August 2024 Reviews

By Chris Jones

(Amazon Press 2023 63pp ISBN 979-8-865724-30-8) £5

That the Liverpool Echo chose to run an article on 6 January 2019 entitled ‘Did you know the TORIES once ran Liverpool? How the party used to rule Merseyside’, provides anecdotal evidence of the extent to which the city, and its politics, have become synonymous – certainly within contemporary public consciousness – with the Labour Party. It is a contention that may also be seen in a majority of late twentieth and early twenty-first century political works upon the city; one thinks of, among others, Sam Davies’ authoritative work Liverpool Labour, and Peter Taaffe and Tony Mulhearn’s Liverpool: A city that dared to fight.

The historic reality is, of course, more complex. Liverpool experienced aspects of cultural, structural, and electoral sectarianism until at least the late 1930s, further evidence of its ‘exceptionalism’ being that the Liverpool Scotland Road constituency was the only one outside Ireland to have returned an Irish Nationalist Party MP, while the Conservative Party remained the dominant political party in the city’s local government until the 1950s; well after other northern cities had ‘fallen’ to socialism. While consideration of the former has been richly served academically, the latter is only now becoming a focus of increased academic attention—the most notable recent publication is David Jeffery’s Whatever Happened to Tory Liverpool: success, decline, and irrelevance since 1945. Notwithstanding the clear ideological differences that exist between parties of the political right, Chris Jones’ latest volume is a welcome addition to the burgeoning body of writing on right-wing political movements within the city. Given the historic richness and diversity of Liverpool politics, and its pre-war position as the ‘Second City of Empire’ a study of this kind is, arguably, long overdue.

Adopting a predominantly narrative tone, Chris’ work begins with an overview of the formation of the British Fascisti in 1922, and also seeks to establish that the movement was readily adopted by ‘people of high social rank and stature’ within Merseyside. In so doing, the author highlights how the Conservative MP for Wallasey, Sir Robert Burton-Chadwick, was on the Fascist Ground Council, and also notes how the Conservative lord mayor of Liverpool, Miss Margaret Bevan, remarked, after a ten-minute meeting with Mussolini while on an official visit to Italy in 1928, that she had been in the ‘presence of one of the greatest men in the world’. The opinions and involvement of two persons, along with an early smattering of supportive letters in the Liverpool Echo, do not however really substantiate the author’s subsequent claim that ‘sympathy with fascism was endemic in conservative politics’.

More interesting is the author’s engagement with individual events and personalities that have been largely overlooked by broader national works. Three are of particular note and interest. First, the kidnapping, at Liverpool’s Edge Hill Station, of the then leader of the Minority Movement of left-wing trade unionists, Harry Pollitt, by five Liverpool-based British fascists in May 1925. Second, the case of Charles Frederick Ashton, who in January 1934 set off from his home in Mossley Hill with the intention of shooting one of the deputy presidents of the British Israel World Federation but, without bullets, instead firebombed the offices and was subsequently imprisoned for six months. And third, the October 1936 ‘Battle of Lime Street’; an event which occurred in Liverpool a week after London’s more famous Battle of Cable Street. Each of these individual events, along with others noted within the book, provides useful snippets of information on the workings of the fascist movement within the city and resistance to the same.

While there is consideration of local and national developments within the British fascist movement, detailed discussion of how and why developments in Liverpool reflected and impacted national trends, and vice versa, is not always fully developed. For instance, though the work provides information as to individual sites from which the fascists operated out of the city, their broader importance is not fully considered. One is left wondering whether the fact that members who used club premises at 102 Duke Street were ‘mainly motivated for social reasons and by the bar’ was a phenomenon unique to Liverpool, or a trait to be found throughout the organisation nationwide. Likewise, while linkages between the movement and the local constabulary are noted and discussed, it would have been useful for the observations to have been framed within a broader national, or even regional, context.

To an extent such oversights are inevitable; as the author himself notes in the title of the work, this is ‘a short’ history of Fascism within the city. However, it also diminishes the overall utility of the book for academic purposes; an aspect that is further impacted by a lack of page numbering, an absence on occasions of detailed source data, and an inconsistent approach to both referencing and formatting. While therefore a useful primer to the subject which whets the appetite, it is also a volume that leaves readers wanting and needing more.

BERTIE DOCKERILL is an urban planning historian, and editor of the Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire. His principal research interests relate to the development of working-class municipal housing in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, and how centrifugal forces impact the nature of urban form.

