Bedfordshire history

Bedfordshire Seventeenth Century Tokens

2012-01-02T19:37:00.000Z

Thanks to Gary Oddie who has sent this information about his new book on seventeenth century tokens in Bedfordshire:

"The upheavals of the seventeenth century had many consequences for the everyday activities of the people of Britain. A shortage of small change resulted in many shopkeepers and tradespeople issuing their own tokens between 1648 and 1672. These provide a tangible record of a group of people who otherwise do not appear in the history books. One hundred such issues can be attributed to the county of Bedfordshire. This new book lists not only many unrecorded varieties but also opens a window on the lives and day to day activities of the token issuers themselves. Extensive use of contemporary records sheds light on the trades, wealth, beliefs and final wishes of the token issuers. The catalogue illustrates every known variety of token twice life-size. The photographs, along with an analysis of some of the design features of the tokens, allow comparison with the issues of other counties. An essential record for students of Bedfordshire seventeenth century tokens and the token series more generally. Of interest to all those studying local, social and family histories of this period."

Bedfordshire Seventeenth Century Tokens, John Gaunt, edited and expanded by Gary Oddie.
Published by Galata, Llanfyllin (Powys), 2011. Quarto, pp. 154, colour illustrations throughout, tables, card covers. Limited print run. £35 + p+p.

New Year honour for local historian

2012-01-02T19:16:00.000Z

Congratulations to Mrs Vivienne Evans, local historian, lecturer and writer and founder of Dunstable History and Heritage Studies, who has been awarded an MBE for services to the community in Dunstable in the 2012 New Year's Honours.

Bedfordshire in ODNB

2011-10-30T16:10:00.001Z

For historians, the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography in its online version is a must-bookmark-site. In addition to many people from Bedfordshire or with connections to the county, it contains articles on groups and themes that provide background for the county's history and people.

Bedford Whigs (c.1748–c.1784) summarises the politicians connected with the 4th Duke of Bedford's political career. By coincidence it covers some of the people and much of the period in BHRS's forthcoming 2011 volume, How Bedfordshire Voted, 1735-1784: the evidence of local documents and poll books, edited by James Collett-White. The Broad-bottom ministry (1744–1746), Leicester House (1743–1760) and the Old corps (court Whigs) (1742–1762) also provide political background for the book.

The forthcoming volume, How Bedfordshire Voted 1735-1784, continues his two earlier volumes for the Society and completes a century of coverage of Bedfordshire elections. Most of the first two volumes, covering 1685 to 1734, contained transcriptions of the county and borough (of Bedford) poll books. In this last, almost 50-year period, there is only one complete poll book surviving (1774). The majority of the book contains letters and extracts from newspapers and Bedford borough documents which throw light on the political dealing that went on behind the scenes to obtain voters' support.

After reading it, all I can say is thank heavens for the secret ballot! The book is due out at the end of 2011 or early 2012. Buy it, read it, and see what you think about eighteenth-century political dealing.

How Bedfordshire Voted 1735-1784: the evidence of local documents and poll books, edited by James Collett-White. Bedfordshire Historical Record Society, volume 90. To be published by Boydell & Brewer.

PoWs in Bedfordshire

2011-07-16T17:36:00.002+01:00

An account of prisoners of war in Bedfordshire during the Second World War has been long overdue.

Stephen Risby has blended both military and social history to produce an excellent history of the subject*, which answers the questions: why were they here, what did they do, what were the problems and how were they perceived locally?

To answer these, the author has carried out extensive documentary research, as well as drawing on the Mid-Bedfordshire oral history research, “Changing Landscapes, Changing Lives”, to bring to life the experiences of both prisoners of war [POWs] and the civilian population who had contact with them.

There are chapters dealing with the various POW camps and hostels in Bedfordshire, what camp life was like and the public attitudes to both German and Italian POWs. There is also a chapter devoted to the unfortunate ‘Tilbrook Incident’ in which an Italian prisoner of war killed his English working party guard and was himself shot by a member of the Home Guard. This extremely atypical event gained national notoriety and the soldier was awarded the British Empire Medal.

What is particularly good about Stephen Risby’s book is the careful way he gives the historical background to the presence of prisoners of war in this country. In particular he explores the distinct national stereotypes of German and Italian soldiers, as perceived by the British government and members of the public, which affected the different ways in which German and Italian POWs, always kept separate, were regarded, employed as a labour force and held with varying degrees of security.

There are useful endnotes on sources (but no page references) and a helpful bibliography but no index. Finally, there are five appendices of transcribed documents which illuminate the topics of the treatment of prisoners, what constituted a POW establishment, an International Red Cross committee report on the Ducks Cross POW camp, instructions on camp maintenance and an end-of–the-war official visitor’s report on the Colmworth and Ducks Cross camps and various other hostels around the county. This well-illustrated paperback is very readable and informative.

* Stephen Risby, Prisoners of War in Bedfordshire, Amberley Publishing, 2011. ISBN 9781445603124 £14.99

Contributed by Stuart Antrobus

Heritage Open Days in Bedfordshire 2011

2011-07-15T23:00:00.003+01:00

Six historic places in Bedfordshire will be open
on all or some of the days between 8 and 11
September 2011

Ailesbury Mausoleum and Crypt, Bedford
Friends of Bedford Cemetery, Bedford
Parish Church of St Paul, Bedford
Cemetery Chapel, Biggleswade
St Mary's Parish Church, Luton (pictured)
Historic Textiles at the Tudor Buildings in Willington

The Heritage Open Days site lists opening times and gives a taster of what can be seen at each site + how to get there.

Bedfordshire Local History Walks open to the public

2011-07-05T10:28:00.001+01:00

One of the ways in which individual members of the public can get to know more about local history, apart from reading local histories and attending talks, is through guided history walks. A few of the urban areas are served by organised history walks open to the public (although some walks are only on offer to organised groups, by arrangement).

Dunstable Town Guides, contacted via Priory House TIC, in addition to paid-for ghosts walks throughout the year, and ‘Tea Time Tales’ events, offer free History Day walks on Saturday 21 May, on both Tudor Dunstable and the foundations of the Priory. Luton Visitor Information Centre does not arrange such walks, but Sandy and Bedford Tourist Information Centres (TICs) do. Sandy has arranged four summer walks for 2011. Bedford Borough Council, using trained guides who are members of the Bedford Association of Tour Guides, offers some eight main walks on 38 separate occasions, all open to the public, via advanced booking at Bedford TIC.

But this leaves a valuable role to local historical societies within the county and a number take this on, offering guided walks in their particular locale, particularly during the summer months. For details of walks in your area, look online for member societies of Bedfordshire Local History Association (BLHA), an umbrella organisation which lists websites and contact details of secretaries of local history societies [or consult Bedfordshire Libraries online Local Information Database], and ask society secretaries if any guided history walks are planned for your area. BLHA also organises occasional workshops and an annual conference at one of the county’s villages or urban centres. This often includes a local history guided walk. This year, it is being hosted by Willington Local History group on Saturday 11 June.

Where local history societies do not actually offer personal guides to take you on a walk, they have often published a local history ‘trail’, with street map, which individuals can follow to learn about points of interest.

Guided History walks arranged by Sandy TIC. Barry Groom, local historian, will be offering three walks on 9 May, 13 June and 24 July (two evening walks from 7pm and one Sunday afternoon walk from 2pm) exploring Sandey Place, Old Warden and Southill Park, respectively. [Contact details for Sandy TIC below]

Guided History Walks in Bedford
Bedford Tour Guides will be taking members of the public in small groups on a variety of historical walks in Bedford this coming season, from May to September, on Wednesday evenings (from 7pm) or Sunday mornings (from 11am) in addition to numerous walks for pre-arranged groups. There are eight different walks, most of them focusing on a particular topic or area of Bedford town centre.They are open to individual members of the public, but places need to be booked in advance.

For a general introduction to some of the fascinating people and places of Bedford history,“I Never Knew That” is a varied walk, pointing out some of the outstanding as well as the little known facts which will cause both residents and visitors to look a little more closely at what is around them.

Other walks focus on particular people, places, monuments and events in Bedford’s history. “The Life and Times of John Bunyan” speak for itself, looking at both the man and the religious turmoil of his times, the 1600s, in Bedford, and how he came to be one of the most successful authors of religious literature in history, as well as one of Bedford’s most famous ‘sons’.

“Silent Faces” takes a look at some of the outstanding sculptures and monuments which grace the town, outlining the people or events they represent but also the leading sculptors who created them. As well as John Bunyan, John Howard (the prison reformer), Trevor Huddleston (the anti-apartheid activist and clergyman), William Harpur (the philanthropist who founded the Harpur Trust) and Glenn Miller (the American band leader whose wartime presence in the town brought musical excitement during dismal days), there are two fine war memorials of national significance.

“The Jewel in the Crown” takes a circular route along and across the River Great Ouse, particularly along Bedford’s Embankment which provides the town with its most beautiful image of graceful bridges, swans and rowing boats.

Only a much reduced mound and some archaeological remnants remain to show us its site, but “The Rise and Fall of Bedford Castle” tells the story of this significant building, the powerful men who created it and the part it played in English history, up to the siege of 1224 by Henry III.

The “World War Two Bedford” walk reveals the way in which the last war transformed people’s lives locally and the part it took in hosting the British Broadcasting Corporation’s music and religious affairs department. Both church services and countless music concerts announced on the radio as from “somewhere in the south of England” were, in fact, from Bedford, including most of the 1944 BBC Proms Concerts, transferred from war-torn London. You will be amazed at the number of famous artistes of all kinds who visited Bedford during the war to perform live to locals and through radio to the world.

New to the list of guided walks, this year, are one which looks at the changing nature of shops and shopping in the town, “Are You Being Served?”, and one looking at selected town houses and enquiring ”Who Lived in a House Like This?”. “Are You Being Served?” explores just some of the many family businesses which used to dominate Bedford’s High Street and how the personal service they provided contrast with shopping today. It also looks at how such national chains of shops such as Marks and Spencer and Boots were introduced and how departmental shops took over from the small independent specialists.

“Who Lived in a House Like This?”looks at some of the town houses of the great and the good of Bedford and how their particular contribution to the town can still be seen today, particularly in its outstanding architecture.

Finally, one of the Bedford Town Guides offers an entertaining winter Ghost Walk to pre-arranged groups between March and December. For details of the dates, charges and times of the above walks, see Bedford Mini Guide 2011 which also has a ‘Self-guided “Did you know?” Trail’ and a street map of Bedford, available from the tourist information offices and your local library or by phoning Bedford Tourist Information Centre (contact details below)

So, whether you are visiting Bedford, or fancy a local history walk elsewhere in Bedfordshire, why not find out about local history walks. Look out for leaflets and notices in your local library, tourist information centre or town hall. Or search online for what your local history society is offering to help make you aware of your local history.

Contact details:
Bedford Tourist Information Centre, Town Hall, St Paul's Square, Bedford, Bedfordshire MK40 1SJ
Tel: 01234 221 712; Fax: 01234 217 932; Email: touristinfo@bedford.gov.uk

Dunstable Tourist Information Centre, Priory House, 33 High Street South, Dunstable
Bedfordshire LU6 3RZ
Tel: 01582 890 270; Fax: 01582 890 271; Email: tic@dunstable.gov.uk

Sandy Tourist Information Centre, Rear of 10 Cambridge Road, High Street, Sandy
Bedfordshire, SG19 1JE
Tel: 01767-682728; Fax: 01767-692527; Email: tourism@sandytowncouncil.gov.uk

Thanks to Stuart, one of the Bedford Town Guides, for contributing this and drawing attention to ways of unlocking Bedfordshire's history.

