Newsletter 44 - Autumn 2005

News from Hampshire Record Office

David Rymill

Accessions

A photocopy of the fascinating gardening diary of Charles Holloway (HRO Copy/811) was given to the Record Office in November last year. Holloway (1863-1921) started to train as a schoolmaster, but turned instead to gardening, serving an apprenticeship with Sutton and Sons. Family tradition says that he was the head gardener at Dogmersfield Park in November 1884.

The diary covers the period when Charles Holloway worked at Dogmersfield Park, Tedworth House, and Down Grange from November 1884 to May 1891. It records the activities of his working day, telling us about the kinds of plants and seeds that were planted, with notes on growing fruit and vegetables, and taking flowers from the greenhouses up to the main house. At Dogmersfield Park and Tedworth House, Holloway seems to have been in charge of the glasshouses and conservatories. He refers to growing a variety of cut flowers and more tender varieties of both flowers and vegetables. Occasional mention is made of his success in horticultural and flower shows. At Down Grange, where he appears to have worked in the kitchen gardens, he lists fruit and vegetables used for the year 1891.

Often under-represented in county archives are the records of local sports clubs and sports associations. We were therefore very pleased, late last year, to take receipt of a large deposit of records relating to Hayling Golf Club (HRO 67A04). It includes a record of members since 1889, papers relating to the management of the course, the land owned by the club, and the registered company by which the club was formed. The collection is very large – comprising over 30 boxes – and is unlisted at the time of writing.

In November last year staff of Hampshire Archives Trust and the Record Office visited Meesons, a long-established firm of solicitors in Ringwood. The records (HRO 94A04) were found to include numerous Hampshire deeds, sale particulars and plans, relating mainly to Ringwood, Fordingbridge, Eling and other places in the New Forest, and covering a wide date span from the 18th to the 20th centuries. Records relating to the South of England Industrial and Provident Land Society Ltd., which had its head office at Ringwood, including deeds and company records, 18th-19th centuries, were also found in the trunks, along with papers relating to the Ringwood and South Hampshire Benefit, Building and Investment Society from the mid-19th century. As usual with such a collection, there were also miscellaneous probate and conveyancing papers, mainly 19th century, all of which will take time to sort and catalogue in detail. The firm’s early 19th-century predecessors, E and C Castleman, had offices at Wimborne as well as Ringwood, and this might account for the fact that the trunks also included many sale particulars and deeds relating to, among others, Wiltshire, Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Surrey, Devon, Somerset, London, Dorset and Cornwall. Papers relating to these last two counties date back to the 17th century. The find of the day came almost at the bottom of the last trunk: an early 17th-century manor court book for various manors in Dorset, which will be passed to Dorset Record Office in due course.

One of the largest recent deposits of material has come from the offices of the Hampshire Chronicle (HRO 3A00W), which has left its premises in Winchester’s High Street after nearly 200 years. This means that we have been able to fill almost all the gaps in our series of bound volumes of this title from its foundation in 1772.

Photocopies of a minute book and a register for Cross Lane Independent chapel at Mockbeggar, Ibsley have been catalogued as HRO 4A05. The chapel was built in 1851 by Mr Arthur Mist, the chapel’s first minister. The first volume includes miscellaneous items, including notes on the history of the chapel, members’ names, with abode, occupations, when ‘united to the Church’, ‘cause of removal, by death or otherwise’, and remarks, 1851-77. Lists of burials, 1860-76, and baptisms, 1853-78, are also included. The second volume contains baptisms, 1883-2004, marriages, 1933-42 and 1965-72, and burials, 1901-82.

