which led him first to an evening class and then into local history and studying for a Diploma, and Barbara too has studied for a further degree, though her group had originated in a palaeography class. But most of their fellow volunteers needed some training before they could embark profitably on group work, which is usually related to collecting and analysing date from such records as probate inventories and Census returns. It was stressed that many family historians who are involved already had good palaeographical skills, and also competency with word-processing and using on-line data. Indeed, it is generally the case that volunteers need to have their own PCs and have to provide their colleagues with print-outs for checking and discussion (which involves a cost in the purchase of cartridges –– the financial aspect of being a volunteer copped up several times).
 
Informal local networks could be effective in recruiting members to the groups which meet fairly regularly for training and feedback sessions, although individuals attend with varying degrees of regularity –– of course, by definition, a volunteer cannot be obliged to attend meetings or produce the necessary work, and this can have an impact on a group’s output. Accuracy and consistency are vital to the quality of the results; deadlines are necessary but sometimes felt to be too restrictive. The role of the VCH team leader (perhaps the County Editor) is therefore important in keeping a group together and providing encouragement: here, being connected with a national enterprise (the VCH) and having ready access to experts seems to be a major factor in ensuring that a group continues. An enthusiastic positive atmosphere in the group creates the momentum for skilled, experienced volunteers to make a valuable contribution to scholarship in the resulting VCH county volumes.
 

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Salisbury Visit
 
In addition to a tour of St Thomas’s church and the Cathedral Close, following the footsteps of John Constable, members and friends who joined the visit to Salisbury on 23 March were promised some special corners of the city. On a warm, sunny early Spring day, that was indeed what we got.
 
Our guide was Ruth Newman, local historian and Blue-badge Guide for the city. At St Thomas’s she provided an outline of Salisbury’s history and the place of that central parish church, and then explained the significance of the famous doom painting over the chancel arch. This had disappeared from view during the Reformation when, according to the churchwardens’ accounts, Gusset was paid 22s for ‘washing the Church with lyme’; it was rediscovered in the early 19th century and fully restored in 1881.
 
Behind the Victorian façade of the cinema came the first of our treats - the 15th century banqueting hall of John Hall’s house. Hall was a wealthy merchant at a time when Salisbury was one of the major trading and industrial centres of the country. The wealth of restored 15th century glass is unexpected in a cinema foyer and a magnificent fireplace dominates the room. Of course all this can be seen (but is usually ignored) by anyone on their way to a film, but we were in for a surprise! Naomi who supervised our visit to the building permitted the group out into an inner courtyard where the rarely accessible exterior of the ashlar and flint walls, with carved window openings, is visible.
 
In Queen Street the black-and-white timbered frontage labelled ‘Ye House of John A’ Port’ 1425 appears to be the oldest building in the row, but next door, behind an early 18th century ‘make-over’ of mathematical tiles, is William Russell’s house built between 1306 - 14. This is now the Cotswold Outdoor Shop, and anyone can go in. On the upper floor, if you look up (rather than down to be careful to avoid tripping over tent guylines) there is a stunning early 14th century roof described as a 'false hammer beam truss', contemporary windows and smoke hole.
 
Salisbury & South Wiltshire Museum is holding a major exhibition this summer of the paintings of John Constable. He produced more paintings and drawings in this area, visiting his friends Bishop Fisher and Archdeacon John Fisher, than anywhere except Suffolk, over 300 in total. After lunch Ruth took us around the Close demonstrating where we could see the views Constable had captured in his sketchbooks.
 
The final treasure was in the almshouse Trinity Hospital. Although the institution has a medieval foundation, the present courtyard and chapel were built in the early 18th century, and this is another unfamiliar but delightful corner of the city to which the public are welcome. In the Master’s Room, normally a private place where meetings are held, we had the privilege of seeing the Papal Bull of 1390 by which Pope Boniface gave the hospital permission to hold services and ‘to have a bell’. On the opposite wall is the will of Joan Popley, together with a striking portrait of the lady herself (whose memorial tablet we had seen in St Thomas’s). Joan used the income from property in the city and in London to finance a number of philanthropic projects. Both documents are framed so that each side may be read, and translations provided.
 
Jane Howells
 

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ISSUES   VIEWS   NOTES
 
Jan Shephard
 
Times they are achanging 
With this wonderful sunny weather, one’s hopes for the future look rosy; but all is not well in the archive world. All major and local archives are facing a short fall in their funding and are therefore expected to economise. This will obviously affect the services we have come to know and love. Opening times of many county offices have already been truncated; of the list of record offices quickly collated, 71% are now closing for one day a week. Behind the scenes, staff have been made redundant or departments have been amalgamated. Many of these decisions could be termed political for a county council are only looking for the footfall through the door. Often they will insist access has improved with online catalogues, but has it? The cuts we are experiencing for this financial year could well be only the beginning. As users we should keep an eye on proceedings and complete any user surveys offered for these maintain the self assessment which culminates in the record office’s important rating awarded by TNA. BALH is not sitting by while these cuts are announced but is drawing together the evidence of the fairness and the adverse effects to the standard of access and cataloguing so that a full response can be made; Archives for London is similarly proactive. For the moment, check the opening times before leaving for a spot of research!
Looking onto the past
Documents are the usual choice for delving into ‘what was it like?’. Inventories can build up the content and use of a seventeenth century room and the status of its owner. But paintings, art and design are other forms of a document; ‘a picture tells a thousand tales’ goes the saying and if carefully scrutinised, so can any piece of art. The clothing, the stance, the article being held, the way the hand is placed on a favourite object and the expression of the subject can tell much of that person. Queen Elizabeth the First’s portraits can be read like a book so full are they of symbolism. Pictures were painted for a reason, usually to enhance the glory of the sitter and were often liberal with the truth. But some pictures were painted for financial gain; the art world in the eighteenth century was driven by money. Vermeer and Rembrandt for example were both entrepreneurs in the art world as well as artists and the wealthy merchants bought their work to enhance their own reputation. But art took other forms: embroidery and gardens- the needlework of controlled nature, the parterre, also added to the owners place in society. The local militia paid Rembrandt to be painted into the Night Watch and although it meant only the wealthy were depicted, the fashion and methods of warfare can be seen. So the historian has a variety of evidence from which to answer questions of the past.
 
Patricia Knowlden 1927 - 2011
We are sorry to report the death of Patricia Knowlden, who many readers will remember as a supported of BALH over a long period of time, and in particular as the organiser and leader of a wide variety of guided visits to interesting places. There will be a longer tribute to Patricia in the next issue of Local History News.