2023 – a year in review

As we move into the new year we take time to look back over 2023 and reflect on the work of Archives and Special Collections in the last twelve months.

Signature of the first Duke of Wellington

Wellington 40

2023 was a significant year for the Archives as it marked the fortieth anniversary of the arrival of the papers of the first Duke of Wellington at Southampton after they were allocated to the University under national heritage legislation. The collection arrived on 17 March 1983, bringing to Southampton the University’s first major manuscript collection, leading to the creation of an Archives Department and the development of a major strand of activity within the University Library.

To celebrate this momentous occasion we hosted a number of events and activities throughout the year. It started with a Wellington 40 Twitter campaign, where both staff and researchers who had worked on the archive shared their favourite Wellington document. In March (the month when the collection arrived) we ran a series of blogs looking at forty years of work on the collection; conservation; events and the Wellington Pamphlets collection. This was followed by a series of Wellington themed blogs using the letters of the Duke’s name – starting, appropriately enough, with W for Waterloo.

On 7 July we hosted an in-person event, providing attendees with the opportunity to see behind the scenes, meet the curators and learn more about the work of the Archives and Special Collections, including conservation. As well as a selection of archival material on view, there was also an exhibition in the Level 4 Gallery reflecting on forty years of curation of the collection. And the visit was rounded off with tea and a talk by Dr Zack White about his research on the Wellington Archive.

Wellington 40 exhibition marking forty years of curation of the Wellington Archive, Level 4 Gallery

In October, the Special Collections Gallery opened again for the first time since 2020 with an exhibition The Duke presents his compliments. Taking the Wellington Archive as a starting point, the exhibition looks at the development of the archive collections since 1983. It continues to run weekdays (1000-1600) from 8 January to 16 February, so there is still time to come and have a look.

Events

As well as the event hosted by Archives and Special Collections as part of the Wellington 40 celebrations in July, we hosted visits for the Jewish Historical Society of England on 9 October and for the Come and Psing Psalmody event at the Turner Sims concert hall on 22 October. This latter event showcased some of the West Gallery music material collected by Rollo Woods, who was an expert in this field as well as a former Deputy Librarian at the University.

Rollo Woods

In November we ran an activity for the Hands-on Humanities day at the Avenue Campus. For the activity intrepid travellers were asked to take their archives passport and embark on a journey learning more about the collections. Feedback from those attending was very positive, with participants finding it a fun way to find out about the collections and the university. Highlights noted were “learning about history”, “discovering unexpected items” and, of course, “using the quill”.

Image of knitted pineapple purse from the Montse Stanley collection with magnifying glass and quill.

The Archives and Special Collections has continued to support teaching and research throughout the year, hosting sessions introducing students to archives for a range of undergraduate and master courses. Karen Robson and Jenny Ruthven have been involved in leading sessions on the curation of specialist libraries and on archives for the new MA in Holocaust Studies that runs for the first time in 2023/4. Karen will be leading further practical sessions on this course in the second semester in 2024. We also led two group projects as part of the second-year history undergraduate course in early 2023. This course asks the students to focus on archive sources for their project and for this year we offered a project about nineteenth-century press and politicians, utilising material from the archive of third Viscount Palmerston, and a project based on the papers of the Women’s Campaign for Soviet Jewry. 

Protest at Wembley Arena by members of the Women’s Campaign for Soviet Jewry [MS254/A980/4/22/178/3]

Collections and projects

Although the collection arrived and was reported in the review for last year, the Ben Abeles archive was officially launched in an event hosted by the Parkes Institute in June 2023. Karen Robson formed part of the panel for this hybrid event which attracted an international audience. Details of the Abeles collection is accessible in the Archive Catalogue.

