The Local Historian Volume 40, Number 2 May 2010

By Alan Crosby

In this issue I include all the responses received from readers commenting on the article by George and Yanina Sheeran, published in the November 2009 journal. It is perhaps to be expected that the majority of those who wrote were essentially opposed to the views expressed in that article, though few will disagree that the paper was both challenging and stimulating. Now we have not only some shorter replies, but also an article by Mark Smith, almost as long as the original and carefully analysing and weighing up the arguments put forward by the Sheerans. Mark presents a series of counterpoints, dissecting the analysis and sometimes accepting, sometimes rejecting, the conclusions which they reached.
 
It is important in local history, as in any other subject, that there is space in which ideas, philosophies and perspectives can be discussed and debated, and strength in the notion that the practical approaches to research and analysis—our methodologies—should be subject to scrutiny. Of course, there are so many questions. Why do we employ certain approaches but not others? Why do we take a particular perspective, or work from a certain starting point? Is there a ‘right’ and a ‘wrong’ way to tackle topics and themes within local history? Some local historians flatly reject any idea that the subject has a theoretical basis, and are adamant that it does not need one, because its strengths are purely empirical. Others are instinctively mistrustful of non-traditional perspectives. Still others want actively to reshape and transform our views, radically altering the way local history is practised.  
 
One point often made is that local historians are not a representative group. Should we be worried about the apparent demographical and social imbalance, whereby our age, ethnic and gender profile is not congruent with that of the population as a whole? Or should we simply accept that it is so and get on with it, not least because we derive personal satisfaction from what we do? Are we actually any less unrepresentative than, for example, those who like hillwalking, or go to concerts, or regularly attend football matches? Each of these may have a different profile, but is any of them any closer to matching the population in its entirety? And are academic local historians any different from the mainstream historians in this respect? Perhaps we need some comparative statistics, rather than relying on impressionistic perceptions.
 
The arguments about the November 2009 article will not end here. I expect that Mark Smith’s paper, and the varied and interesting replies from other contributors, will stimulate others to put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard. If you do have additional points to make, or would like to take issue with the subjects raised by the original article or the responses, please write to me with material for the August issue. As before, you may remain anonymous if you prefer. At some stage I may use the time-honoured editorial guillotine (‘This correspondence is now closed’) but that time has not yet come! 
 
 

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By Clive Field

In this article in our ‘Themes in local history’ series, Clive Field, one of the main authorities on nonconformist religion in Great Britain, introduces a major analysis which seeks to profile the people who, over the period from the seventeenth to the late twentieth centuries, formed the nonconformist congregations. The article is packed with statistics (there are twenty statistical tables, specially compiled for this paper, and many of them based on completely new calculations. There is also an extensive and very detailed set of notes and references, amounting to a comprehensive bibliography. Taken together, these confirm that this article is a major resource for the future.
 
An introductory section sets out some of the themes and issues which have attracted the attention of historians, and then discusses the sources which provide the evidence from which statistical analyses and conclusions can be drawn. The distinction between members, attenders and affiliates, and the implications of this division for presenting statistics, is explained. The article then tackles the three key divisions of gender (demonstrating changing patterns over the centuries), age and ethnicity (the last being important in the context of discussion as to whether ethnic minorities identify with nonconformity and, if so, which particular denominations). Using the very extensive statistical data, with very many local examples (especially from published case studies) this will provide an invaluable framework for anybody researching the local circumstances of religion in the past three hundred and fifty years. This is the first of a three-part series, which will also consider occupations and social status.
 

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By Margaret Bullock

The Women’s Land Army and its role in the Second World War have been the subject of growing interest among historians, including local historians, in recent decades. The WLA originated in the First World War, but was re-established on the eve of the outbreak of war in 1939 and played a vital role in maintaining the country’s agricultural sector during the conflict and the years immediately following.
 