An exciting arrival – found under the floorboards of a house – has been an estreat roll, listing fines paid over to the Hampshire Quarter Sessions (the quarterly meetings of magistrates for the county) by the sheriff in 1810 (HRO 106A04). Towards the end of the document is the tantalising beginning of a list of fines imposed by the Petty Sessions, the lower tier of courts whose records rarely survive prior to the mid-19th century. Unfortunately only one division of the county is covered, namely Alton North, showing that William Winter of West Worldham was fined one guinea for dealing in tobacco without a licence, and also because he ‘did presume to Trade in sell and vend Tea’ without a licence. John Hale of Selborne, a maltster, was fined for using a room to store grain to be made into malt without notifying the Excise Office.
Undertakers’ records can be a useful source, often recording details of the place of funerals and burials, the style of coffin, and indicating who settled the account. We have recently received ledgers from Sydney Hood, who combined the roles of undertaker and decorator in the West Wellow area, covering undertaking work between 1929 and 1972 (HRO 83A04/1-2). Information given includes the age at death, details of hearse, bearers and so on, and sometimes cause of death. In the early days the wood used for the coffin was usually elm, but, presumably due to the onset of Dutch elm disease, in the later period oak became more prominent.

A small but very interesting collection of 21 glass plate negatives showing Otterbourne buildings and people c.1900 has been deposited with us (HRO 82A04). They were taken by Charles Ray of Rose Cottage, Otterbourne who was a prominent member of the community and gardener to Charlotte Yonge. Originally there were many more photographs but apparently Mr Ray washed off the images of some in order to repair the panes in his greenhouse!

Please note that some larger deposits may take time to process. If you would like a closer look at any of the larger collections mentioned here, please telephone to enquire about availability.

Digital Archives

We have already received some records as CD-ROMS, such as transcripts of parish registers; these are among the first examples of electronic archives held here, and they highlight an issue for the archive profession nationally as well as locally. We can preserve and provide access to archives on parchment and paper, as we have suitable strongrooms to store them and no special facilities are required to read them (except, of course, documents written in Latin and difficult hands!). However, those of you who use computers have probably found how easy it is to lose a document, and may have considered whether you will be able to access your files if you upgrade to the next version of software, or buy a new computer.

As more documents are available in electronic format only, known as born-digital, archivists must think about how to preserve and provide access to them. Digital archives could fall victim not only to the delete button, but also to software or hardware obsolescence, whilst the medium on which they are stored could degrade. For example, did you know that CD-ROMs could have a shelf-life of between 5 and 10 years?

Hampshire Record Office has drafted guidelines for those considering depositing digital archives with us. It is easier for us to cope with digital archives created in a suitable format in the first place, than to convert them afterwards. So, if you are about to embark on a project which will involve creating material in electronic format, such as parish registers transcripts or photographs of buildings in your village, please contact us before you start, so that we can work together to ensure that your work survives for use by future generations.

Hampshire Photographic Project

HPP is now complete, and 10,000 images can be viewed on our website: go to our main online catalogue at http://www.hants.gov.uk/record-office/catalog/index.html and type a name or descriptive word into the Any Text field, then select Digital Image from the drop-down Format menu. We are very grateful to those local societies and individuals who have allowed us to scan items from their collections for this exciting new resource.

Last Thursday Lectures

25 Aug: ‘Little shelving deeps and gravelly shallows’: Heywood Sumner and Hampshire’s water – by Margaret Cooke.
29 Sep: ‘A happy progress in the right direction’?: elementary education in 19th-century Hampshire – by Sarah Lewin.
27 Oct: ‘Life on the Ocean Wave’: naval records in family and estate archives at Hampshire Record Office – by Stuart Bridges.
24 Nov: ‘Finding Captain Swing’: popular culture and the rural rebellion of 1830 – by Dr Peter Jones.
(No lecture in December)
Last Thursday of the month in the cinema at Hampshire Record Office, 1.15pm-1.45pm; admission free, no booking required.

Exhibitions in Hampshire Record Office foyer

5 Sep-5 Nov 2005: Seafarers and sandcastles: Hampshire and the Sea.
10 Nov 2005-14 Jan 2006: Speed traps and seat belts: one hundred years of the Automobile Association.

Family History Beginners’ evenings

A chance to find out how the system works and how to get started – ideal if you have never been to HRO before. £6 per session; booking necessary.
Weds 21 Sep, 19 Oct, 23 Nov and 7 Dec, 7pm-9pm.

First Friday of each month, 1-2 pm: Lunch and Learn: an informal session in reading old handwriting. Bring along photocopies of any documents you are having trouble reading, plus your sandwiches. No fee, no booking required.