Amongst the new Jewish archival and interfaith collections for 2023 were the papers of Professor Alice Eckardt, a leading scholar and activist in the field of Christian-Jewish relations, relating to her connection with a leading British figure in the same field – Revd Dr James Parkes. We have, throughout the year, acquired additional papers for existing collections, such as for Eugene Heimler and the Jewish Youth Fund. We also acquired more material documenting student life in previous decades with papers for the Med Soc reviews in the 1980s.

We have continued to develop our maritime archaeology archival holdings and the most sizeable acquisition of material this year has been the working papers of Peter Marsden relating to shipwrecks.

Part way through the year, Archives and Special Collections was the recipient of a grant from the Honor Frost Foundation for a project supporting work to make over 5000 digital images created from slides in the Honor Frost Archive, together with catalogue descriptions for each of the images, available online. The project is due to be completed by 31 January 2024.

Two stone anchors [MS439/A4278/HFA/8/3/12/8]: one of the images that is part of the Honor Frost project

Archives searchroom services

2023 saw the expansion of the Archives and Special Collections Virtual Reading Room service offering remote access to collections through digital appointments. This is a growing element to the archive reading room service and usage has grown by 28% in the last year. For information on how to book a digital appointment look at the Special Collections website access page.

This usage has been paralleled by a growing quantity of enquiries being handled within Archives – rising by 11% in the last year.

Looking ahead

In 2024 we are looking ahead to marking the 240^th anniversary of the birth of third Viscount Palmerston with events, including social media programmes and an exhibition relating to the Palmerston family and Broadlands. We have a number of projects ongoing and new for 2024, including working with the Parkes Institute to create a series of films promoting the collections and a three-year conservation project on the Schonfeld archive. Do look out for news on our social media channels.

Wellington 40 exhibition

For those unable to come to the Hartley Library in person, we’re sharing – via our Blog – the exhibition which has just been mounted in the Level 4 Gallery Exhibition space. If you are on campus, please do come and see it in all its glory!

This exhibition is the third of several events and commemorations planned for 2023 to mark the 40th anniversary of the arrival of the Wellington Papers at the University of Southampton. We started with a #Wellington40 Twitter campaign @HartleySpecialC in April followed by a series of blogs inspired by the letters in the Duke’s surname. We’re hosting an in-person behind-the-scenes tour, tea and talk event on 7 July and, finally, an exhibition of Archives and Rare Books in the Special Collections Gallery which will open in October 2023.

In 1983 the government allocated the papers of Arthur Wellesley, first Duke of Wellington, to the University of Southampton under national heritage legislation. The collection arrived on 17 March of that year. This brought to Southampton the University’s first major manuscript collection, leading to the creation of an Archives Department and the development of a major strand of activity within the University Library.

The Duke of Wellington examining a bound volume of Wellington documents at the official opening of the Wellington Suite Archives accommodation, 14 May 1983

This blog reflects on some of the highlights of this important collection, together with the curatorial and outreach work that has taken place to make it available over the last four decades.

Wellington Archive in the Archives strongroom, 2023

Arthur Wellesley, first Duke of Wellington (1769-1852), was a long serving politician as well as the premier soldier of his generation. He became a public figure after the Battle of Waterloo and at his death in 1852 was treated as a national hero. His archive dates from the great age of government by correspondence. Composed of around 100,000 items, that cover the Duke’s career as a soldier, statesman and diplomat from 1790 to his death in 1852, the collection bears witness to great military, political and social events of the time. It is exceptional among the papers of nineteenth-century figures for its size and scope.

Headed note paper containing a depiction of the Wellington Arch, Hyde Park Corner, London, on a letter
from John Wilson Croker to Wellington, 24 November 1846 [MS61/WP2/150/61]

Cataloguing the collection

The arrival of the Wellington Archive in 1983 marked the beginning of Southampton’s long involvement in automated archive catalogues. The Wellington Papers Database, which used STATUS software, could claim to be one of, if not the earliest, online archive catalogue in the UK. The cataloguing was done ‘offline’ by the archivists on BBC microcomputers equipped with rudimentary word-processing packages – but no memory – and all text was saved onto floppy discs. It was subsequently transferred to an ICL mainframe computer for incorporation into the database by batch programme. This being the days prior to the World Wide Web, the initial database was made available by the Joint Academic Network (JANET) and the public switched telephone network. It was initially scheduled to be made available 156 hours a week, rising to 168.