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By Janet Few

(Pen & Sword Family History 2024 168pp ISBN 978-1-399061-85-8) £14.99

Janet Few’s book offers a comprehensive guide for family historians whose ancestors may have been marginalised in some way. She examines the lives of the poor, of criminals, people of ethnic origin, and issues such as illegitimacy and mental illness. Each chapter focuses on different aspects of life over the centuries, offering texts, websites, newspapers and institutions that researchers will find useful in tracing their family line. Perhaps most interestingly, each section concludes with the life history of an individual, including stories of witchcraft, prostitution, the Romany and Traveller community, and sickness. Several black and white images enliven the information and the personal stories (most of these pictures are also available online, including William Hogarth’s famous ‘Gin Lane’). For example, in contemplating the idea of the ‘demon drink,’ we learn the life story of Sarah Grosvenor, who frequently found herself in prison as a result of drunken behaviour, including breaking landlords’ window panes when they refused to serve her.

The chapter about the Romany and Traveller population concludes with the story of Joshua Mobbs, alias Gray, and ponders the name changes and aliases that may make it difficult to research such ancestors. The section on witchcraft recounts the story of Susanna Edwards, executed for being a witch in 1682. The events in the story of Charity Platt, arrested for prostitution and brothel keeping, reveal perhaps unusually that she enjoyed a long life, married twice, and died in Blackpool in 1952 at the age of 89. It is not surprising that there are more stories concerning women than men. They were perceived as guilty of giving birth to illegitimate children, entering into prostitution, or simply being a ‘wise woman’, whose skills with healing were considered suspicious. But there is an interesting section reflecting on the position of a man who became a deserter. In the story of William Wilcox, we learn of his experiences during the Zulu wars and the death of thirty of his comrades owing to their appalling living conditions: there were no tents for the men and they slept on the ground. William deserted; he was just eighteen years of age. Imprisoned for two years for desertion, he finally returned to his home in Devon in 1881 and became a steam-engine driver, married and had a daughter. He died in 1925 and was buried in an unmarked grave, but in 2011 a headstone was erected in his memory by the great-grandson of one of William’s comrades.

Janet Few provides the reader with a glimpse of the historical and social background which informed various prejudices, anxieties and discriminatory behaviours that the people she writes about experienced. As she points out, the book is not intended to be a complete guide to researching every individual topic, but seeks instead to provide context and to offer extensive further reading and research possibilities.

ANNE-MARIE FORD has published on nineteenth-century literature, both American and British, as well as historical texts, with a particular focus on women and on the Romany people from whom she is descended.

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By Marshall Hall

(Windgather Press 2024 244pp ISBN 978-1-914427-29-9) £40

This is a book for the traveller. There are, according to Marshall Hall, 210 medieval bridges in England which fit his criteria. Here he has brought together a fascinating and extensive record of the structure of 63 bridges of medieval origin to be found in Middle England. He defines ‘medieval’ as starting when the Romans supposedly left (410AD) and extending to 1536 (the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII). This had been a world based on agriculture and the distribution of foodstuffs—much on the backs of packhorses. Middle England is clearly defined as the East of England, East Midlands and West Midlands and he has grouped the sites of the bridges into convenient tours.

The introduction is followed by sections on the many variants of bridges, how they were constructed, their importance in the landscape and their heritage value. Rivers have long been an important means of communication and the presence of a bridge has often led to the development of significant settlement. However, bridges might have other functions besides being a bridgehead: they might have chapels and shops built on them, they controlled traffic and they gave access to otherwise inaccessible places. Moving on to the medieval bridges themselves, Hall provides a list of criteria for inclusion in this book: date, significance, architecture, intact remains that can be publicly seen and spanning a river, moat or stream. The difficulty in dating he points out is ‘particularly problematic’.

In the section on road networks emphasis is placed on the greatly increased traffic as the medieval period progressed, with a need for long distance and local village connections: most of the sites of bridges and fords had been established by the thirteenth century. The most active period for bridge building was the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and in later periods they would be rebuilt, strengthened and widened, but few completely new bridges were constructed. The Gough Map of Britain is an important record of roads and settlements. Probably first drawn in the 1360s but worked on into the fifteenth century, it records over 600 towns and other locations, together with red lines representing around 500km of a network of roads, paths or communication routes. After a brief section on the basic components of bridges, Hall considers the strong influence of the Church, particularly monasteries, in encouraging bridge building and perhaps adding chapels on the bridge. The funding for the work often came from the Church or landed nobles but the labour would be provided by local communities.

Early river crossings could range from fords to stepping stones to a ferry to a wooden or masonry bridge. The fourteenth century was the peak time for the use of packhorses and required bridges to cross rivers, but as these only needed to be wide enough for a horse with packs, many did not survive as carts became more abundant. The arched bridge, which appeared in China about 1000BC, is a strong structure because the weight is carried outwards to the abutments. The shape of the arch changed over time: early medieval arches tend to be more pointed whereas later ones are semi-circular, often with rib supports in the vault. The next section on the methods and nature of construction is well illustrated and explained clearly: this will prove useful to readers wishing to understand the process of building bridges. A full list of all 63 bridges, by county, follows with some notes about listing by Historic England and an explanation of the author’s criteria for his 5-star rating of bridges (readers may have differing opinions about which are ‘Best’).

