The Rise of Methodism in Bedfordshire

BHRS's new volume The Rise of Methodism: a Study of Bedfordshire 1736-1851 was published in July 2014 by Boydell & Brewer.  Its author, Jonathan Rodell, was born in Bedfordshire and educated at Aylesbury Grammar School and Pembroke College, Cambridge.  He was awarded a doctorate by the University of Cambridge in 2011. 

About the book, which is based on his thesis, he says 

'By the early 19th century Methodist societies constituted perhaps the largest voluntary organisation in Britain with possibly as many as one in seven of the population of England and Wales associated with the movement in some way or other.  This radical re-examination of Methodism’s emergence and growth draws on a wide range of evidence to give a bottom-up account of its life and impact. Overturning many myths and presumptions, the study digs beneath the seemingly steady advance portrayed by official membership statistics to uncover a much more unstable and rapidly changing picture in which different generations and social groups appropriated the religious structures of the movement as vehicles to express a wide variety of aspirations and grievances.'  

The book focusses on what Jonathan calls 'the unlikely Methodist stronghold of Bedfordshire and its neighbouring counties of  Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire and Northamptonshire'. His bottom-up approach quotes extensively from the ordinary men and women of the area and shows much of rural and small-town life as well as their religious experiences - and inner turmoils.

Jonathan discusses not only the 'familiar Methodist groupings but others whose more transitory popularity has veiled them in obscurity, including the Moravians, various kinds of Calvinistic Methodists, the Primitive Episcopal Church and the early Mormons.'  

This book is a delight - both scholarly and also down-to-earth.  Full of statistics for those who like to quantify their research; full of local colour for those who want to see the people.

Additional information on Methodist preachers, not in the book, is on his website.

By day Jonathan works as a specialist teacher with children who exhibit serious learning and behavioural problems; by night he writes and lectures on the disappearing world of England’s Nonconformist communities, with several articles and book chapters to his credit.  He was a Visiting Fellow at Southern Methodist University, Dallas in 2012 and is a Panel Tutor for the Institute of Continuing Education, University of Cambridge.

Bedfordshire Local History Association: Annual Conference 2014

Maulden Mausoleum

The 2014 conference of Bedfordshire’s umbrella organisation for local history societies was organised by Maulden History Society and held at Maulden Village Hall on 14 June. Some 69 local historians, representing 21 societies as well as individuals attended.

The theme this year was Bedfordshire and the First World War, to tie in with the national centenary commemorations of its commencement in 1914.  The programme was a varied one involving four key speakers plus a lunchtime visit to Maulden Church and its famous Mausoleum.

Martin Deacon, a senior archivist from the county’s record office and a military historian opened with a fascinating talk on the 7th Bedfordshire Regiment’s involvement in the Battle of the Somme in France – its successes and its failures and the reasons for both.  (His account and the battalion's war diary can be read in  BHRS's 2004 volume The Shiny Seventh)

Debbie Radcliffe, an English Heritage volunteer researcher at Wrest Park, and a former education officer for The Higgins Museum, Bedford, told the story of how the mansion house at Wrest was transformed into a private military hospital during the first part of the Great War, to provide rest and recuperation for wounded soldiers (although initially conceived as a hospital for the navy).

After a pleasant cold buffet lunch in the hall, Marian McDowell, one of Maulden History Society’s most active researchers, painted a picture of how the First World War affected the lives of everyday people on the Home Front in so many ways, by looking at Maulden villagers’ own experience.

Finally, Kevin Fadden of Ampthill and District Archaeological and Local History Society, told us about the impact of the presence of the 126th Company of the Canadian Forestry Corps in central Bedfordshire from August 1917 through to the end of the war in November 1918. Their task was to fell large numbers of trees in a number of locations on the Duke of Bedford’s estate, in order to feed the Allies’ need for timber for tunnelling and trenches at the Front in France and Flanders.

As usual, as well as the interesting speakers, half the pleasure of the day was being able to meet up with like-minded local historians from around the county and viewing displays of photographs and research material on a wide range of topics, in this case, with a focus on WW1: from family history biographies to WW1 War Department Light Railway engines preserved at Leighton Buzzard, life at Ampthill Park training centre for the Bedfordshire Regiment, the work of the Canadian foresters, and Wrest Park hospital.