A new catalogue for a new era

In 2023 the catalogue of the Archive can be accessed in the Epexio Archive Catalogue, a new system that Archives and Special Collections launched in November 2021. The cataloguing has been at an item level, producing rich and detailed descriptions of the individual letters in the collection. This enables researchers to follow a military campaign day-by-day, see the progress of the drafting of legislation, such as the Catholic emancipation bill of 1829, or read the correspondence from a wide cross section of society offering Wellington their views on a whole range of subjects, asking for patronage, promotion or assistance or even asking him to be the godfather of their children.

Conservation

The collection also came with a major conservation challenge – some ten per cent of the collection was so badly damaged it was unfit to handle and in a parlous state. Paper is susceptible to many hazards – water, mould, vermin have all made an impact on the collection. As early as 1815, part of the archive was damaged in a shipwreck on the Tagus. But most damage was the result of storage in a damp environment during the Second World War. Mould growth severely weakened and stained the papers, leaving some letters in a fragmentary state.

Extremely delicate documents being supported on a silk screen during washing

For the conservation of the Archive, Southampton adopted a technique known as leaf-casting. This creates new paper made from pulp similar in nature to the original paper. The result is a sympathetic repair, which strengthens the weakened area, without putting undue stress at the repair edge. The conservators began by working with the less severely damaged materials so that they were able to build up expertise in conserving this type of exceedingly fragile material before tackling the most fragmentary bundles.

As a result of the work undertaken, important material is now available for research, including for the Peninsular War, papers for 1822 (for the Congress of Verona) and for Wellington as Prime Minister in 1829. The badly degraded and mould-damaged bundles from 1832, significant as this was the time of the First Reform Act, are available for the first time since 1940.

Events and activities

Visitors at an ‘Explore Your Archive’ drop-in session

The last forty years also has seen a great deal of outreach and activity focused on the Archive. The Archives and Special Collections has arranged seven international Wellington congresses, the most recent in 2019. It has curated a number of exhibitions to showcase the collection, including for the bicentenary of Waterloo in 2015. In 2015 and 2017 Karen Robson and Professor Chris Woolgar presented a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) they had co-created relating to Wellington and Waterloo.

Join us in 2023 as we continue to share this amazing collection!

Wellington 40: celebrating 40 years of the Wellington Archive at Southampton

Envelope addressed to the Duke of Wellington, 1840 [MS61/WP2/71/11]: his archive contains thousands of letters from a wide cross section of society

In 2023 Archives and Special Collections is celebrating a special anniversary – it is forty years since the arrival of the papers of Arthur Wellesley, first Duke of Wellington, to the University of Southampton. The collection arrived on 17 March 1983 to be housed in newly built Archives accommodation in a wing of the Turner Sims part of the Library. The arrival of this collection brought to Southampton the University’s first major manuscript collection and marked the development of a major strand of activity within the University Library.

Part of the Wellington Archive stored in the strongroom

Official opening of the Wellington Suite Archives accommodation: Bernard Naylor, University Librarian, Professor Smith, Department of History (hidden), Chris Woolgar, Archivist, and the Duke of Wellington looking at display of papers, 14 May 1983. [MS1/Phot/39/ph3526]

Arthur Wellesley, first Duke of Wellington (1769-1852), was a long serving politician as well as the premier soldier of his generation. He became a public figure after the Battle of Waterloo and at his death in 1852 was treated as a national hero. His archive dates from the great age of government by correspondence. Composed of around 100,000 items, that cover the Duke’s career as a soldier, statesman and diplomat from 1790 to his death in 1852, the collection bears witness to great military, political and social events of the time. It is exceptional among the papers of nineteenth-century figures for its size and scope.