Ampthill and central Bedfordshire in photos

2011-02-26T10:21:00.000Z

Anyone looking for the recent history of central Bedfordshire in photographs should look at the Ampthill Images site which has thousands of photographs from the archives of Bedford newspapers. They concentrate on the period from 1930s to the late 1960s with a few earlier.
The photographs document how life was and, even for those who were there at the time, they evoke another world. This is truly a treasure trove for the 'modern' historian - but do remember Copyright if you want to reproduce any photographs!

2010-12-12T17:47:00.001Z

Anne Allsopp's new History of Luton (see below for publication details) is particularly strong on the town's recent history over the last 100 to 150 years, although in traditional style it begins with early habitation.

After opening chapters on the early history of the town, where incidentally the author makes the point several times that little of the early town survives to be seen above ground or in the archaeological record (the exception being the parish church, shown here), she focuses on the themes that contributed to modern day Luton with chapters on country houses, education, industry, wartime, migration, leisure and the town. Under these headings she has woven together hundreds of strands including

Luton Airport

brickmaking (with an account of how bricks used to be made)
brewing and temperance
Stattie fairs to the Luton carnival
straw plaiting schools (where young children laboured and were denied an education) to the University of Bedfordshire
hatmaking
a medieval gild, non-conformity, Quakers,
the multi-ethnic composition of today's population and the Luton Council of Faiths
the town's musical and theatrical activities
roads, railways and the airport
Vauxhall Motors and the connection with Vauxhall Bridge in London

Wardown Park

.... and the list could go.... The book is a treasure house of information about Luton's past, often in the words of people who were there, and supplemented by wonderful photographs and maps.

This is a book for locals, who will revel in the memories of how Luton was - and is. For others who are curious about the towns and cities of this country, this book is more than just a history of Luton, it is also a record of how people worked and lived in a time not long gone.

Anne Allsopp A History of Luton from Conquerors to Carnival. Andover, Phillimore, 2010. ISBN 978-1-86077-621-2 £20

Photos: Parish Church © Barbara Tearle; Luton Airport © Jack Hill (Creative Commons); Wardown Park© Nigel Cox (Creative Commons)

New History of Luton

2010-11-03T12:39:00.000Z

A History of Luton: From Conquerors to Carnival, by Anne Allsopp has been published this week by Phillimore (hardback at £20)

The publisher says -

"In the past, Luton was a market town and, for many years, was also a centre for the brewing industry. In the 19th century it became famous for hat making, and more recently it has grown into a thriving industrial centre. During the Second World War it played an important part in the manufacture of army vehicles, and children bound for school had to dodge the Churchill tanks on their way
to various theatres of conflict.
Nowadays, Luton Airport is the gateway for all types of traveller and the town is well known for its famous football team.
Luton owes its existence to the river Lea, which is now a small stream but once powered seven mills. Archaeological discoveries have revealed that people have settled in the area for thousands of years. Julius Caesar may have passed through in A.D. 54 and William the Conqueror came this way one thousand years later. The parish church, still standing near Park Square, was built in medieval times.
The town has since acquired a reputation as a solid working class place, the sort of community where ‘almost everyone earns his living’. This independent spirit has also had its downside, particularly on the occasion when disillusioned citizens burned down the town hall, and this well-informed narrative manages to capture Luton’s distinctive character.
Luton has always provided visitors with a warm welcome and many have stayed and made the town their home. Local industry offered employment opportunities in the early 20th century and many had cause to be grateful for its relative prosperity during the Great Depression. Following the Second World War, immigrants from the Indian subcontinent and from the West Indies brought with them colourful new cultures that are celebrated in the annual Carnival.
This fascinating and illustrated account of Luton’s past will inform and delight anyone who lives in the town and inspire those who grew up there."

The author, Anne Allsopp, was born in Luton and attended Luton High School for Girls. She taught in local schools before gaining an MA and PhD at the London Institute of Education. She has published books on Luton High School and the Technical School, another for BHRS on the education and employment of girls in the town. Her particular interest is the lives of ordinary people, and her latest research has helped her appreciate Luton’s unique character and reputation for being quite unlike anywhere else.

A review will follow. Meanwhile the book can be ordered through bookshops or from Phillimore's online bookshop.

Friends of BLARS Association

2010-09-24T12:27:00.000+01:00

Visiting BLARS last week, I picked up a copy of Bedfordshire & Luton Archives & Records Service News which contains an editorial on the grim financial situation facing all public services. The editorial says that 'local services and their clients will share the pain' of efficiency savings and that users and staff of BLARS are asking 'How bad is it likely to be?' to which the answer is 'we don't know but we need to be prepared.'

Part of being prepared, keeping people informed and seeking feedback and support is through the newly formed Friends of BLARS Association.

BLARS was the first county record office that I used, maybe thirty-odd years ago, and I've used many others since then. Each gives its own individual and fantastic service to anyone and everyone concerned in the history and culture of the area it covers and also plays a part in our children's education through outreach services to develop and foster their interest in the place where they live.

I am passionate about the service that BLARS offers. We don't know what its future is in the current climate but it is vital to ensure that BLARS and all local record offices have a future to continue their vital part in the cultural life of local and national communities.

Read the full editorial and support BLARS by emailing archive@bedford.gov.uk to join the Friends mailing list.

A Painted Landscape: Wardown Park Museum exhibition of early nineteenth century Bedfordshire watercolours

2010-09-14T22:34:00.005+01:00

Two outstanding topographical artists, Thomas Fisher and George Shepherd visited Bedfordshire, separately, between the years 1811 and 1822 and have left us with paintings which enable us to see what places around the county looked like before industrialisation and intensive agriculture brought changes to every aspect of life. Wardown Park Museum has drawn on its collection of works by both artists to create a charming display which is open to the public, free, until 14 November 2010.

Thomas Fisher was born in Kent in 1772 and employed by the East India Company in London but had plenty of time to employ his talent as a finely detailed water colourist to record the buildings, monuments and landscape scenes associated with Bedfordshire’s main landowners. He was particularly interested in the local villages and landscapes which he visited during the summer months of the successive years from 1812 to 1822. His work resulted in the publication of two volumes Collections Historical, Genealogical and Topographical for Bedfordshire (1817) and Monumental Remains and Antiquities in the County of Bedfordshire (1828).

George Sidney Shepherd was born in London in 1784 and became a professional artist who travelled throughout the country producing sketches and paintings for both publishers and for private commissions. On one trip to Bedfordshire he met and subsequently married a young woman from Stanbridge.

The exhibition presents some 30-odd paintings, ranging in subject matter from landscapes and street scenes to studies of particular buildings, from Luton and Dunstable in the south, and Ampthill, to Cotton End, Cardington and Turvey in the north and Potton in the north-east. Not surprisingly, some of the county’s larger houses are portrayed - Houghton House, Steppingley Park house, Harlington House (Manor), Toddington Manor (pictured, above right)

and Sundon House – but also The Red Lion Inn, Dunstable and the Old Carriage Entrance to Luton Hoo. Farms, mills and churches feature, as well as monuments such as Leighton Buzzard Market Cross and distinctive landscape features such as “Warden Hill near Luton”, “Clappershill by Sharpenhoe”, “View from the Chiltern Hills, taken near Pegsdon Barns”, “Pascombe Pit, Dunstable Downs” and “The Vale of Bedford from Lidlington Park”(pictured, above left)

Helpful captions provide useful historical background material on the subjects depicted.The exhibition, though relatively small, is a delight and I can thoroughly recommend it. Dr. Elizabeth Adey, curator, will give a talk on the two artists and the exhibition at Wardown Park Museum on Thursday 4 November at 2.30pm. Entrance to the talk is only £1 but you are asked to ring 01582 546 722 in advance to book a place.

Thanks to Stuart Antrobus and Elizabeth Adey for this contribution.
Images may not be reproduced without permission, which should be sought from Elizabeth Adey (substitute @ for at in this address:Elizabeth.adey at Lutonculture.com)

The 2nd Bedfords in France and Flanders 1914-1918

2010-07-29T09:45:00.001+01:00

Available now! BHRS's 2010 volume is The 2nd Bedfords in France and Flanders 1914-1918 edited by Martin Deacon.

Martin Deacon receiving his copy of The 2nd Bedfords at Bedfordshire and Luton Archives and Records Service in July 2010. The volume complements his edition of The Shiny Seventh published by BHRS in 2004.

The 2nd Bedfords is the official WWI war diary of the 2nd battalion of the Bedfordshire Regiment who fought in the major battles of the war: the First Battle of Ypres, Festubert and Loos, the Somme and Passchendaele. Through the terse, even matter-of-fact, diary entries of the adjutant recording each day's events, we get to know many of the officers of the battalion by name and also the men, fewer named, but given their due in the desperate events. Martin Deacon's careful research has given names to many of the men. He has also provided several appendices to show the battalion's movements during the four years and the places of origin of the men - around two thirds from Bedfordshire/Hertfordshire.

A dozen photographs of officers and men show youths, most looking totally unprepared for what faced them. Because appalling events were recorded as everyday occurrences, the awful conditions and the strain everyone was under gradually emerges as the diary goes on through the four years.

The 2nd Bedfords is available from the publisher Boydell & Brewer and from local bookshops (see side panel).

BHRS's President to be knighted

2010-06-19T00:06:00.000+01:00

Congratulations to Samuel Whitbread, Lord Lieutenant of Bedfordshire, who was appointed a Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order in the Birthday Honours list last week (12 June 2010) Bedfordshire News carries a report and photograph following the announcement. The award is in the Queen's personal gift and is made for services to her or the royal family.

Sir Samuel has been Lord Lieutenant of Bedfordshire for 19 years and President of the Bedfordshire Historical Record Society since 1980. The Central Bedfordshire government website gives information about the activities of the county's Lord Lieutenant and, incidentally, shows that Sir Samuel is the third member of his family to be the county's Lord Lieutenant.

Bedfordshire Local History Association Conference 2010

2010-06-06T23:33:00.001+01:00

Potton History Society hosted the annual AGM and conference, this year, at the lovely St Mary’s Church and church hall situated on the Gamlingay side of the ancient market town. The sun shone on the 53 members from some of the 31 member societies as well as a major team of local society members working hard to make the day work smoothly. Chairman George Howe gave us all a warm welcome.

Peter Ibbett, Programme Secretary and a founder member of this leading local group (founded 1977), gave an inspirational opening presentation on ‘The Challenge to 21st Century Local Historians’, looking back to those pioneers such as Betty Chambers, editing the Bedfordshire Magazine, after the Second World War and the growth of local history societies which began in the 1970s in particular. He emphasised that it was people and their sense of local affinity which motivated much of the diverse research into local history. He reminded us how much photographs from the past provoked local interest and that personal connections were so important. Local documents enabled us to ‘time travel’ and the exhibitions of these photos and documents inspired others to get involved in researching local history.

