July 2023 Reviews

By Norman Jacobs

(Clacton Pier Company Limited 2022 220pp ISBN 978-1-7391035-1-4) £18.99 inc p&p

This publication has provided a timely and comprehensive history of Clacton Pier—an institution which has been at the heart of Clacton-on-Sea’s resort culture since the town was established in the late nineteenth century. The Thorpe and Great Clacton Railway Act of July 1886 gave Clacton’s founding entrepreneur, Peter Bruff, five years to complete the building of the railway and pier at the new resort. After initial financial difficulties, Bruff secured funding from the Woolwich Steam Packet Company to construct the new pier, giving their steamers exclusive rights to stop there. In July 1871 the pier opened officially and welcomed the SS Queen of the Orwell as the first vessel to call. As a substantial structure, Clacton Pier developed rapidly, not just as a stopping off point for coastal passenger steamers but eventually as an entertainment centre in its own right.

Clacton-on-Sea was originally intended to be a ‘high-class’ resort with an exclusive air, akin to nearby Frinton-on-Sea, but the proximity to the capital and the railway connection allowed relatively cheap transport opportunities, so it became a seaside resort that appealed to a wide social spectrum and was especially popular with working-class East Londoners. Thus, the pier became a centre for all manner of entertainments and the area in front of the pier (Pier Gap) was a popular place for street entertainers and seaside vendors to set up their stalls. Successive owners and managers developed the pier’s facilities as the surrounding resort grew in popularity during the early twentieth century. Apart from and despite the obvious hiatuses during the two world wars, the pier has remained at the centre of Clacton’s economy and identity since its creation. As such, it has a rich and varied social history and has witnessed a wealth of remarkable developments that have characterised the wider history of Britain’s domestic tourist and entertainment industry of the last 150 years.

This book has achieved much, not just by accurately and comprehensively setting out the story of the pier’s development, but also by providing several detailed case studies of the people and events that have been important factors in its overall history. There is an abundance of photographs and other illustrations and the author has benefitted from the support and cooperation of the current owners of Clacton Pier (at its curious postal address, No.1, The North Sea) as well as many of the people who have had direct experience of working there. The wealth of information from extensive primary and secondary research and oral testimony, is set out in 26 chapters with two distinct themes. Chapters 1 to 9 deal with the phases of development and ownership, from the origins through to the latest phase. Chapters 11 to 26 each detail related themes, such as ‘Dancing over the Sea: The Blue Lagoon’; ‘Clacton’s Wonder Swimming Pool’; ‘North Sea World, the Dolphinarium and Aquarium’ and ‘A Day in the Life of a Summer Pier Worker’. As the volume of information here is substantial, the narrative does not engage contextually with the wider history of British domestic tourism, entertainment, or the other piers at United Kingdom seaside resorts. It is, however, a very useful resource for historians as well as being a fascinating and informative book for a wider readership.

Dr Sean O’Dell is a Senior Lecturer in Contextual Studies and Social History at University Centre Colchester. His research interests include the East Anglian river navigations, the holiday resorts of the north Essex coast and more widely, post-war working-class tourism and consumerism in the United Kingdom.

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By Colin Miller

(Poppyland Publishing 2022 191pp ISBN 978-1-909796-98-0) £12.95 + £2.95 p&p

The Beat Goes On is the latest book from Colin Miller which describes his experiences of growing up in the rural Broadland village of Rollesby. Previous volumes include Country Boy – Growing up in Norfolk 1940-1960 and The Fifties Replayed – A Norfolk Youth at Leisure. He also recalled the development of jazz in his university city, Leicester, in A Degree of Swing – Lessons in the Facts of Life Leicester 1953-1964. The Beat Goes On fills in the gap between his early experiences and his time at university, drawing on his own experience as well as contemporary written sources to chart the development and growth of popular music in the city of Norwich (and the county of Norfolk) during the 1950s.

