Newsletter Autumn 2012 - Friends of Gloucestershire Archives

GLOSSARY
The Newsletter of the Friends of Gloucestershire Archives
Autumn 2012
Chairman:
James Hodsdon, 49 Pittville Crescent Lane,
Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, GL52 2RA
Secretary:
Michael Swanwick
Treasurer:
Stephen Haygarth
Membership Secretary: Hilary Haygarth, 27 Arden Road, Cheltenham, GL53
0HG. Email: membership@foga.org.uk
Liaison Secretary:
Maureen Anderson
Programme Secretary: Fiona Mead
County Archivist:
Heather Forbes
G.A. Representative:
Claire Ramsay
Newsletter/Web Editor: Liz Jack, 11 Old Cheltenham Road, Longlevens,
Gloucester, GL2 0AS. Email: editor@foga.org.uk
Committee members can also be contacted via Gloucestershire Archives
or through the FoGA website:
www.foga.org.uk.
We have accepted an invitation from Gloucester Rugby for the project to
contribute a double page spread for inclusion in the programme for each home
match this season. We have so far had articles published in the programmes
for the Northampton and Wasps matches, featuring the history between
Gloucester and those clubs.
A group of Friends listen to Rosalie Dawes as she describes the different
sections of the wonderful, double-moated medieval manor house that is
Birtsmorton Court. If you didn’t manage to join us there in September, you
missed a real treat!
Photograph by Geoff North.
We have agreed a new sponsorship arrangement with Ecclesiastical Insurance,
whereby they will continue to support the project to the tune of £5,000 a year
for the next two years. Malc King
The Cheltenham Synagogue was built in 1839, to house the congregation of
the Jewish community which was founded some 16 years earlier. A group of
Friends gathered at Synagogue in August to learn about the building, its rituals
and its congregation. I arrived a few minutes late to discover that the Friends
had already been separated into two groups, with men on one side of the room
and women on the other; men and women are traditionally seated separately
in synagogues and, indeed, there was a special Ladies Gallery above, though
we did not use it.
In the centre of the room was the Bimah, a raised platform from which the
services are conducted. The rest of the furniture came from the New Synagogue
in the City of London and is the oldest Ashkenazi Synagogue furniture in the
United Kingdom. Prayer panels, including one displaying the ten
commandments, were hung on the walls. Unlike English, Hebrew is written
from right to left in horizontal lines. At the front of the room, kept in a the
Ark, behind a parochet, or
curtain, were the sacred Jewish
scrolls, the Torah.
Miriam Webber, a last minute
replacement for her husband,
Michael, who was unwell, told us
the history of the congregation
and about the Jewish form of
worship. A variety of ritual
objects that are to be found in the
synagogue were shown to us and
their purpose was explained.
The Cheltenham Synagogue has
one of the oldest Jewish
cemeteries still in use in the
country, established in 1824 and
located in Elm Street, off the
Tewkesbury Road.
By Terry Moore-Scott
Local historians are often called upon by friends and acquaintances to help
throw light on some object or document which the owners are unable to
explain. Recently I was shown a small printed booklet dating from towards
the end of the 19th century, which had been in the owner’s family for a number
of generations, but no-one now knew what the background to it was and why
it had been preserved by the family for so long.
The booklet, when closed, is not much larger than a playing card and consists
of at least 22 pages. It is enclosed within a mauve-coloured paper cover which
has been crudely hand stitched around the booklet (see Fig. 1). The text bears
the title “A Voice from The Condemned Cell” and at its conclusion are the
initials ‘J.N.’, presumably those of the author. Near the head of the first page
(and repeated on the inside of the cover) is a hand-written signature which
seems to read “Lydia S. Vole”; her identity and that of J. N. remain unknown.
The text of the booklet is an
undisguised religious homily
containing frequent Biblical
quotations. Its main purpose
is to highlight the tragic
circumstances of three persons
executed together on the
gallows of Gloucester Prison
on a single day, the 12th
January 1874, and to offer
thoughts on the spiritual
lessons to be learned from
their experiences. The names
of the three are not given but
it observes that all three had
surnames beginning with the letter ‘B’, and that they committed their
murderous crimes on the same day, 17 August 1873. The first is described as
a young man of 22, seemingly local to Gloucester, who in a fit of jealousy had
shot dead a young woman. The other two, both from Bristol, were a man of
33 condemned for poisoning an illegitimate child, and his accomplice, a
“hard-working woman of no great amount of mental power”. Other persons
are mentioned but only by the first initials of their surnames. The tone of the
text is one of regret for the sins of these persons for whom the hopes of many
for a penal sentence rather than hanging had not materialised. Some attention
is given especially to the Gloucester man whose crime had been perpetrated
out of passion and not malice.
