The Berkshire Echo 39
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The Berkshire Echo Issue 39 l Missing historical document l New to the Archives l Cold death for baby boy l Local woman gets ducked! l Workhouse master misuses rations From the Editor Dates for Your Diary An historical introduction Welcome to the spring edition of I would like to take this opportunity Find out more about your family or The Berkshire Echo, although with this to publicly thank the BRO staff for local history with a visit to the BRO. year’s non-existent winter it feels as all their hard work and dedication to Why not put your name down for though spring has been in the air for making you happy. one of the free BRO introductory sometime! In this issue: read about the visits. Remaining dates for 2007 recent purchase of a long lost historical However there are no noticeable are: 9th July and 8th October. document; fi nd out what really went on changes to satisfaction since the Just call us on 0118 901 5132 or ask at the workhouse; read the sad story of previous survey in 2004. So although at Reception for details. a baby’s death; celebrate the abolition we are not doing any worse, equally we of the Slave Trade; fi nd out who gets have not done any better. The survey See you in Faringdon! ducked in water; and catch up on recent produces a ‘wish list’ from visitors, Come along and investigate your additions to the BRO archive. and we will be looking again at how family, house and/or local history we ensure our public research rooms at the Faringdon History Day. It We now have the fi rst results from remain welcoming and comfortable takes place on 1st May between the new national assessment of local for all. 10.30 and 19.00 at Faringdon Town archives. The assessment provides a Hall (formerly Corn Exchange) and rating of anything between zero stars Enjoy the Echo, and remember to at Faringdon Library. Oxfordshire (not good) to three stars (fabulous). recommend a friend and spread the Record Offi ce is leading the event, We are very pleased to have been rated word about Berkshire’s history! but the BRO will also be there. Why as a two star service, a considerable not come along and fi nd out more. achievement for us. Please read on, and enjoy! For further details, please contact Mark Stevens (Senior Archivist) Oxfordshire Record Offi ce on 01865 We will not rest on our laurels though, 398200. and the results of our last Visitor Survey have given us food for thought. I am Visit our neighbour pleased to report that you all remain The Buckinghamshire Family very satisfi ed with the service you get History Society is having an Open from BRO as visitors – 95% rated our Day at The Grange High School, overall service either very good or good. Wendover Way, Aylesbury on Saturday 28th July from 10am to 4pm. This will be an opportunity to fi nd out more about family history in the Buckinghamshire area. Please see the website for more The Berkshire Echo Issue 39 details: www.bucksfhs.com berkshirerecordoffi ce.org.uk [email protected] Celebrate the abolition of the Slave Trade! 2007 marks the bicentenary of the includes a list of slaves as well as an abolition of the Slave Trade. Many inventory of the goods of John Blagrove, archives across Britain are celebrating including slaves, 1767. the event through the ‘Freedom and Liberty’ Archives Awareness Campaign For more information on the history and we too would like to highlight to of slavery please visit The National our readers some fascinating records Archives online exhibition at; www. relating to this gruesome part of history. nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/ List of slaves, ref: D/EX1271/1 blackhistory/rights/abolition.htm. The BRO holds details on a particular Also take a look at the Freedom and family by the name of Blagrove, resident Liberty campaign at: in Jamaica in 1774 (document ref; www.archiveawareness.com Need somewhere to D/EX1271/1). A large volume contains hold a meeting? information on their estates and Why not ask about our Wroughton Room for hire. Missing historical document found at last A once assumed lost document has The general health of the parish poor recently been purchased by the was provided for by an agreement BRO with the fi nancial help of the between the parish offi cers and a certain Berkshire and Oxfordshire Family Robert Clark and Son, for the Clarks to History societies. The document is a attend the sick poor in the parish, ‘in vestry minute book for the parish of St all professional cases whatsoever ... Leonard, Wallingford, 1819-1853. excepting cases of small pox, cow pox, or the vagrant poor’ for which they were The book provides an insight into to be paid £9 a year. the town and its people in the early Reasonable rates, nineteenth