In 2014 in a ‘Live Music Exchange’ blog Miller wrote that the majority of histories of music from the 1950s and 1960s draw their data and conclusions from biographies of notable musicians, contemporary music newspaper articles, and records from organisations that serve the music industry. He hypothesised that this process not only distorts events by inflating the efforts of a select few successful people but also, and importantly, it ignores the unrecognised contributions to live music made by common people and grassroots movements that do not leave a written record. Miller argues that music needs a ready audience to succeed and he reinforces the popularity of the teenage music choices, namely jazz, skiffle and rock ‘n’ roll.

This was the time when outlying villages still used a pump for water, lavatories were outside, and the radio provided one’s staple daily entertainment. The community hall was the focal point for village social events, and for Miller and his friends. The highlight of the week became the bus trip to one of the cinemas or dance halls in Norwich or another major town. All of this changed with increasing affluence during the 1950s, placing Britain’s teenage population in a different position to their parents’ generation. A cultural revolution of fashions, leisure habits and beliefs took place, but most of all a musical revolution. Crucially, Miller details the ‘special moment’ for him and others with the development of jazz, skiffle and rock‘n’roll as teenage cultures and their expansion through pubs, clubs and the new popular medium of television. He provides an in-depth recollection of local groups, musicians and well-known singers of the 1950s. Charting the careers of a number of local musicians of that period, he provides an insight into the influences and cultural changes that took place nationally and locally.

The book has thirty mini-chapters, averaging around six pages each, contextualised into three distinct time sections, 1955-1956, 1957-1958 and 1959-1960, each opening with an introduction ‘The Author Remembers’. Each section recalls the changes happening nationally with the emergence of rock‘n’roll, and the music media through radio, television and cinema, and explores the relationship of Norwich and Norfolk to these musical styles.

Reflecting on the start of 1955, Miller recalls that he was a ‘typical yet relatively innocent teenager’ experiencing all the pleasures and angst that came with the gradual shift towards independence from parental control. He reinforces the importance of all forms of music upon his formative years, albeit with a ‘scant appreciation’ of classical music in spite of his music teachers. The chapter ‘We Heard it on the Radio’ further explores the vital role that listening to the radio played in normal 1950s’ family life. With three national stations, the Light, Home and Third programmes, Miller laments the lack of popular music aimed at teenagers and singles out the appeal and influence of The Goon Show with it is ‘anarchistic bent’ and delivery of ‘something different’ for him and his fellow younger listeners. For him and Britain’s youth, the station of choice became Radio Luxembourg with its ‘bias towards popular music programmes’.

The middle section ponders the effect of the three major styles of music—rock‘n’roll, its do-it-yourself offshoot skiffle, and the more traditional sounds of jazz—upon the teenagers and young adults of Norwich and Norfolk. In the chapter ‘City of Jazz’, Miller highlights the continued popularity of jazz at grassroots level among young urbanite middle-class youth. However, this period also saw the rise of skiffle and its promulgation through an ever-increasing number of clubs which held national and local competitions. While its ‘acoustic nature’, and intimate relationship with its audience, made skiffle ideal entertainment for small pubs and clubs, Miller is keen to reaffirm that many of its proponents were well established and competent musicians. A contrasting impression of new and traditional comes with the visit of Bill Haley to Norwich on his maiden tour to Britain: an enthusiastic and gyrating audience was overseen by the chief constable and a cohort of heavyweight bouncers, before the audience respectfully observed the National Anthem at the end of the concert.

Miller introduces the concluding section of the book with his acceptance to Leicester University in 1959. He recalls splitting his time between home and university and his part in the introduction of rock and roll as an integral part of the university music scene. This final period of recollection saw an expansion of nightclubs and music societies throughout Norfolk, competing for customers, against a backdrop of nuclear fear in East Anglia with the substantial number of RAF and USAF air bases. It was this fear that created the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, a cause that generated a ‘Ban the Bomb’ rally in Norwich in September 1959. The book concludes in 1960 with the author now spending more time in Leicester due to his mathematics course and his relationship with his Leicester girlfriend, whom he eventually married.

This book offers intriguing views of growing up at a time when an increasing number of affluent teenagers had ‘never had it so good’. The use of newspaper articles allows Miller to present a media perspective on the evolution of music venues, groups, and styles targeted at teenagers and young adults. Anyone wanting to replicate Miller's research style and apply it to their own experiences and those of their peers might want to broaden their ethnographic enquiry to look for recollections from other people who experienced the changes that had such an impact on their adolescent years.