Now, in a multi-digital era, the problem was often ‘seeing the wood for the trees’ and this was where local history groups could play their part. In a question and answer session with the Potton Society’s web master, Sean Hendry told of how he got involved in setting up and developing their web site into one with15 separate parts and a monthly update of material to be found in the ‘What’s New’ section, drawing people from around the county, the country and even internationally into revisiting the site. Content included a virtual tour of Potton and information on upcoming talks arranged by the Society as well as an extensive photographic archive (from over 7,000, all have also been digitised!) and write-ups on members’ research into a wide variety of topics.

A lively discussion took place among those attending as to how to maximise effectiveness of local history archives and web site. This was followed by an opportunity to view a sample of the range of hard-copy material the Society had produced over the last few decades, with documents and photographs carefully indexed so as to make access to related material easy.

Those who were most active and mobile were taken by Peter on a walking tour into and around the market square of the town where developments over the century, particularly the rise and fall of the market, and key people and buildings were highlighted. Others chose to stay in and around the ironstone church and its graveyard, both of which were full of interest.

All then met up for a delicious buffet lunch, provided by local people, in the well-appointed church hall, where the rest of the conference took place.

Pamela Birch of the County Record Office (BLARS: Bedfordshire and Luton Archives and Records Service, to give it its full name) discussed the county’s web scene as it related to local history. The key web sites shown or mentioned were those of BLARS (including its online public access catalogue:OPAC), Bedford Museum, Luton Museum and Bedfordshire Libraries. Local history society web sites also played their part. The OPAC catalogue currently gave references to 60% of the county archive’s holdings. Their Community Archives pages had started as resources for school but had developed into ones for adults as well, with the ambitious aim of covering every settlement in the historic Bedfordshire (including Luton), offering material on the local church, non-conformist chapels, education, interesting buildings, licensed premises and a general introduction, showing current photographs as well as related references. 69 communities, over the three local authorities, had so far been covered and completion planned by 2023.

She also outlined another long-term project to transcribe the registers for Bedford County Gaol from 1801 onwards, with 30,000 entries currently on the web site. There were also plans for digitisation of such things as the 1925 rate evaluation maps but this was expensive and hard to get grants for. They were putting the Sandy Chrystal postcard collection online as it is being catalogued. School registers 1870 – 1914 were also a priority and BLARS hoped to apply for funding within a consortium bid from a number of record offices nationally.

The problems of copyright were touched on as well as the need for the record office to derive income from copies of documents and photos, in the same way that libraries relied on fines and museums relied on shops or catering for income generation.

Pamela outlined how societies and individual volunteers could help the archives with their work by: supporting their application for grants, volunteering a day a week, helping with research and telling other people about the resources and services which BLARS offers. Pamela announced that BLARS was now accepting their first deposits of digital oral history sound recordings, bringing them in line with other record offices.

After a discussion on how the BLHA might co-ordinate or encourage local history web activity, George Howe and Peter Ibbett shared a ‘two Ronnies’ audio-visual presentation on local people and places, ‘They Walked Potton Streets’, which was lively, informative and entertaining.

The atmosphere of the day was friendly, welcoming, inclusive and altogether uplifting. The friendly folk of Potton were mostly to thank for that but the sun and the glorious setting did help.

Stuart Antrobus

Tribute to Liz Day, BEM, 1913-2010 - a Bedfordshire Land Girl

2010-05-25T21:55:00.001+01:00

Liz Day, former Bedfordshire Land Girl died on 8 April 2010. This Tribute is taken from the funeral ceremony arranged by Stephen Brand and held as a celebration of her life at Norse Road Crematorium, Bedford, on Tuesday 27 April 2010 at 11.30am. The service was conducted by Carolanne Gibson, Civil Funeral Celebrant.

Liz was a very sociable, well-liked lady who had many friends. She was certainly determined and strong minded and she liked to get the most out of life.

Elizabeth Mary Blair Day was born on the 26th April 1913, the eldest of seven children. She had two brothers and four sisters, and is survived by her sister Jane in Canada. She came from a farming background and the family lived at Dungee Farm in Odell. Later they moved to Bedford.

At the beginning of the Second World War, Liz joined the ATS, having been a part-time member of the Women’s Legion of Motor Transport, a territorial organisation which trained in the evenings.

At the age of 27, she left the ATS and started her long Land Army career in Bedfordshire at Isaac Godber’s nurseries at Willington, where she stayed for three years. [She then became a Forewoman at Cople Hostel and later had a roving brief for the Bedfordshire War Agricultural Committee.]

Most of the time, Liz worked in the outdoor gang at the nursery but in the summer season she would take an over-laden 2 and half ton Commer Lorry at least once a week to deliver 12 pound boxes of tomatoes to the wholesale markets in Coventry. Sometimes she had to find alternative routes, following bomb damage in the Midlands.

She could appreciate more than most just how difficult it must have been for young women from towns and cities who found themselves doing hard physical work in the open air. Liz was used to the work and the weather.

In terms of social life, she would meet friends at The Anchor Pub in Great Barford on Friday nights. There were May festivities and gymkhanas were very popular.

Because of her previous experience with horses, Liz could be seen annually in Russell Park in Bedford on Farm Sunday driving horses from Godber’s Nursery. She also cycled to the BBC Music symphony concerts when they were resident in Bedford. For recreation she liked to play hockey and cricket.

One of Liz’s personal highlights in the Women’s Land Army was when, at Cople Hostel, there was a visit by the Duchess of Gloucester to inspect the land girls. Liz was chosen to present to the Duchess a basket of apples and eggs surrounded by snowdrops, daffodils and anemones, picked from the hostel garden.

In February 1946, Princess Elizabeth visited Bedford. In the victory parade along the High Street Liz drove a tractor past the Princess who took the salute. Later, the Princess opened an exhibition of agricultural work and handicrafts. Luton Museum had loaned some old farming implements to the exhibition and Liz’s father was called upon to identify some of the rare items for labelling.

Rather than being demobilised, as the majority of Bedfordshire Land girls were after the February 1946 parade, Liz decided to stay on. In total she served for 10 years in the Land Army.

In 1947, Liz took four Women’s Land Army proficiency tests and gained three distinctions. She transferred to horticulture, where the work was somewhat lighter than general farm work. She worked briefly with gangs doing experimental work with Unilever at Colmworth.

Because of Liz’s interest in agriculture she had already completed a correspondence course on ‘Elements of Agriculture’. At the end of the war she was one of the fortunate ones who got a grant to do a full-time course in horticulture at the Kent Horticulture Institute at Swanley.

It was while she was there that she heard she had been awarded the British Empire Medal for services to the Women’s Land Army. She was one of only thirty-one nationally to be honoured in this way. The letter was in an envelope marked ‘prime minister’ and informed her not to say anything to anyone for three weeks. The letter was signed ‘George Rex’ (King George VI)

Once the news was out she was ribbed by all her fellow students at Swanley who came up with their own rude abbreviations as alternatives to BEM. They wrote ‘NBG’ on her dormitory door which stood for ‘no bloody good’ [but only in jest].

Liz ended her working life as a ‘groundsman’ at the women’s physical education teacher training college in Bedford. She worked at the college for 30 years. A well travelled representative from Fisons, who knew all the leading groundsmen once pointed out to her that she was the only female head ‘groundsman’ in the country.

Liz had many hobbies throughout her life. She enjoyed carpentry, working mainly with oak, and the family still have the wonderful tables and stools that she made. She loved the outdoors and wildlife and had many happy holidays travelling around Britain with the Ramblers Association.

In later life she enjoyed adult learning courses at the Retirement Education Centre and she made many friends there.

With her health failing, Liz moved into Henrietta House in December 2008. The family would like to thank all the staff for the excellent care that they gave to Liz during her time there.

The family have gained strength from Liz. She was a dear aunt to Stephen, Hazel and Tom and a special great aunt to Jackie.

She was a very special, inspirational woman who will be sadly missed.

*******

For more details of Liz Day’s experience in the Bedfordshire Women’s Land Army, and period photos see We wouldn’t have missed it for the World by Stuart Antrobus (Book Castle Publishing, 2008), pp.82-3; 172-6.
Photograph courtesy of Stuart Antrobus who also contributed this piece.

Bedfordshire and Luton Archives and Records Service

2010-03-26T10:24:00.001Z

Last week I was reading a disturbing editorial in The Oxfordshire Local Historian complaining about the stop-go 'policy' for developing the local studies centre and record office in Oxford - the local studies centre being squeezed of staff and space to accommodate a building development that is unlikely to take place - and the record office's ideas for a combined local studies centre and record office on a new site having to be reduced drastically to a redesign of the current record office (in a former church) to accommodate both.

The editorial was expressing a deep-felt frustration about Oxfordshire services and there seemed to be something substantial to complain about. But in comparison with Bedfordshire, there's no cause for complaint.

I've been hearing about what sounds like indifference or ignorance in the 'support' given to Bedfordshire Archives and Records Service (BLARS) since the local government changes in the county twelve months ago. (Is it significant that the change was implemented on 1 April?) I hear that the service does not have a budget; that it has no strategic head for policy development; that it was not going to be able to re-apply for Charter Mark status.

I may have misunderstood the situation. I hope so. I'd like someone to explain what is happening.

BLARS is a jewel amongst county record offices and a Bedfordshire treasure that the three local authorities should be exploiting (in the best sense of the word) for the advantage of the county, all those who have an interest in its history and - not least - for the enhancement of their standing.

Do you think your surname is native to Bedfordshire - again

2010-03-25T17:01:00.005Z

The post about surnames has produced an almost instant reply from Richard, who says:

I wonder whether the website which I manage might be of help in the study of surname distribution? It is the website of the National Archive of Memorial Inscriptions, NAOMI for short. The address is: www.memorialinscriptions.org.uk.

There are at present 29,263 people from 108 burial grounds named on the site . To read the inscriptions on their memorials searchers have to pay (£4), but searching is free of charge. If you enter first the county's name on the home page and the name you are interested in, pressing 'Search' will bring up a list of all the names at present included in the database from Bedfordshire, together with their first names, dates of death, age at death and the place of their burial.

Then you can use the search facilities to help you find spelling variants of the names. The two most useful ways of doing this are by employing in your search box the signs? (question mark) and * (asterisk). The ? works like a wild card – it can represent any letter. So, for example, the surname ‘Grey' can be spelled 'Gray'. To search for both, enter 'Gr?y.

The * works in a similar way, but it can bring up any number of letters. Try ‘Gr*y’.Other names are found in a wider variety of spellings. An example is 'Sewell'. The only common factor in the various versions is that they begin with an 'S' and end with an 'l'. Enter ‘S*l and you will get all the examples that are available which begin with ‘S’ and end with ‘l’. As you can see, this is a powerful tool from which a surname distribution map could be drawn, taking account of migration and of variant spellings.

Richard Smart

And Richard has supplied a photograph from NAOMI. It is of the much loved and mourned daughter Florence Jane (known as Edris) of Edward and Charlotte Bousfield. Charlotte's diary was published by BHRS and has recently been reprinted in paperback at £14.95.

Do you think your surname is native to Bedfordshire?

2010-03-23T00:09:00.000Z

The forthcoming BHRS volume is the WWI War Diary of the 2nd Battalion, the Bedfordshire Regiment and reading it (OK, proof-reading) I noticed Acting Corporal Vincent Ivory from Luton among the casualties in July 1917. This rang a bell as the surname cropped up in another context recently - again from the Luton area, but in this instance from the early sixteenth century, when the family were playing a leading part in the pre-Reformation Luton Fraternity (a secular religious gild).