This veiled glimpse into a triple hanging in Gloucester Prison, the
circumstances surrounding it and why this document should be held as
something special in my friend’s family for so long was just too tantalising not
to investigate further - obviously a visit to the Gloucestershire Archives was
called for! The first port of call at the Gloucestershire Archives was the
‘Register of Prisoners for Trial at Gloucester Assizes, 1871-1877’ (1) which
contains details of every prisoner held for trial in Gloucester Prison at the time;
it provides full names, home parishes, occupations, identification features,
crimes charged and (where appropriate) sentences handed down. A brief search
soon revealed the identities of our three criminals. An entry for the 22nd August
1873 is for a Charles Edward Butt, a farmer of Arlingham, charged and found
guilty of the murder of Amelia Selina Phipps at Arlingham on 17th August
1873. The accused, whose mother was Ellen Butt, was described as a single
native of Quedgley, previously of good character..(2) Butt was condemned to
death and the sentence was discharged on 12th January 1874. Later entries in
the Register against 3rd October 1873 were for an Edwin Bailey, shopkeeper
of Bristol, accused of ‘feloniously killing and murdering’ Sarah Jenkins on
17th August 1873, and an Anne Barry of Bristol, a charwoman, accused of
aiding and abetting Bailey. Both were found guilty of murder and condemned
to death, the sentence being carried out, also, on 12th January 1874. According
to a newspaper article of the time (3) all three were interred within the prison.
A book containing an account of Edward Butt’s crime, his apprehension,
imprisonment and execution has recently been published (4) and a semi-official
report is contained in an HM Prison Services publication issued in the 1980s,
a copy of which is held in the Archives (5). Drawing briefly from these sources,
one learns that Butt, a respectable young man from Church Farm, Arlingham
had been sweet on a young lady Amelia Phipps, also of Arlingham but whose
parents lived in Paganhill. Amelia seemed to like Butt well enough but he was
jealous of her associating with other men. At a gathering of friends at West
End Farm in Arlingham on 17th August 1873, Butt took unkindly to Miss
Phipps’ refusal to accompany him to the Gloucester Cheese Fair the next day.
Greatly exasperated, he ran back to Church Farm, obtained a gun and, on
returning to West End, shot the lady dead. He promptly fled towards the River
Severn and it was commonly assumed that he had drowned in the river. He
was however eventually tracked down and apprehended at an address in
Abergavenny. At a hearing in December 1873, he was found guilty of murder
and the death sentence passed. This was carried out a month later despite a
petition of over 8,000 signatures being sent to the Home Secretary seeking
mitigation on the grounds that his crime was committed “under uncontrollable
impulse of sexual insanity”. Amelia was buried on 23rd August 1873 at
Whiteshill Church near Paganhill.
The sordid circumstances of the crime committed by Bailey and Barry are also
fully reported on (in ref 4). Bailey, a married
man, was accused of arranging the murder of a
young child, Sarah Jenkins, believed to be his
illegitimate daughter. An order had been made
requiring him to pay 5s. a week maintenance
towards the child. Wishing to rid himself of the
expense, Bailey offered to pay one of his
employees, Anne Barry, to make the
acquaintance of the deceased girl’s mother and
grandmother and to show interest in the child.
A few days before the 17th August 1873, the
child becoming unwell (possibly with a teething
ailment), Barry recommended to the
grandmother that she gave the child a medicinal
product
called
‘Steedman’s
Soothing
Powder’,which was popular at the time for Fig.2. Advert for Steedman’s
treating childhood ailments. Barry offered to
Powders (1895).
(www.historyworld.co.uk)
arrange for the powders to be sent by post as
though from a charitable society she knew of,
but thereupon told the child’s family that she
would be moving away. A package duly arrived by post and the mother of the
child, in good faith, gave one of the powders to the child who within 10 minutes
was dead. The symptoms suggested strychnine poisoning and analysis of the
remaining two powders confirmed that they contained strychnine. In deciding
on guilty verdicts for both Bailey and Barry, the jury recommended that they
be shown some mercy, but this was not to be.