From page 25 onwards are descriptions of the 63 bridges in Hall’s Middle England. Given in a standard format which makes comparison easy, they are grouped into road tours to encourage the traveller to visit them. Local historians may well wish to analyse the resulting evidence—studies of date first mentioned, location, river crossed, length and building material could all be areas of interest. The majority of bridges are built of stone, usually making use of the locally available underlying geology. By Hall’s definition there are seven which he says are a combination of stone and brick, and five that are purely built of brick. Most of the latter are in the far east of the region where there is limited natural stone available. Hall details the many repairs, widenings and modifications that he has found. Many additions use a different material for these, frequently brick. The glossary that Hall has provided at the end of the book is an invaluable contribution and will help those readers trying to understand the details of construction.

It would have been useful to have details of page numbers where there are lists of bridges, but this is a minor criticism of an otherwise very enjoyable book to delve into. It represents a magnificent effort to bring a focus on medieval bridges and is presented in a form that will be of interest to local historians as well as the passing traveller.

MICHAEL COLES has long been interested in medieval and early modern brick constructions and his Master of Studies dissertation focussed on the brick industry of the late medieval period. He is also interested in landscape and connections between settlements: bridges are an important feature.

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By Julian Mustoe

(Mustoe Publications 2023 ISBN 978-1-3999-5934-6) only available as a Kindlebook £2.35

This little book is about the Hanseatic League from the viewpoint of a famous yachtsman rather than an academic. Julian Mustoe circumnavigated the globe in the early years of the twenty-first century. His voyage took him to almost every harbour visited by HMS Beagle in the 1830s. Thus, reconstructing historic voyages is his passion and the Hanseatic maritime towns (1300-1600) had long gripped his imagination.

Mustoe began his Hanseatic Voyage in 2015 from Lerwick in the Shetland Islands but had to restart with a new yacht in 2017. He sailed from Lerwick to Bergen, where German merchants established one of their four great overseas trading posts. The other three were Novgorod, Bruges and London. Such Kontors played a forward role in keeping the wheels of Hanseatic international commerce turning. The author gives an engaging commentary on the three he visited (he did not reach Novgorod). He sailed south from Bergen to Denmark (a foe of the German Hanse) and then to Scania in southern Sweden where the herring fishery enriched the Hanseatic towns. His voyage continued east to Visby on Gotland, used by Lübeck merchants as a staging post on route to Novgorod to buy furs.

In the summer of 2018 Mustoe sailed across the Baltic to Riga in Latvia before heading south to explore Lübeck, Wismar, Rostock, and Stralsund, which maritime towns were at the heart of the German Hanse. Gdansk (Danzig) should be on this list but he did not sail further east. His knowledge of European history is nicely interwoven into the story to be told. Our yachtsman revisited Lübeck, which was the informal capital of the Hanseatic League, before calling on the very important member town of Hamburg. He spent the winter of 2019/20 in a Dutch marina but with the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic was obliged to discontinue the voyage, so he sailed to England and took shelter on the Orwell at Ipswich. Not until summer 2022 could he visit Bruges and Antwerp: Flemish ports of major significance for the German Hanse. His voyage ended in London. Its big Hanseatic Kontor, established before 1200, was swept away for Cannon Street Station in 1854.

The author includes an epilogue on the New Hanseatic League set up in 1980 and now comprising 190 member towns across northern Europe. King’s Lynn was the first English town to join this loose urban alliance in 2005, followed by Hull, Boston, Ipswich, Yarmouth and Beverley. All six were thriving medieval ports which were trading partners of the German Hanse.

Hanseatic Voyage is enhanced throughout by the author’s colourful description of harbours, towns and people. We learn much about cogges or medieval replica ships, the trades in timber, beer, salt, cloth, shipping routes and the prevailing winds harnessed by sailors such as Julian Mustoe. He should be admired for the hazards he overcame. To see the Hanseatic League (1300-1600) from the water with the author made this well illustrated book an interesting and even enlightening read.

PAUL RICHARDS lives in King’s Lynn and is involved with the New Hanseatic League as well as researching and writing Hanseatic history. His book on the place of King’s Lynn in medieval Hanseatic Europe was published in 2022.