Colin Miller. Unresolved questions in the history of live music 1953-64 at www.livemusicexchange.org (16 October 2014)

Cris Spinks is a post-graduate researcher at the University of East Anglia. He is currently investigating the social and political impact of commercially popular musicians of the post-punk period on those growing up in that period. His historical interests are youth culture and music since the Second World War, particularly in East Anglia.

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Edited by Clive D. Field

(Oxford Centre for Methodism and Church History 2022 xvii+389pp ISBN 979-8-353-985198) £13.99 via Amazon

Judging by its size and the wealth and variety of information it contains, Clive Field clearly faced a mammoth, not to say daunting, task in compiling this very helpful bibliography. Yet as he observes, ‘the approximately four thousand entries … represent only the tip of the bibliographic iceberg of Methodist local histories’. The type of material listed ranges from books and booklets to short items from the Methodist Recorder, published in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and from PhD theses to articles from the Proceedings of the Wesley Historical Society and other journals. In keeping with the theme of localism, entries are helpfully arranged by county and current local authority districts. Moreover, the coverage extends from England, Wales and Scotland to Ireland, the Isle of Man and Channel Islands. Unsurprisingly, many of the publications relate to the main branches of Methodism, Wesleyan and Primitive, but Bible Christians, the New Connexion and, from 1907, United Methodists all make an appearance. There are also entries relating to the Free, Independent or Tent and Arminian Methodists. One surprise is how few entries there are for certain counties, such as Herefordshire, Northamptonshire and Surrey, by comparison with, for example, Cornwall and Durham.

What emerges is not only the extent to which Methodism has attracted the attention of local and ecclesiastical historians but also the incredibly diverse subject matter. Some of the topics, such as the histories of individual churches and circuits, missions, ministers, Sunday schools, revivals, and politics, are to be expected but others perhaps less so. For example, there are at least four studies of Methodist cricket clubs (in Southport, Midsomer Norton, Calderdale and Leeds) and one on musical Methodism in Lincolnshire. There is even an article about a Methodist Guild guest house in Sussex and another in Wharfedale, as well as a murder case dating from 1902 in Peasenhall, East Suffolk. Nor are educational establishments with a Methodist heritage overlooked, such as Kingswood School, Cliff College in Derbyshire, Bourne College in Birmingham, Kent College and Woodhouse Grove School near Bradford.

A number of entries have very intriguing titles: ‘Why do we mourn? a collection of poetical epitaphs found in Cornish Methodist burial grounds’; ‘The mystery of Methodism in Honiton’; ‘Pit-men, preachers and politics: the effects of Methodism in a Durham mining community’; ‘The apostles of Fylde Methodism’; ‘Pioneers of social passion: London’s cosmopolitan Methodism’; ‘The Theatre Church comes of age: a short history of the Astley Bridge Methodist Theatre Church’; ‘A shining light: Bridge Street Methodist Church, its contribution to the spiritual and social life of Mansfield’; ‘At Satan’s throne: the story of Methodism in Bath over 250 years’; ‘Nailed to the cross: how Primitive Methodism liberated the white slaves of Bromsgrove’; ‘The Devil’s in the Ducks: the story of Methodism in Bridlington’; ‘“Wild as colts untamed”: Methodism and society in Lurgan, 1750-1975’; and ‘Chapel and swastika: Methodism in the Channel Islands during the German occupation, 1940-1945’. Such examples serve to illustrate the richness of the content.

For anyone planning to research an aspect of Methodism in their area, this publication serves as an excellent starting point for several reasons. First, it facilitates the undertaking of a literature review and engagement with the associated historiography. Second, existing secondary sources indicate where there are gaps to be filled and possible approaches that might be adopted. Last, the listings can serve both to inspire and to raise questions that are worthy of further investigation, thereby providing opportunities for building upon existing publications. In local history research there is no such thing as ‘a final word’.

