Bulletin 56 Spring 2011 www.cumbrialocalhistory.org.uk Nearly there... Opening date announced for Carlisle Archives Centre It's official! According to the County Council website, the new Archives Centre at Petteril Bank in the south of Carlisle "will open to the public for archival research on 1st June 2011." Further announcements will follow online and in the media, giving details of opening hours for the main archive facility and the opening arrangements for Lady Gillford's House, the historic mansion which forms part of the complex and will be used for exhibitions etc. As you can see from the Events listing in this Bulletin, some groups are visiting the Centre in advance of the opening, and there will be various "taster" sessions running in May, to check the effectiveness of service arrangements in the searchrooms. The new facility contains over a million documents; not just the archives formerly held at Carlisle Castle, but also many more which were for years, frustratingly, held in separate storage units, available only by prior request. Another obvious benefit will be the sheer space available for researchers- it will no longer be necessary to crawl under a table to access some of the reference books! Finally, it's worth mentioning that although the Archive Centre is some distance from the heart of the city, it does have very good access. Petteril Bank Road is off London Road, the main route into Carlisle from the south, and there is ample parking. Also, bus services 60 & 63 stop near the main entrance, and for those who want to keep healthy, paths in the Petteril valley are being improved. Cumbria Local History Federation EARLY WARNING CLHF Annual Convention Saturday 1 October 2011 Higham Hall, Bassenthwaite Lake Following the pattern of last year's Con- vention, we have planned the 2011 programme around a theme, which will be Landscape and the Local Historian. A major change wil be the venue. We are privileged to have the use of Higham Hall, Cumbria's residential adult education college. This beautiful neo-Gothic building, set in lovely grounds, was built around 1840. Our speakers are no less impressive than the setting: renowned local history specialist Alan Crosby will open the Convention by talking about landscape history and maps; Ian Tyler, Cumbrian authority on mines and quarries, will relate landscape to the extractive in- Cumbria County History Trust now has dustries; and Richard Gulliver, botanist 86 founder members (including socie- and historian, will discuss the part that ties), a guaranteed income of over trees have played in landscape evolu- £22,500 for 5 years, and preliminary tion. research for the Victoria County History project has commenced. The first Heri- As last year, there will be options and tage Lottery Fund bid did not succeed the opportunity to make a presentation. but the financial position of the Trust is Two practical workshops related to the already strong enough to continue to theme will take place, while members develop the project whilst continuing the will give ten-minute talks on a signifi- search for funding. cant landscape feature from their own corner of Cumbria. Please contact Jenni The Trustees meet on 14th April. Please Lister (see contacts list on back page of keep an eye on the CCHT temporary this Bulletin) before 15 June 2011 if you website wish to offer a presentation to be www.cumbriacountyhistory.org.uk included in the programme. for news updates, continue to spread the news that the project is under way, and As there will be less room for exhibi- (if you have not already done so) con- tions this year, the booking form will sider what you personally, and your local contain details of availablity; forms will history society, can do to support it. be sent out with the next Bulletin in summer, and will be available on our Richard Brockington website. As space is limited, early appli- Secretary, CCHT cations are advised. June Hall 2 www.cumbrialocalhistory.org.uk CLHF Bulletin 56, Spring 2011 prepared to 'rough it'. I've written about Treasurer wanted! visits in very different parts of the terri- tory, so Federation members will proba- At present, the post of Treasurer for the bly recognise places they know if they Cumbria Local History Federation is being visit our website. filled on a temporary basis by Member- ship Secretary Valerie Halsall. Although CWAAS was at the centre of heritage this makes some sense, as the majority matters in England - it wasn't just a of the Federation’s income is processed 'North West fringe' set-up. It was in- by her, the various other functions asso- vited to become a 'Society in Union' ciated with her main role do demand when the Society of Antiquaries of Lon- quite a lot of her time. We would there- don was feeling its way towards estab- fore prefer to find somebody else to serve lishing a responsible system for looking as Treasurer, keeping an eye on the after the country's heritage. S.A.L. Federation’s cash flow and making sure cared about the safe-keeping of archae- that our (very few) bills are paid on time. ology, publication of Parish Registers If any reader would like to help out with and responsible guardianship of Court this, please contact Jenni Lister (details Rolls and Manorial Records. CLHF mem- on back page of this Bulletin). bers might well like to read about such matters, and how CWAAS responded. Our Facebook page had been on trial, CUMBRIA PAST but in January the Council agreed it (News from CWAAS) should remain as a permanent part of the Society's website. Even if you have- n't your own Facebook page, you can We now offer a full modern information read our page by going to our website service, from informal to learned, and clicking on the Facebook link at the through our Facebook page, website, top left corner of Home page. If you do Newsletter and Transactions. have your own FB page, you can visit then 'Like' our page, then post your own On January 22nd 2011, the new HOME bits and pieces. The Society's FB page is PAGE of www.cumbriapast.com went live, where members can share news, heri- offering more photos, which change fre- tage photos, ideas and views in a quently on an automatic rotation system, friendly and informal way. so that site visitors are likely to see something different whenever they visit. The Facebook feature has proved to be a useful extra facility - the promptness A new feature is Focus on Heritage, pre- it allows for putting out important infor- senting a photo of an object or building of mation is a strong feature of the service interest in relation to Cumbria's past. The - and it has made available an interest- Early Days feature is more prominent ing range of archaeological and histori- now. I've written about twenty new E.D. cal topics and photos. snippets to join the half dozen already on this page; they will be automatically ro- The main recent (mid-February) devel- tated soon. opment of the website itself is the intro- duction of a new Home Page. These snippets give interesting glimpses Things to look out for: of getting about modern 'Cumbria' u the main photograph, present- (trains, open carriages, Shanks's pony!) ing a view of Cumbrian landscape or of - the women as intrepid as the men, and www.cumbrialocalhistory.org.uk 3 Cumbria Local History Federation a Cumbrian heritage site, and changing researchers and also improve electronic weekly; service delivery, services for schools, u a new publications feature high- and our relevance to local communities. lighting two of our wide and interesting We may need to change the way we range of books, one of which remains on operate in the future to achieve all of view for a period, while the other is this in the most cost-effective way. We changed weekly; look forward to discussions with CLHF u a totally new feature - FOCUS and its members, and other interested ON HERITAGE - a photograph, changed organisations to draw up proposals for a weekly, showing an object or building future cost-effective and quality archive forming part of the county's heritage; service delivery. u the Early Days panel, offering a brief 'taster', with photograph, of an Anne Rowe article in the series reached through a Archive Service Manager link; this, too, changes weekly; u the Activities section, headed by a photograph (changed weekly) of a place visited by the Society. Themed reports: In addition all the usual contents are getting help! available and we are extremely grateful to our webmaster, John Steel, who has In the last Bulletin I indicated that in done a huge amount of work to develop issue 56 I would like to focus on the our site in this lively way. topic of getting help from outside sources, and various member societies Have a look at us! Hope to hear from you! have provided contributions on this theme. Margaret Edwards Before you move on to their articles, I’ll CWAAS Communications Officer just throw in one obvious suggestion, the Heritagelink funding directory at: http://www.heritagelink.org.uk/ fundingdirectory/main/ Thoughts from fundinghome.php the Archives (you’ll need to join those last three lines together, or navigate from the Heritage- link home page, which forms the top Thank you to everyone who responded to line of the address above). Cumbria County Council’s recent public consultation on priorities for the future of services. The Council has had very diffi- cult decisions to make to identify sub- Cumbria Industrial stantial savings, but has now published History Society its budget for 2011-12.