It set me thinking about the continuity of names in very small areas of the country and in particular in Bedfordshire where for example Ellingham, Docwra, Cleaver, Honor/Honour, Baldwin, German/Jarman, Mann, Pedder, Tearle, Peppiatt were prominent in south Bedfordshire in the early sixteenth century and are still there and in adjoining counties today. How long had these families been living there before the sixteenth century?

That question may soon be answered, or at least evidence provided to assist in further research.

A far-reaching study of surnames in Britain is being undertaken by Professor Richard Coates and a team at the University of the West of England's Bristol Centre for Linguistics. The study, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, was announced at the end of last year and sounds as if it will be a major contribution to source material for population studies. The press release includes this explanation of its purpose and aims and some of the information it will provide:

"Using published and unpublished resources, dating from as far back as the 11th century, a team of researchers will collect information about individual names such as when and where they were recorded and how they have been spelled. This information will be used to give new and detailed explanations of those names. This new knowledge will be far more reliable and up to date than that found in the books on surnames currently available. This resource will be a permanently publicly accessible database that people can use for a range of information. Each name will have separate fields which include: the meaning of the surname; the linguistic origin, the geographical origin and the distribution."

So, how will this affect Bedfordshire history? For a start, it will be a considerable aid to plotting the distribution of a surname in different periods and, consequently, the internal migration of individuals and families. Migration means contact and contact means influence, and it may be possible to extrapolate familial networks which will tie Bedfordshire people in with other areas of Britain.

It will be several years before the information will be available of course but I'm looking forward to the potential for widening research that it will provide.

More on Where is Bedfordshire

2010-01-08T17:09:00.001Z

Last year I posed the question of Bedfordshire's place in regional history - midlands, eastern counties, home counties, etc. A book from English Heritage has just come my way, although published in 2006, that answers that question by placing the county firmly in the East Midlands.

It draws upon topography, forests and hills, settlement patterns, weather and agriculture to define the East Midlands region as running in an arc southwest from the North Sea coast of Lincolnshire to west Oxfordshire. At its eastern and southern boundaries it excludes the Fens and the Chilterns, thus including the majority of Bedfordshire firmly within the region. The exception is those extreme southern parishes at the intersection of Beds, Bucks and Herts, which fall within the South East region and the outer limits of the pull of London.

The book is a sweeping survey of climate, communications, settlements, housing, industry and religion over several millenia. Despite this wide sweep, there is much to interest and instruct the historian of Bedfordshire, not least the importance of placing a county in its wider geographical context. The maps, diagrams and photographs illustrate the text superbly.

The book:
David Stocker, England's landscape: the East Midlands. Collins for English Heritage, 2006.

The photos here, courtesy Ewart Tearle:
Above: a signpost in Toddington, Bedfordshire.
Right: Airship hangers at Cardington - a bit of modern landscape.

Goldington people in the early sixteenth century

2010-01-03T00:02:00.001Z

Before the censuses of the nineteenth century the existence of lists of inhabitants or householders depends on the survival of a variety of documents created for reasons other than recording all people in a place - taxation lists and hearth tax returns, parish registers and jury lists, manorial court documents and pew lists amongst others.

A less obvious source for the inhabitants of a town or village are wills. Normally they only mention the testator's family and a few friends. Rarely do they contain as much about the testator's neighbours as that of Alice Gray of Goldington who made her will on 20 October 1505. It must have been a deathbed will as it was proved six days later. Deathbed or not, she remembered the local religious houses and forty six people amongst whom she distributed her cows, barley, clothing and household goods. She also remembered the poor of Goldington, giving 12d to each of ten named people. She made no mention of husband or children which would account for the distribution of her goods amongst friends, neighbours and servants.

An abstract of Alice Gray's will, including the names of all these beneficiaries, is in BHRS volume 37 (1956) together with nearly 200 other wills of Bedfordshire people for the period 1498 to 1526. It is probable that she was the widow of John Gray of Goldington who died in 1500, apparently without children, leaving a few modest bequests and appointing his wife Alice as one of his executors. His will is also abstracted in a BHRS volume, number 45 for 1966.

This list in Alice Gray's will provides a snapshot of some, at least, of the inhabitants of this village on the outskirts of Bedford and is particularly important because it was made twenty years before the taxation returns of the mid-1520s and fifty years before the earliest extant parish records.

School log books and FACHRS

2009-11-24T09:44:00.000Z

After my recent post about Toddington log books, a friend reminded me about the school log books project being undertaken by the Family and Community Historical Research Society. The project is aimed at studying the light that school log books throw on the relationship between schools and the local community. The Toddington log book clearly demonstrated how school and community were intertwined and, incidentally, recorded events in the community that may otherwise have been lost, so there should be a lot that can be teased out of Beds log books about the history of daily life in the county.

I wonder if there is anyone working on Beds school log books for the project?

Bousfield Diaries reprinted!

2009-11-11T23:51:00.000Z

BHRS's 2007 volume, The Bousfield Diaries, sold out several months ago and has now been reprinted in paperback at £14.99. Available from the publisher, Boydell & Brewer, or good bookshops - see the list on the right for local Bedfordshire bookshops.

A recent review in The Local Historian praised the "exemplary introduction" and calls the diary "a valuable addition to local history and many other fields of nineteenth-century studies".

Toddington schoolboys given time off to see WG Grace

2009-11-11T22:33:00.007Z

“School dismissed 2.55pm. Doctor Grace, his son, Lockwood and several other professional cricketers are playing a 2 day match at the Park and I want the elder boys to see the game” wrote the headmaster, Charles E Thomas in the school log book of Toddington Church of England School for 14 and 15 September 1899.

Other events such as football matches with local schools, Sunday School teas held by the different denominations in the parish, jumble sales, school concerts, and polling days led to the closure of the school, either for all or part of a day. These were rare highlights in school life. Other closures occurred because of less happy events such as an epidemic of measles in 1906.

Superficially the log books can seem repetitive and, even, boring, recording the weekly round of the school. They note average attendance each week and the effect of the weather and sickness amongst the children on attendance. Whooping cough, scarlatina, influenza, ringworm and measles, which seems to have caused most alarm, were annual occurrences. Absences also happened when the older children were needed to take dinner to the haymakers or to help at harvest time with blackberrying, etc.

The log book concentrates, of course, on teaching, with a lot of references to the themes of Object Lessons that were taught to different classes (‘standards’ to use the contemporary nomenclature), including dog, sheep, lion, tiger, ostrich, railway station, blacksmith’s shop, iron, coal, and thus introducing children to everyday things and to things that would be well beyond their experience. Much less is said about other subjects although it is clear that reading, writing, arithmetic, drawing, geography, history, religious instruction, singing, recitation and domestic economy (for the girls) were taught. There were drills and route marches. Gardens were established so that the boys could be taught gardening.

The school board manager, the local vicar and curate, local gentry and HM Inspectors visited regularly.

Log books rarely mention pupils by name except for real successes or tragedies, such as the death of “a little scholar”, Oliver Clarke from Standard II. “He was only absent from school a week. The cause of death was acute blood poisoning.” An unusual listing of names occurs in January 1899 when those children who had reached the required level were allowed to leave below the normal leaving age in order to go to work: Charles Hobbs, Fred Buckingham, Alice Reid, Ernest Brazier, Ida Coles, Rose Evans, John Nash, George Ansell and Charles Kingham.

The teachers figure prominently in the log. Most were pupil teachers and their work and exam successes are often mentioned. From their names – Briden and Muckleston in particular – they were locals who were working hard to make a career for themselves.

The annual school report was usually good, except in 1906 when discipline had been a problem, and can best be summed up by the 1904 HMI report that “Mr Thomas deserves the highest credit for the manner in which he conducts this difficult over-crowded and under-staffed school.” The annual budget was inadequate for improvements to the premises such as new desks and more toilets for the Infants, or Babies as they were called sometimes and babies they were too, some starting school as young as three. Some of the improvements, such as a wall round the girls playground, and luxuries such as prizes were paid for through concerts and jumble sales run by the school itself.

There is so much more in the log book – violin lessons for 15 pupils given by a local violinist; girls going into service; the headmaster also being the local church organist; the jubilation at the telegram announcing the Relief of Ladysmith; the children marching on to the Green with the Union Jack and singing patriotic songs - that anyone interested in Toddington and in turn-of-the-century school life should read it at BLARS.

Photo (copyright of Ewart Tearle) of the Old School Toddington. Is this the school which is the subject of these logbooks?

Edworth at Harvard

2009-10-18T18:44:00.003+01:00

Many years ago on a visit to Harvard, I disgraced myself on being shown the portrait of Jeremy Bentham in Harvard Law School Library's Art Collection Room by exclaiming 'But that's not Jeremy Bentham!' because the portrait bore little resemblance to the wall painting at University College London.

This posting has nothing to do with Jeremy Bentham, but it is concerned with Harvard Law School Library and Bedfordshire. Amongst the Library's manuscripts is the Hale Collection: 132 manuscripts of land dealings by the Hale family of King's Walden (Hertfordshire) in the 17th century. More than 20 relate to the Hale's lands in Bedfordshire, mainly Edworth (including a grant of the manor in 1683) and a few about Wrestlingworth, Ampthill and Markyate.

A spot check on Edworth in BLARS online catalogue suggests that Harvard's holdings are complementary.

Regional history - where is Bedfordshire?

2009-10-09T16:55:00.005+01:00

From time to time the editor of BHRS has been offered articles for publication and has had to turn them down because the Society has no plans to publish a collections of essays and does not publish a journal. It has been possible to suggest a few journals to which the articles could be submitted as there are academic journals for the history of most subjects and periods.

It was less obvious which regional academic journal would include Bedfordshire because the county can fall into a bewildering range of regions. Is it in central England, the Chilterns, East Anglia, the east midlands, the home counties, the midlands or south midlands or ... where? In addition to a journal's territorial coverage, authors also have their own definition of Bedfordshire's regional place so that, frequently, when looking for the Bedfordshire content of an article with an appropriate regional coverage, it is lacking.

At the Local History conference at the University of Leicester in July this year, I talked to the publisher of Midland History about this problem and discovered that I was talking to the right person. Midland History, published by the University of Birmingham is the place for articles about Bedfordshire. According to the publisher's information (Maney Publishing) -

"Its aim is to publish scholarly work on the counties of Bedfordshire, Derbyshire, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Rutland, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire. It is a refereed journal which prints articles on midlands topics: from professional and amateur historians alike, locally based and from overseas."

It would be good to find that in the journal's thirty five volumes there were a lot of articles specifically about Bedfordshire. But alas, only three articles had the words Bedford or Bedfordshire in the title. Is there anyone out there reseaching and writing about Bedfordshire to fill this gap?

Bedfordshire at LMA

2009-10-08T23:30:00.003+01:00

Amongst the manors purchased by the City of London from the King around 1628 were several in Bedfordshire - Biggleswade, Ampthill, Houghton Conquest and more.

Auditors' reports on rentals and the surveys of these manors undertaken by the City are amongst the papers held by the London Metropolitan Archives . For example one of the auditor's reports of 1627/8 is described as "Mr. Knights brief report as to extent of the Manor of Littington and the names of tenant and reversioner".

LMA's online catalogue only includes minimal information about these and many other documents with a Bedfordshire focus, but there is sufficient to awaken interest in any serious researcher.