Despite the popular pressure for leniency of sentencing, in all three cases, the
judges proved to be adamant that the death sentence should be carried out. A
particularly poignant aspect to the case of Edward Butt of Arlingham is
provided by yet another source in the Gloucestershire Archives (6). This is a
cutting extracted from an undisclosed newspaper; also, it is undated but appears
to come from the latter part of the 19th century. The article is entitled ‘The
Arlingham Murder’ and some of its contents are worth quoting verbatim:
The Arlingham Murder. The following letter was written by Butt three days before
his execution to the father of the girl murdered and it is published by request of his
relatives – Dear Mr Phipps. You will, I dare say, think it strange that I should take the
liberty of writing to you after the very, very sad occurrence of which, I am sorry to
say, I am the cause, and for which I am about to suffer. But, dear Mr Phipps, after
what I have lately heard, I cannot but think that you were kept from knowing the
position which I and your late deeply-lamented daughter, Amelia, stood; for I can
assure you I and Amelia were towards one another just as man and wife. It grieves me
to the heart to have to tell you this, but you will, I know, believe the statement of a
person in my position; and I sincerely beg forgiveness, as I hope to be forgiven in the
world where I hope, by the blessing of God, to meet her once more; and I trust that
this lamentable occurrence may in no wise embitter you against my poor, poor mother
and family. Let me, and me alone, pay the penalty of my sin; and I hope, by the
blessing of God, that it will be a warning to many others, that may be leading one
another astray in the like manner, and may they with God’s help, all take a lesson from
it that will give them strength to overcome all such temptations. I have nothing more
to say now, but to ask your forgiveness, as I Hope to be forgiven; and may God, in
His great goodness, give you and all your family peace in this sad trial, and ever bless
and keep you all, is the earnest prayer of Edward Butt.
The article continues by outlining the attempts made by various highly-placed
persons to secure a reprieve for Butt. A Mr Chas. Holmes of Paganhill (where
Amelia’s parents lived) had written to The Queen at Osborne House
unsuccessfully seeking her influence in granting a reprieve. A Lord
Fitzhardinge is also recorded as having taken up the case directly with the
Prince of Wales – again to no avail. (7)
Public sentiment in England about capital punishment had been building up
during the 19th century. Once the penalty for a wide range of (often relatively
trivial) offences, the death penalty was by then being applied only for the two
crimes of murder and treason. Executions were regularly carried out in public
but under the Capital Punishment Amendment Act of 1868 they were required
to take place in privacy within prison walls. The case for abolition though
was not deemed to be overwhelming and capital punishment continued well
into the 20th century. The last execution by hanging in the United Kingdom
was in 1964 and capital punishment was not entirely abolished in the country
until 1968 (1973 in Northern Ireland).
With this background, it seems that the triple hanging in Gloucester Prison in
Jan. 1874 had a profound effect on public feeling, not just around Gloucester
but around the country. The occurrence featured in several prominent news
publications, including the Pall Mall Gazette (5th January 1874), Manchester
Times (17th January 1874), Birmingham Post (13th January 1874), Berrow’s
Worcester Journal (10th January 1874) and Jackson’s Oxford Journal (10th
January 1874). In particular, the Gloucester Journal of 17th January 1874
carried a lengthy editorial on the subject of capital punishment noting that ‘the
citizens of Gloucester will shortly have the whole subject brought to their
consideration at a public meeting and be invited to partake in a petition to the
Legislature for abolition’. It continued by pointing to the conflicting concerns
surrounding prevention versus retribution, humanitarian principles versus
cold-blooded cruelty and the distinction between premeditated murder and
those carried out as an ‘act of moral insanity’. Whilst the cases of all three
victims at Gloucester Prison were a cause for concern, in most commentaries
the plight of Edward Butt of Arlingham stood out as deserving sympathy –
much as the little booklet that sparked off this investigation also expressed.
The question still remained, however, as to why this small keepsake should
have been kept in my Misterworth friend’s family for so long. The answer
began to emerge when I was told that it had probably passed down from the
Stephens family, my friend’s uncle having been a Mr John Clifford Stephens
of Oakle House in nearby Churcham parish. According to the 1911 national
census, Mr Stephens at that address was a coal, corn and fruit merchant, 62
years old and married. The same source gave his wife as Clara Louisa, aged
58 and born in Quedgeley. The Arlingham marriage records (6) then revealed
that on 20th April 1876, John Clifford Stephens, aged 28 and described as a
‘traveller of Minsterworth’, married a Clara Louisa Butt, aged 24, of
Arlingham. The said Clara was clearly the young maiden sister of Edward
Butt, as recorded in the Arlingham census of 1871. She died around 1916,
aged approximately 63, and must have kept the little booklet as a keepsake
from what must have been a highly traumatic time for her family.