Inevitably, in reviewing a publication of this kind one is keen to see if sources with which one is familiar have been listed and, in general, this is undoubtedly the case. That said, as implied earlier, at this stage there are going to be some works which are ‘below the water line’. For example, in the case of Winchester, Southampton and other parts of Hampshire, locations which this reviewer knows best, there are publications on the shelves of the Hampshire Record Office and the local studies sections of public libraries which do not appear. In his introduction, Clive Field indicates that if ‘the number of significant omissions and additions prove sufficient, preparation of a second edition of the bibliography or a supplement will be considered in due course’. Local historians are therefore encouraged to provide him with details of what is missing from their area.

One little quibble concerns the use of the word ‘local’ in the sub-title, since quite a few entries, especially those relating to Ireland, suggest that they are at least ‘quasi-national’ in their coverage. That said, this is without doubt a commendable publication which can be thoroughly recommended, not only for simply browsing but also for stimulation. It is good to be reminded in this secular age of the impact that Methodism has made on British and Irish society and culture over the past two hundred and fifty years and the part it has played in enhancing the lives of individuals and communities. I have researched and written articles on various aspects of Nonconformity in Hampshire, and for me the value of bibliographic aids of this kind cannot be overstated.

Roger Ottewill’s research covers a wide range of aspects of local history, including religious history, and political and administrative history.

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By Stephen Wass

(Windgather Press 2022 200pp ISBN 978-1-914427-16-9) £39.95

Water gardens of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries are a fascinating facet of gardens of the period, not only for their technological innovations but also for their designs and possible meanings. Several gardens of the period have already been examined. Hanwell Castle, in north Oxfordshire, is the latest addition to this select group. Here Wass explores in detail the history of the water gardens laid out there by the Cope family, mainly in the seventeenth century, and thus adds to existing knowledge of water gardens at Lyveden, Gorhambury, Tackley, Hatfield, and others, enlarging and developing our understanding.

As an archaeologist, Wass takes us on a detailed journey through the discovery of the series of ponds at Hanwell, over ten years ago. Such lines of ponds are seen elsewhere but an additional feature here is the House of Diversion which Wass discovered on an island in one of the ponds. He has taken Robert Plot’s The Natural History of Oxfordshire, published first in 1677, as his guide. From his descriptions, Plot evidently knew Hanwell Castle and his description of the House of Diversion piques the curiosity, though very little other evidence has been discovered to enlarge on this. We know Bacon had a similar house on an island, though his was later called a banqueting house by John Aubrey. Were they both used in a similar manner?

The mention by Plot of a circle of virtuosi at another Cope property, Tangley, leads Wass to speculate on such a circle which included Sir Anthony Cope and was perhaps linked to Oxford and John Wilkins of Wadham College. There is evidence of an interest in mineralogy at Hanley, a taste shared with many gentlemen of the time who collected for their Cabinets of Curiosities. We know of links between many of the makers of these water gardens, often through Robert Cecil (who started to lay out water gardens, with a large square pond with substantial earthworks, at Theobalds before passing the estate to James I). He was cousin to Francis Bacon, landlord of Thomas Tresham at Lyveden, and correspondent of the Copes both at Hanwell and in London at Kensington, but any scientific connections are not yet fully understood.

Wass sketches in the other major water gardens of the time, including Raglan Castle, adding in two other Cope properties which still have remnant water gardens: Bruern Abbey and Tangley Hall. He also discusses medieval moated gardens and some Italian and French gardens. However, there is little discussion of early Tudor water gardens, apart from a mention of Henry VIII’s Hampton Court. This property belonged to Cardinal Wolsey prior to Henry’s acquisition of it. A discussion of the gardens would have been interesting in the light of Wolsey’s garden at the Manor of the More (Hertfordshire), developed when he was abbot of St Albans, and based on a fifteenth century moated house. It had extended lodgings and a water garden and long gallery reminiscent both of Hesdin under Duke Phillip III of Burgundy (1432), or even Gaillon as illustrated in du Cerceau. Another interesting early garden was the series of ponds laid out along the brook at Hunsdon Park by Henry VIII, complete with viewing terrace, reminiscent of Italian gardens such as Pratolino. These point to an early influence of the Italian Renaissance, although Wass accepts the general opinion that Tudor water gardens were home-grown: developed from medieval water gardens, fish-ponds and moated sites.