Bedfordshire at the Imperial War Museum

2009-10-08T22:39:00.004+01:00

Staying with the wartime subject of the last post (A Soldier in Bedfordshire 1941-42), I recently discovered the rich collections of the Imperial War Museum - illustrations, posters, interviews, films, books, diaries, letters and personal accounts of wartime or by service personnel.

A basic search in the IWM collections' catalogue for Luton resulted in 128 hits, beginning with a beautiful picture of the De Havilland Mosquito B35, probably built by Percival Aircraft Ltd at Luton in 1945 and a long description of the aircraft itself.

A search on Bedfordshire brought up more than 400 hits including diaries and letters written by men of the Bedfordshire Regiment during WWI and a 1918 film of the Inspection of volunteer regiments at Bedford in March 1918 by Field Marshal Viscount French.

For anyone researching 20th century Bedfordshire, this is a collection well worth consulting.

A Soldier in Bedfordshire 1941-42 - BHRS's 2009 volume

2009-10-08T21:52:00.006+01:00

BHRS's 2009 volume A Soldier in Bedfordshire 1941-42 was launched at the Society's AGM in Bedford on 19 September.

It is the diary written for Mass Observation by Denis Argent who was in a bomb disposal unit stationed in Bedford then Luton for a few months. Mass Observation, a social research organisation set up in the late 1930s to record 'how we were', relied on ordinary people to submit diaries and answer questionaires for its archive of everyday life. Denis Argent, who had been a journalist before joining up, took his diary very seriously and wrote about daily life as he saw it in Bedford and Luton.

The diary is full of army routine, transport problems, politics, leisure, films, books, music and bomb disposal, including an account and pictures of digging up a bomb in Bedfordshire. Denis was also a conscientious objector at the beginning of the war and he writes a lot about how conchies viewed themselves.

The book was launched with a lively presentation by Dorothy Sheridan, Development Director of the Mass Observation Archive and Bob and Patricia Malcolmson, who edited the diary for publication and who have edited several MO diaries. Sussex University hosts the MO Archive, which is very much an ongoing project - view its website to find out what is currently going on.

The dairy is available from booksellers and the publisher, Boydell & Brewer at £25.

Land Girls ‘Get-Together’ in Bedford

2009-10-08T21:39:00.007+01:00

This contribution has been received from Stuart Antrobus:

On Sunday 31 May 2009, I was pleased to attend a service of thanksgiving at St. Paul’s Church, Bedford, for former members of the Women’s Land Army and Women’s Timber Corps, arranged by the Lord Lieutenant of Bedfordshire, Sam Whitbread. Over 300 people attended, including over 70 former ‘land girls’.
This was followed by a lively reception at the Harpur Suite. The sun shone and everyone was in their ‘Sunday best’ clothes.

The service, arranged by the Reverend Canon John Pedlar and Mr. Whitbread, included both familiar hymns – “All people that on earth do dwell”, “We plough the fields and scatter”, “All things bright and beautiful” - and a choral version of The Land Army Song, “Back to the land”, for female voices. As the historian of the Women’s Land Army (WLA) in the county I was able to contribute by suggesting the secular readings – an extract from ‘Land at War’ by Laurie Lee and a moving poem, ‘Remember us’, by Hilda Gibson. I read the Laurie Lee passage which celebrates the contribution that ‘land girls’ made to wartime agriculture, enabling the nation to be fed. The poem was read by Faith Baxter, daughter of Mrs Erica Graham, who chaired the WLA county committee during the war. One of the highlights of the service was a live ‘conversation’ between Pam Rhodes (of BBC’s ‘Songs of Praise’ fame) and three representative former ‘land girls’ I had chosen to give their own personal testimonies of service on the land during the Second World War. This brought alive some of hardship and laughter which these young women experienced and must have triggered many memories in the minds of those other, now elderly, ladies (some of them in wheelchairs; others quite sprightly) in the congregation.

It was fitting that this final great ‘get-together’ should come in the year after these former ‘land girls’ – who had given up the comforts of home to volunteer to take the place of male farm workers drawn into the armed forces for the duration of the war – were finally awarded a Veterans Badge to acknowledge their sacrifice and contribution to the war effort.

Mr Whitbread talking to forrmer Land Girl, Liz Day (photo by Ros Wong). More photographs of the event are on flickr via the Lord Lieutenant's website.

*******

Stuart Antrobus is author of We wouldn’t have missed it for the world: the Women’s Land Army in Bedfordshire, 1939-1950 (Book Castle Publishing, 2008)

Ouse Valley Books

2009-03-11T10:46:00.004Z

Recently I attended a Provincial Booksellers' Fairs Association fair near my home. The first stand I came to was Bedfordshire-based Barrie Farnsworth's - and I bought a Bedfordshire book immediately.

Barrie's secondhand stock includes Bedfordshire history. He does not have a website yet but says that enquiries to ousevalleybooks@btconnect.com are welcome.

Buzzard Books, Leighton Buzzard

2008-11-29T17:57:00.004Z

Today I discovered another independent bookshop in Bedfordshire that includes books on local history in its stock.

Buzzard Books is at 1 High Street Mews, just off the High Street and shopping area in Leighton Buzzard. Tucked away but easily visible to anyone glancing down the mews, its crisp blue bookshop sign is difficult to miss. The shop was set up in 2006 by Colin Ashby, fulfilling a 25 year dream to own his own bookshop after working for national booksellers.

It is a small shop and, when I visited it for a book launch, it was overflowing with people and books. That didn't stop me having a good look round as well as chatting to people at the launch. There was a prominent display of the book being launched, Leighton Buzzard and Linslade: a History, and a bookcase of books about Leighton Buzzard, the surrounding area and some of the recent books on Bedfordshire as a whole. I also noticed a selection of Cassini historical maps for the area.

The rest of the shop was eminently browsable and my companion remarked especially on the excellent quality of the children's books. They also feature in the links on their website http://buzzardbookshop.tbpcontrol.co.uk which lists some of the stock and provides for online ordering.

Of course it is not necessary to visit a bookshop to buy books these days, but it is so much more fun to do so and discover hitherto unknown books. So, if you are passing by, buzz down the Mews and discover local history books for Leighton Buzzard and the area and experience the independent bookseller's boast of a shop with 'great service, great knowledge and pleasant atmosphere'.

Where is that place?

2008-10-31T23:11:00.008Z

Did you know that -

Bedfordshire has its own California, Ireland and Stratford?

‘end’ is probably the most common placename element (even more common than ‘green’) in Bedfordshire hamlets and that there are fourteen places called Church End and six called Water End?

St Peter de Dunstable was a parish in Bedford, not Dunstable?

many places have the suffix –hoe, –oe, -o or –ow (derived from the Old English hoh, describing the shape of a hill)?

This and much more fascinating information about places in Bedfordshire can be discovered from Bedfordshire and Luton Archives and Records Service’s website.

It is unfortunate that the websites of county record offices and public libraries are so often hidden within the complex structures of local government websites because many of them contain information treasures for the local historian. BLARS’ home pages are one such hidden treasure. They are subsumed under Leisure and Culture at http://www.bedfordshire.gov.uk and are vital for Bedfordshire’s historians. One of the most useful sections is the Guide to Bedfordshire Parishes within the section on Guides to Collections.

It lists the county’s ancient and modern parishes (as you would expect), dating many changes of status. It explains civil parishes and ecclesiastical parishes. It notes the effect of county boundary changes on the counties into which parishes or parts of parishes fall. It also lists ‘hamlets, townships, ends and localities’ - the small places, the dispersed settlements that seem to occur in all except the smallest of parishes and are often so difficult to locate. And it goes beyond the county by listing the 80-or-so contiguous parishes and hamlets in the counties adjoining Bedfordshire.

Altogether, a treasure trove for local place names and an example for other counties to follow.

More Bedfordshire apprentices far from home

2008-10-16T18:13:00.006+01:00

Following the posting about Bedfordshire boys being apprenticed in Gloucester, two more Bedfordshire boys have turned up out-of-county as apprentices, this time in Oxford. They are:

Thomas Gillett, son of George Gillett late of Clanfield (ie Cranfield) yeoman, deceased, who was apprenticed to John Knibb clockmaker of Oxford on 24 June 1698, presumably for 7 years although the record does not mention the period,

and

James Keats, son of Thomas Keats of Ampthill yeoman apprenticed to Edward Pittaway locksmith of Oxford for 7 years from 8 February 1741/2.

These two entries are from the published list of Oxford City Apprentices 1697-1800, edited by Malcolm Graham, 1987 (Oxford Historical Society, new series, vol. 31). The introduction to the volume describes the records and the system of apprenticeship in Oxford. Records of apprentices survive from the sixteenth century in various of the Oxford City Council books and maybe there are more Bedfordshire boys (and maybe even girls) apprenticed in Oxford in the earlier period.

What happened to these two boys after their apprenticeship? Did they remain where they were, return home or move on elsewhere?

Can anyone out there add the names of other Bedfordshire boys and girls apprenticed outside the county?

Women's Land Army in Bedfordshire

2008-10-14T22:36:00.008+01:00

Bedford Central Library hosted the launch of Stuart Antrobus’s book about land girls in Bedfordshire -

“We would not have missed it for the World”:
the Women’s Land Army in Bedfordshire 1939-1950

And what a launch it was! More than fifty former land girls (sporting their new WLA badges) and their families (including a couple from the USA) were amongst the audience viewing the display of information about their work and helping to launch the book. The event room overflowed and buzzed with conversation. Anglia TV took pictures and interviewed some people.

Book launches are about speeches to celebrate the successful completion of a lot of hard work by a lot of people. In this case, there was a double celebration because this was the book of the award-winning website.

Nicola Avery of Bedford Library’s Information Services welcomed everyone and explained the library’s involvement with Stuart Antrobus’s WLA research. She was presented by a trustee of the Library Services Trust with the Alan Ball Local History Award which is an annual award for local studies publishing by public libraries (see my blog earlier this year). The award was accompanied by certificates for the site’s webmaster and for the author. The book's publisher, Paul Bowes of Book Castle Publishing, praised everyone involved in its design and production, which was well-deserved as a great deal of care has gone into presenting information and illustrations in an attractive and clear fashion.

Finally, Stuart thanked all the former land girls who had contributed so much to the project and his team who helped compile the list of c3,500 names from WLA records. He has been working on the project for five years and is continuing to research the people and places.

And the book itself? It begins with a straightforward and brief account of the Women’s Land Army, nationally and locally. At this point it is worth noting that the book is about land girls who WORKED in Bedfordshire, not Bedfordshire born and bred land girls who were sent out of the county to work – that’s a different project!

The book ends with a superbly reconstructed list of the land girls who worked in Bedfordshire (the website contains information on some of them), the hostels they lived in and other useful facts on the WLA and farming jobs. The middle section of the book tells the story of some of these girls and what the work and the conditions were like. It brings home how different life was then, especially in comparison with the technology and convenience of the early 21st century. This is an essential reference work for anyone interested in women’s war work or the home front in Bedfordshire in WWII and it has the advantage of being updated through the website.

“We would not have missed it for the World”: the Women’s Land Army in Bedfordshire 1939-1950; by Stuart Antrobus. Yorkshire, Book Castle Publishing, 2008. £16.99. Is available from the bookshops on the side panel or online.