In this article Margaret Bullock presents a case study based on her work in the Craven district of Yorkshire, including Skipton and the western dales. She begins with explaining her methodology and outlining some of the important published works on the subject. These, she indicates, are not entirely satisfactory, leaving important gaps to be filled at both local and national level. The records available are considered, but the main focus of the article is based on oral history interviews and written letters and questionnaires, which were sent to 38 surviving WLA members. A further section explains the important regional and local dimension, noting the structure of the organisation and the agricultural conditions in that part of Yorkshire.
 
The article then considers the evidence which the answers and interviews provided about a range of themes, looking at different aspects of the lives of those in the WLA in the Craven area. Topics covered include the recruitment process; hostels and social life; transport; tractors; tasks using the tractor; field work; and pay and hours of work. In each instance, the direct testimony of the participants forms the central element in the analysis. The article concludes with consideration of the verdict of the land girls on the work they did, and their perceptions of the job, especially in the context of work ‘in a man’s world’. The final paragraph notes that it was many years before formal official recognition was given to the WLA and its key wartime role. 
 

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By Michael Heery

Bonesetters were an important element in the rudimentary medical care available in the community in early modern England, roughly the period between 1550 and 1800. They are often mentioned in passing in secondary sources, and in a few instances have been the subject of more detailed research, but in general have been seriously neglected in comparison with other aspects of medical provision. Nevertheless, there are very numerous references in the primary sources, such as churchwardens’ and other parochial accounts.

Michael Heery seeks to redress this imbalance by considering the evidence for the existence of bonesetters, and the nature of the work which they undertook. Using a very wide variety of sources, with numerous local examples drawn from across the country, he begins by asking the simple question: ‘What did bonesetters do?’, emphasising the specialism of their craft and the differences between it and other forms of medical practice. The article then investigates the types of people, including women, who practised as bonesetters, and looks at their geographical distribution (with particular reference to any possible distinctions between town and country).

The central element of the article is a discussion of the relationship between bonesetting and poor relief, for much evidence is available in overseers’ accounts and other Poor Law sources. The relationship between bonesetters and other medical people, and with their clients, is considered. The final section asks another question: ‘A bonesetting profession?’, arguing that in key ways they were indeed a distinctive and professional body, albeit without fixed boundaries or qualifications. The article is a valuable and welcome addition to the literature on local medical care in pre-nineteenth century England.

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By Paul Jennings

This article is in our ‘Sources for local history’ series, and discusses the evidence available for one of the most important dimensions to local social history in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries – the inns and alehouses which were so fundamental to any community. Paul Jennings, an acknowledged expert on the history of the English pub, begins with an overview of the development of licensing in England and Wales between the medieval period and the early eighteenth century, paying particular attention to the licenses themselves. He then introduces the several eighteenth-century Acts which made far-reaching changes to the system, culminating in the great consolidating Act of 1828.

The next section describes the records which the local historian might expect to be available before considering licensing in practice, with many local examples from different parts of the country. The article is illustrated with images of some of the key records, and their meaning and implications are described. These include certificates of good character for new applicants; the licence issued by the magistrates; licenses to sell spirits and beer; alehouses recognizances; and the calendars or registers of licenses issued.

The latter part of the article is a detailed and highly informative discussion of the historical significance of licensing, and the detailed evidence which may be drawn from a study – local or regional - of the subject. The changing patterns and numbers of licenses over the century from the 1750s are indicated, together with the growing moral and social issues which were raised by contemporaries. The topics and themes identified include the character and identities of the licensees, the attitudes of magistrates, the differences between town and country, and the emergence of the tied house system. There is much in this article to inspire local historians to research their own areas.

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By Mark Smith

In the November 2009 issue of The Local Historian George and Yanina Sheeran published a challenging article which discussed the present state of local history and argued that local historians were not particularly representative of the demographic and social structure of the population; that they neglected key issues in social history, such as migration and ethnicity; and that they were unprepared to meet the challenges posed by government policy, financial constraints and changing perceptions of history itself.
 
