Barnes and Mortlake History Society
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Barnes and Newsletter 234 Mortlake December 2020 History www.barnes-history.org.uk Society The Show Must Go On The 2020-21 season could hardly have opened in less auspicious circumstances – as we contemplated the first lecture of the season, a second wave of Covid-19 appeared imminent. Then our designated speaker for September had to withdraw at the last moment. Still, having come so far, we were determined that the lecture programme should go ahead as planned and we were immensely grateful to Jane Edwards for rescuing the evening with a richly illustrated talk on heraldry, featuring much pageantry and the cut and thrust of an era long past. However, as this newsletter goes to press we find ourselves in the midst of a second national lockdown. Churches have enjoyed some Covid-19 protocol dispensations, so we are hopeful that we may be able to hold our December lecture, but we will not be able to confirm this until nearer the date. In the meantime, the most we can say is that the advance booking arrangements will remain in place and monthly email notifications will continue to be sent out. We have been pleasantly surprised at attendance numbers to date: indeed, the advance booking system has been heavily oversubscribed, and we are anxious to continue with “live” lectures insofar as the rules allow. St Mary’s has been very helpful in keeping us abreast of Covid-19 regulations. We have much in store for 2021 and we remain optimistic that we will be able to resume something approaching normal service early next year, the threat of digital festivities notwithstanding. Caroline Withall opens our new year on 21 January with a talk on the Forgotten Boys of the Sea which will focus on a lesser known aspect of the Marine Society: the recruitment of poor boys, including some from our locale, as apprentices to merchant ships, and the practice’s wider significance to social and economic history. In Paying the Parson, David Deaton will present the culmination of four year’s work spent digitising the tithe map for Mortlake parish. He will explain, at All Saints Church on Saturday 30 January, how tithes payable in kind became outdated and a subject of ridicule (as in Rowlandson cartoon). Reform of the system in 1838 required a comprehensive survey and the detailed mapping of most English parishes. Charles Pineles will acquaint us with Social Change on the Queen’s Road, Richmond on 18 February. Development of new thoroughfares over Richmond Hill, to combat flooding, and the coming of the railways precipitated the gentrification of this area in the 19th century. The talk will focus on early known landholders and the lives of certain Victorian residents. Julie Chandler will assail our senses with a talk on The Great Stink and Super Sewers on 18 March. By the 1800s the Thames, London’s main water supply, stank; the streets were filthy and cholera was rife, setting the stage for an engineering genius who transformed the environment. 150 years later, a new “super sewer” promises to preempt another “great stink”. This talk will be held at All Saints Church, preceded by the AGM. Lecture Booking On 15 April we take up residence at St Mary the Dates 2020-21 Virgin, Mortlake to hear renowned historian and academic Diarmaid MacCulloch introduce us to 1-8 December Thomas Cromwell: New Perspectives, an 12-19 January* 9-16 February examination of the myths and machinations 9-16 March surrounding the meteoric career of this remarkable 6-13April self-made statesmen. Advance booking is essential for *For lectures on 21 all lectures: please contact Jane Edwards on 020 8878 and 30 January 3756 or email at [email protected]. Linda Andrew and Paul Rawkins 2 The 65th Annual General Meeting Covid-19 has produced many strange sights this year, not least our postponed AGM on 17 September, when forty-five masked and socially distanced members took their seats at St Mary’s, Barnes. Nonetheless, people were unfazed by the “new normal” and the meeting was conducted with our customary swiftness. I opened the meeting by recapping on my Chairman’s report for 2019-20 before updating members on subsequent developments. The lecture programme had proceeded seamlessly until March when a nationwide lockdown forced the cancellation of the March and April lectures. The West London Local History Conference suffered a similar fate and was postponed to a later date. Reassuringly, virtually everybody had heeded the appeal for membership renewal and Ann Breeze, Membership Secretary, reported that the headcount stood at 384 in September compared with 301 in March. With only one committee member (Helen Deaton) expressing a desire to step down, there had been a high level of continuity