Reports on the Year 1989

Proc. Hampsh. Field Club Archaeol. Soc. 46, 1990, 189-198 REPORTS ON THE YEAR 1989 THE FIELD CLUB ment and such a policy was prepared in the autumn and referred to the membership for Secretary's Report further discussion. The second Local History Fair was a considerable success and so too, The year 1989 was coloured by changes in the though poorly attended, were the Annual Con President and Treasurer. ference and O G S Crawford Memorial Lecture First of all, Jude James completed his three reported below. The time has passed when years as President: a term distinguished parti such hiccoughs constitute a crisis. The cularly by improvements in the Society's next crisis, if there is to be one, will come when publicity and by the fortunate innovation of subscriptions are raised, as they will have to the Presidential Address, which in its third be, in 1992. Now, however, the Society can face year achieved the objective of making the such problems with qualms rather than Annual General Meeting into a more attractive alarms, confident that it is far stronger finan and hence better attended occasion. For cially and is providing a much better service tunately the Historic Buildings Section has for its members than ten years ago. secured his continued services. His successor For the 1980s must be remembered as a Adrian Ranee, Head of Cultural Services (i.e. decade of regeneration and expansion for the Museums and Art Galleries) for Southampton, Hampshire Field Club. Always there, in the is a longstanding servant of the Society and background, was Mr Caudell, but we must not organiser in particular of a highly successful forget successive Presidents, all admirable in sequence of annual conferences. We have high their different ways, or the indispensable hopes of his Presidency. Membership, Programme, Publications and Secondly, Paul Caudell relinquished the Publicity Scretaries and Officers, without office of Treasurer at the end of September. If whom nothing could happen; Mr Qualmann any particular individual is responsible for the and the untiring members of his Editorial existence of the Field Club today, it is Paul. He Board; Mr Stagg and the Section Newsletter it was who took office when the Society was Editors; and, perhaps above all, the com strictly insolvent, due to its inability to pay for mittees of the sections, who found those out The Archaeology of Hampshire, restored strict standing Programme Secretaries, who financial management, prioritised spending, produced the packed and high-quality calen and brought us to the relative financial secur dars of events that we take for granted today. ity of today. At the end of 1989 there was And credit must go further back too, to those £18,000 in the bank. The enormous gap left by far-sighted officers, such as H A Collinson and Mr Caudell appeared at first impossible to fill, E A Course, who proposed and transformed as candidate after candidate declined his oner the Society into a federation of Sections in ous office. Eventually, however, a successor 1979. The Field Club is now secure and will be was found in Mark Wingate, by training an so for many years to come. Ten years ago its archaeologist and formerly Joint-Membership survival until its centenary in 1985 seem Secretary, who has since qualified as a chartered doubtful. The challenge of the 1990s is to accountant, no less. We are very fortunate. increase the membership to a level truly Council met on tour occasions and worthy of the county Society. Only thus can be encountered no crises to overcome. There was extend our activities to the extent that we all felt to be a need for a Policy towards Develop wish to see. 190 HAMPSHIRE FIELD CLUB AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY Annual General Meeting at King Alfred's College, Some members knew the stone on the Winchester on Wednesday 31 May 1989 Winchester-Salisbury road commemorating the come-uppance of four highwaymen, but Fifty members attended the most successful who knew of the memorial to the birth of Sir AGM of recent times. Christopher Wren at West Knoyle in Wiltshire There was an atmosphere of mutual congra or the stone against fornication in Breamore tulation, as President and Secretary alike church? There was a time when the drowning spoke of the healthy finances, the well- of sabbath-breakers and the apoplexy of a liar organised events, and the excellent publica were considered such striking examples of tions. Both paid tribute to one another and the God's punishment for sin that local authorities other officers, especially those unsung heroes commemorated them at public expense as a in unglamorous but arduous posts: Pro warning to other potential offenders! As Mr gramme Secretaries, Newsletter Editors, Busi James observed, such neglected memorials can ness Editors, Publications and Membership tell us much about the very different mentality Secretaries. No less than seventy of the Field of