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By Margaret Heath

(Grosvenor House Publishing Ltd 2024 302pp ISBN 978-1-80381-784-4) £17.99

Two conclusions emerge from this book Firstly, it is wrong to see schools with long and honourable histories as having a continuous line of success. Secondly, in successful schools, the role of the headteacher is crucial. The bulk of this interesting book is focused on the headmasters. Each of the chapters from 3 to 14 covers a different headmaster and addresses not only their tenure at Brewood (Staffordshire) but also their background, families and what happened after they left. The school survived as a grammar school until the 1970s. Later teachers there included Mary Whitehouse and the prominent Conservative MP Sir Patrick Cormack, but Margaret Heath leaves its more modern history to others and focuses on its period as an endowed grammar school with trustees who were under the jurisdiction of the Charity Commissioners.

The year 1547 is an obvious starting point as an earlier school in Brewood had neither a teacher nor pupils. The pressure to do something about it came from Lord Stafford, working with Sir John Giffard of nearby Chillington Hall and Dr Matthew Knightley. Chapter 2 summarises the early teachers before embarking in detail on each headmaster. And 1875 is the cut-off date as it marks the restructuring of the school under the 1869 Endowed Schools Act.

The headmasters had much in common but their differences emerge more, even though during the period covered, the job specification was the same—to have been educated at Oxford and Cambridge and to be in holy orders—and only during the tenure of the last headmaster covered, James Heber Taylor (1872-1875), was this relaxed. All were men of learning and connection. any had a track record of teaching prior to arrival at Brewood, most were married and often had large families. They were chosen from large numbers of suitable applicants although the trustees sometimes relied heavily on testimonials. Clearly highly-qualified people were appointed and some prominent people, including Samuel Johnson, were turned down for teaching roles here. The headmasters were obliged to live in the school and the curriculum was restricted. They were expected to teach Upper Schools classics and mathematics. An usher (also usually someone also in holy orders) taught the Lower School. There were day boys, and the school was expected to take in boarders. The remuneration was not fixed but depended on rental income from school properties, boarding and tuition for some subject areas. At least one headmaster got into financial difficulties as a result of this salary uncertainty.

The meticulous detail and impressive research are of particular value to those who know the area. What are the benefits for others? They are surprisingly numerous. Firstly, many of the headmasters had connections with other areas of the country. Secondly, many had interests and involvement well beyond the headship of Brewood. Thirdly, they lived through interesting and eventful times, and it is enlightening to see how local communities and families interacted with such events. Fourthly, it reveals the changing nature of education over a long period of time when it was not universal. Fifthly, and what helps make the book so fascinating, is the human stories. These headmasters are depicted in the round—their characters, traits, health, families, friends, tragedies and triumphs and their recreation. A sizeable number seem to have lacked diplomacy and tact and several resorted to litigation. Some left with their reputation intact but quite a few did not.

On the whole they took their duties seriously and many taught well. Brewood was clearly a serious place of learning. Despite this the headmasters juggled their commitments—in practically all cases with their religious role. Many held more than one living, often not in the locality. From studying these headmasters, it is difficult to form the idea that they were lazy men of leisure. What I this reviewer found particularly fascinating is the differences between the headmasters and the effects these had on the school’s fortunes. One wants to know just what they like were and what stands out. What were their challenges? What occupied their time? How were they regarded? How and why did their tenure at Brewood end?

The following gives a flavour of some of those differences. William Budworth (1731-1745) for example, was not only regarded as a gentleman but an energetic, enthusiastic and inspiring teacher, adapting his teaching style to the needs of different classes. Thomas Feilde (1762-1769) served as Brewood’s vicar and had two Hertfordshire livings. He also found the time to write a general history of Staffordshire. He moved to Virginia, where he owned a number of slaves, but his ministry there ended abruptly as a result of the American War of Independence. It might be assumed that a traditional classical education meant headmasters of a classical bent but their interests were varied. Several were very keen on science, such as the Reverend John Pickering (1778-1780) who had an interest in mining and geology. George Croft (1780-1792) stands out as one who also wrote about education and how to teach successfully. He advocated among other things a common grammar book for use all over the country and had much to say about the importance of reading and pronunciation. He criticised teachers who taught through necessity rather than ability: they should have learning, morality, patience and perseverance and be well paid. National events make an appearance, such as Croft’s fear of the French Revolution and the nearby Birmingham Riots.

Some headmasters came with enthusiasm and big plans but things later went sour. Hamlet Harrison (1792-1811) urged a more modern curriculum. This tension, between the traditional ‘first-class’ curriculum and a more modern commercial one, is a recurring theme. It caused tensions between the with the local community who often wanted more practical teaching. Harrison lost the support of Trustees, being accused of preferring farming to teaching, using excessive discipline and poor financial accounting. He was dismissed but refused to leave and advertised the fact in the same journal as that an advert for a new headmaster appeared. By contrast the Reverend Henry Kempson (1811-1841) provided 30 years of stability. Kempson tried hard to raise the status of Brewood after the decline in Harrison’s time. A curriculum relevant to a commercial career was seen as a need but he knew a classical education was still regarded as essential. Despite his balancing act, numbers fell, partly through bad harvests and the opening of a National School. This was a particular problem in the Upper School – in 1835 it has a mere 3 boarders and 1 day pupil.