Fig.3. Photograph of Mrs Clara
Louisa Stephens (in the wheelchair)
taken at Oakle House in the early
1900s. The lady accompanying her
could well be Anne Elizabeth
Stephens, described in the 1901
census as the third member of the
Stephens household, aged 43 and a
single lady. Her occupation is given
as ‘general servant’. (Photograph
courtesy of the Minsterworth
Community History Project).
In June Gloucestershire Archives heard that a London-based dealer was selling
an intriguing item included in a volume relating to Gloucester during the Civil
War. Bound with three relatively rare printed pamphlets of the period (John
Corbet’s account of the military government of Gloucester published in 1645,
a description of the discovery by Captain Backhouse of a plot to betray the city
to the Cavaliers in 1644, and ‘Gloucester's Triumph at the Solemn Proclamation
of King Charles the Second ..’ 1660) was a little gem – a contemporary
manuscript plan showing the proposed defences of the City.
Local archaeologist and Civil War expert Malcolm Watkins considers the plan
to be “potentially one of the most important discoveries to have emerged
regarding the city and its topography in the period of the Civil War... It provides
exact locations for structures and features and even clarifies anomalies such
as the distortion of the ditches at the South Gate”. The author is as yet
unknown, but it is hoped further research will bring more information to light.
References :
1. G.A. ref. Q/Gc 6/6.
2. The 1871 census for Arlingham records an Ellen Butt of Church Farm who
is described as a 43 year old widow responsible for farming 257 acres of land.
At that time there were also her 10 children living at the farm. The eldest two
were son Charles aged 19 (born at Quedgely) and daughter Clara aged 18).
3. Birmingham Daily Post, 13th January 1874.
4. Evans, Jill; Hanged at Gloucester; The History Press (2011).
5. White, Bryan; The Murderers of Gloucestershire: Hangings in Gloucester
Prison (and others), 1872-1939; GA ref. JR9.6216/224/5.
6. G.A. ref. D/2685/37.
7. This will be Francis Fitzhardinge, 2nd baronet, of Berkeley Castle (18261869). His family enjoyed close links with the Monarchy and often received
members of the Royal Family as guests at the castle. Edward VII, when Prince
of Wales, stayed at the castle for several days in c.1868 and the Prince was
there again in 1873. Tandy D; Berkeley: A Town in the Marshes (2003), p.227;
also the Times Digital Archive 1785-2006 (via Gloucestershire Libraries
on-line).
The purchase was made thanks to generous donations from FoGA (£1,000),
The Sealed Knot (£1,500) and GADARG (£50) as well as a grant from The
Friends of the National Libraries (£1,450)
Friends of Gloucestershire Archives
Winter Programme
Talks: FoGA member £1, non-members £2.
Thursday 1st November, 2pm In the Frith Rooms
The Madcap Adventures of a Gloucester Boatman.
A talk by Dr John Chandler.
John Taylor (1578-1653), 'the water poet', is remembered - if at all - as a
self-publicising pamphleteer who wrote doggerel verse, picked quarrels, and
embarked on improbable journeys. But he also had a serious agenda, promoting
river traffic, and encouraging cities such as his native Gloucester to exploit
their trading advantages and thereby to prosper.
Friday 8th March, 7pm for 7.30pm. In Frith Rooms.
Social, Quiz and Buffet
For Friends, staff, volunteers, GFHS members. Come and be sociable! You
don’t have to take part in the quiz but it is good fun!
£10 a head
Monday 15 April, 7pm for 7.30pm. In Frith Rooms
Tithings, Hundreds and Thousands:
the Manor Courts of Cheltenham in the 18th century.
A Talk by Dr James Hodsdon, our FoGA Chairman, who is the author of
several publications and the editor of “The Court Books of the Manor of
Cheltenham, 1692-1803”.
Wednesday 5th December, 2.30pm at Cheltenham Museum
Behind the scenes at Cheltenham Museum.
Cheltenham Museum has been closed for some time for major refurbishment,
but they have agreed to give us a tour prior to re-opening in Spring 2013. This
will include an introduction to the Open archive (and examples from the Arts
and Crafts collection); local history archive - looking at examples; walk round
the packed-up museum, and a look at general museum archives.