Headed notepaper with a depiction of the Wellington Arch, Hyde Park, London, on a letter from J.W.Croker to Wellington, 24 November 1846 [MS61/WP2/150/61]

The arrival of the Wellington Archive in 1983 marked not only the establishment of an Archives Department within the Library and the appointment of its first Archivist, Mr Chris Woolgar, but the beginning of Southampton’s involvement in automated archive catalogues. The collection had firstly been arranged and a summary catalogue published. The second stage was to prepare detailed item level descriptions of the material within the collection. This was a substantial undertaking and it was decided that an automated system offered advantages in preparing descriptions, reducing indexing and enhancing the capacity to retrieve information from the archive. The Wellington Papers Database, which used STATUS software designed by the Atomic Energy Research Establishment, could claim to be one of, if the not the earliest, online archive catalogue in the UK.

Cataloguing of Wellington Archive in 1980s using BBC computers

The cataloguing was done “offline” by the archivists on BBC microcomputers equipped with rudimentary word-processing packages – but no memory – and all text was saved onto floppy discs. It was subsequently transferred to an ICL mainframe computer for incorporation into the database by batch programme. This being the days prior to the WWW, the initial database was made available by the Joint Academic Network (JANET) and the public switched telephone network. It was initially scheduled to be made available 156 hours a week, rising to 168.

In 2023 the catalogue of the Wellington Archive can be accessed in the Epexio Archive Catalogue, a new system that Archives and Special Collections launched in November 2021.

First page of a draft of a memorandum by Wellington, on the arrangements proposed for the introduction of Roman Catholic emancipation, 7 August 1829 [MS61/WP1/983/4/3]

Southampton’s focus on producing detailed item level catalogue descriptions of material within the Wellington Archive has created a rich resource with which researchers can engage. They can immerse themselves in unfolding military, political or other events or gain an insight to the vast array of subjects on which the public wrote to Wellington. It is possible, for instance, to follow a military campaign day-by-day or see the progress of the drafting of legislation, such as the Catholic emancipation bill of 1829. Wellington was also the recipient of correspondence from a wide cross section of society offering him their views on a whole range of subjects. The archive contains everything to a letter from Walter Scott sending a copy of his life of Bonaparte, to descriptions of new inventions, a discussion of a scheme of Irish emigration to Chile, to letters asking for patronage, promotion or assistance or even asking him to be the godfather of their children.

Illustration of John George’s steam war chariot, the details of just one of the proposed inventions sent to Wellington [MS61/WP2/40/119]

To find out more about the further work of the Special Collections on the Wellington Archive over the last forty years please do join us for the other blogs in this series: that for next week looks at conservation work on the collection.

Spotlight on collections: Brian Raywid Romany Papers

This week we’ll be taking a look at a new accession for our ‘spotlight on collections’ series: The Brian Raywid Romany Papers (MS443).

Brian Raywid was born in 1941 and, although Jewish himself rather than of Romany or Traveller heritage, he spent time with Romany and Travellers from the 1960s onwards.

Upon leaving school at age 15 Brian found work in a factory in Maidenhead, Berkshire. Here they produced jellies and marmalades and as part of production of a redcurrant jelly, usually eaten with lamb, they employed some young Romany women involved in the redcurrant harvest.

The bottling-run was merely a few hours, but the preparation of the redcurrants took about two weeks. Romany Traveller women, mostly young, came every year specifically to prepare the berries and they were employed as casual workers. They knew when the redcurrant picking season was and they knew when the factory needed them. Brian got to wondering about what an interesting life they led and was attracted to the romance of a life on the road.

