The Local Historian Volume 11 Number 6 May 1975

By E.D. Mackerness

It is suggested that regional musical traditions have been comparatively ignored in historical research on music history. The article reviews some of the major themes in this area of research, including liturgical music and local case-studies such as those for Sarum/Salisbury and Newark-upon-Trent. There is a discussion of the role and character of music in parish churches and the significance of sources such as diaries and parish records, and there is separate attention to the place of music in the 19th century religious revival. The article then turns to secular music, suggesting that medieval sources are 'profuse but occasionally scrappy' and noting the value of municipal records in giving information about minstrels and waits. The role of music in pleasure gardens, the history of choral music and choral events, the relationship between musical scholarship and performance and other forms of middle-class intellectual activity, and the rise of music festivals, are all noted. Finally there are brief references to brass bands. 'Folk' music and working-class musical traditions are not covered. The article includes many references to published works which deal with the topics considered.

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By Peter Lucas

In the ninth article in the 'Sources for Urban History' series Lucas considers the role which local newspapers played in championing their particular town during the 19th century, arguing that they did not merely publish news but also promoted a range of values and qualities which were attributed to the town itself. He uses the example of the post-1840s boom town of Barrow-in-Furness, giving a brief resume of the history of the town and then discussing its newspapers and their proprietors. The article includes an assessment of the text of articles published during the early 1870s, demonstrating how a range of highly emotive and confident key words such as 'progress', 'rapid', 'unique' and 'increasing' were in constant use - in one 1872 leader over 40 different 'boastful' words are noted, conveying a powerful and positive message. A bitter rivalry with another upstart, Middlesbrough, is identified, and there are quotations from that town's newspapers to reinforce the point that objectivity was not to be expected in such publications.

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By D.E. Roberts

The tenth in the series 'Sources for urban history', this article reviews the introduction of street-lighting in Nottingham in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, beginning with a detailed discussion of the enabling local Acts of Parliament and the very great uncertainty which in the past has surrounded this evidence (and in particular, over the date of the first Act, said to be 1761. Similar confusion surrounds the date of the introduction of gas-lighting, and the article recounts the conflicting evidence for the precise date in April 1819 on which the lamps were first lit. The controversies referred to in the title therefore relate not to disputes at the time, but rather to detailed differences of opinion and interpretation between individual local historians 150-200 years later.

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By P.J. Phelps, Magdalen Jones and G.E. Jones

Brief account of the approach to local history teaching adopted at the college of education in Swansea, and the experience of new courses which were introduced following a major revision of the curriculum. The article discusses the problems which were encountered, including lack of research experience; the choice as to whether a dissertation should be part of the assessment; the creation of a course on the background to local history; the implications of the study of local history for schools and colleges; the approach to teaching these courses; the selection of topics; and the initial results which were indicative of success.

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By Ray Hall

The census data which are available in the published summary volumes for 1801-1831 give only basic information about occupation and employment structures and the categories are very broad. Hall suggests that the post-1812 parish registers, which used standardised pre-printed books and included the occupation of the father in a baptism, represent an important substitute for census information in the period 1812-1841. There are certainly problems with using them - notably, that the sample of men identified is indeterminate, men with several children have several entries, childless men and men whose children were not baptised at the parish church are excluded, and certain occupations may be over-represented. Nevertheless, they are a very valuable source and aggregation of totals over longer time periods and investigation of groups of parishes may help to overcome some of these weaknesses. The article discusses the example of the Peak District of Derbyshire, noting how the general categories of the census conceal a very great diversity of occupations and specialised crafts. Comparisons are made between the results derived from the registers and those given in the census.

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By Peter J. Aspinall

The eleventh in the series 'Sources for urban history', this article discusses the fire insurance plans which were published by Charles E. Goad Ltd. in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It notes briefly the background to the preparation of the plans (which began in 1885) and then explains the arrangement and content of the plans, which by 1896 comprised 73 massive volumes of plans of the 37 largest towns and cities in the British Isles. The plans were extremely clear, accurate and detailed, at very large scales (40 feet to one-inch except in the most congested and densely-developed areas), and they included an exceptionally large range of alphabetical symbols to denote the use of individual buildings. Wall-types, windows, number of storeys and roof-types are denoted. House numbers and a range of other identifying characteristics are included. Materials of which each structure is built are indicated by different colourings. There is a discussion of the potential use of this material for the local historian, and the article includes an appendix listing the plans for each town held by the British Museum [now British Library].