This will be followed by tea and cakes in Well Walk Tearoom, which is actually
an event in itself.
Maximum number 21. Members £7.50, non-members £8.50
Booking essential
Form enclosed: to events@foga.org.uk or Archives Reception “For Events
Secretary”.
Thursday 7th February, 2pm In the Frith Rooms
International Rescue:
Helping to salvage Cologne's city archives.
A Talk by Karen Cooke, archivist at Gloucestershire Archives
Karen will talk about her trip to Germany in August 2009 to help salvage the
city archives of Cologne, after the building holding them collapsed in March
of that year.
Fiona and her husband relax in the sunshine with their ‘tea and cake’ after an
interesting tour of Frampton Court, the magnificent 18th century home of the
Clifford family, described by Pevsner as having ‘lavish interiors, with joinery
of the highest quality’. The family has a collection of archives relating to the
building and their ancestors, including a Clifford pedigree dating back to the
16th century and a grant of their Coat of Arms at the beginning of the 19th
century, some of which were on display for the Friends.
News from
Gloucestershire Archives is pleased to be hosting another ‘Opening Up
Archives’ trainee during 2012-13, Tom Charnock. Tom is one of thirteen
trainees employed by The National Archives and based in county archives
services throughout England. He has joined the sector from the Royal Navy
and is developing expertise in the fields of Digital Preservation and Community
Engagement. Now five months into his traineeship, he has posted a digital
preservation blog (reproduced below) on The National Archives’ website.
This describes some of his experiences to date and explains about digital
preservation really clearly. It makes very interesting reading. Check it out at:
http://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/blog/trainee-tuesday-tales-from-the-dark-archive/
The ‘Opening Up Archives’ project is part of the Heritage Lottery Fund’s
‘Skills for the Future’ programme. Tom’s traineeship follows Oliver Taylor’s
successful completion of the programme last year. Ollie is now the Fielding
& Platt Project Officer and continues to work at Gloucestershire Archives. A
third trainee will be based at Gloucestershire Archives during 2013-14, the
final year of the Opening Up Archives project.
Jill Shonk, Access & Learning Team Leader
Checksums, dark archives, OAIS, trusted storage and ingest packages. No,
these are not the vital components to some epic science fiction novel – although
they are all terms that were completely alien to me before I started my Opening
Up Archives Traineeship at Gloucestershire Archives. My Name is Tom
Charnock and since April I have been working with all of these terms (and
more!) on an almost daily basis as a large part of my traineeship is focused on
Digital Preservation. Before I started at Gloucestershire, my knowledge of
Digital Preservation was fairly minimal – I’d never even heard the phrase
before. I did have a good idea what it the term meant when I was introduced
to it, seeing as I have a fairly good grasp of computer technology, software
and am a bit of a tech geek at heart…but as far as being actively involved with
Digital Preservation? No.
That’s changed quite a bit in the five months that I’ve been at Gloucestershire.
The first thing I had to learn to appreciate was what exactly the term ‘Digital
Preservation’ actually means. At the most basic level, it clearly involves the
preserving of digital objects, but there is so much more to it than that and, even
though the learning curve has been a pretty steep one, I feel I’ve grasped both
the concept and the actual practical implementation of the concept quite well.
Here at Gloucestershire Archives, we have developed a bespoke software tool
that exists solely for use in a Digital Preservation workflow. It’s called SCAT
(SCAT is Curation and Trust), and is based on the Linux platform Fedora. This
makes the tool open source, and freely available to anybody who wants to
implement it in their own Digital Preservation activities. What SCAT does, is
take a digital object and turns it into an Archival Ingest Package (AIP), adds
metadata and fixity files and then allows the file to be stored securely in a
digital archive. Terms like ‘SIP,’ ‘AIP’ and ‘DIP’ (Submission Information
Package, Archival Information Package and Dissemination Information
Package ) have become second nature to me in recent months, as have other
concepts such as ‘fixity’ (the ways in which we can ensure a digital object
remains unchanged in storage), ‘bit rot’ (how the individual binary ones and
zeros that constitute digital objects at the base level can change over time), and
the notion of ‘trusted storage’ – a data storage facility that has the ability to
not only continually verify the content of the digital objects within it, but also
be able to guarantee the safety and retrievability of stored data in the event of,
for example, a power outage, system failure or even a natural disaster.