Sir Gregory Page-Turner

2008-10-02T17:45:00.005+01:00

Anyone wanting to find out from the internet about the Page-Turner family of Bedfordshire will have a problem. If you put “page turner” or “Page-Turner” into Google, in excess of two and a half million hits will be generated, mainly in the senses of something (films as well as books!) of compulsive interest and a person or software that literally turns pages. Of course, adding a first name narrows the hits to nearly manageable proportions.

Earlier this year the National Gallery had an exhibition of paintings by Pompeo Batoni in the Sainsbury Wing which included his portrait of a Bedfordshire gentleman Sir Gregory Page-Turner, 3rd Bt, painted in 1768-69 while he was on his grand tour. It shows a rather preciously posed young man in a red coat against a classic architectural backdrop. The pose is reminiscent of the Apollo Belvedere but actually makes him look overweight. More information about the portrait and the grand tour is at
http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/collection/features/grandtour/feature4.htm

The picture is owned by Manchester City Galleries and can be seen and downloaded for private use at

How many other Bedfordshire people were painted on their grand tour?

Lutonian Odyssey

2008-10-02T17:04:00.002+01:00

Recently published by Dr Clive Field OBE, formerly of the British Library, is his mother’s account of growing up in Luton between the wars, entitled Lutonian Odyssey: reminiscences of Lily Field for 1915-52.

The introduction explains that Lily worked on the text over a number of years. The account of her life has both the immediacy of the first hand account and the accuracy of Clive’s editing.

It is particularly interesting for being an account of a financially, but in no other way, impoverished life. Lily’s father died when she was very young. She makes light of their poverty, concentrating on the highlights in her life especially her sister, who also sadly died young. A picture of support from her grandfather and from neighbours emerges. There are firsthand accounts of the excitement of visits beyond Luton and of her later immersion in Methodist culture. The description of places and transport in Luton gradually brings out how small the town was then.

At first I felt that insufficient attention was given to their financial hardship but then I realised that this is an account of happily making the best of what they had – a lesson for today.

This book should be read by Lutonians, who will be interested in the people and places described, and by anyone who is caught up in that period of Bedfordshire’s (and England’s) social history.

To buy a copy, price £6, email Clive at c.d.field@bham.ac.uk

How Bedfordshire Voted

2008-10-02T15:18:00.002+01:00

BHRS's 2008 volume, published in September, is the second in the series of Bedfordshire poll books published under the title How Bedfordshire voted: the evidence of local poll books.

The aim is to make Bedfordshire people's voting record in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries available for study. A review of volume 1 says that it shows "how county politics actually functioned at the level of the individual voter.” and that "this edition … will be absolutely essential for those with specific political, local or familial interests in late seventeenth-century Bedfordshire, as well as those seeking material for a comparative analysis.”

(H R French in History, volume 93, no 311, July 2008, p428-9)

HBV1 covers five elections from 1685 to 1715. HBV2 continues the poll book transcriptions for 1722 to 1735 covering the elections for two representatives of the borough of Bedford for 1722, 1725 (a by-election to elect one representative), 1727 and 1730/1 (another election of one representative) and for two knights of the shire for 1722, 1727 and 1734.

Accompanying text sets the elections in their local, county and national context and demonstrates that political calculations in selecting candidates and how many votes could be counted on are not a new phenomenon. This volume needs to be read with volume 1 where the electoral system and method of voting are explained.

HBV1 and 2 contain around 20,000 names of Bedfordshire voters in 12 elections for the half century from James II’s reign. Three of the poll books were printed at the time and the texts may be found on the internet, but most of the poll books are in manuscript only, so these two volumes make available a massive amount of new information for the historian of Bedfordshire. They give a vivid – and changing – picture of life in the county at a time of social and political upheaval.

Last word to the reviewer “Given the work involved in editing, checking and indexing these lists, the retail price [£25] offers good value, as is usually the case for county record society volumes.” Both volumes are available from the publisher, Boydell & Brewer, and bookshops (see side panel.)

Born at Luton Hoo?

2008-07-07T10:48:00.005+01:00

Recently I received a plea for help in tracking down information about Luton Hoo being used as a maternity home for London evacuees during World War II. The enquirer believed that she had been born there but could find no information about Luton Hoo as a maternity home other than a posting on the BBC's WW2 People's War site

With the help of the Luton hospital historian and other documentary sources, it became clear that Luton Hoo was never a maternity home. For most of the war, it was the HQ of Eastern Command, although the King Edward VII Hospital for Officers was evacuated there for a short time in 1939.

So where was this enquirer born, if not at Luton Hoo?

A bit of delving revealed that the place of birth was The Hoo and that The Hoo in question was Gaddesden Hoo in Hertfordshire. For someone not familiar with local placenames in the Beds/Herts area, the identification of The Hoo with Luton Hoo is understandable.

Hoo is not an uncommon place name and also occurs in Kempston, Pertenhall, Wootton, Meppershall and Clifton, although undoubtedly Luton Hoo is the best known. But Great Gaddesden, just north of Hemel Hempstead, also has a house called The Hoo, and Hoo Lodge, Hoo Cottages, and Hoo Wood - in fact, an estate with a large house, although not of the order of Luton Hoo.

The enquiry raises the whole question of maternity homes for Second World War evacuees. Were there any in Bedfordshire? If so, where were they?

BHRS - lucky winner

2008-07-07T10:06:00.004+01:00

Recently BHRS's secretary, Richard Smart, took part in an ICT survey run by Community and Voluntary Service Mid and North Beds. His response to the questionnaire was one of 157 from organisations around the area that looked at requirements for IT support.

A full report will be published soon. Meanwhile general findings are that around half the respondents felt that more help was needed by the voluntary sector in supporting the use of computers in their voluntary work.

The names of survey participants were entered in a prize draw and - Richard won an HP all-in-one printer, scanner and copier for the Society.

Who Do You Think You Are - LIVE?

2008-05-08T22:38:00.005+01:00

Well, several members of BHRS Council spent two enjoyable days at Who Do You Think You Are? at Olympia last weekend, 4 and 5 May. We met lots of family historians who either live in Bedfordshire now or whose ancestors lived there.

The main area of interest was the east of the county, especially around Biggleswade, although the Society's three books on Luton excited some interest - Strawopolis, The Education and Employment of Girls in Luton, and Vauxhall Motors and the Luton Economy 1900-2002 - as did the The Shiny Seventh: the 7th (Service) Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment at War 1915-1918.

People wanted to know "what we had on ..." their village and we were able to direct them to the Bedfordshire Family Society History stand where there was a wider range of books for sale and to BLARS stand for advice on the resources of the Bedfordshire and Luton Archive and Record Service.

I had a long discussion with one lady about the importance of poll books in throwing light on political, economic and social background. With the publication in August of the Society's second volume of poll book transcriptions, the voting patterns in Bedfordshire for the 50-year period 1685-1735 will be available.

BHRS expands

2008-04-24T09:55:00.002+01:00

The Bedfordshire Historical Record Society is going through an exciting time of development. In addition to the annual volume, which has been the centre of the Society’s activities for many years, the Society is currently -

· planning a major new database to update the Bedfordshire Bibliography,
· discussing digitisation with British History Online,
· planning to reprint articles from the Bedfordshire Magazine, and
· discussing participation in the national Hearth Tax transcription project with the project management at the University of Roehampton.

They are all exciting projects that will provide access to sources for the history of Bedfordshire to a wider audience through the internet. They also present many opportunities for participation by BHRS members and non-members.

If you are interested in being part of this expansion or contributing to its annual volume, why not contact BHRS - bhrs@bedfordshirehrs.org.uk - and volunteer? The Society is looking particularly for people with IT, admin., fundraising, research, bibliographical and transcription skills – and a little time. And you don’t have to live in Bedfordshire to take part.

Who Do You Think You Are - LIVE

2008-04-17T16:48:00.005+01:00

Bedfordshire Historical Record Society has a stand at WDYTYA for the two days, Saturday and Sunday 3 and 4 May.

We shall be selling recent BHRS volumes and a few of the older ones, all at competitive prices.

Of particular use to family historians is How Bedfordshire Voted, volume 1 edited by James Collett-White. It contains 8,500 names of people who voted in the Parliamentary elections for representatives for the borough of Bedford and county of Bedfordshire in the period 1685-1715. The poll books transcribed in this volume were not printed at the time, so the information is a new published source for people researching Bedfordshire's history. Introductions to each election put it in a local and national context. The second volume will be published in August this year taking coverage to 1734 and revealing the voting history of the county for a 50 year period. The two volumes contain nearly 20,000 names.

Amongst the older volumes on sale will be the four Church volumes - Bedfordshire Churches in the Nineteenth Century, by Chris Pickford, BHRS vols 73, 77, 79 and 80. They are a mine of authoritative information about the design, architecture, artefacts and administration of Church of England churches including the many mission churches and rooms built in the 19th century to provide for the increase in population in such places as Luton.

Bedfordshire Women's Land Army site wins award

2008-03-25T18:48:00.002Z

Congratulations to Stuart Antrobus and the Bedfordshire County Council’s Local Studies Library staff on winning the Alan Ball Local History Award 2007 for Bedfordshire Women’s Land Army Internet Archive.

In announcing the winners on 28 February 2008, the judges praised the site for being “well structured, easily navigable, and a good example of a library working with a local historian to provide newly researched historical information within an existing website.”

Established nearly 25 years ago and administered by the Library Services Trust, the awards are an established part of the library awards scene and provide publicity for local studies, both nationally and locally, particularly in the winners' home areas. Both Stuart and the library staff must be delighted with this recognition of their contribution to the recent history of Bedfordshire.

Have a look at the website at http://tinyurl.com/2nq2up and see for yourself who the land girls were, and where they lived and worked. The project is on-going. The website is up dated frequently and Stuart is still calling for more information. There's still a lot to fill in about the careers of individual girls. Look at the list: maybe you'll recognise a name and can tell him about the person.

His book on the subject will be published by The Book Castle, Dunstable in October this year.

The Book Castle, Dunstable

2008-03-24T11:24:00.002Z

The Book Castle on Dunstable’s Church Street is a stone’s throw from the High Street and is located in one of Dunstable's most historic buildings, dating from 1872 and used as a drill hall by volunteer soldiers for many years. The bookshop was established nearly 30 years ago and is the largest independent bookshop in the area.

The Book Castle has three strings to its bow: although principally selling new books for all the family, it has a large range a second hand books for all tastes and - uniquely in the whole country - it is also a publisher, specialising in history, autobiography, pictorial and walking guides about its catchment area of Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and the Chilterns. With over 120 titles to date, this is an impressive record.

The shop prides itself on being a really traditional bookseller, offering excellent customer services – fast new book orders and out-of-print book search. It has also kindly lent books for review by BHRS on this blog – much appreciated!

If you can’t get to the shop itself, visit the website where its local interest titles and more are listed.

The Book Castle, 12 Church Street, Dunstable, Beds LU5 4RUTel: 01582 605670 Email: bc@book-castle.co.ukWeb: www.book-castle.co.uk

County Town Books, Bedford

2008-03-24T10:07:00.008Z

On a recent visit to Bedford I browsed around County Town Books, a marvellous bookshop, situated in the heart of the town opposite St Paul's Church and round the corner from the Swan Hotel on the Embankment of the river Ouse.

For anyone in the north of the county wanting a first rate choice of books about Bedfordshire, this is the place. On the left just inside the shop are around a dozen shelves (possibly more) devoted to Bedfordshire - parish histories large and small, the marvellous book on Bedfordshire Bridges, books on Bedfordshire regiments and airfields, picture books of bygone eras, railways, pubs and some of the current and older publications of BHRS.