Henry Brookland Mason (1841-1850), appointed at the age of 29, was regarded affectionately and was on good terms with most people. Numbers were a perennial problem, as was the constant need for repairs and maintenance. He was involved in many issues and initiatives, such as gardening, adult evening classes, local railways and the Irish potato famine. Compare this with Henry Brown (1850-1860): a well-qualified teacher with a good reputation who started well but ran into financial difficulties as the school faced challenges from rival institutions. The trustees felt a change of direction was needed and Brown was forced to resign. After leaving Brewood, he was declared bankrupt. Another contrast was the dynamic Richard Wall (1860-1872), who tried to respond to the changing educational world. He gave a high priority to rebuilding. School rolls increased although a fair number were brought from his old school in Birkenhead. The school did well both in terms of numbers and standards. New classes appeared, such as chemistry, and sport was popularised. Numbers rose above 100, although Wall faced conflicts with the usher which involved the arbitration of the headmaster of Rugby. The Endowed Schools Act of 1869 was aimed at restructuring grammar schools, and had a real effect on Brewood. This Act envisaged 3 grades of secondary school: first grade, to prepare for universities and some professions; second grade, for army and civil service; and third grade, for tenant farmers and trade. Most local residents wanted a good commercial and agricultural education to be provided, but trustees wanted Brewood to be one of best boarding schools in the county. The issue was whether it could survive locally just as a first-grade school. Wall decided to resign, perhaps mindful of imminent changes, but left with his reputation intact.

The comparison with the problematic last headmaster covered (James Heber Taylor) could not be more stark. The problem was at least partly personal: he rowed frequently over matters such as changed hours, fixtures, excessive discipline, fees and not just with the trustees but also with the public. Inspections showed mediocre teaching standards. Dismissal or resignation was inevitable. In 1876 a new scheme for governing the school was put in place by the Charity Commissioners under the Endowed Schools Act. Under the new headmaster the school thrived but this is outside the scope of this book.

This is an impressive book that is of interest not just to those living locally but also those concerned with the history of secondary education. The references at the end of each chapter show it to be meticulously-researched and it is very well written. There are images but these are largely of the school. There are no portraits of these fascinating characters, which is a pity as one would have liked to put faces to their stories. It is perhaps ironic that the last headmaster covered was regarded as an expert on photography.

TIM LOMAS is a trustee of the BALH with a long career in education.

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Edited by David Holmes with Pam Aucutt and Dudley Brown

(Market Harborough Historical Society 2024 344pp ISBN 978-1-7398747-1-1) £17+p&p via https://www.marketharboroughhistoricalsociety.org/

After the excellent standard set by volume 1 (see my review in The Local Historian vol.52 no.4 October 2022), it was with mild trepidation that I awaited the publication of volume 2, which brings the history of Market Harborough up to the present. I need not have worried, as it is a worthy sequel. Again, it is salutary to note the involvement of so many contributors: there are fourteen individuals responsible for writing the chapters; others loaned photographs or instigated maps, plans, tables and graphs; the proofreading is first-class as is the typesetting and design. When one adds the knowledgeable support of the county record office staff and members of the museum service, it is no surprise that this second volume is such an informative and (thanks to Biddles, the printer and binder) quality production. The Market Harborough and the Bowdens Charity and the Howard Watson Symington Memorial Charity are again to be saluted for funding the entire project. Together with the Grand Union Canal of 1809 (‘Canals did not increase the pace of life, rather they broadened the scope of opportunity’) and the LNWR and Midland Railways (1850), the factories of W. Symington (starting humbly with a grocer’s shop in 1827) and R & W.H. Symington were mainstays in the steady growth of the market town.

The sequence of maps, showing the expansion of the town—from that of Samuel Turner in 1776, which highlighted the recently enclosed fields, through the OS maps of 1885, 1920, 1961 and 1968, to the Google Earth views of 2004 and 2021—is a clear way of understanding the type of growth as well as its extent. Ribbon development, council houses, infilling and the large housing estates all round the town highlight how the population of c.2800 in 1800 had expanded to over 25,000 in the present day. Chapter 1, ‘The development of Market Harborough since 1800’, is a splendid overview. It describes how a small, compact market town developed, due to the emergence not only of canal and railway linked buildings, but also other industrial units, residential developments and public buildings. It highlights the 1990s, when the whole canal basin was redeveloped and the area of water was doubled in size for leisure purposes, with residential apartments surrounding it. It charts the importance of Samuel Symington, who erected a large four-storey, red-brick factory, now converted to apartments: ‘Few of the many nineteenth and twentieth century purpose-built industrial buildings remain, but none is still in industrial use, all having been adapted for other uses or demolished’. A salient point is made that, although in 220 years Harborough’s and the Bowdens’ population increased almost tenfold, its area increased a hundredfold: ‘Its growth reflects that of many small market towns’.