In this article, answering their paper, Mark Smith of the University of Oxford adopts the approach of deconstructing the arguments which had been presented. In some instances he emphasises his agreement with the Sheerans’ propositions, but in others he deftly throws the arguments back by suggesting inconsistencies and contradictions, and teasingly pointing to the anomalies in the structure of the paper. This present article, by Smith, is itself a major contribution to the debate about the nature and purpose, and context and condition, of local history and those who practice the subject. It is a particularly fluent in its argument and often witty in its observation.
 
It is followed by a paper compiled from the responses sent in by various readers from around the country: ‘”No longer the 1948 show”: local history in the 21st century – readers reply, pp.157-163. A total of eight contributions of varying lengths are included, and should be read in conjunction with both the original paper (November 2009) and the article by Mark Smith.
 

By Heather Falvey

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By Roger Bellingham

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By Evelyn Lord

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By Melvyn Jones

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By Melvyn Jones

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By Sean ODell

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By Gillian Draper

SUSSEX CLERGY INVENTORIES, 1600-1750 ed. Annabelle Hughes (Sussex Record Society vol.91 2009 xlii+285pp ISBN 978 0 85445 073 2) £20 from SRS c/o West Sussex Record Office, County Hall, Chichester PO19 1RN
Most published collections of probate inventories comprise those of the inhabitants of a particular town or a group of parishes, but this collection is more unusual since it relates to a professional group—the clergy of Sussex. Although these men form a recognisable class they were not all of the same social status, ranging from poverty-stricken curates to genteel and prosperous rectors, and so arguably represent a cross-section of local society. However, whatever their wealth, given their calling and education, much more biographical information is available for them than for contemporary laymen, and this has been meticulously researched and added after each inventory, together with an abstract of any surviving will. The inventories are arranged alphabetically by parish and two maps demonstrate the spread of parishes represented, the collection being skewed towards the Chichester Archdeaconry because many early documents from the Lewes Archdeaconry were ‘cleared out’ at some time in the past. 
The inventories of clergy were selected because, unlike those of laymen, they shed light on book ownership, the majority including valuations and sometimes numbers of books, although none actually lists book titles. Two clergy inventories that do list books by title, but fall outside the volume’s time-frame, have been added in an appendix. Some of the will abstracts contain further information—and it is likely that some of the books bequeathed were not included in the subsequent valuation, often a rounded sum ranging from £2 to £100. Given that most appraisers were local laymen such valuations might be considered somewhat arbitrary; however, the inventory of Thomas Holland, vicar of Kirdford (no. 91), reveals that five days later his books were valued at £30 by three other named appraisers, indicating that these men at the least had more knowledge of such items.
 Like other published inventories, the 181 transcribed here provide varying degrees of information about changing consumption habits, local farming practices and contemporary buildings. The inventory of Thomas James of Walberton (no. 162) sheds light on valuation practices: featherbeds (mattresses) were valued according to their weight and thus valuations of apparently similar items might vary within the same document. Details in the inventories of clergy houses can sometimes be supplemented by information in various diocesan records but care needs to be taken since clergymen of the same parish did not necessarily inhabit the same house.
The introduction describes the provenance of the documents and explores the uses to which they can be put. Hearth tax returns are examined in relation to room numbers in some of the inventories, but the purpose of the two comparative bar charts is unclear as there is no explanation of the x-axis. There are two very helpful tables: the first, in date order, analyses the inventories by rooms and includes book valuations, total valuations and the presence of stock or crops; the second lists the inventories in numerical and therefore parish order. There is an index of people and places, but not of subjects. This will be a useful volume for local, family, social and ecclesiastical historians alike, not least because it complements the article on Berkshire clergymen’s books by Joan Dils (The Local Historian vol.36, 2006).