I came away with more than I had intended buying - inevitably. One of the specialist books was Bedfordshire Barrels: a directory of commercial breweries in the county by Keith Osborne, which sets out the rise, fall, mergers and amalgamations of Beds breweries over the last 150 years or so. Of a general nature was Sandy Chrystal's Bedfordshire at work on old picture postcards. It shows the wide variety of work undertaken in this "rural" county and is a must for anyone interested in work and working conditions.

County Town Books does not have a website but a phone call or a visit would be well-worthwhile for anyone looking for books on Beds.

County Town Books, 7 High Street, Bedford MK40 1RN
Tel: 01234 341789

“At 12 Mr Byng was shot” – the court martial and execution of Admiral Byng

2008-02-11T14:34:00.000Z

The Byng family was prominent in Bedfordshire in the 17th and 18th centuries. After a successful naval and political career, George Byng was created Viscount Torrington in 1721. His son, Pattee Byng, was MP for Bedfordshire until he succeeded his father in 1733. The family had strong naval connections, the best known being John Byng, a younger son of the first Viscount, who rose to become an Admiral.

Admiral Byng was charged with neglecting his duty during an action against the French fleet in the Mediterranean in summer 1756. At a court martial he was found guilty and sentenced to death. Pleas for mercy were unsuccessful and he was executed by firing squad on board his former ship, the Monarch, on 14 March 1757.

The story is simply told on the Royal Naval Museum website http://www.royalnavalmuseum.org/info_sheets_john_byng.htm and on the National Maritime Museum site http://www.nmm.ac.uk/collections/explore/object.cfm?ID=BHC0380 where there are also some excellent portraits of Byng and a painting of his execution.

His execution has long been controversial and a group at Southill in Bedfordshire where the Byng family lived is campaigning for his pardon. Despite a set back last year on the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of his death when the MoD told a descendant that a pardon after so long was inappropriate, the campaign continues, with several local initiatives -

A seminar entitled “Admiral John Byng (1704-1757): the life and death of the Admiral of the Blue" will be held on Saturday 23rd February 2008 from 10. am to 4 pm at the Function Room of the White Horse Public House, High Street, Southill, near Biggleswade, Beds SG18 9LD (This is 200 yards from the Byng Vault – his resting place, open to view during the day.) Speakers include Dr David Davies, David Wyllie, Dr John Byng Hall, James Collett-White, Chris Byng-Maddock, John Taylor QC, Rev. Mark Aaron Tisdale, Sarah Saunders Davies and Thane Byng Nelson.
Bookings must be made in advance of the day. Tickets at £6.00 (excluding lunch) from Nico Rodenburg - email rodenburg@btinternet.com
A petition - ask Nico Rodenburg about signing it, but be quick! It will be handed in on 12 March.

A dramatic oratorio “The Musket Ball and the Tragic Fate of Admiral John Byng" in three parts, devised by Thane Byng and composed by David Wyllie. The European premiere will be in Brussels on 7th March and the British premiere is on 14th March 2008 at 7.30 pm at All Saints Church, Southill, Beds, in aid of the Restoration Fund. It will be performed by members of the Bedford Choral Society
Tickets at £12.50, including light refreshments from 6.30 pm from Nico Rodenburg: e-mail rodenburg@btinternet.com

Tent peg makers in Bedfordshire?

2008-02-05T19:44:00.000Z

I was asked recently whether there were any makers of wooden tent peg working in Bedfordshire during the Second World War. There is plenty of evidence for the production of millions of tent pegs for the war effort in the woodlands of the Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Chilterns, but none so far for production in Bedfordshire, either in the Chilterns or other woodland areas.

If you know of tent peg making in Bedfordshire at any period, please post a comment.

Vale of Aylesbury

2008-02-01T17:58:00.000Z

‘Tis the Far Famous Vale: National Influences on the Vale of Aylesbury

Ken and Margaret Morley
The Book Castle, Dunstable, 2007 £25.00

If you stand on the Chiltern Hills at Dunstable Downs, you will be looking across the Vale of Aylesbury. The boundary between Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire can be traced quite easily by the lines of willows beside the Ouzel river and, in fact, some Bedfordshire villages are a part of the Vale.

We live in a very small county but we have much to learn if we look across our borders. As the fly leaf to this book states, `there is an increasing realisation that local history cannot be fully appreciated unless national factors are taken into account`.

Probably the first thing to strike anyone who looks at this book is the enormous amount of detail. It is truly remarkable and, if a book could be found to give a concise history of what was happening in this country during the last few millennia, this could well be it. The list of contents leaves very few subjects untouched, from early settlers to life in a medieval village, through religious conflict to the opening up of the countryside by canals, roads and rail, to the demise of cottage industries and the establishment of new industries and education for all. The text is supported by diagrams, maps, personal recollections, pictures, many of them in colour, references and tables.

The present and future are not neglected. The last chapter is devoted to threats to the Vale. In 1969, the Roskill Commission proposed the siting of a third London airport at Cublington. Fortunately this damaging plan was rejected but now there are plans to flood the area with greenfield-brownfield housing. Again, the authors have provided considerable detail on this topical subject.

Information is provided about places to visit and the rights and wrongs of accessing the countryside and, at the front of the book, is a list of places which are `well worth a visit`. Some of these, such as Stockwood Park and Wardown Park Museum are in Bedfordshire. There is indeed a great deal to learn from looking across the county boundary.

Reviewed by Anne Allsopp

Luton Hoo Walled Garden

2008-01-24T18:28:00.000Z

In 1763, the Earl of Bute purchased the Luton Hoo estate in south Bedfordshire and commissioned the celebrated gardener, `Capability` Brown, to landscape the grounds. A five-acre octagonal walled garden was also established. This flourished under subsequent owners and, together with the large glasshouses, provided flowers, fruit and vegetables for the estate for almost two centuries. The garden became famous in its time and its reputation was such that any gardener who had worked on the Luton Hoo estate was sure to find employment.

Many ladies and gentlemen from the higher echelons of society were invited to the Hoo for weekend visits; they would often spend time admiring the grounds before taking tea in the beautiful tea house nearby. In 1903 Luton Hoo was sold to Sir Julius Wernher whose family still owns the estate, although the mansion has now been sold to Elite Hotels.

Sadly, after the Second World War, the gardens became overgrown and the sturdy glasshouses, which The Victorian Society considers to be `probably the last survival of this type of lavish glasshouse range` were in need of repair. It became obvious that there was much of historical and horticultural interest at the site that should not be lost; the gardens needed to be brought back to life, not as a society showcase but as a local amenity.

In 2000, research began into the history of the gardens and much archival material has already been found. Also a team of volunteers is doing practical work to reclaim the land. The garden opens its gates regularly to visitors and the team is working to encourage a wide involvement with community groups. It is hoped that this nationally important site will become `a vibrant tourist attraction and valuable local resource`.

More can be found out about this fascinating project on the website: www.lutonhoowalledgarden.org.uk
Or phone 01582 721443

Posted for Anne

Limbury-cum-Biscot

2008-01-22T16:25:00.000Z

The Story of Limbury-cum-Biscot
by Colin R. Cook
Published by Colin R. Cook in conjunction with the Book Castle, Dunstable 2007
£8.99

Limbury and Biscot were hamlets just outside Luton but both have now been urbanized and the former `rural paradise` has given way to housing and traffic. However, the river Lea can still be found, the Moat House, the oldest secular building in Luton, looks in many ways as it always did and the peaceful churchyard still gives Biscot a countryside feeling.

Even before the Norman Conquest, Limbury and Biscot would have been known to travellers along the Icknield Way and evidence of Roman occupation has been found. Saxons lived here and remained in control even though, in the ninth century AD, the boundary that separated them from the Vikings was in the immediate vicinity. The book gives details of the entry for Biscot (Bissopescote) in the Domesday book and then goes on to note the names of the manors and landowners who managed the area during the following eight hundred years.

Of particular interest is the Moat House which can be traced back to 1370-1400 AD. The original purpose of the building is disputed but the quality of the richly-moulded roof beams suggests that this was more than just a manor or farm house. There is speculation that a nunnery was set up in the area. Although there is no proof of this, it is said that `on dark foggy winters’ evenings you may still see black hooded figures hurrying along Nunnery Lane responding to the distant ring of a church bell`. Nowadays the Moat House is a very popular carvery and the old beams can still be seen.

There is an interesting chapter on rural industries: tanning, straw plaiting, hat making and osier gathering. The author has gathered information about schools in the hamlets and reproduced some entries from the log books. Biscot church, built in 1868, is described in some detail and, at the back of the book, is a note from the `Friends of Biscot Churchyard` who maintain comprehensive burial books from 1870 and have maps to help relatives to locate graves.

Sadly Colin Cook died just before Limbury-cum-Biscot was published but the book is a pleasing record of his love and dedication.

Reviewed by Anne Allsopp.

From Grand to Grove - entertaining south Bedfordshire

2008-01-13T17:04:00.000Z

From Grand to Grove Entertaining South Bedfordshire
by Eddie Grabham
published by The Book Castle, Dunstable in 2007 at £16.99

Eddie Grabham’s book was published to coincide with the opening of the new Grove Theatre in Dunstable (which, incidentally, is doing very well - 01582 609351).

It has been claimed that Dunstable was `the cradle of English drama`. This was because Geoffrey de Gorham’s miracle play, based on the martyrdom of St Katherine of Alexandria and performed in Dunstable in the twelfth century, is thought to have been the first English production in the vernacular.

In December 1898 the much-loved Grand Theatre was opened by Lillie Langtry. It was near the Luton railway stations and, therefore, easily accessible to people from the surrounding area. It was demolished in 1957 and remained the only purpose-built theatre in the south of the county until the Grove Theatre was opened. However, live theatre could be enjoyed at other venues, for example at Dunstable’s Little Theatre and Queensway Hall, Leighton Buzzard’s Exchange Theatre and Library Theatre and Luton’s Alma and Library Theatre.

The author goes on to describe the age of film going. The first permanent cinema in Bedfordshire was opened in Luton in 1909 with the unimaginative name of the Anglo-American Electric Picture Palace. Some doubted whether the new `flicks` would be popular but they certainly were as the title of the next chapter in the book indicates: `South Bedfordshire goes Movie Crazy`. The book names local cinemas which became significant parts of people’s lives in Dunstable, Leighton Buzzard, Luton and Toddington in the first half of the twentieth century, a real trip down memory lane! Cinemas certainly played a considerable role in boosting morale during the Second World War. They also provided `a valuable channel for essential propaganda`.

The heyday of the cinema was challenged by television. One by one the lovely old cinemas, with their beautiful artistic interiors, closed and took on other lives, for example as ballrooms, bingo halls or nightclubs. Films were still shown but were more likely to be found at multiplexes.

Eddie Grabham’s book is full of delightful photographs. There are also mentions of famous personalities who came to perform on a Luton stage: Julie Andrews, Johnny Dankworth and Cleo Lane, Ken Dodd, Warren Mitchell and Sam Wanamaker to name a few. Recently, the actor Brian Blessed has shown a particular interest in the new Grove Theatre in Dunstable.

This book is full of memories but is also a social history of one aspect of Bedfordshire life in the twentieth century.

Reviewed by Anne Allsopp

Buy this book from The Castle Bookshop, Dunstable - see links to bookshops on the right.