Further chapters concentrate on the growth of retail—most retailers became primarily sellers of goods made by others—and town improvement schemes (the overcrowded residential yards of the early nineteenth century, which housed many of the working class, were gradually demolished or converted for storage or into workshops); local government and public services; health and educational provision; the religious make-up and buildings of the town (the Congregationalists were the largest non-conformist group); more on the canal and railway effects, and the development of the road system—such as the 1992 bypass diverting the busy A6 and the 1994 opening of the A14, which removed much of the east-west traffic. Recreational pursuits are well covered, showing how from the mid-1840s onwards cricket, football, tennis, golf, hockey and rugby clubs were established. In 1893 the Market Harborough Choral Society was founded, followed five years later by the Operatic Society.

There are other interesting chapters on ‘Town life in war time’, looking at the effect of the Napoleonic, Crimean, Boer and the two World Wars on the town’s life; on ‘Changes in farming practice’; and a long account of ‘Industrial Harborough’. The latter goes into some detail on the importance of W. Symington & Co.. William Symington opened a business in 1827 from a small warehouse in Adam and Eve Street, selling mainly tea. As the business prospered, he added coffee and groceries; then, in 1850, he purchased land and buildings in Springfield Street. Here he patented a method of drying peas and barley, which was then turned into flour so it could form the basis of a soup. Patents were taken out on ‘Roasting and treating coffee’. Buildings were built or extended. In 1882, the company won a gold medal at the New Zealand Exhibition. In 1901, the company was commissioned to supply pea soup and pea flour for Captain Robert Scott’s first expedition to the Antarctic. Around 1919, it branched out into an important catering business. The 1930s saw the introduction of canned soups and ready meals in a can. However, the company was taken over in 1969 by J. Lyons & Co. and, then in 1980, by Golden Wonder and its sister company HP Foods. The factories in Market Harborough were closed in 1996. There is an equally interesting section on the R. & W.H. Symington & Co business, where the first mechanised corset factory was established. More casual fashion after the Second World War led to the demise of the corset and by the mid-1960s Symington’s factories were closing. The company finally shut down in 1990. Sic transit gloria mundi. The chapter has some fine colour illustrations.

The final chapter deals with ‘Some notable people associated with Harborough’. Living in Melbourne, Derbyshire myself, I was particularly pleased to read the account of Thomas Cook, who was born here in 1808. I had not realised he lived in Harborough between 1832 and 1841. He had a shop in Adam and Eve Street, signing ‘the pledge’ to forsake alcoholic drink, and preaching the benefits of temperance locally. The many tavern owners were not impressed and his shop window was smashed on more than one occasion. He moved to Leicester in September 1841. Another ‘notable’ is Martin Johnson, who lived in the town from the age of seven and was educated there. Captain of the English rugby team from 1999, he led them to victory at the World Cup in 2003.

Once again, there is the most useful timeline (which has a few additions from that of volume 1) and a detailed bibliography. This time, there is a separate ‘Sources’ section, which links the list of material—such as primary sources, reports, journals, directories, newspapers and web sites—directly to the relevant chapters. I ended my previous review by saying ‘I look forward to the second volume’. It was well worth the wait … and it is noteworthy, but not surprising, that volume 1 has been reprinted this year.

KENNETH HILLIER is a local historian in Leicestershire, with a particular interest in its market towns. He has written several books on Ashby de la Zouch and its neighbourhood, articles for The Leicestershire Historian and reviews for The Local Historian. He was chairman of Ashby Museum for many years.

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By Ed Harris

(Borough of Twickenham Local History Society Paper no.107 2023 214pp ISBN 978-1-911-145073) £9

James II is mainly remembered for being Britain’s last Catholic king, who was overthrown during the ‘Glorious Revolution’ of 1688. As Ed Harris argues, however, he was a skilled military man, who held military displays at the camp on Hounslow Heath and who had a hospital built for British soldiers there. Due to modern roads and administrative boundaries, the location of James’s ‘camp’ is difficult to grasp, so the map entitled the ‘Key to the Encampment’ has been provided. Today the full extent of the open land known as Hounslow Heath is about a square mile (640 acres) but originally the heath was a part of a large royal forest stretching from London to Windsor, with Hounslow halfway between. Harris sketches the history of the Heath, emphasising its geo-political importance. For example, a tournament was held there after Magna Carta was signed, and Charles I mustered troops there in April 1628, and again in 1643 before the Battle of Brentford. Moses Glover’s 1635 map of the Hundred of Isleworth depicts on the Heath a black powder (gunpowder) mill near Baber Bridge and a mill for grinding superior sword blades, using the specialist skill of German refugees from the Thirty Years’ War.

