Spring 2014 Newsletter Welcome to the Spring issue of the Gwent Archives newsletter. Story Boxes As part of the Explore Your Archive campaign launched in November we have created five different story boxes with tales about people from the past from around the County. These boxes contain the story and accompanying facsimiles of our documents to demonstrate the type of information that can be found by anyone at Gwent Archives. The stories are as follows: Inside this issue Blaenau-Gwent: A story about William Roderick, a shoemaker from Tredegar who fell on hard-times, suffered from mental-illness and was firstly admitted to the workhouse then Pen-y-fal asylum where he Welcome and news............ 1 eventually died. Document of the Quarter .. 2 Caerphilly: A story about Charles Davies from Bargoed who had a wife and young child and was implicat- Life of an archivist .............. 3 ed in the theft of some caps from a train, and subsequently convicted and imprisoned in the County Gaol at Usk. Article: News from Sicily .... 4 Monmouthshire: A story about the Reverend William Davies Jones of Llanellen and his scandalous life in A Recent Acquisition .......... 5 the village during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, during which time he was involved in A New Accession ................ 6 a high profile separation from his wife, prosecuted for having his dog loose and persecuted by his parish- ioners. Newport: A story about international Newport, the development of Newport docks and the consequent settlement of different nationalities in the area, focussing on Scandinavians living in Pillgwenlly. Torfaen: A story about the Llanerch colliery disaster of 1890 that killed 176 people, devas- tating the community in and around the Abersychan area including Elizabeth Pritchard of Club The story boxes can be viewed at Gwent Archives and in these venues around the County: Market Hall Cinema, Brynmawr Brynmawr and District Museum Salem Chapel and Chartist Exhibition Centre, Blaina Bedwellty House, Tredegar The Miners' Institute, Blackwood Maes Manor Country Hotel, Blackwood Cwmcarn Forest Visitors' Centre Crumlin Institute The Memo', Newbridge Caldicot Library Risca Library One Stop Shop, Abergavenny Civic Centre, Pontypool Pontypool Active Living Centre Greenmeadow Community Farm, Cwmbran Llanyrafon Manor, Cwmbran The Iron Works, Blaenavon Goytre Wharf Congress Theatre, Cwmbran Shire Hall, Monmouth Pontypool Library Chepstow Castle Cwmbran Library Secret Garden, Little Mill The Regimental Museum, Monmouth Blaenavon Library Newport Library Gilwern Library The Roman Baths, Caerleon Tredegar House Library Abergavenny Library Bulwark Community Centre, Chepstow Riverfront Arts Centre, Newport Page 1 Archives Hub At Gwent Archives we are working to upload its catalogues on to Ar- to create access to our catalogues chives Hub and as this continues it is NEW! online. As well as increasing the hoped that our collection will be Library Catalogue numbers of catalogues we have on opened up to more research and our website, we have also recently exploration. We now have a catalogue cover- joined forces with the Archives Hub so that the scope of our collection ing all our non-archival book Gwent Archives will have a stall at the can be realised. Archives Hub, based holdings that are situated in the at Mimas, University of Manchester, Local History Day @ Newport Refer- research room and library. Our provides an online gateway to ar- ence Library, 15th March, 10am-3pm. library also incorporates the chival repositories throughout the Geoff Mein collection of books. country. It currently represents Come and find out more about the The catalogue is available as a around 220 archive services and hard copy in the research room provides an invaluable catalogue of Archives and the information that we and online on our website. the archives held within these repos- hold. itories. Gwent Archives has started Document of the Quarter: Order for the punishment of a rogue and vagabond (D749/78). Transcription: ‘Usk Borough in the County of Monmouth: To the Constable of the said Borough. For as much as a rogue and vaga- bond was this day found wander- ing and begging within the said Borough and was thereupon ap- prehended and is now brought before me Philip Jones Esq. Portreeve of the said Borough that he may be punished dealt withal according to Law these are therefore to command you to strip or cause to be stripped the said … naked from the middle upwards and publickely to whip or cause him to be whipped till his body be bloody. Given under my hand and seal within the Borough aforesaid in the said County the 16th day of …’ n.d. (18thC?) A fear of the ‘masterless man’ led to the severe punishment of vagrants during the Tudor period with whipping, branding, enslavement, and even execution meted out as a deterrent to people who refused to conform to normal societal rules by wandering and begging.* Whipping and imprisonment were still used in the eighteenth century to discourage vagrancy, however, it is not clear how often these punishments were carried out.