Digital Preservation is important because so much of what we produce today
is in one digital format or another, and there needs to be some method of storing
all of this information for future generations. Gone are the days when
everything we write down is on parchment or paper, and the explosion of other
digital media forms such as images, sound and movie files means that the only
way we can capture and store memories is in their native digital form – these
files are known as ‘born digital.’ Using an open source platform such as SCAT
to package and store these artefacts means that we do not need to rely on
proprietary software from major corporations who not only impose limits and
restrictions on users, but may also charge for their service.
At the time of writing, Gloucestershire Archives is working continually to
improve and update the SCAT tool, and I am heavily involved with the testing
and day to day usage of the current build. I have ingested a whole range of
digital objects into our digital archive and continue to keep up to date with the
current trends in Digital Preservation. There is still quite a lot of work to be
done with SCAT – namely the implementation of the ability to deliver
Dissemination Packages to service users who may want to view the digital files
we have ingested, but I’m sure that at the current rate the next few months will
be very fruitful.
On a recent visit to the Archives, I was shown a postcard by Maureen
Anderson. It bore the date of 13th January 1905; on the back of the postcard,
which showed a view of Nailsworth from Watledge Hill, was a short note, as
shown below.
The Fielding and Platt Project
The project to preserve and celebrate the history of Fielding and Platt and its
impact on Gloucester is progressing well. While some volunteers are working
on the large collection of documents held in Gloucestershire Archives, others
are beginning to capture the memories of former employees and those whose
lives were affected by the firm. We now have at least 20 oral history recordings!
The project team is still looking for people with stories to share and there are
plenty of opportunities for volunteers to join the team. If you would like to
find out more, please contact Ollie Taylor at:
ollie.taylor@gloucestershire.gov.uk
Archive of the Year Award 2013
Your Family History Magazine would like to know what you think about
Gloucestershire Archives:
● The service provided by the staff
● The facilities in the search room
● The quality of the catalogue and indexes
● The range of online services
● And much more……
To see the other categories and to vote, visit: www.your-familyhistory.com
The postcard was address to Miss E. M. Summers, c/o H. R. Hooper, Esquire
of Stanley Downton, Stonehouse. It was signed H.T.. Can you interpret the
message?
The 1901 census shows that Ethel Maude Summers, then aged 20 and born
in nearby Eastington, was working as a housemaid in the home of Henry and
Mary Hooper, a local cloth manufacturer and his wife.
By 1911, Ethel had married at Cheltenham Register Office to Walter Hoskins,
a London-born bootmaker and was living with him at 4 High Street,
Cheltenham. Later that year, they had a daughter, Dorothy.
Emily Maude Summers was easy to trace and follow. But what of the
correspondent, identified only by the initials H.T.. Was she a relative, a
school-friend or co-worker? Can anyone discover who she was – assuming
it was a she, of course?
In July 2011, in conjunction with the Diocese of Gloucester, the Friends of
Herefordshire Record Office and Herefordshire Record Office itself, the
Friends of Gloucestershire Archives purchased the day book of George Huntingford (1748-1832), Bishop of Gloucester 1802-1815, and Bishop of Hereford, 1815-1832.
The book seems to have been Bishop Huntingford’s “office diary”, and it
includes copy in- and out-letters, notes of archdeacons’ visitations to various
parishes, records of ordinations and lists of clergy. The archdeacons’ visitations are particularly fascinating, being notes on the way the parishes were
being run – sometimes less well than the Bishop might have desired, if the
entry for Buckland in 1809 is anything to go by: “[Parsonage] House dilapidated. Inhabited by Woman Deranged.”
The firm of marine engineers was established by William Sisson in 1889 when
he took over the small marine engineering works of J J Seekings & Co, situated
near Gloucester Docks. The business became a limited liability company in
1904 and new works were built at Barnwood. W Sisson & Co Ltd specialized
in the design and devolopment of high speed launch and marine engines and
boilers and also designed vessels of all types, used initally on the Thames,
Severn and Lake Windermere. William Sisson had a strong interest in technical
education, and the firm also became known for designing engineering
equipment for educational purposes
The earlier entries relate to Huntingford’s time as Bishop of Gloucester, but
when he became Bishop of Hereford in 1815 he took the book with him and
from then on used it in the diocese of Hereford. This makes it equally
interesting for both Gloucestershire Archives and Herefordshire Record Office, and although the original is to be kept at Gloucester, a digital copy has
been made and sent to Herefordshire.