Two years later in 1959 Brian visited Southall Horse Market near London and was further drawn to the idea of travelling life. The market was held on Wednesdays and before the horse auction there was a pig auction, as well as a horse-drawn trade vehicle auction (mainly two-wheeled flat carts and four-wheeled trolleys and drays). Also, vendors sold draught harness, whips, etc., but these weren’t usually auctioned, they were sold privately. Most of the buyers and sellers were Travellers, many of whom were still on the road with wagons. The prices at the auction were in guineas until the guinea was abolished in 1971 when our currency was decimalised.

There was also a farrier at the market with a lock-up forge who came only on Wednesdays; his real forge was in central London. He shod a lot of dairy horses including Dalton’s Dairies who had the most milk delivery horses in west London. Express Dairies had a lot of horses too, but they owned a farm in Finchley and had their own farrier there.

Apart from the pits, the last big employers of draught horses included the Co-op, breweries, and British Rail. Around 1965, just a few years later, few of these draught horses were still around, they were worth more dead than alive as meat for export, and their prices slumped. This meant Travellers’ horses’ prices slumped too for about a decade.

Thanks to an ill-timed accidental glance at the auctioneer at Southall Horse Market, Brian almost lost 64 guineas bidding on a horse (a lot of money for a young man to lose) but thankfully someone outbid him at the last moment at 66 guineas! Brian delved into the literature on Romany life (soon learning that much of what outsiders had written of them was nonsense) and by the early 1960s he had acquired his own open-lot light wagon with a canvas top, one made in the 1930s.

Brian was witness to a transformative time in the life of Romany and other Travellers. Prior to the Second World War the life had been centred around horse-drawn vehicles, camp-fires and other traditional elements. But just as the rest of the British people came to expect internal combustion engines, electrification and other mod cons – some Travellers embraced these developments too.

From 1961-2 Brian spent time on the road with traditional Travellers in his own horse-drawn turn-out and in the 1970s and 1980s he spent time on the road with Travellers in motorised turn-outs. Brian stopped living on the road in 1982 but maintained contact with the community thereafter.

From the 1960s onwards Brian became involved with a range of groups and societies interested in promoting friendly dialogue between travellers and non-travellers as well as supporting the educational needs of children in traveller communities and the rights of those communities in general.

From 1968 until the early 1970s Brian was active in the National Gypsy Council (NGC), helping to organise the logistics of the first World Romany Congress held near Orpington, Kent in 1971.

Brian also helped to produce Romano Drom – Britain’s first Traveller newspaper.

Romano Drom, Issue 1, June 1969 [MS443/A4300/1/1/5]

In late 1972 there was a rift within the NGC and a new group, named the Romany Guild, broke away and formed the first Travellers’ organisation in Britain to be founded and run by Travellers themselves. Brian was elected the Hon. Assistant Treasurer of the Romany Guild. It adopted a flexible and diplomatic approach to negotiation with non-Travellers and was patronised by Lady Plowden DBE (also a non-Traveller).

Romany Guild logo [MS443/A4300/1/7/1]

Brian was also involved with the National Gypsy Education Council (NGEC):

“The National Gypsy Education Council (NGEC) was formed in 1969 as an educational body to advance the education of Gypsies and other travellers with a limited membership including representatives of the Gypsy Council and local support groups and others invited by the NGEC to be members by reason of special interest, knowledge or experience.”

NGEC minutes, 19^th April 1973 [MS443/A4300/1/1/1]

Brian was a founder member of ACERT – the Advisory Committee for the Education of Romany and Other Travellers, also under the Chair of Lady Plowden.

From the early 1990s Brian was also involved with the Friends, Families and Travellers Support Group (FFT) and contributed to their newsletter and was also a non-active member of the Traveller School Charity (TSC) from 1991-1999.

TSC newsletter, Autumn 1996 [MS443/A4300/1/4/1]

Brian’s interests and memberships were not limited to activist groups only, however, as he was also involved with learned societies.