At the AGM which preceded the conference, the committee of the BLHA made an urgent plea for one of their 37 member societies to commit to putting on the 2015 conference.  Sharnbrook Local History Group has offered to arrange the 2016 summer event.

Both the BLHA and Maulden History Society are to be congratulated on the smooth running of the day. 

                                                                                                         

Report by Stuart Antrobus of Bedford Architectural, Archaeological & Local History Society (BAALHS) and a BHRS Council member.

Bromham's historic watermill

Bromham Mill, situated on the River Great Ouse three miles west of Bedford, just off the A428, and the eighteenth-century post mill at Stevington, are the two most iconic and important industrial heritage landmark sites in north Bedfordshire. Both were saved for posterity by the former Bedfordshire County Council and are now in the care of Bedford Borough Council.

Thanks to fundraising by the Friends of Bromham Mill, a new set of historical interpretation boards have been installed around the watermill’s interior. These well-illustrated and informative panels guide visitors around the site, explaining its history and how the mill worked when it operated commercially up to 1971.

Milling has taken place at Bromham since Saxon times, as recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086. The present buildings date from the late eighteenth and mid-nineteenth centuries but based on seventeenth century foundations. They contain milling machinery and a waterwheel in working order. The last commercial operation was under the Quenby family, from 1905, by which time – thanks to the development of more efficient, industrially-powered roller mills throughout the country – milling, using  water power was restricted to the production of animal feeds. 

The mill is open to the public, free, each weekend from April to the end of October on Saturday and Sundays, plus Bank Holiday Mondays, 10am to 4pm, and is served by the Mill Café offering fresh coffee, cakes, light lunches and afternoon teas. Situated as it is next to a delightful meadow, ideal for picnics, and also an island nature reserve, the Mill is well worth a visit. There is a changing programme of art and craft exhibitions and workshops as well as children’s events. There are a range of walks and cycle routes in the area, including a circular walk taking in the unique Stevington Windmill just a few miles away.

The interpretation boards have been developed by Amanda Keen, of the Friends of Bromham Mill (seen on the right with Dave Hodgson, Mayor of Bedford, at the mill's re-opening in April 2014), with technical and historical advice, respectively, by Adrian Fett and Stuart Antrobus. In addition, prospective visitors with smartphones can download 10 audio files, prior to their visit, which will provide an audio tour around the mill.

Stuart Antrobus

For more on the history of Bromham Mill and other mills in Bedfordshire, see the illustrated book: Hugh Howes The Windmills and Watermills of Bedfordshire – past, present and future (Book Castle Publishing, 2009), or a brief history online from Bedfordshire and Luton Archives and Records Service. 

For a map, audio tour to be downloaded, walks and cycle routes and dates of events such as Apple Day (Sunday 19 October 2014) see the Friends of Bromham Mill

Carmela Semeraro (1949-2013)

Carmela Semeraro, Bedfordshire’s leading oral historian and the Oral History Society regional network representative for East England, died of cancer, aged 64, on 18 November 2013. Born on 30 August 1949 in Puglia, the area at the south-eastern tip of Italy, she moved to England at the end of the 1960s, married an Englishman, and set about educating herself. After an Access course at Bedford College, she gained a History & English Literature BA degree at De Montfort University, Bedford (now the University of Bedfordshire), while raising her family, and followed this with an MA in Women’s History at Royal Holloway College, University of London. She taught adult education Italian evening classes throughout her life.

Her interest in and support of elderly, first-generation Italian immigrants in Bedford led to her conducting a reminiscence project (1994-99) with them and her first oral history recordings. This material was later translated and edited by her to be published as a bi-lingual account (Italian/English), called Hidden Voices: Voci Nascoste: Memories of First Generation Italians in Bedford (Bedford Community Arts, 1999). This popular, well-illustrated history was underpinned by her academic research which resulted in her MA dissertation, Immigrants from Southern Italy to Bedford in the 1950s: A Gender Study of Continuity and Change from an Agrarian to an Industrial Society (1996). In 2003, she was awarded Bedford Borough Mayor’s Award, Citizen of the Year for Community Service, for her work with the Club Prima Generazione Italiani, which she set up in 1997 and led for some 16 years (until 2013).

