The Local Historian Volume 11 Number 3 August 1974

By Margaret Sanderson

The first article in an occasional series, 'Sources for Scottish Local History', this is a resume of the contents of the Scottish Record Office [1975 - now called National Archives of Scotland]. The holdings may be divided into four main categories: i) records of central government including those dating from before the Act of Union in 1707 and those created since the establishment of the Scottish Office in 1885, as well as specifically Scottish records of other sorts post-1707; ii) archives of local authorities, local bodies and, for example, courts; iii) family and estate archives and those of individuals, business and industrial and commercial concerns; and iv) the Register House series of charters, deeds, rentals, miscellaneous court records, plans and maps. The article discusses these holdings in relation to urban history; rural history; central government's impact on Scottish social, economic and cultural themes; local administration; industrial history; family history and property ownership. There is a summary checklist of the main categories of material as it is arranged in the Scottish Record Office.

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By J.H. Bettey and D.S. Wilde

The first significant article in The Local Historian which refers to the use of the computer, this contribution focuses on the methodology employed for a research project into Dorset probate inventories 1573-1670. There is a detailed description of the procedures by which the data was transferred to computer and of the practicalities involved. The preliminary findings of the project are explained in a subsequent article [12 05 228-234]. This present article, which describes the process of preparing punched cards, is now of considerable historical interest in its own right.

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By Pamela Horn

In the third of the series 'Sources for agricultural history', the background to the rise of agricultural trade unionism in the 1870s is considered. National circumstances, which included the liberalising 1871 Trade Union Act, fast rising food and fuel prices, and the success of industrial action in various other trades, are described, and the problems specific to agriculture are also noted. Despite the title, there is very little in the article that is specifically about sources, although some are mentioned in passing. Instead, the greater part is devoted to a detailed account of the major dispute between Sir Thomas Fremantle, lord of the manor and chief landowner in Swanbourne, Buckinghamshire, and his labourers in 1873. There is extensive quotation from correspondence and the role of trade unionism in the dispute is emphasised.

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By John Porter

The growth of dispersed patterns of rural settlement is a subject of considerable interest, and the article argues that the phenomenon of encroachment (or squatting) has distinctive and important characteristics. Porter discusses the basic characteristics of such settlement, including the social and economic contexts within which it operated. There is consideration of examples such as disafforestation of upland areas in northern England and the Midlands, particularly in the 16th and 17th centuries. Ways of identifying such settlement are explained, including manorial records and field-names, but it is noted that many encroachments escaped official notice and were never recorded, while others were ephemeral over the longer-term. The landscape impact of squatting and encroachment, in the form of irregularity of settlement patterns, peripheral or marginal locations, and indeterminate road and track networks, is highlighted, and while present landscapes may retain these features it is suggested that the tithe maps and enclosure maps and plans may give a clearer picture. There is a detailed and informative case-study of the manor of Slaidburn in the West Riding which identifies the physical and documentary evidence for the process, using manorial records, the records of the duchy of Lancaster and place-name evidence.

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By K.M. Spencer

The fourth in the series 'Sources for industrial history', this article suggests that census enumeration schedules are a particularly valuable source for students of urban history and that the 1851 census in particular gives unprecedented amounts of detailed information. The article is based on research undertaken on Preston, Lancashire in the 1851 census, but begins with a brief note on the pre-1841 censuses for which detailed returns rarely survive, and on the more limited 1841 census. The information categories in the 1851 census are listed and the content of the introductory pages for each enumeration district is discussed. The methodology adopted for the Preston exercise is described in some detail, emphasising the specific questions for which answers were sought (such as details of the Irish-born population). The methods and results are then evaluated and there is coverage of the problems which were identified during the exercise, including deficiencies of the returns themselves. A general review of population statistics, occupational data, the importance of non-employed individuals and the different categories into which such people fell, and the often considerable divergence between the statistics from printed census volumes and those derived from analysis of the manuscript returns are all considered.

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By H.G. Morgan

Informal article which recounts the author's views on historical research based on his experience of investigating the history of Dawlish, Devon. He discusses the following main 'words of wisdom' and then queries their worth: i) before tackling original documents, read what others have written on the subject (do not necessarily believe what they say); ii) look at the name of the place as a clue to its early history (it may give no help at all); iii) consider the boundaries of the parish in terms of natural resources (they are more likely to be political or based on landholdings); iv) the tithe records will give a picture of the parish that has changed little since Norman times (in the case of Dawlish, completely untrue); and v) always give full documentation for your facts (the article has no references).