The original Gypsy Lore Society was established in 1888 and Brian was a long-time member and was credited as Assistant Editor beginning with Vol. 1, No. 1 of the Fourth Series of the Journal published from 1974. His papers include some of the minutes of the society from the 1970s, Journals of the Gypsy Lore Society covering the period from 1940, 1960-74, and the correspondence of Brian Raywid with the society, including its long-time secretary Dora Yates.

Letter from Dora Yates to Brian Raywid re membership of GLS, 1 Sep 1960 [MS443/A4300/1/6/3]

Brian was a friend of the acclaimed photographer Tony Boxall and Brian provided the commentary for the photography book Gypsy Camera, celebrating Tony’s work with Romany and Travellers and published by Creative Monochrome in 1992.

Exhibition flyers for launch of Gypsy Camera [MS443/A4300/11/1/3]

Brian also became active with the George Borrow Society, established in 1991 and dedicated to studying and promoting the life and work of the English-born writer George Borrow (1803-1881), whose best-known works include The Bible in Spain, Wild Wales, Lavengro and The Romany Rye, the latter set in his time with the English Romany.

Bulletin of the George Borrow Society: No. 2 (Autumn 1991) [MS443/A4300/5/2]

In 1981 Brian and others commemorated the 100^th anniversary of George Borrow’s death, visiting his grave in Brompton Cemetery, London. The reading they gave was taken from Lavengro (1851): “There’s the wind on the heath, brother; if I could only feel that, I would gladly live for ever…”

Brian Raywid and friends commemorate the 100th anniversary of the death of George Borrow [MS443/A4300/8/7]

Spotlight on collections: Professor Alice Eckardt papers

In the first blog of 2023, spotlighting on collections, we take a look at our first accession of the year – the papers of Professor Alice Eckardt. And perhaps fittingly in the week of Holocaust Memorial Day, we look at a person who was a leading scholar and activist in the field of Christian-Jewish relations and her connections with a leading British figure in the same field – Revd Dr James Parkes.

Alice and A. Roy Eckardt with James Parkes in the gardens at Barley [MS425/15 A4386/2/58]

Alice Lyons Eckardt (1923-2020) gained her BA from Oberlin College in Ohio in 1944 and then an MA at Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in 1966. She taught at Lehigh throughout her career, becoming Professor of Religious Studies in 1972 and retaining this post until 1987. There she worked alongside her husband A. Roy Eckardt (1918-98), a leading scholar in Christian-Jewish relations, who was chairman of the Religious Studies Department between 1951 to 1982. They co-authored three books Encounter with Israel: a challenge to conscience (1970); Long night’s journey into day: life and faith after the Holocaust (1982) and A revised retrospective on the Holocaust (1988) and Alice Eckardt also wrote over two hundred articles. In 1979 she was appointed special consultant to the President of the United States’ Commission on the Holocaust and also acted as a special advisor to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington.

The Eckardts knew James and Dorothy Parkes and visited the Parkes’ home at Barley when Roy was utilising the Parkes Library.

James Parkes at his home at Barley [MS425/15 A4386/2/98]

In her conference paper delivered at the First Friday Forum, Institute of Jewish-Christian Understanding, at Muhlenberg College, November 2007, Alice Eckardt recalls how she and her husband met and came to know James and Dorothy Parkes.

“My husband Roy Eckardt and I first got to know James and Dorothy Parkes in 1963-64 when Roy was researching how European thought about the Christian-Jewish relationship might have changed in roughly 20 years since the Holocaust. We had chosen to live in Cambridge, England, for the University’s library along with its nearness to Parkes’s home in the small village of Barley. We worked frequently in his library and had morning tea and the mid-day meal with them many days. By the end of the year I had come to see James as a true Renaissance man because of the width and depth of his interests and knowledge. We also experienced his impish grin and his marvellous story-telling, which our fourteen-year-old daughter and eleven-year-old son thoroughly enjoyed; especially his “ghost” story…”

[MS425/15 A4386/1/6]

James and Dorothy Parkes, 1977 [MS425/15 A4386/2]

Alice Eckardt’s own collection is made up of files of papers relating to Parkes, including articles and reviews by him, correspondence with Parkes, details of a paper on Parkes given by Eckardt at a conference in 2007 and of the biographies by Colin Holmes and Haim Chertock together with material by Robert Everett. 