Although having lived almost all her adult life in Bedfordshire, her Italian accent marked her off, potentially, to some native English people, as something of an ‘outsider’, despite her deep understanding of English ways. However, this was more than compensated for by her warm personality and she made friends wherever she went. When she later conducted hundreds of life-history interviews she soon overcame any suspicions and interviewees quickly relaxed, talking freely about their personal experiences.

Over the years she interviewed an enormously wide range of people from all levels of society and diverse occupations. From January 2001 to July 2005 she completed over 270 interviews with men and women who had lived or worked in the Marston Vale area of mid-Bedfordshire, for a Heritage Lottery- funded [HLF] project entitled “Changing Landscapes, Changing Lives”. From March 2008 to March 2010 she interviewed scores of Leighton Buzzard residents who had worked in the local sand industry in a project entitled “Sands of Time” for the Greensand Trust, again, an HLF-funded piece of research. In recent years Carmela has been Community Historian for The Higgins Museum, Bedford, recording over 100 interviews with members of the public across the diverse, multi-ethnic and multi-cultural local population, as part of an HLF-funded outreach programme between September 2008 and October 2013. Audio interview extracts now enrich the recently-created local history displays at The Higgins.

Carmela leaves behind a son, Paolo and a daughter, Angela (and an infant grandson, Romeo) and countless numbers of people who benefited from her friendship, kindness and inspiration. For historians of Bedfordshire she has left behind a very large body of recorded, transcribed and summarised personal narratives into which we and future generations will be able to tap for insights into life in Bedfordshire throughout the twentieth and early twenty-first century.

Written by Stuart Antrobus, who was both a friend and a colleague and summarised almost all the interviews conducted by Carmela. These interviews are accessible at Bedford Central Library and/or at Bedfordshire and Luton Archives and Records Service (BLARS), Bedford. See also the taster online sites, for “Changing Landscapes, Changing Lives” and “Sands of Time”.

James Dyer

Dr James Dyer, who died in October 2013, was a teacher, archaeologist, historian, author, life-long resident of Luton -  and BHRS member.  One of his fellow Lutonians writes of him:

"Dr James Dyer's contribution to the field of archaeology and local history has been suitably acknowledged at a national, as well as local, level.  His enthusiasm took root while he was still a student at Luton Grammar School.  James knew what he wanted to do with his life and he had the initiative to find ways to fulfil these aims.

Taking a journey across Bedfordshire with James was interesting to say the least.  He would be saying:  `you see that building over there` or `you see that mound or that track between the trees`. All would have a story attached to them that James had studied.

James' enthusiasm was passed on to many of his students.  He spent his first month's salary as a teacher on buying books for his class and that same determination to help wherever he was able never left him.  There are so many stories to be told of times when James saw the potential in young people and helped them to climb the ladder to important and differing academic roles.

This generosity of spirit was one of his greatest gifts.  Working on a joint project could have its difficulties but the one which I undertook with him was altogether positive and I was pleased to be able to call him my friend."

He was a member of BHRS Council and I shall always remember one meeting when he went straight to the heart of an issue, that had been under discussion for some time, and instantly changed its course, for the better.  I only knew him for a few years but that included a long correspondence on the effect of the terrain around Luton, which is filed safely away for future re-visiting. He was as generous with his knowledge to me as to long-term friends.

Statues in Bedford

How often does a visitor to a town wonder who 'that statue over there' is, or a resident ask 'what statue?',  having walked passed it everyday?  These questions are answered for visitors and residents of Bedford in a new guide Bedford town centre statues: a self-guided walk with street map, by BHRS-member Stuart Antrobus.