century. It details support The complete book will soon be fully great accommodation. for the poor of the parish and includes catalogued and made available for fascinating items such as the purchase research purposes. approval for a ‘change of linen and a Call on 0118 901 5137 new pair of shoes each for Mrs Watkin’s son and daughter’. for more information. The Berkshire Echo Issue 39 berkshirerecordoffi ce.org.uk [email protected] Punch Magazine, 1899 www.workhouses.org.uk Workhouse Master misuses rations Stroller We recently unfolded an interesting saga among the minutes of Wokingham Union Board of Guardians (document reference G/WO 1/11; September 1871). Cold death for baby boy Following an anonymous complaint that there had been “a In January 1879, James Rhodes died. He was just 3 months old. party of three persons for several years visiting the Union His parents, classed as ‘strollers’, were refused lodgings and Workhouse and making it quite an Hotel”, Mr Norry, the walked the streets through the night, resulting in the death master of the workhouse, admitted that “he had friends once of their baby, James. This rather sad story was taken from a year for several years staying with him for a fortnight but the Wallingford St Peter burial register (document reference that the scale allowed for the Offi cers rations had not been D/P139/1/7, page 64). exceeded.” The term ‘strollers’ probably refers to travellers or gypsies who The Guardians of the workhouse were clearly displeased by would not have had a permanent place to stay. If you have the goings on. In January 1872 they resolved that the Master traveller ancestry the Romany and Traveller Family History of the workhouse had “no right to have friends staying in the Society may be able to help. For more information visit the House without permission from the Board of Guardians” or “to website at: http://website.lineone.net/~rtfhs/links.html. dispose of any rations which were allowed him but which were unconsumed by him”. All of this was reported to the Local Government Board so clearly they did not want it to occur again in Wokingham or anywhere else in the country for that New to the Archives matter! Plumbers in Reading? If your ancestor was a plumber in the Reading area in the Local woman gets ducked! period 1894-1913, his name and address may appear in the contributions book of the United Operative Plumbers’ Grace Stampe, a local Abingdon woman in the 1600s was Association Reading & District Lodge (catalogue reference subjected to punishment by ‘ducking stool’. A recent visitor D/EX1977). to the BRO made this discovery while delving through the Abingdon quarter sessions records (c. 17th century; document New registers reference A/JQP 2). Newly deposited records of Sunningdale Baptist Church include the burial register, 1843-1978, and membership Mrs Stampe was accused of being “a common Schold, a records (D/N23). brawler, scholder & disturber of her neighbours” and her The latest parish registers now available are: punishment was to “be washed with water”! l Great Coxwell -marriages 1992-2006 (D/P44) l Eastbury -baptisms, 1867-2006, banns, 1901-2006 and The ducking stool was essentially a wooden chair hung from a burials, 1867-2005 (D/P79B) wooden beam and lever and hung over a river. Ducking was a l Lambourn -baptisms, 1948-1979, marriages 1974-2002, common punishment for troublesome and gossiping women and banns, 1979-1995 (D/P79) and it is thought that it was used even in the nineteenth l Woodlands St Mary (also known as Lambourn Woodlands) century. More shocking perhaps is the fact that it remained an - burials, 1842-2005 (D/P79C) optional form of punishment until 1967! l Purley -marriages, 1994-2005 (D/P93) The Berkshire Echo Issue 39 berkshirerecordoffi ce.org.uk [email protected] New to the Archives Air raid precautions map, ref: D/EX1949 Legal letters Property History We have acquired a collection of letters originating from Property history records include a small collection of deeds the offi ces of Hungerford solicitors Ryley & Matthews for a house in Bath Road, Speenhamland, 1775-1894; West (later Matthews & Hulbert), covering the period 1797-1841 Hanney, 1315 (D/EZ154/2-3); Aldermaston, Beenham and (D/EX1949). Some relate to clients in the Midlands, many Padworth, 1724-1857 (D/EX1966); Bray and Sunninghill, relate to the bankruptcy of William Pinnell of Lambourn. 1896-1920 (D/EX1992); Ashbury, Buckland, Faringdon, Grove, Lambourn, Longcot and Shrivenham, 1656-1958 (D/EX1977), in Air Raids and Bomb Shelters Reading (D/EX1990, D/EX1986, D/EX1865) and leases for Irene We were excited to receive a printed map of Slough showing Goodwin’s “ladies’ outfi tter” at 100 Peascod Street, Windsor, Air Raid Precautions and bomb shelters in 1940 (D/EX1949).