Part of a letter from James Parkes to Alice and Roy Eckardt praising their study of the Holocaust, 15 Feb 1977 [MS425/15 A4386/1/5]

There also are a series of slides, which include a number of Barley and as well as photographs of James and Dorothy Parkes.

The Parkes Library at Barley [MS425/15 A4386/2/85]

Barley [MS425/15 A4386/2/100]

The collection also contains a number of publications by Parkes, both books and pamphlets, which have been heavily annotated by Alice Eckardt.  This printed material will become part of the Parkes Library collection.

A selection of pamphlets by James Parkes

A full catalogue of the archive material and photographs shortly will be available in the online Archive Catalogue – work is in process.

Join us next week for further blogs in February shining a light on other collections in our care.

2022 – a year in review

In the first blog of the new year we reflect on our work and activities for 2022. This included further developments in the new online catalogue and the Virtual Reading Room service, hosting events and activities on campus and welcoming a range of new collections into our care.

University platinum jubilee

Early in the year the University marked its own platinum jubilee, as it had been the first educational institution to be granted University status in the reign of Queen Elizabeth II.

Part of the University charter, 29 April 1952 [MS1]

To mark the occasion in April, Archives and Special Collections created a series of blogs focusing on the 1950s, these featured fashion; politics – with a particular spotlight on the Suez crisis; food, including making a couple of dishes that featured as part of the banquet in July 1953 to mark the installation of the Duke of Wellington as the first Chancellor of the newly created University; and Southampton in the 1950s.

And as part of a jubilee alumni day in May 2022, Archives and Special Collections hosted a behind the scenes visit which enabled visitors to view material from its holdings on University and student life from the 1950s onwards. The visits proved to be particularly nostalgic for a number of visitors and resulted in donations of new material for the Archives.

Visitors viewing material in the Archives and Special Collections during the Alumni Day, May 2022.

Archive Service Accreditation

Towards the end of the year, in November, Archives and Special Collections were awarded Archive Service Accreditation by The National Archives. 

Accredited Archive Services ensure the long-term collection, preservation and accessibility of our archive heritage. Accreditation is the UK quality standard which recognises good performance in all areas of archive service delivery. Achieving accredited status demonstrates that Archives and Special Collections has met clearly defined national standards relating to management and resourcing; the care of its unique collections and what the service offers to its entire range of users.

As a service, we were delighted to receive this national recognition which acknowledges our expertise and hard work. The Archive Service Accreditation Panel noted that it “…welcomed this application from a forward-looking, well-supported and ambitious archive service which is delivering well for its own mission and for the wider work of the university. The considered and high-quality approach of the service across its remit was commended….”

Events

We contributed to two Parkes Institute events during the year: Karen Robson took part in a round table discussion on discovering new meanings in Special Collections in January, while Jenny Ruthven and Karen Robson spoke at a seminar on historic libraries in November.

In June, Karen Robson attended the Religious Archives Group Conference at Lambeth Palace Library and presented a joint paper on behalf of herself and Professor Tony Kushner relating to Jewish archives in the UK.

On Wednesday 7 December we hosted a panel discussion about refugees and migration. Archives and Special Collections is the home of considerable archival holdings relating to the Basque child refugees who had arrived in Southampton 75 years previously and this was our contribution to mark the anniversary. The event had been postponed from September. In what was a fascinating and wide-ranging discussion, the panel (Professor Tony Kushner and Dr Jennifer Craig-Norton, together with Wendy White, Director of Library Services as moderator) considered not only the experiences of the Basque children and the Jewish refugee children who arrived in the UK as part of the Kindertransport but many contemporary resonances, including historic and present-day reactions to refugees, their portrayal in the press and the development and skewing of language in the discourse about refugees, migrants and asylum seekers.