HEATHER FALVEY

Heather Falvey teaches palaeography and local history for the University of Cambridge Institute of Continuing Education, She is secretary of the Hertfordshire Record Society and has recently co-edited a volume of fifteenth-century wills for the Suffolk Records Society

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By Claire Cross

THE PASTOR OF FISH STREET: the journals of the Rev. George Lambert, Congregational minister ed. John Markham (East Yorkshire Local History Society no.57 2008 231pp ISBN -0-900349-57-3/ISBN-978-0-900349-57-7) no price stated
George Lambert (1742-1816) was pastor of the Congregational chapel in Fish Street, Hull from 1769 until his death in 1816. He started to keep a regular diary in 1780 and maintained it until shortly before his death. His journals consist of 12 octavo volumes which he described as ‘Soul memorials’, a narrative of his spiritual life. But he also mentions family incidents, events in Hull, national and international affairs, extreme weather conditions and details of travel. John Markham states that these form a substantial proportion of the extracts that he has selected for this edition, but he has also included extracts which portray the orderly routine of a dissenting minister, giving a picture of Lambert’s life and his role in the community.
There are two useful contemporary maps, extensive notes, and an index which appears to cover virtually all of the individuals referred to in the text, and some events and locations (though many seem not to be covered). For example, there is no reference to mob violence at elections; nor to the entry for 9 June 1786 mentioning a servant who went off with a sailor ‘who had lately sold his wife’; or to the one on 18 June 1806 referring to ‘a large lump of sugar which had for some time hung up in the kitchen’, which fell and nearly killed Lambert’s wife.
Several entries refer to Lambert’s travels (thus, 13½ hours in the diligence from Hull to Leeds, a distance of some 60 miles, in October 1788; ten hours from Hull to Lincoln and 28 hours from Lincoln to London in 1783, 140 miles). Surprisingly the references to Lambert’s family are somewhat confusing. No family tree is provided and many details are left in the air. One does not know whether this is because the journal is lacking or whether they have not been included in this edition. Entries in March and April 1785 refer to his eldest son, Samuel, departing for London but there is no indication of why he is going, and no footnote. Likewise, in January 1812 the journal records that ‘thro’ the badness of [Samuel’s] underwriting business his partnership in the house was dissolved, would be gazetted, and that he must be made bankrupt’. Again there is no footnote, though a search in the London Gazette would have revealed the names of his partners and the nature and location of his business. Nevertheless, this edition of the journals will be invaluable to anyone researching the history of Hull, and will be useful to a much wider audience. The skill and ability of John Markham are well shown in this excellent publication.
ROGER BELLINGHAM
 

Roger Bellingham was a partner in an East Yorkshire firm of solicitors for many years, but then decided to pursue his longstanding historical interests, After taking a degree in Regional and Local History at Hull University has was awarded a PhD by Leicester University.