As Duke of York, James had gained experience serving in various armies (including French and Spanish), and so had knowledge of armed forces and of fighting. Charles II continued the concept of the new Model Army raised by Parliament, to the concern of Parliament in his own reign as it might be used to suppress dissent or reimpose Catholicism. James II succeeded his brother in February 1685 and was almost immediately confronted by twin uprisings, which were defeated by his army at the Battle of Sedgemoor on 6 July. Just a week later James inspected 6000 troops on Hounslow Heath. A painting by Benedetto Gennari, dated to 1685, shows James in what is effectively the uniform of ‘Commander-in-Chief’ (an anachronistic term) with, in the distance, the first encampment of his army on the Heath.

James then extended his brother’s army, ostensibly to protect himself against future uprisings, but in effect he built a new standing army. Harris explains that surviving sources for James’s brief and ill-fated reign are somewhat muddled and that some dating is unreliable; nevertheless, he has built up a reasonable picture of James’s activities relating to the army and Hounslow Heath. A drawing by Sir Christopher Wren of ‘a hospitell on Houndesloe Heath’ and sketches in three printed ‘prospects’ of the camp enable a description of the three-storey brick-built hospital. There was also a brick-built barn ‘built for the use of the Army’, containing granaries, and next to it a two-storey bakehouse with five ovens big enough for batches of 300 loaves. Harris argues that these huge buildings ‘stood as evidence of King James’ intention to provide for the men deployed at His pleasure on Hounslow Heath’. Records of costs associated with the encampment indicate that these buildings were completed just over a year after James’ accession.

Newsletters and other sources reported on the gathering of numerous regiments on Hounslow Heath from May to August 1686. Activities there, viewed by a succession of visitors including the Queen, have been summarised in the chapter ‘The Royal Encampment’. George Croom’s retrospective prospect of The Camp on Hounslow Heath describes many of the events, provides a sketch map of the site, and lists the series of orders given in the ‘precise and complicated geometric movements’ of the ‘Muskets and Pikes’. The final display was at 6.00pm on Thursday 29 July. Troops were dispersed to their respective barracks on 10 August. Randall Taylor extolled James’s achievement in ‘England’s Triumph: Or a Poem on the Royal Camp’ and various other accounts are cited indicating how widely the encampment and events were reported.

In 1541 the Turks conquered had Buda, the ancient capital of the kingdom of Hungary. In 1684 an alliance known as the Holy League was formed with the assistance of the pope to make (another) attempt to recapture the city. Initially it was unsuccessful, but in 1686, after much bloodshed and plunder, the city was taken back. James decided to re-enact this ‘exacting reminder of Papal power’ on Hounslow Heath the next year in the form of a full-scale representation of the Siege of Buda. Harris has found few descriptions of the event, not least, he concludes, because Protestants were irked by the glorification of the Catholic Holy League, but James commissioned a series of drawings by Willem van de Velde the Elder. Some have been reproduced in the book. Another encampment was held in 1688 (again painted by van de Velde). Far more important, however, was political manoeuvring by James II and his opponents: the ‘Glorious Revolution’ deposing James occurred soon after. In the manner of his deposed father-in-law, in August 1689, William III visited Hounslow Heath accompanied by as many as 30 companies of the King’s Regiment of Guards. The remaining chapters cover the subsequent history of the site and of later encampments. This is a fascinating example of local history coinciding with national history.

The book has a section of 50 excellent pictures but unfortunately the author does not refer to them in the text and so the reader does not know which to view, or when. Also, footnotes or endnotes would have been helpful. However, Ed Harris has revealed the site of James II’s military encampment; indeed, airline passengers arriving at Heathrow from Europe fly directly over the site during the last few seconds of their flight.

HEATHER FALVEY is the Reviews Editor for The Local Historian.

THE OLD WORDS OF HEREFORDSHIRE edited by Richard Wheeler (Logaston Press 2024 192pp ISBN 978-1-910839-76-8) £12.99

The introduction to this book tells us that the 3000 or so words in the compilation are only some of those lost from everyday use in Herefordshire in the last two centuries or so. Over that time several collections of dialect words have been published, beginning with a relatively small glossary by the Reverend John Duncumb in 1804, and a much longer one in 1839 by George Cornewall Lewis (after he succeeded his father in the baronetcy, he became chancellor of the exchequer). Then in 1887 the Reverend F.T. Havergal, vicar of Upton Bishop, published a work entitled Herefordshire Words and Phrases, Colloquial and Archaic, to be followed the next year by a list of local bird names, collected by Dr H.G. Bull and appearing as an appendix in his posthumously published Notes on the Birds of Herefordshire. Major modern studies include those by Andrew Haggard (1972) and Winifred Leeds (1974), drawing on material from around Ledbury and Ross-on-Wye respectively.