By the time Hanwell Castle gardens were being laid out, the influence of water engineers such as de Caus was becoming more important and the description, in Plot, of the ball on top of a column of water at Hanwell must be similar to the de Caus illustration of a ‘Grotto wherein a ball rises by the force of water’ (Les raisons des forces mouvantes, Paris, 1623, Book II Problem ii). Indeed, Wass illustrates a similar arrangement at Thomas Bushell’s grotto at Church Enstone. De Caus had travelled in Italy and, with his brother Isaac, is credited with introducing hydraulics into northern European gardens, including Hatfield, Somerset House, and designs for Richmond Palace. The penultimate chapter deals with the decline of Hanwell water gardens, the fate of practically all gardens eventually. Research on Hanwell is ongoing so more information may well emerge, especially the reasons behind this complex and the House of Diversion.

Wass addresses the tricky problem of links to an emerging scientific circle at Oxford University. Sadly, there are few sources for this and much is speculation. Hanwell is forty miles from Oxford and the mid-seventeenth century was not easy in this area, especially for travel. Tangley was closer but again there is little evidence for these scientific links. We know of groups of people interested in the emerging sciences, and there are circles of correspondence, such as that around Samuel Hartlib. Earlier proto-scientific circles, such as that around the Pembrokes at Wilton, are not mentioned, although Adrian Gilbert, who does merit a passing remark, designed for Mary Pembroke a garden in concentric circles which, as described, sounds very like that at Twickenham, which is discussed.

Outside the remit of this book, but pertinent to the period is the religious dimension of gardens, perhaps expressed in the Reverend John Beale’s garden at Backbury. Given the earlier avowed religious expression as laid out by Tresham at Lyveden and the religious ideas expressed in Italian villas such as Villa Cetinale, it would be interesting to know whether the Copes, in addition to their other interests, used their garden to express, perhaps covertly, their religious sympathies. Similarly, although Wass mentions Thomas Balthazar, the famous violinist, at Hanwell, we do not know of any links between mathematics and music, and with cosmology, which Wass does mention as appearing in gardens at Twickenham, Chastleton and Wilton. It would be fascinating to discover which volumes Cope had on his shelves at Hanwell, but alas they are long gone.

Wass has provided a detailed description of current knowledge, based on extensive archaeological and archival research, of the history of the water gardens at Hanwell. Although other water gardens are discussed in much less detail, there is an exemplary and very full bibliography at the end of each chapter. A much larger volume on water gardens of the period would be required to tease out the influences—whether from monastic complexes as at Bindon Abbey, medieval pleasure gardens as at Kenilworth Castle, or Renaissance ideas, ultimately from antiquity—and the purposes of these many water gardens. The links between their makers are discussed here but more would be very welcome. The reasons for their decline, not all due to Bacon’s opinion that ‘frogs and flies mar all’, would be as interesting as their reasons for their rise in popularity. How do they fit into early notions of a scientific society and virtuosi, and how precisely do Oxford and perhaps Cambridge (where Elizabeth Whittle and Ann Benson have done so much work on the gardens) fit together with the wider community in Europe and its influences, are for a different volume.

Kate Harwood is a garden historian, interested in gardens of the seventeenth century and based in Hertfordshire, where several of the water gardens mentioned in the book are located.

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By Edward Wright

(the author 2022 118pp ISBN: 978-1-914-076367) £15 + p&p from ewright123@btinternet.com

Local historian Edward Wright has drawn on his long experience of researching and lecturing on the history of the development of Walberswick (Suffolk) to write this book. It charts the history of some Walberswick families, their homes and their comings and goings roughly during the same period as the operation of the Southwold Railway, which ran from Halesworth via Walberswick to Southwold for 50 years from 1879. The book is illustrated in colour throughout with the charming paintings executed by John Dorman Turner in 1931, showing the external elevations of every house in the village, which now form the 123 feet long ‘Walberswick Scroll’.