Part of a page from the Sissons Minute Book
The firm of marine engineers was established by William Sisson in 1889 when
he took over the small marine engineering works of J J Seekings & Co, situated
near Gloucester Docks. The business became a limited liability company in
1904 and new works were built at Barnwood. W Sisson & Co Ltd specialized
in the design and devolopment of high speed launch and marine engines and
boilers and also designed vessels of all types, used initally on the Thames,
In May 2012 an opportunity arose to buy another item for the Archive - the
farming diary or notebook of a substantial farmer in the Westonbirt or Tetbury
area. From the contents, he appeared well educated and was clearly interested
in the latest agricultural technques of the day - writing about crops sewn,
haymaking, beer brewing, horses foaling, sheep dipping, castrating lambs,
thatching corn ricks, burning thorns, ploughing with oxen, and commenting
on the success or otherwise of particular actions or techniques. The Archives
were very interested, as were the History of Tetbury Society who generously
offered to share the purchase price with FoGA - we are very grateful for the
History of Tetbury Society's contribution. You can see the diary at D12775/1.
Spanning 600 years of the county’s history, “The Gloucestershire Collection”
comprises thousands of manuscripts and printed items gathered and preserved
by Gloucester City Library since 1900. It was transferred from the Library to
Gloucestershire Archives on the merger of the archives and local studies
services in 2005.
The Collection includes rare survivals such as a grant forming Gloucester’s
guild of butchers in 1454; an original draft of the orders issued by King Charles
I for military operations in Gloucestershire and the reduction of Gloucester in
1643 (among papers of Sir Edward Walker, secretary-at-war to the King); and
a surgeon’s case books and operations for Gloucester Infirmary in the
1830s-1840s. The earliest records are for the manor of Bromsberrow, where a
bailiff’s account survives for 1388/9 and court rolls for 1424-1426 and 1487
(see illustration).
A Page from the Tetbury Farmer’s Diary, purchased by the Friends.
You may already be well aware of the excellent ‘Know your Place’ website
(http://www.bristol.gov.uk/page/know-your-place) which provides access to
historic mapping and other historic environment resources in Bristol. South
Gloucestershire Council are in the process of making an application to the
Heritage Lottery Fund to extend the current Know Your Place website to cover
Gloucestershire, Somerset and the former Avon. The initial aim of the project
is to make available the first three large scale editions of the historic ordnance
survey maps, tithe maps, inclosure maps and a number of large scale town
maps as well as 1940s aerial photos viewable online, along with other data
(such as historic photos and illustrations and oral history). Whilst some of the
work will be outsourced, there is a considerable amount of work which it is
hoped will be undertaken by volunteers. This will include geo-referencing the
aerial photos, undertaking and collating oral history projects, etc..
David Haigh from South Gloucestershire Council is leading the project and is
seeking letters of support and potential partners from the wider community. If
you or your group are willing to support the project, please contact Julie
Courtenay at Gloucestershire Archives in the first instance.
We are just coming to the end of the first year
of our 3 year project to provide proper archival
packaging for this significant collection. The
work is being undertaken by two volunteers
Margaret and Terri one morning a week with the
help of a grant from the Friends towards the
materials.
Our volunteers have been fascinated by the range
of topics and events they have come across in
the Collection. They have handled records
relating to the wool trade, mills, the setting up
of workhouses, the beginning of the Sunday
School movement, resettlement of the poor, the
corn laws, the call-up of men to fight in the
Volunteer Margaret with the Napoleonic Wars and the effect on their families
Bromsberrow Manor court roll of left behind, and early 1700s transportation and
1487. GA Ref: D9125/1/7287.
hanging records. One session turned up a letter
from the Duke of Wellington to the Town Clerk
of Gloucester when he received the freedom of the city in 1816. “What a lot
of history we’ve covered - a real variety!” said Margaret.
News from
Volunteers have transcribed enough of the Lloyd George survey material
(36,000 properties to date) for observations to be made on the social structure
of different parts of the county, of individual places, and on numerous
individuals, but also on the problems of interpretation and analysis. Examples
will be given from a large number of places across the county.
Dr. Anthea Jones will be giving a talk on the above topic on Wednesday, 21st
November 2012 at 7:30 p.m. at the Frith Centre, Gloucestershire Archives,
Clarence Row, Alvin Street, Gloucester, GL1 3DW. Visitors are welcome,
charge £1 per person.