The guide features ten statues and a door with relief panels, sculpted over two and a half centuries (1768-2009), of well-known individual Bedfordians and groups who have contributed to the town and county: the First World War memorial; the South African (Boer) War memorial; John Howard; Sir William Harpur; Glenn Miller; the Meeting Group; Verso Domani;  Trevor Huddleston; Reflections of Bedford; the Bunyan Meeting bronze chapel doors; and John Bunyan. 

World War 1 memorial

Information about each statue is displayed over a double page with a photograph on one side and text on the other, describing the statue, what it commemorates, who the sculptor was and the circumstances in which the statue was put up.  Just one page of A5 text contains a fascinating amount of information and often highlights features that it would be easy to overlook, for example the art nouveau decoration on the base of the statue of John Howard.

This guide is carefully researched, beautifully illustrated and well-laid out.   It is both handy for the visitor and of lasting value to residents and those interested in the history of the town.

The booklet costs £5 and is on sale in Bedford at the Tourist Information Centre, the The  Higgins Bedford gallery and museum and the John Bunyan Museum shop.  Proceeds go to the British Schools Museum in Hitchin and can also be purchased from the museum by sending a cheque for £5.60 payable to Hitchin British Schools Trust and posted (with own address, marking the envelope 'Statues booklet') to Admin, British Schools Museum, 41/42 Queen Street, Hitchin, Hertfordshire, SG4 9TS.

 

Mark Rutherford exhibition

Continuing the Mark Rutherford theme, an exhibition at Honeywood Museum, Carshalton Surrey will be held from Wednesday 12 June to Sunday 28 July 2013. William Hale White made Carshalton his home, living at one time in the house which is now the museum. The exhibition shows how he kept his books secret from his family; and why he insisted on nine-inch thick brick walls to divide the rooms in his house. He lived a number of parallel lives but still, at 55, found time to learn to ride a boneshaker bicycle! The exhibition also gives insights into the Victorian Carshalton that he knew for almost 30 years. 

The Friends of Honeywood Museum are mounting two events during the exhibition: 

- on Friday 12 July at 7.30pm Mark Crees will give a selection of readings  - Mark Rutherford's People;

- and on Saturday 13 July at 2.30pm there will be a guided walk to places in Carshalton associated with William Hale White.  

(Tickets for both events are £3.50 (£3.00 Friends); bookings 020 8770 4297). 

Based on a contribution by Nick Wilde

Mark Rutherford (William Hale White) anniversary

Mark Rutherford, born William Hale White in Bedford in 1831, had his life celebrated on Saturday 22 June 2013 at a symposium commemorating the 100th anniversary of his death on 14 March 1913. The Symposium, organised by the Mark Rutherford Society and held at Dr Williams’s Library in London was opened by his great-grandson, John Hale-White (below) and chaired by Professor of English Literature at the University of Bedfordshire, Bob Owens.

William Hale White is generally regarded as the most important novelist of the nineteenth century to have emerged from a Nonconformist background and to have taken Nonconformist life and experience as his main subject.  He is undeservedly neglected and the Society’s aim is to redress this.  His portrait (above, left) is by Arthur Hughes, drawn in 1887.

He is best known for six novels written under the name Mark Rutherford, published between 1881 and 1896: 

The Autobiography of Mark Rutherford (1881); 

Mark Rutherford’s Deliverance (1885);

The Revolution in Tanner’s Lane (1887); 

Miriam’s Schooling (1890); 

Catherine Furze (1893); and 

Clara Hopgood (1896).

The ‘Mark Rutherford’ novels share a power and style which are distinctive in the literary history of their time. George Orwell described Mark Rutherford’s Deliverance as ‘one of the best novels written in English’. D. H. Lawrence wrote, ‘I have always had a great respect for Mark Rutherford . . . so thorough, so sound, and so beautiful’. Arnold Bennett regarded him as ‘a novelist whom one can deeply admire’. Claire Tomalin wrote that White’s novels ‘draw directly on a private store of memories and emotions, and you sense quite strongly that he took up a mask in order to be nakedly confessional in a way he could not otherwise have managed’.