Wright begins with a description of the wedding of Florence, the daughter of successful London haberdasher Charles Mallet, who moved to Walberswick in the latter years of the nineteenth century. The event is captured from an eyewitness account, and probably embroidered a little to paint in words a vivid picture of what was possibly an incongruous society event within a small sleepy fishing village. Wright eloquently describes both their lifestyle in Suffolk and the rise and fall of Mallet’s London business.

Many of the other families whom Wright brings to life had artistic connections, such as the Jennings family. Frank and George were brothers interested in the Arts and Crafts Movement. Frank was an architect and enjoyed incorporating medieval elements into his houses, eschewing the modern mass-produced details coming on the market. Wright describes his erratic business acumen, pitched against that of his wife Mildred, who successfully ran the Walberswick Peasant Pottery, importing pottery from Hungary, the income from the sale of which sustained their lifestyle for many years. The Seward family, Philip Wilson Steer, Arthur Rendell, Francis Newbery and Charles Mackintosh were all nationally known artists, who found both refreshment and inspiration in the community at Walberswick and Wright gives them equal billing with lesser-known artists who took up residence, such as Thomas Davidson and the Mullins family.

Wright includes charming cameos to add colour to village life, such as when the cast of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ accidentally let go of the rope holding a churn of butter made by Amy Leather, in whose garden they were performing. It sank to the bottom of her well, ruining both the butter and the water it fell into. He also introduces some local scandal in the form of the illicit love life of Winifred and Tom Van Oss, and lets us in on the problem marriage of local lady Cecilia Morgan. The author also comments on the changing social atmosphere in short pieces about the Gannon Reading Room, the coming of the telegraph and how the railway opened Walberswick up to the outside world. The impact of newcomers is reflected in how they brought work to the area in the form of housebuilding and housekeeping, significant industries for local people during this time.

While the families described form a broad spectrum of social types, the author comments mainly on the incomers, and the impact that their more bohemian lifestyles had on the locality. There is somewhat less about the indigenous population and how they felt about the place becoming something of an artists’ commune instead of a quiet fishing village. None of the chapters has references, but there is a useful list of sources for each at the end of the book. Thus, it is more as an introduction the people concerned than as an academic work of reference, but it is none the worse for that. There is much of interest for local and social historians and for those undertaking research into the specific families mentioned in the text. It is well written in an engaging style.

Tony Redman FRICS IHBC is a professional historic buildings surveyor and amateur artist. He is a local history recorder in Suffolk, where he has lived for 50 years, and is a member of the council for the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History.

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By Bruce Munro

(SWHS Publications vol.6 2023 218pp ISBN 978-1-873669-21-1) £15

Saffron Walden has recently been named as ‘the best place to live in the east’ in The Sunday Times Best Places to Live Guide (quoted by the Saffron Walden Tourist Information Centre). Delightful as the town is, one would expect changes over time and not always for the better. Bruce Munro is well placed to recognise these changes. An Essex man, born in Thaxted, he has spent most of his life living and working in Saffron Walden as an auctioneer, valuer and surveyor, so knows the town and its inhabitants well. The book is in two parts. The first five chapters describe both change and continuity in the town from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century; the second is a more personal stroll round town, listing all the buildings and who resided in them during the 1950s.

As in many towns in the purlieu of London, the spatial area and the population of the town have expanded, but at Saffron Walden within manageable levels. New roads and council housing were added in the twentieth century, and in the twenty-first, emphasising a change in the town’s economy. Commercial premises and shops in the town centre have been converted into residential accommodation. Set within a rich agricultural hinterland of family farms, in the twentieth century Saffron Walden was the central market-place in the area for livestock, corn and poultry, and the book suggests that much of the town’s commercial, social, and political life was influenced by the agricultural activities of its surroundings. The changes in agriculture from family farms to large agri-business concerns helped to shape Saffron Walden today. The cattle market closed in 1981 and there is a poignant photograph showing farmers standing in the empty sale ring. The town’s calendar was no longer marked by the livestock market, and the fat stock show, and the 120 farmers who listened to R.A. Butler’s election speech in 1951 have gone.