This then is the material from which the compilation has been made. It is pointed out that the words may have been collected from a restricted location, or may have a wider usage, not necessarily limited by county boundaries. So, for instance, the use of the word ‘ganzy’ for a type of jersey, collected in Stoke Edith, is actually very widespread, and was certainly current in County Durham (used by my mother, a native of the area), and is still current in Shetland. Farming is, and always has been, the main industry in Herefordshire, and it is not surprising that about 600 words relating to farming are included. Farming being conservative, dialect words have probably survived longer within it than anywhere else, so words such as ‘yaffle’, for the green woodpecker, are still used occasionally by the older generation. I have also heard the word ‘shuff’ used for ‘sheaf’ (not given in the compilation) but it is not clear whether this a dialect word or merely a different pronunciation. Similarly, the word ‘lezzer’ (my spelling, I have never seen it written down) which is clearly derived from ‘leasow’ (pasture, which is given), is in the same category.

Some of the terms listed are actually standard usage, particularly those quoted relating to hop-picking. Although it is now archaic, I would argue that the unusual but wide-spread word ‘higgler’—a pedlar of small items—in the nineteenth century was more standard usage than dialect. Also, there is the odd word that I would query. So, for instance, the word ‘fleam’ is said to be an alternative to ‘phlegm’. However, a fleam was a sharp instrument used in blood-letting, and how this other interpretation came about will need checking in the original compilation.

This is a book for reference, or dipping into, but it is worth reading the introduction in its entirety. It gives a window into a simpler past, and as a hard-back book it will stand regular usage. I will enjoy having it on my shelves.

JOHN EISEL has lived most of his life in Herefordshire, and is deeply interested in all aspects of the county. He is a well-known local historian, prominent in the local Woolhope Club, and is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. Because of his close connections with the farming community, he is particularly interested in the history of farming, including methods and language.

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Edited by Richard Wheeler

(Logaston Press 2024 192pp ISBN 978-1-910839-76-8) £12.99

The introduction to this book tells us that the 3000 or so words in the compilation are only some of those lost from everyday use in Herefordshire in the last two centuries or so. Over that time several collections of dialect words have been published, beginning with a relatively small glossary by the Reverend John Duncumb in 1804, and a much longer one in 1839 by George Cornewall Lewis (after he succeeded his father in the baronetcy, he became chancellor of the exchequer). Then in 1887 the Reverend F.T. Havergal, vicar of Upton Bishop, published a work entitled Herefordshire Words and Phrases, Colloquial and Archaic, to be followed the next year by a list of local bird names, collected by Dr H.G. Bull and appearing as an appendix in his posthumously published Notes on the Birds of Herefordshire. Major modern studies include those by Andrew Haggard (1972) and Winifred Leeds (1974), drawing on material from around Ledbury and Ross-on-Wye respectively.

This then is the material from which the compilation has been made. It is pointed out that the words may have been collected from a restricted location, or may have a wider usage, not necessarily limited by county boundaries. So, for instance, the use of the word ‘ganzy’ for a type of jersey, collected in Stoke Edith, is actually very widespread, and was certainly current in County Durham (used by my mother, a native of the area), and is still current in Shetland. Farming is, and always has been, the main industry in Herefordshire, and it is not surprising that about 600 words relating to farming are included. Farming being conservative, dialect words have probably survived longer within it than anywhere else, so words such as ‘yaffle’, for the green woodpecker, are still used occasionally by the older generation. I have also heard the word ‘shuff’ used for ‘sheaf’ (not given in the compilation) but it is not clear whether this a dialect word or merely a different pronunciation. Similarly, the word ‘lezzer’ (my spelling, I have never seen it written down) which is clearly derived from ‘leasow’ (pasture, which is given), is in the same category.

Some of the terms listed are actually standard usage, particularly those quoted relating to hop-picking. Although it is now archaic, I would argue that the unusual but wide-spread word ‘higgler’—a pedlar of small items—in the nineteenth century was more standard usage than dialect. Also, there is the odd word that I would query. So, for instance, the word ‘fleam’ is said to be an alternative to ‘phlegm’. However, a fleam was a sharp instrument used in blood-letting, and how this other interpretation came about will need checking in the original compilation.

This is a book for reference, or dipping into, but it is worth reading the introduction in its entirety. It gives a window into a simpler past, and as a hard-back book it will stand regular usage. I will enjoy having it on my shelves.

JOHN EISEL has lived most of his life in Herefordshire, and is deeply interested in all aspects of the county. He is a well-known local historian, prominent in the local Woolhope Club, and is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. Because of his close connections with the farming community, he is particularly interested in the history of farming, including methods and language.

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