* The document shown appears not to have been used as there is no offender named (D749/78). An alternative to physical punishment was to remove the vagrant to their parish of origin, therefore passing the responsibility and financial upkeep of the destitute to someone else. *Rogers, N. ‘Policing the poor in eighteenth-century London: The vagrancy laws and their administration’ on http:// pi.library.yorku.ca/ojs/index.php/hssh/article/viewFile/ 16452/15311 2 Life of an Archivist When researchers visit the Archives, often all that is seen are the front of house activities in the Research Room. I’d like to give customers an insight into the tasks archivists are required to perform at Gwent Archives. These tasks are rotated between archivists on a weekly basis: Duty archivist: The duty archivist invigilates in the Research Room and en- sures that everything such as pre-ordered documents, the till and computers are ready for service in the morning. In the Research Room the archivist works alongside two assistants and together we register and sign in research- ers, advise them of which archival documents may assist with their enquiries, retrieve documents for them and show them how to handle the documents. We also take decisions on what can be copied, as well as reproducing copies from originals. In the evening the Duty Archivist is responsible for closing eve- rything down, locking up and ensuring that the alarm has been set. Reserve archivist: The main task of the reserve archivist is to answer tele- phone, email and postal enquiries. This can be a mixture of informing people of the relevant records we hold, carrying out paid research, or advising who to contact if the pertinent records are not held by us. We receive multifarious enquiries including: family, local and house history requests. The Reserve Ar- chivist will also cover the Research Room when the Duty Archivist is una- Strongroom 1 at Gwent Archives: secure and climate vailable. controlled storage for our unique collections. Accessioning archivist: The main responsibility of the accessioning archivist is to accept new accessions and negotiate with potential depositors. When we are looking to take in new accessions, we assess whether the records are relevant to Gwent Archives (sometimes it is more appropriate for another Archive to take them). If we decide that we are going to take them, we then work out the terms and conditions (e.g. are the records being loaned or given to the Archives), and our Conservator checks the condition of the records before they are stored. Cataloguing archivist: All the archivists have designated collections to work on. We sort, clean and package these records, give them indi- vidual reference numbers, and provide them with a permanent loca- tion in our Strongrooms. Catalogues are then produced so that mem- bers of the public can use the records. Project archivist: Each archivist has been given a project to sort out at the archives: e.g. drawing up policies, keeping an active volunteers programme running, setting up databases, etc. The projects are usual- ly ways in which we are looking to improve the service. In addition to the roles outlined above, the archivists are also called on to give talks, take tour groups round and sometimes run evening classes for the UHOVI Researching Family History course. An archi- vist’s life is full of variety and interest, we get to meet and communi- cate with people from all over the globe, and also have access to fas- cinating unique archival documents. Now, that’s the life! Strongroom 2 at Gwent Archives: Different types and size of shelving to accommodate a variety of documents. 3 News From Sicily…1693 The ‘Newport’ Collection, catalogue number D43, is a miscellanea of strophic events of 1693. In addition to the terrible human cost, the documents held at Gwent Archives. It consists of some 7,425 deeds, region also suffered significant historic and cultural losses as the papers and volumes which range in date from the Late Medieval masonry and timberwork, paint and plaster of castles, churches, Period to the middle of the Twentieth Century. The collection con- ancient public buildings and monuments disappeared almost over- sists of documents once held at solicitors’ offices, family and estate night in the violence of the quakes and tsunami. Sicily was in ruin. papers and single items received from private depositors. The vast The rebuilding programme that followed the cataclysm would be majority of documents contain information pertaining to the owner- extensive with major urban areas in the Val di Noto region, Catania, ship of various parish lands and property holdings in the form of Modica, Palazzolo, Ragusa and Scicli eventually emerging from the rentals, agreements, maps, plans, inventories, leases and surveys rubble of 1693 to become iconic examples of the Sicilian Baroque, a and are very useful for those interested in the socioeconomic histo- term used specifically to describe the architectural style employed ry of Monmouthshire parishes.