In the 1950s the town was self-reliant, self-controlled and self-governing. Most of its population worked locally and ‘few travelled to the City’. A semi-detached house could be purchased for £1200 and a large house for £3000. Local government was in the hands of the borough council. It had its own railway link, albeit not to London. Today much of the population work outside the town, in Cambridge, Chelmsford or London. Gentrification has added to the price of houses, and the town is now part of Uttlesford District Council with the nearest railway link at Audley End, which does go to London, but only on stopping trains. Despite this, the town has not experienced, as other towns in the area have (for example Haverhill) the building of massive estates on its outskirts. However, in Munro’s opinion and in the opinion of ‘vast numbers of the town’s residents we are witnessing unbridled, unplanned residential expansion, changing as never before the character of this town’. This sweeping statement leads one to ask what type of accommodation is being built, for whom and at what cost for the purchaser? Is the residential expansion being matched by improved infrastructure, and how will an influx of newcomers change the town? However, the author notes that many fine houses remain and ‘All is not lost’.

The last eight chapters are a walk round the town. The chapters are in the present tense and address the reader personally as if accompanying the author on a walk around the town in the 1950s. Or so I thought. It is not the reader who is being shown round the town but an oral historian, and this is why on the back cover the book is called ‘unique oral history’. In places using the present tense is confusing to the reader as it is not clear if what is being described is in the 1950s or 2020s.

Each property, its residents and businesses are described, using information from Kelly’s Directories, and the author’s own memory. As it states, this is a very personal view of Saffron Walden, but it draws a detailed picture of life in the town in the 1950s. It would be worth comparing the occupants and occupations of the residents with those in the houses and businesses today. What stands out in the 1950s are the number of GPs with surgeries in their own houses, the rise of the motor car with the appearance of garages, a car showroom and eventually a public car park, the large number of retail outlets for food and drink, bakers, butchers and greengrocers, and services which have now disappeared such as gentlemen’s outfitters, bootmakers, and tobacconists. Perhaps the key to the changes in the number of outlets for food and drink was the opening in the town of a Waitrose store in 1986.

As the title suggests this really is One Man’s Saffron Walden, and reflects his interests in architecture, architects and builders, and his working life connected to the farms and farmers of the town’s hinterland. It will be of interest to those living in the town, visiting or thinking of moving there, and a future memorial for Saffron Walden as changes to the daily life of its residents continue.

Evelyn Lord is a former Reviews Editor of The Local Historian. She has published Investigating the Twentieth Century: Sources for Local Historians, and was co-editor of Shaping the Past: Theme, Time and Place in Local History – essays in honour of David Dymond.

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By Dianne Budden

(Hampshire Field Club & Archaeological Society, Hampshire Papers (series 2) no.10 2022 20pp ISBN 978-0-907-473244) £8+£3 p&p

This excellent A4 booklet gathers together much the available published information on the young Henry VIII’s re-establishment of the navy or ‘army by sea’ shortly after he came to the throne and ended the long period of peace (and a very well-provided treasury) overseen by his father. English warships had developed from the ‘cob’, a sturdy merchant ship suited for tidal and stormy waters, and sufficiently stable to take two ‘castles’, fore and aft, which was advantageous for the archers in the initial attack before the opposing vessels came alongside for hand-to-hand fighting. This tactic ended in catastrophe in August 1512 when a French and an English warship, grappled together, were both destroyed by a gunpowder explosion, with heavy loss of life and the destruction of both ships. Six months later, there was a humiliating defeat of English ships, and further significant loss of life, at the hands of French galleys which were largely dependent on oars for motive power. This led to a change in command of the English ‘army at sea’ and a major reorganisation.

Part of this reorganisation resulted in better provision for the health of the men on board, including tackling the all-too-often inadequate supplies of food and drink, as well as the appointment of surgeons to many (but not all) naval vessels. Surgeons had two official bodies, the very select Fellowship of Surgeons, and the Barbers’ Company whose membership embraced those who practiced surgery. Very little is known about these men, their training, or how they were selected to serve with the ‘army by sea’ apart from what can be gleaned from the surviving state records which list the ships, their names, and the pay of their crews. The last of these distinguishes ‘master surgeons’ from their assistants (the latter possibly serving their apprenticeship), although the salary of both was half of that of their colleagues serving in the shore army fighting the Scots. Ships’ surgeons seem to have served short terms of about six months, perhaps suggesting that they were pressed or were short-term volunteers, rather than making this their main career.