Professor Owens opened the Symposium briefly summarising Mark Rutherford’s life and importance.  Roger Pooley, Professor of English Literature at Keele University followed with an assessment of Nonconformist culture and politics in The Revolution in Tanner’s Lane. The panel closed with Professor Valentine Cunningham of Oxford University on ‘Mark Rutherford and the Plight of the Dissenting Aesthete’.

After a lunch break in which academics and enthusiasts alike discussed Mark Rutherford over a buffet lunch, some early researchers were remembered.  Nicholas Jacobs looked at the contribution of young German researcher Hans Klinke who wrote his thesis in the late 1920s as well as noting that there were translations of Rutherford's books in French, Italian and Czech as well as Japanese. Nick Wilde read a letter from 95-year-old American Wilfred Stone recalling his work on Rutherford in the 1950s and Mike Brealey (author of Bedford's Victorian pilgrim: William Hale White in context,  Paternoster Press, 2012) told us about an early British pioneer of Hale studies, Henry Arthur Smith, whose thesis appeared in 1938. The afternoon concluded with Jean-Michel Yvard, from the University of Angiers in France, who discussed whether Mark Rutherford was an agnostic or a believer and Max Saunders, Professor of English at Kings College, London (author of Self Impression: Life-Writing, Autobiografiction, and the Forms of Modern Literature, OUP, 2010), spoke about the nature of fictional autobiography.

The day finished with an entertaining monologue by Mark Crees, Chair of the Mark Rutherford Society, imagining himself at Mark Rutherford’s grave in Groombridge, Kent.

Report contributed by Nick Wilde

PS Mark Rutherford's descriptions of nonconformists in mid-nineteenth century Bedford is drawn upon by the author of BHRS's 2013 volume The Rise of Methodism: a study of Bedfordshire 1736-1751, to be published in 2014.

Bedfordshire Local History Association Summer Meeting 2013

Forty-six local historians from twelve local history societies around the county assembled at Maulden Village Hall on Saturday 15 June 2013 for the Association’s AGM and a day of lectures and a visit on the topic of “Bedfordshire Railways”.

David Thomas gave a very interesting illustrated talk focussing on the Bedfordshire branch of the Oxford to Cambridge Line.  This began in the county with the London & North Western Railway line’s first stretch being built here from Bedford to Bletchley (still in operation) in 1846.  In 1851 the Bletchley to Oxford extension was built, and finally, in 1861-2, the Bedford to Cambridge extension.  The Oxbridge line’s main stations in Bedfordshire were at Ridgmont, Lidlington, Marston, Bedford, Blunham, Sandy and Potton with additional small halts, bringing the number of stops to 15 within the county.

Because of the importance of the universities at Oxford and Cambridge, this cross-country line was sometimes known as the “Varsity Line” and its trains “brain trains”.  It had connections with six main lines heading north, west and east from London and therefore gave great flexibility to passengers from Bedfordshire who could travel around the country, by changing at points on the line to other railway companies’ services, without having to go into London first (as is the case today!).

Unfortunately, following Dr Beeching’s rationalisation and drastic reduction in the railway system from 1967 onwards, the Bedford to Cambridge line was closed, with the Bedford to Cambridge lines lifted, leaving only a service from Bedford to Bletchley, meeting up with the London Midland Region main lines from London to the Midlands and the North West.

David Thomas then traced the more recent developments, including the closure of the old St John’s Station in Bedford, with the line being diverted to Bedford Midland Station in 1984 (with a later, new, halt at Bedford St John) and the overall modernisation of signalling and level crossings along the Bedford Bletchley line in 2004.  Earlier, in 1961, Marston saw the installation of the second-only automatic continental level crossing barriers in the country.  Warning signs, unusually, were in both English and Italian, as there were so many Italian-speaking workers at the local brick works!  Recently, it has been confirmed that there are firm plans to reinstate the Bedford to Oxford railway service in the near future.

The second speaker in the morning was Nigel Lutt from the county record office (BLARS) who gave a very informative illustrated talk outlining just some of the many archive sources for material on railway history in Bedfordshire, not all of them in documents where you would expect to find them.