For other talks held by the Gloucestershire branch of the Bristol and
Gloucestershire Archaeological Trust, check out their website at:
http://www.bgas.org.uk/whatson.php#glos
The volunteers at GFHS have been busy indexing more records and registers
to make them available to everyone. The electoral registers for Gloucester City
in 1931 have now been completely transcribed with a name index and the file
is available to view at the GFHS Centre next to the Archives. The index for
other Gloucestershire districts is already in progress. This 1931 index is very
useful if you are researching your family history or the history of your house,
especially as the 1931 census will never appear, having been destroyed during
the Second World War. Our thanks go to Dave Gifford, a GFHS volunteer,
for this excellent project.
We hope to soon start indexing the `Freemen of the City of Gloucester` records
from 1837 almost to present day. The later years will include women, too, as
the rules have been changed recently. We are still recruiting volunteers for
this project and if you are interested in helping to transcribe some pages of the
original volumes from photographs (at home or at the Centre), please let me
know.
Sue Stafford, Volunteer, GFHS.
Contact by email: help@gfhs.org.uk or call into the GFHS Centre.
Gloucestershire Family History Society is holding a Help session at
Nature in Art
At Wallsworth Hall, off the A38 at Twigworth, on
Thursday, 18th October from 10 a.m. To 3 p.m.
A group of volunteers from the Archives listening to Ann telling them of the
origins of the Museum in the Park, arranged to thank them for their work.
Volunteers will be on hand to give you advice on how to start or continue
researching your family history. Bring us your brick walls and we will see if
we can overcome them!
The attraction of a guided tour around
Medieval Gloucester was obvious and
Lisa Donel, a former Gloucester
Heritage Officer, was happy to split the
crowd into two groups on successive
Wednesdays in July. The first group
suffered a wet walk whilst the second
toured the city in glorious sunshine. We
learnt about the origins and history of
the best preserved medieval priory in
Britain, Blackfriars Priory, which was
built in the 13th century by the Dominican monks. Working our way through to
Westgate Street, Lisa pointed out the direction of the road and discussed the changes
that had taken place. We then made out way back towards the Cross, stopping to
admire the former Siege headquarters of Colonel Massey, in what was once Maverdine
Lane. An interesting morning, even for those of us born and bred in the city.
Steady progress continues, with John Chandler now working on Maisemore
(next up: Hartpury), and Rose Wallis working on Yate, which is the VCH's
first venture into South Gloucestershire. Rose is dividing her time between
Alvin Street and the Yate Heritage Centre, where local volunteers plan to work
on probate inventories. Speaking of which: very many thanks to the volunteers
who have transcribed inventories for Minsterworth, Maisemore, Lassington,
Matson and Bulley. The results have been posted on the Explore website:
www.victoriacountyhistory.ac.uk/explore
The Trust is now planning which area to tackle next - starting October 2013
- with the focus currently on the Cheltenham area. The Trust can now take
donations online, via a BT MyDonate page - just Google 'BT MyDonate' and
search for 'GCHT', or go via our website at:
www.victoriacountyhistory.ac.uk/counties/gloucestershire/support
where you can also see all the current draft parish histories.
We were lucky enough to have
a week of wonderful winter sun
on the Caribbean island of
Nevis in February. It’s a tiny
island, 36 square miles and pop.
12,000, but it does boast its own
Archives, currently maintained
on a small budget by the Nevis
Historical and Conservation
Society. The same building
hosts an interesting collection
of Nelsoniana - while stationed
in the Caribbean, the young Captain Nelson met Fanny Nisbet, a Nevis sugar
planter’s young widow, and married her there in 1787. The ceremony took
place under a tree in the grounds of Montpelier,
the Nisbet estate house. I wanted to know more
about when and why this Montpelier gained its
name, and the Archives staff (all one of her)
were able to dig out a report by a Bristol
academic which suggested the name was first
used a decade or so earlier than 1787, on the
amalgamation of two smaller estates. (The
‘why’ remains a mystery.)
Before setting off, I had taken a look at some
1760s deeds at Alvin Street relating to the inheritance of a sugar plantation
property on Nevis, and was hoping to pinpoint the site when we got there.
Unfortunately the Nevis land records weren’t easily consulted in the time
available, especially as a beach sunset and a cool rum punch were beckoning.
We also drew a blank trying to locate the Nevis properties of Dame Frances
Stapleton, who built the first proper lodging house for spa visitors to Cheltenham. In exploring the island, we did however see plenty of relics of windmills,
cane crushing machinery, and other traces of the sugar trade – all inextricably
linked with slavery. An intriguing and evocative landscape, and it would be
tempting to dream up a research project to take one back there for longer!
James Hodsdon.