in day-to-day management of the Society in the intervening months, mostly by email. The newsletter continued to be produced on schedule. Two new occasional papers had been published and a reprint of Hammersmith Bridge by Charles Hailstone was in the pipeline. Linda Andrew had put together a diverse lecture programme for 2020-21 and an advance booking system was now in place to comply with Covid-19 regulations. Treasurer Peter Hayward updated the meeting on the accounts since the end of March. Subscription income had held up well, but sales of publications had suffered because of the cancellation of meetings and Barnes Fair. Printing costs would rise by the year-end, but the accounts should remain in balance. I was re-elected as Chairman; the rest of the committee was re-elected “en- bloc” with the exception of Helen Deaton to whom the meeting extended a warm vote of thanks for her much valued input over thirteen years, first as secretary and then on publications and publicity. Jim Chester was re-elected as Independent Examiner. There was no other business. Paul Rawkins 3 Resources for Research Property Survey on the Eve of the Great War Taxation, like death, is one great certainty, but it can provide a very useful source for the historian. The Finance Act of 1909-10 imposed a duty on increases in land value which resulted from public money spent on communal infrastructure. To facilitate the calculation of this duty, a full survey of land ownership was mounted which provides a unique snapshot of land and property in the Edwardian era. The country was divided into “Income Tax Parishes” with each having a marked-up Ordnance Survey map (example above) and a series of field books – in our case, 34 for Barnes and 56 for Mortlake. The field books provide information on the names of owner and occupier, details of tenancy, the market value of the property, the number of rooms and the state of repair. These records are not available online but can be viewed in the Map Room of the National Archives at Kew. A reader’s ticket is needed and at present advanced booking is necessary and seats limited. The National Archives guide suggests consulting the maps first in order to find the appropriate field book. However, to make the process of finding a particular entry easier, the Society’s website now provides tables for both parishes showing the roads and properties covered by each field book. David Deaton 4 A History of Hammersmith Bridge Charles Hailstone’s excellent book has been reissued The reissuing of Charles Hailstone’s book on Hammersmith Bridge could hardly be more timely, as its future is being hotly debated. The original work was an exhaustive history of the bridge up until the mid-1980s, covering everything from the weight of iron used in its construction and the price of the land used for the approach roads, through to various types of damage inflicted on it and the heroism that prevented its destruction. The opening of Tierney Clark’s bridge (pictured) in the 1820s clearly had a huge effect on the local area, just as the closure of its successor has had nearly 200 years later. It is interesting to hear echoes of the current discussions in the historical account, from the role of tolls in financing the bridge through to the necessity for a temporary bridge. There have been concerns about the bridge’s future for many years. In 1927 the Royal Commission on Cross-River Traffic in London recommended that it should be rebuilt to take four lanes of traffic, and in 1938 it was designated a “weak bridge”. In the 1960s it was nearly replaced with a flat deck bridge carrying six lanes of traffic, but despite the Borough of Barnes expressing its willingness to widen Castelnau to accommodate this, it didn’t happen. The text is brought to life with a wealth of drawings, photographs and diagrams. My favourites include a lithograph showing the tollgate and tollhouses on the original bridge and an aerial photo showing the steam boat pier in the 1920s. Bazalgette’s alternative designs for the ornamental tower casings provide a glimpse of what might have been. The editors of the second edition have added a brief epilogue outlining the major developments over the past 33 years. At this pivotal moment in the life of the bridge, we await the next few critical chapters of its story. Hailstone’s book is available from Jane Edwards (details on p15) at £12.00, including postage and packing. Lucy Handscomb 5 News and Forthcoming Events Annual General Meeting The Annual General Meeting of the Society will be held on Thursday 18 March 2021 at 8.00pm at All Saints Church, East Sheen. Archives and Galleries The November lockdown closed libraries, archives and galleries. Before that they were open with a restricted service and conditions.