Attendees to the conference were then treated to a very tasty hot lunch, after which they were able to view the range of interesting displays in the hall relating to railway topics, with displays from the ADALHS regarding temporary railways in Maulden Woods (operated by the Canadian Foresters during WWI), Warren Wood and Wrest Park.  Fergus Milne brought along examples of his railway art and there was an extensive display from BLARS.

For the afternoon session, members moved by cars to Millbrook where David Thomas, who lives in the Station House there, showed his collection of railway memorabilia.

Although less ambitious in its scope and number of speakers than in previous years (& consequently less well attended than, say, 2012, when there were 91 attendees from some 20 Beds societies) the BLHA committee is to be congratulated on putting it on and thanks given to the new Millbrook History Society for organising it.  The annual event is an almost unique opportunity for local historians to get together and catch up with each other’s researches, activities and publications.  BLHA’s own umbrella website is an excellent, one-stop source of contacts for all the many local history societies in Bedfordshire, with links to their websites and, in many cases therefore, to their programme of talks and visits.

BLHA is looking urgently for volunteer societies from its membership to take on responsibility for arranging a conference for 2014 (and also for 2015).  Societies which have not yet taken this on, perhaps finding the thought rather daunting, can receive much help from those other societies which have organised conferences in previous years.  

To discuss conference possibilities for future years, contact Clive Makin, BLHA Secretary, at 01582 655785 or via email  :

secretary@bedfordshire-lha.org.uk

For information on Bedfordshire railway history, see F.G. Cockman The Railway Age in Bedfordshire (Revised edition 1994)

Written by Stuart Antrobus

Barry Stephenson, local studies librarian, retires

Barry Stephenson, a former BHRS Council member, and Local Studies Librarian at Bedford Central Library for over 25 years, retired on 16 August 2012 after working for 50 years for Bedfordshire Libraries.

Bedford born and bred, he started at as a trainee librarian with Bedfordshire County Council  on 10 September 1962, working at the old County Library, the former Town and County Club building on the Embankment in Bedford (now the site of the Swan Hotel car park entrance).  He was then sent on a two year course at Loughborough to gain his professional librarianship qualification before embarking on a career which took him to several posts and locations in the county.  The first professional post was at the old Dunstable Library in 1966 as Readers' Advisor, but within 12 months there was a move to the new, present Dunstable Library. 

In 1970 he moved to the County Library in the Riverside Building at County Hall [now Borough Hall] as Assistant Reference Librarian and he became Local Studies Librarian in 1974. He had meanwhile become one of the first part-time students of the new Open University and had gained his BA in History in four years.

When the County Hall Library closed in 1986 he moved to Bedford Central Library and served there until his retirement, albeit becoming part-time from 2008 when he reached pensionable age.

His proudest moment was in May 2000 when the Bedfordshire Heritage Library was opened within Bedford Central Library which allowed much historical material, previously in closed access, to become available to the public. 

One of Barry’s greatest achievements was in the creation, over three decades, of the extensive newspaper cuttings collection which has enabled countless thousands of readers to answer their queries regarding local history. When the Virtual Library came along he was able to enormously extend access to enquirers from around the world. Over many years he created online chronologies for Bedfordshire’s villages and towns, based on the incomparable collection of local histories he had helped to build up in the Local Studies section of Bedford Central Library.

A quiet and unassuming man, he is known for the diligence with which he answered the many postal (and, later, online) enquiries from around the country and abroad, as well as the face-to-face assistance to both local and family history researchers, and to international scholars who came to consult the famous Bunyan Collection. As a native Bedfordian, he loved researching Bedfordshire’s past.

Outside work, his abiding passion has been for Bedford Town Football Club which he has supported all his life. He served as Secretary from 1989-2002 and from 2002 as Company Secretary, a post he still holds. He writes a Memory Lane page for all ‘home’ programmes, so still visits his former library to do his research in local newspapers.  His other interests are gardening and attending tea dances.

Contributed by Stuart.

Patricia Bell

  Patricia Bell, formerly Bedfordshire Archivist, general editor of Bedfordshire Historical Record Society and patron of Bedfordshire Family History Society, died on 12 September in Bedford.  Her death has shocked friends and acquaintances - she was a huge influence on many people in the worlds of archives, historical research and Bedfordshire history.  Her obituary by Richard Wildman was in the Guardian on 24 September.