Women’s Land Army and Bedfordshire in WWII

2007-12-15T18:18:00.000Z

The government has, belatedly in the view of many people, announced that former land girls from the Women’s Land Army and lumber Jills (from the Women’s Timber Corps) are to receive a special badge in recognition of their wartime service. After the announcement, on 6 December 2007 the BBC Radio 4 PM programme interviewed Hilda Gibson, a former land girl - see http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/pm/9childa_gibson_land_girl/ for the interview, comments and her poetry about her experiences.

BHRS Council member, Stuart Antrobus, wrote to praise the interview and to draw people’s attention to his Internet site about the Women’s Land Army in Bedfordshire. The site http://www.galaxy.bedfordshire.gov.uk/webingres/bedfordshire/vlib/0.wla/wla_home.htm
which is hosted by Bedfordshire Libraries, has a wealth of information and photographs about the land girls and their work – where they trained, where they lived, what work they did, and who they were. Stuart has identified and lists hundreds of land girls and would like to hear from anyone who can contribute information about them.

For more on Stuart’s work, see http://www.galaxy.bedfordshire.gov.uk/webingres/bedfordshire/vlib/0.wla/wla_stuart_antrobus.htm
Another source of information about the Women’s Land Army and the Bedfordshire War Agricultural Committee is BLARS.

The 1865-66 cattle plague in Bedfordshire

2007-12-07T23:35:00.000Z

In these days of increasingly frequent alarms about foot and mouth disease, bird flu and now blue tongue disease, it would be easy to think that epidemics in cattle were a recent phenomena. Far from it, as I discovered accidentally while searching one of my favourite online sources – the London Gazette http://www.gazettes-online.co.uk/

Under the heading Cattle Plague, the Gazette of 15 December 1865 carries notices from the Petty Sessions for Ampthill and Woburn prohibiting the movement of cattle from the two districts for exhibition or sale. They are just two in 18 pages of orders made by petty sessions around the country.

By January conditions had worsened and the Gazette of 19 January 1866 contains orders prohibiting the movement of cattle “with a view to prevent the spreading of the disorder now prevalent - among cattle, generally designated the ‘Cattle Plague’” made by Quarter Sessions or Liberties of the Royal Burgh of Lanark, Plymouth, Nottinghamshire, Suffolk, Walsall, Oldham, Canterbury and Kent, Durham, Bedfordshire, Ripon, Paisley, Bottisham in Cambridgeshire, Lymington, Cumberland, Sussex, East Riding of Yorkshire, Lancashire, Clitheroe, Swansea, Stalybridge, Faversham, Devonport, Havering-Atte-Sower, in Essex, and Middlesex. The orders were in force from 18 January to 1 March.

The Bedfordshire order, signed by Theed Wm Pearse as Clerk of the Peace, is particularly long and concludes with pro forma declarations and certificates for use on the limited occasions when movement of animals was permitted.

On 9 February 1866 more orders were made prohibiting “raw or untanned hide, skin, horn, hoof, or offal of any animal” being brought into Bedfordshire and also prohibiting “dung, hay, straw, fodder, or litter, likely to propagate infection” and “sheep, lamb, goat, or swine” from being moved out of Bedfordshire from places “where the cattle plague exists”. Similar orders were made for many other areas.

This was the outbreak of rinderpest, noted by Joyce Godber in her History of Bedfordshire as having arrived in Britain from the continent in 1865. The effect of the 1865-66 outbreak can be more easily imagined in light of recent ones. I wonder how many Bedfordshire farmers were ruined in 1866 and how many farm workers lost their jobs? Did it contribute to the move to industrial towns and emigration?

Bedfordshire apprentices far from home

2007-11-28T22:21:00.000Z

How far away from Bedfordshire and home were youngster sent as apprentices?

A lot went to London, of course, but recently I discovered two Bedfordshire-born apprentices in Gloucester:

On 24 June 1598 William, son of Robert Wilshere a husbandman of Oakley, was apprenticed to Lawrence and Sarah Wilsheere, a weaver in Gloucester for 7 years.

On 21 May 1601 Thomas Phillippe, son of George Phillippes a yeoman of Westoning, was apprenticed to William Saunders, a haberdasher of Gloucester for 7 years, and was transferred to Peter Lugg, haberdasher, on 12 April 1605 to complete his term.

(source: A calendar of the apprentices of the city of Gloucester 1595-1700. Gloucestershire Record Series, vol 14. 2001)

It is reasonable to assume a family connection between the Wilshere apprentice and master but was there a similar connection between Phillippe and Saunders? If not, how did the connection occur? And, how did the youngsters travel?

Any ideas and also any other instances of Bedfordshire boys (or girls) being apprenticed at some distance from the county, especially at that period, would be gratefuly received.

Southend Church Bedford and the Bousfields

2007-11-24T16:35:00.001Z

By coincidence, within two months of BHRS's launch of the Bousfield Diaries, the church which was the centre of the Bousfields' religious life celebrated its one hundred and thirty fourth anniversary.

In November 1873, a new Methodist church was founded in the district of Bedford known as Southend. One of the founders, Charlotte Bousfield, kept a diary of her life, in which her ‘little chapel’, as she called it, played an important part. The church was founded as a memorial to Charlotte’s last child, a daughter always known as ‘Edris’, who died in 1872 at the age of three. She lies in Bedford Cemetery, and a photograph of the gravestone, which had been hidden for many years under a large tree just by the main entrance to the Chapel there, appears in the Diaries.

Last Sunday (18 November) the anniversary of the foundation was celebrated by the Minister and congregation as it has been every year since 1873. The editor of the Diaries, Richard Smart, attended the service and presented a copy to the Minister, Revd Rachel Larkinson and congregation.

Bernard West’s Bedfordshire

2007-11-21T18:13:00.001Z

Contributed by Anne Allsopp

Last Friday, 16 November, saw the launch at Willington Village Hall of this delightful collection of sketches.

The Bedfordshire Historical Record Society now owns the copyright to the excellent Bedfordshire Magazine which ceased publication in 1999. Between Summer 1947 and Spring 1998, Bernard West contributed sketchbook drawings for all but two of the quarterly issues. Gordon Vowles, a member of the BHRS and personal friend of Bernard West, has collected a selection of his sketches for publication in this delightful book.

Bernard West was a practising architect and his interests included history as well as archaeology, conservation and natural history. He ‘waged an unrelenting campaign for good design and sympathetic preservation’. The sketches are accompanied by commentaries, many of which reflect his contempt for the lack of sensitive planning over the years.

When he died, in January 2006, the local history group in his home village of Willington decided that something should be done to commemorate Bernard West’s contribution to recording the history of the county and, with the support of the BHRS, this book was published. Gordon Vowles has aimed to produce a ‘representative spread’ of locations throughout the county in this selection.

This excellent book will enable a wider audience to appreciate the artistic skill of Bernard West and also the architectural and rural treasures of Bedfordshire.

Bernard West’s Bedfordshire: a selection of his Sketch-books from the Bedfordshire Magazine 1947-98, edited by Gordon Vowles and published by The Book Castle, Dunstable, LU5 4RU in November 2007 at £12.99 http://www.book-castle.co.uk/

See other reviews of this book at
http://www.bedfordtoday.co.uk/todays-choice/Sketches-of-Bedfordshire.3898969.jp
http://www.mk-news.co.uk/bedsonsunday-leisure-books/DisplayArticle.asp?ID=240392
http://www.balhs.org.uk/bookreviews.htm

The Bousfield Diaries - BHRS’s 2007 volume

2007-11-14T11:35:00.002Z

The Society’s latest book was launched on 8 September. Appropriately sub-titled A middle-class family in late Victorian Bedford, it contains the diaries for 1878 to 1896 of Charlotte Bousfield, the wife of the manager of the Britannia Ironworks in Bedford. She tells us a little about her husband, Edward’s, work, especially his experiments with electricity and with new designs for automated reaping and harvesting equipment. She records her children’s successes: one son became a QC and Tory MP as well as sharing his father’s interest in inventions; another became a doctor and member of the Queckett Microscopical Club; the third was a patent agent; and one daughter was an accomplished artist.
The family were staunch Methodists and teetotallers and Charlotte, helped by her two daughters, was very active in spreading the good word of both causes, although her use of the description of her work as ‘a toiler in the vineyard’ is rather incongruous given the teetotal nature of her views. The diaries describe meetings of national temperance organisations in London and journeyings around the country – all spreading the good word. She was also involved in running a home for inebriated middle class women in London.
All these activities saw her travelling around the country but always returning to Bedford and Aspley Heath. Nearer home, there was a succession of Mother’s Meetings, Blue Ribbon clubs and temperance meetings in and around Bedford. She was amongst the poor law guardians elected after the Bedford Workhouse scandal of 1894 and she records some of that and conditions in the workhouse.
Amidst the daily round, there are entrancing accounts of watching convicts on Dartmoor, converting a Scottish travelling salesman and imbiber on a train journey, election canvassing in London, and watching her son’s introduction as a new member of Parliament. There are glimpses of middle class domestic life, of the social round, religious commitments and of the lives of servants, the working class and the poor.

The diaries belong to Charlotte’s descendants and have been transcribed and edited by two of them, John and Hilary Hamilton. They have been edited for publication by Dr Richard Smart who has added copious notes about the people and the social and political background of Charlotte’s world.

The Bousfield Diaries: a middle-class family in late Victorian Bedford, published by Boydell and Brewer, 2007, Bedfordshire Historical Records Society volume 86. It is available from bookshops or the publisher at http://www.boydell.co.uk/

See reviews of this book at
http://www.bedsonsunday.com/bedsonsunday-leisure-books/DisplayArticle.asp?ID=242174

Two new links

2007-11-12T12:37:00.000Z

Today I’ve added two Links: one to the Archaeological Data Service (ADS) and the second to the Vernacular Architecture Group (VAG), both good sources for Bedfordshire landscape and buildings.
VAG was formed in 1952 for the study of traditional buildings, originally those of the British Isles but now it reflects international interests. Members are ‘involved in all aspects of the recording and study of vernacular buildings’. The website has information about conferences, its publications and links to databases. VAG’s cruck buildings and dendrochronology databases are held on the Archaeology Data Service website (ADS).
ADS is a MUST for all Bedfordshire historians. It brings together research from English Heritage, National Monuments Record, Bedfordshire County Council and many more. There’s much too much to even try to describe its scope. A crude search of the ADS Online Catalogue for Bedfordshire found more than 3000 hits, ranging from palaeolithic flakes to Royal Observer Corps monitoring posts of the Cold War period. I explored ADS for places that I’m interested in and discovered that Stanbridge in the south of the county is described as a shrunken medieval or post-medieval village and that the Fonterraultine priory of Grovebury may not have been fully established.

There’s plenty of opportunity in both these sites for anyone with Bedfordshire interests or wishing to put the local in a regional or national context.

Barbara Tearle

Launch of Bedfordshirehistory Blog!

2007-11-08T12:20:00.000Z

This is the blog of the Bedfordshire Historical Record Society (BHRS). The Society has been in existence for nearly 100 years and publishes books of source material for the history of Bedfordshire.

But the Blog is not only about BHRS. It aims to cover news, events, books, lectures, research and INTERESTING stuff about the history of Bedfordshire and welcomes your contributions on these topics as comments or as blog entries.

Barbara Tearle
General Editor
BHRS