our Hampshire predecessors. Club's members are office-holders or Not surprisingly, Mr James' talk stimulated committee-members. eager questions, which his successor had to Editorial Board reported on Proceedings vol. cut short, thanking him simultaneously both 44, three published monographs, and the for his address and for three fruitful years as preparation of the index. The Archaeology, President. Historic Buildings, Local History and Land scape sections all reported successful pro Annual Conference at St Swithun's School, Winchester grammes. The New Forest Section reported on Saturday 30 September 1989 two major victories over developers and the resumption of the excavation. The theme of this year's conference was Mr Adrian Ranee was elected President for 'Hampshire Women'. There were four morn 1989-92. Dr Michael Hicks and Mr Paul ing talks on 'The Evidence of Women': David Caudell, Secretary and Treasurer continuously Johnston on 'Women in Archaeology'; Barbara since 1982, were re-elected, though the latter Yorke on 'Women in History'; Michael Hicks had declared on the day his intention of relin 'The Portrayal of Women; and Dr Carol Miles quishing office as soon as possible. Mrs Ann on 'Women in Literature'. The separate study McLellan replaced Dr James Thomas on of women in the past is a relatively new Council. Mr Sanders and Miss Lee were grate byproduct of the growth of History from Below fully re-elected Honorary Auditors. and Women's Studies. Women are poorly Following a break for refreshments, Mr represented in surviving evidence and hence-in James delivered his third Presidential Address our knowledge and understanding. Inevitably - an innovation introduced by himself in 1987. speakers ranged beyond Hampshire or made His chosen topic this year, 'Wessex Mon unlikely individuals into Hampshire uments and Memorials', enabled him to draw examples: for example, Mrs Gaskell, who died both on his remarkable knowledge of the pouring tea in Alton, and even Elizabeth I, region and on his splendid collection of slides, 'Queen of Hampshire'! which he explained so wittily and eruditely All previous generations have assumed the that nobody could have failed to have been inferiority of women. Most noteworthy activi enlightened and entertained. ties, from hunting mammoths to 19th-century Broadly chronological in outline, his talk industrialism, were undertaken by men. covered the obvious ground offered by Women were confined to the home, whether funerary monuments, though few can have prehistoric hovel or Victorian drawing room, pondered the quaint epitaphs so rewardingly, to bearing and rearing children, and to but contained a great many surprises as well. cooking. Yet such stereotypes appear unten- REPORTS ON THE YEAR 1989 191 able in every age. Women's work may always High School (1882), a member of the Girls have been undervalued and unrecorded and Public Day School Trust, the Atherley School, thus women were too, but much more of Southampton (1926), founded by the Church importance went on in the home than this. Schools Company, and St Swithun's School From guarding the hearth and stock-keeping itself. They rapidly proved women to be as in prehistory to brewing and weaving, house intellectually able as men. hold and estate management in the middle Female educationalists were often also suf ages, enough women have left evidence of fragettes. Thus Dean Bramston's daughter considerable capacity in the affairs of the Anna and her friend Miss Amy Leroy, who world from which men sought to exclude helped found St Swithun's school. Even when them. Too often it is only when their menfolk educated, many capable women were denied have died that women have left evidence of other outlets for their energies, and were thus abilities that must always have been there and able to provide an efficient organisation for the been put to good use. movement for women's suffrage. In Hamp Exceptional women can cast light on the shire it was primarily through the moderate rest. Queen Elfryth was so powerful and suffragists NUWSS rather than Mrs Pank- effective in the male role of politics that she hurst's militant WSPU. The vote led on to the was slandered by men as a wicked stepmother termination of the economic exploitation of and worse. The vita of that nondescript saint women. Besides the literary outcry of women and nun, Princess Eadburga, incidentally stifled by the proprieties of the Victorian reveals shadowy senior nuns manipulating her drawing room, such as Florence Nightingale, image and connections to the financial benefit we need to set Southampton's female crane- of their nunnery. 19th-century women had to drivers, for whom World War I offered liber jump reluctantly through the hoop labelled ation from a dreary life as dependent 'marriage' and to act as 'angels in the house' daughters, mothers, and seamstresses! for fear of the worse alternatives.

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