September 2012 Heritage Open Days

The Heritage Open Days' website lists seventeen places in Bedfordshire that will be open on various dates from 7 to 10 September.  For some sites these days are in addition to normal opening; for most sites tours or events have been organised by local societies. 

This would be a good opportunity -

• to see some local churches, including St Andrew's Church Biggleswade
• to see Keeper's Cottage  and Queen Anne's Summerhouse both on the Shuttleworth Estate at Old Warden, opened by the Landmark Trust
• to explore Bedford with local experts on guided walks,
• to visit the library of John Bunyan's Museum in Bedford which is normally only open to researchers,

and, for garden historians and enthusiasts, to visit Luton Hoo's Walled Garden laid out originally by Capability Brown.

 (photo from CPRE website, c Barry Halton)

Before visiting, check the Heritage Open Days' site for the full list and opening times (not all places are open each day).

Thurleigh Airfield Museum

Bedford is fortunate in having two excellent private airfield museums dedicated to curating and displaying material from the Second World War. Sections of the American 8^th Air Force were based in north Bedfordshire (& elsewhere in East Anglia), engaged in aerial bombardment of occupied Europe as part of the Allied offensive.   Both Museums are just off the A6 road from Bedford to Rushden.  

Twinwood Airfield is well known for its Glen Miller Museum, original airfield control tour and a range of WWII airfield buildings and wartime displays.  Slightly less well known, but well worth a visit, is the 306^th Bombardment Group Museum at Thurleigh Airfield (now a Business Park), sited in an original wartime building donated by Dr Jonathan Palmer, of Bedford Autodrome, and opened on 27 July 2002.

Thurleigh is the creation of its curators, retired locals Ralph and Daphne Franklin, who have built it up over the last 10 years to what is now a superb collection of material (much of it donated by veteran US servicemen and their families), both military and social.  Not only does it evoke the experiences of the American servicemen who served there from 1942 to 1945, but also has excellent displays on Home Front life: a 1940s kitchen, a local pub, wartime GI-bride weddings, and the ‘land girls’ of the Women’s Land Army.

On Sunday 8^th July I joined scores of others who gathered, despite the occasional rain, to celebrate the museum’s 10^th anniversary and to witness the re-dedication of the memorial to the 306^th Bombardment Group who served here during the Second World War, and many of whom lost their lives in the daylight raids on Germany.  Wartime vehicles, re-enactors and the superb Mainline Big Band turned up to help recreate the wartime atmosphere with Glen Miller music and dancing in the adjacent marquee.

Dr Vernon Williams, a history professor at Abilene Christian University in Texas, attended the event to represent the 306 Bomb Group Association which is still active in the USA.  He is webmaster of their online site and editor of the newsletter Echoes.  Vernon is quite well-known in north Bedfordshire as well as in Cambridgeshire and elsewhere in England as the director of a major oral-history project entitled the East Anglia Air War Project.  Beginning in 2003, he has conducted countless interviews with US veterans, both flight and ground crew, who served here during the war, and also those English people who came in contact with them during those years.  His aim has been to explore not only the operation of the air war – he is a military historian – but also the nature of the relationships developed between the host population and their American ‘cousins’.  He visits the East of England twice a year to conduct his research.  He is currently working on writing a number of books based on his extensive research. I, for one, am looking forward to his book on the Anglo-American relationships forged locally during wartime. (He interviewed some of ‘my land girls’ and extracts from their video interviews have appeared in some of his historical documentary films, for example, the DVD Thurleigh at War).

Barbara and Charles Neal also attended, representing the UK's 306th Bombardment Group Association.  Barbara is the secretary of the organisation and Charles heads the Second Generation efforts within the 306th BGA.  The two of them laid wreaths during the Memorial ceremony.

 

Small specialist museums such as these carry out a useful role in complementing the work of the major museums by introducing members of the public, some of whom are possibly intimidated by the larger ones, to topics and periods in our history which deserve our attention.