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By Ruth Newman

A LOST FRONTIER REVEALED Regional separation in the East Midlands by Alan Fox (University of Hertfordshire Press: Studies in Regional and Local History 7 2009 210pp ISBN 1 902806 97 6) £18.99
As one of his students who was present when Charles Phythian-Adams was formulating the concepts of cultural provinces and regional societies, I am extremely pleased to receive a monograph that tests those hypotheses in detail. The proposition is that regional societies coincided with major drainage basins, so that a watershed often created a frontier between two regions. A complex set of criteria shape those regions, so ideally economic and geographical factors, and the major towns and ports of an area, should be considered. This book is concerned with the Rivers Trent and Witham and the frontier these define, which coincides with the boundary between Leicestershire and Lincolnshire.
Fox starts with a lucid commentary on Phythian-Adams’s hypothesis, relating it to his own work. The ‘test area’, a large part of north-east Leicestershire and south-west Kesteven in Lincolnshire, from Melton Mowbray in the west to Grantham in the east, is described and placed in its historical and geographical context. Of special importance in relation to testing the Phythian-Adams hypothesis is that the high ground along the border of Leicestershire and Lincolnshire produces a major watershed where the Trent and its tributary the Soar in the west are separated from the Witham in east, suggesting that if the hypothesis is correct distinctive regional societies should be defined by these watersheds. Fox divides the area into seven ‘landscapes’ based on geology and geomorphology, with the county boundary running across heathland.
Part of the hypothesis is that the central areas will be densely populated, the frontier zone less so. The demographic discussion of the ‘test area’ concentrates on the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries, with marriage horizons as one of the parameters in identifying regional societies. However, as these societies originated much earlier and what occurred in the early modern period may have been based on much earlier foundations, perhaps some attention could have been paid to population patterns in Domesday, or the 1381 poll tax returns. The 1676 Compton Census shows that Melton Mowbray and Grantham were the main centres of population, while calculations of population between 1563 to 1811 show that the Vale of Belvoir and the Wreake Valley were consistently sparsely populated—the maps in this section suggest that these areas were actually frontier zones for regions other than those being examined here. Some of the demographic tables are confusing, especially when dealing with change over time but, as the author suggests, there is no easy explanation for these demographic trends. The enclosure of open fields may have been one factor in determining population: although even in 1811 some 26 per cent of the area was being farmed as open fields, much of the enclosure was early, and Fox suggests that early enclosure led to migration from the test area.
A comparison of the levels of poverty shows that 36.6 per cent of households were exempt from paying the 1676 hearth tax, and 3.2 per cent were on permanent poor relief in 1803. However, there are problems in using the hearth tax as an economic indicator, so the former figure may be merely a statistical artefact. The figures concerning poverty are related to the extent of open fields: in 1676 30.8 per cent of exempt households were in open field areas and 36.1 per cent in enclosed areas, and the figures were similar in 1803. The percentage of houses with more than two hearths is used as an indication of wealth, but this is a questionable indicator and without evidence of national trends or comparative data from other regions these figures do not tell us much about the relative severity of poverty. Fox shows that the local economy was mostly agricultural, partly labour-intensive arable but also with sheep on the heaths.
Chapter 5 concerns the crux of Phythian-Adams’s hypothesis, that within regional societies are cultural provinces. Every county claims to have its own unique corpus of customs and folk tales, but when these are examined parallel are often found elsewhere (for example the St Valentine’s Day customs in Lincolnshire are mirrored in Norfolk). Furthermore, any calendrical customs of an area are likely to be associated with its agriculture, and bear similarity to those of comparable farming areas. Vernacular architecture, another cultural marker used by Fox, was related to the available building materials. The author eventually admits that such evidence is not persuasive. Dialect, however, does have specific regions, even words specific to different villages within the region. This is surely a better cultural marker, and Fox confirms that in his discussion.
Part 3 concerns the mechanics of segregation, asking how the frontier worked on the ground and whether evidence of individual spatial identification can be seen in the sources. Family reconstitution and marriage horizons illustrate this section in great detail, with the addition of probate material and migration patterns. These show that there was a reluctance to cross the ‘frontier’ to find a marriage partner, and the picture is of an inward looking and fairly static population before 1830, with some ‘dynastic families’ present in villages for several generations, often inter-marrying with similar families in the home parish or across several parishes. The last section deals with the communications network. Analysis of carriers’ networks is used to estimate the influence of the two major towns in the area. A final distinction made between Leicestershire and Lincolnshire concerns the timing of hiring fairs, which may have restrained cross-border migration. In conclusion, Fox suggests that a good case can be made for a frontier between the societies in Lincolnshire and Leicestershire in the eighteenth century, originating much earlier but breaking down to some extent with the coming of the railways.
I found this book exciting and stimulating. As a test of the Phythian-Adams hypothesis it is ground-breaking in its detail, and it made me reconsider the whole question of local identity, how it can be tested, and what spatial areas should be chosen. It also raises specific questions. How did change over time impinge on regional societies? Are marriage horizons a satisfactory way to test for evidence? Would it be better to start with the communications network instead? Finally, something that has always troubled me: how to choose a ‘test area’? In defining such an area, and looking at pays or landscapes, is there an element of predetermination. Is choosing a ‘test area’ in reality as restrictive as looking at a single parish? I favour a more global approach. In reading this book I wanted to know what was happening outside the area, and how other areas related to it. For example, what was the impact or influence of the townships west of Melton Mowbray, such as Sileby, Syston or the Charnwood Forest, where there was early industrialisation? And was there really a conscious frontier between the two counties, or is this merely an administrative boundary? 
The fact that this book raises questions shows its value. It is written in a clear style, mostly avoids the use of jargon, and is accessible to all local historians. Fox is to be congratulated, and I recommend the book to anyone interested in local history, local societies and how these interact.
EVELYN LORD
 