There is a clear implication that, apart from dealing with injuries, the surgeon had responsibility for the health of the crew—a perpetual problem in the crowded and insanitary confines of a Tudor warship where infections could spread with great speed among poorly nourished men working in wet and dangerous conditions. Such outbreaks seriously impaired the ship’s fighting ability, and also led to serious levels of desertion on returning to port. The author raises questions about the levels of literacy of ships’ surgeons, and whether they acquired their specialised skills through apprenticeships, from the few available (and doubtless costly) printed texts, or from conversations with colleagues in harbour taverns. Their ability to write can be roughly assessed by the signature or mark that they made on official records on collecting their wages and those of their assistants, but reading was a separate skill and not necessarily associated with the ability to write, so it is impossible to establish a clear picture of their literacy.

The author has been associated with the Mary Rose project at Portsmouth, and a surgeon’s chest is among the numerous artefacts retrieved from the raising that Henrician wreck. It would be interesting to know if this item provided any evidence of the herbs or drugs that he might have used, and whether his surgical instruments offered any clues about the range treatments administered to the injured.

Like much of the other research on the Mary Rose, this booklet is very much a work in progress. But the author has painted a vivid picture from the scant sources available, has set out very clearly what has been achieved so far, and has outlined possibilities for future research. The booklet includes a number of illustrations and tables, a glossary of technical terms, a useful bibliography and an index. This is a highly commendable publication.

Michael Leach is a retired GP, who started his career by training as an architect, and has a lifelong interest in local and medical history.

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By Greg Finch

(Hexham Local History Society 2022 vi+127pp ISBN 978-0-9565078-8-4) £15

W.G. Hoskins’ groundbreaking The Making of the English Landscape is purposely invoked in the title of this comprehensive new history of ‘The Shire’, as Hexhamshire is known locally. It is a history of a relatively small area, covering around 40 square miles, lying in south Northumberland about 20 miles east of Newcastle. The book follows a tried and tested format, offering a broad sweep of history from the ice age to the present day. Chapters cover geology and prehistory before moving on to the medieval and early modern periods. The chapter entitled ‘Tides of Medieval Change’ is particularly strong in its depth of research. The focus then shifts to industry and farming in an industrial age, before coverage of the twentieth century and finally some insightful thoughts on the nature of landscape preservation today. Reflecting on a landscape which has seen so much change, it raises valuable questions: which landscape and what history are we preserving today?

Like many local history projects, the book was triggered by a moment of genuine curiosity, specifically an eye-catching label on a modern OS map showing a ‘Medieval Village (site of)’. This took Greg Finch on a 20-year journey gathering material and researching what became this book. The density of the content from such a long research period could easily be overwhelming and difficult to present but the author has a very accessible and engaging writing style and handles the material extremely well. Special mention must be made of the generous and high-quality illustrations throughout. As well as historical maps and documents the author has gone to great efforts by creating his own diagrams and maps as well as excellent use of photography (including some aerial shots taken from a small plane!) For someone familiar with ‘The Shire’ only as a visitor they help give the work a real sense of place. This can often be a weakness in local history publishing, and I would recommend this book as an example of how it can be done well.

Undoubtedly the work will be a huge asset to the local community for generations to come but it also provides those not local to the area with an opportunity to compare elements of their own interests and research. I am also based on the edge lands between Pennine valley bottoms, though further south in Yorkshire. I was particularly interested to read about the independence of the Hexhamshire manorial copyholders. Their fierce defence of their property rights echoes very closely with my own research on the manor of Marsden in West Yorkshire. Congratulations to the Hexham Local History Society for publishing this work. It is never an easy task and the society and its committee should be warmly commended for doing so.

Stephen Miller is the Outreach Coordinator for the British Association for Local History, and a keen local historian himself. He completed his Masters in Local and Family History at Dundee University last year.

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