Both Twinwood Airfield (open Sundays only) and Thurleigh Airfield museums (Saturday & Sundays) are open each weekend during the main ‘tourist’ season.  For further information about hours and events see Twinwood's and BGA's websites.

Stuart Antrobus

BHRS's centenary

One hundred years ago in November 1912 BHRS was founded by Dr Fowler and others to research and publish Bedfordshire's rich history.  Except for the years of the two world wars, the society has published a volume every year covering all manner of subjects and periods from Domesday to WWII.

The first event to mark the Society's centenary took place last week with a garden party at the home of the Society's President, Sir Sam Whitbread.  In a period of unpredictable weather - storms, gales and unseasonably low temperatures - the sun shone on the afternoon.  About 100 Society members and their friends attended.  We renewed friendships, chatted, took tea on the lawn and listened to a jazz group which included our secretary, Richard Smart. 

The speeches - only two - emphasised the immense amount of research and publishing that the Society has undertaken and the prospects for future work.  They also highlighted the close relationship between the Society and the Bedfordshire and Luton Archives and Records Service (BLARS).  In 1913, the year following the establishment of BHRS, Dr Fowler set up the county record office- the first in the country - and was its first archivist.  Succeeding county archivists and their staff have contributed to, and been general editors of, the Society's volumes.   Today the relationship is as strong as ever.

Other events to mark the centenary will include the display in venues around the county of joint posters with BLARS; the completion of cataloguing Dr Fowler's library in its new venue (the University of Northampton Library); and a stimulating lecture following the AGM at Stockwood Park in Luton in September.

Bedfordshire Local History Association Conference: 9 June 2012

The annual get-together of Bedfordshire local historians took place on Saturday 9 June under the auspices of the umbrella organisation for local history societies in the county, Bedfordshire Local History Association.  It was hosted this year by Ampthill &District Archaeological and Local History Society and held in the Learning Zone at Poplars Garden Centre, Toddington. Over 90 people attended, representing some 20 local history organisations, as well as individuals.

They were treated to a diverse range of talks on topics including the fire at Wrest Park in 1916, “The Lost Hamlet of Wadelow”, “Art Deco Buildings in Luton” and the medieval wall paintingsat Chalgrave Church.  Martin Deacon brought us up-to-date with what Bedfordshire Archives has to offer and on the Centenary celebrations planned for 2013 by what was the first County Record Office in the country, established in 1913 by Dr.George Herbert Fowler, its first archivist.

Ruins of Houghton House near Ampthill, built in 1621

For me, the highlight was the illustrated talk on “Lost Houses of Bedfordshire” by leading Bedfordshire historian, Simon Houfe.  Not only did he show us pictures of some of these houses and tell us about the families who built them but analysed the various reasons which led to their demise.  In 1765 there were 60 substantial country houses in Bedfordshire; by the 1960s there were only 6 which had been built in the 18^th century.  Reasons why they failed to survive ranged from decline in the income from the land around them on which they mainly relied, the vagaries of inheritance whereby they sometimes ended up in the hands of someone who preferred living elsewhere in the country, to the tremendous impact of the Great War of 1914-18 which led to the death of sons and heirs.  It was usually a case of the survival of the fittest. Death duties were the final blow to many.

Eggington House photographed about 1900

BLHA President, Martin Lawrence, summed up the conference and reminded us of various significant anniversaries being celebrated this year, especially the centenary of the setting up of our own Bedfordshire Historical Record Society, in 1912, again by Dr Fowler and others.

The annual BHLA conferences are always worth attending for the opportunity to meet like-minded local historians from around the county, most of whom one only sees once a year at this event.  It also reminds us of the great interest there is in the county in its history and of the contribution which local history societies can make in researching, publishing and enthusing to others about their unique locality.

This year, in addition to the presentations, it was worth attending, if for nothing else – and the food was very good! – for the opportunity, as a group, to visit Chalgrave Church [Grade 1 listed building, built c1300] and view the outstanding medieval wall paintings it contains which make this a real gem in the county.

Stuart Antrobus

Bedford Architectural, Archaeological and Local History Society.

Bedfordshire Seventeenth Century Tokens

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

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

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

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