Evelyn Lord is the reviews editor of The Local Historian and course directory of the MSt in Local and Regional History at the University of Cambridge
 

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By Alan Crosby

YORKSHIRE LANDSCAPES PAST AND PRESENT edited Margaret Atherden and Tim Milsom (PLACE 2008 87pp ISBN 978-0-9553424-0-0) £14.99+£1.50 p&p from PLACE Education & Research Centre, York St John University, Lord Mayor’s Walk, York YO31 7EX
This collection of eight essays is based on papers presented at a conference organised by the PLACE (People, Landscape and Cultural Environment) Education and Research Centre and the Society for Landscape Studies in York in 2004. The volume is dedicated to the memory of Dr Mary Higham, a speaker at the conference who died the following year. The conference was concerned with landscapes past and present in the historic county of Yorkshire, although the papers in this collection deal mainly with North Yorkshire. There is little on the East Riding, and nothing at all on industrial West Yorkshire or South Yorkshire. Having said that, the papers range widely over the subject of landscape history.
Robin Butlin has contributed a fascinating study on the ways in which North Yorkshire landscapes have been portrayed in the past by artists and cartographers. George Peterken, formerly with English Nature (now Natural England) has written a technical study on forest restoration and management in the North York Moors and Howardian Hills and, also on the woodland theme, Ian Dormor deals with historic woodland management in the Yorkshire Dales. In complete contrast to these, Stephen Moorhouse turns to a methodological theme and looks at interdisciplinary approaches to understanding past landscapes, using examples from North, West and East Yorkshire. Robert Wright’s study of the estates and granges of the Cistercian abbey of Kirkstall finds, inter alia, that the abbey’s relations with its neighbours and tenants were amicable, though some earlier writers had portrayed the Cistercians as unscrupulous land-grabbers. Jane Wheeler analyses the environmental impact of iron-working on the woodlands in parts of the North York Moors between c. 1132-1647, using a combination of pollen analysis, magnetic susceptibility (a technique used to ascertain pollution levels in the past from iron-smelting), excavation, and the analysis of charcoal found at excavated sites to ascertain the tree composition of the trees used. A paper by Andy Howard, Mark Whyman, Keith Challis and Kay McManus summarises recent work on the geomorphological and archaeological landscape of the Vale of York, and a study by a team of six researchers led by W.A. Mitchell of the Department of Geography at Durham University concerns landscape evolution in the Swale-Ure Washlands.
There is plenty here to interest local historians with a particular interest in landscape history. The case studies are full of fascinating insights and the methodologies used are wide-ranging. The volume is in a large format and is extremely well illustrated, and it is such a pleasure to read a volume dealing with landscape history in which every paper is accompanied by crisply drawn, legible maps.
MELVYN JONES
Melvyn Jones is Visiting Professor in landscape history at Sheffield Hallam University. His recent publications includeSheffield’s Woodland Heritage first published in 1989, 4th edition 2009) which was used as the basis of a successful £1.5m HLF bid to restore 35 South Yorkshire ancient woodlands, Historic Parks and Gardens in and around South Yorkshire (with Joan Jones, 2005) and Sheffield: a Photographic Journey through Yorkshire’s Greenest City(with Sheena Woodhead, 2009).
 

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