Collections

First editions of Jane Austen’s Emma (1816)

We are pleased to say that the Library has received copies of the first editions of Jane Austen’s Emma (1816) and Northanger Abbey and Persuasion (1818) and the second edition of Sense and Sensibility (1813) in the allocation of material from the Blavatnik Honresfield Library. The contents of this private collection have been distributed to libraries around the country to ensure that they remain accessible to the public following its acquisition by the Friends of the National Libraries. The donation is especially welcome as the Library has lacked early editions of books by Hampshire’s best-known author.

The Library was formed towards the end of the 19th century by William Law (1836-1901), a Rochdale mill owner, who created an exceptional collection of English and Scottish manuscripts and printed books that had the Brontës at its heart, as well as manuscripts in the hands of Jane Austen, Robert Burns and Sir Walter Scott and a significant collection of printed books. It has been largely inaccessible for the last 80 years, until the work of Friends of the National Libraries enabled the collection to be purchased for the nation in 2021.

Certificate honouring Professor Landsberg as a pioneer in renewable energy, 1994 [MS459/A4369/8]

We have continued to add to the archival holdings over the last twelve months, including new material relating to the University and its history, some of which arrived as a result of the alumni event in May, but which also include the papers of the theoretical physicist Professor Peter Theodore Landsberg who had been Professor of Applied Mathematics. Born in Berlin to the Jewish family Professor Landsberg came to the UK in the late 1930s.

Prototypes of solar cells created by Professor Landsberg, 1970s [MS459/A4369/9]

There have been other significant new Anglo-Jewish archive collections during the year, such as the papers of JCORE (Jewish Council for Racial Equality), those of the West Central Liberal Synagogue and of another European physicist, this time the Austrian/Czech physicist Benjamin Abeles whose research in the United States of America in the 1960s led to the development of technology that powers space probes such as the Voyager. Abeles came to UK with the Kindertansport in 1939. An event is being planned in June 2023 to mark the arrival of this collection at Southampton.

Photograph of Ben Abeles for immigration documentation, 1961 [MS464/A4383/2/13]

Social media

We have continued to maintain a very active social media presence throughout the year with weekly blogs and regular tweets. The blogs have covered a whole range of subjects, including shining a spotlight on collections. As well as the 1950s themed blogs in April, we had a series of articles looking at the work Behind the scenes of the Special Collections in May which gave an introduction to putting on events, a conservation project, the work of the archivists and rare books cataloguing. The winter themed blogs that we began in December will be continuing next week with a look at Arctic clothing. We do hope that you will join us for this.

J is for Jewish Archives

Pages of a letter book of the Secretary of the Jewish Board of Guardians part of the Jewish Care archive, one of the collections acquired by Special Collections since 1990 [MS173/1/11/3]

In the latest of the Special Collections A-Z we look at J for Jewish archives. The Special Collections holds a considerable volume of Anglo-Jewish archive material, yet one of the questions we are asked frequently is why should this be the case. We will look a little at the background that led to the development of Southampton as a repository for Jewish archives.

The prominent Anglo-Jewish figure Claude Montefiore, was Acting President of University College, Southampton, 1910-13, and then President, 1913-34. He was a key supporter in the development of the institution during this time and part of his book collection was donated to the Library. The presence of this material was one of the attractions for Revd Dr James Parkes when he was seeking a home for his own library and archives. The Parkes Library on Jewish/non-Jewish relations arrived at the University of Southampton in 1964. This collection has formed the nucleus of a significant and ever expanding printed Special Collection and been the magnet that has drawn other collections to the University.

The official opening of the Parkes Library at Southampton, 1964: James Parkes is sitting at the far right of the image [MS1/Phot/39 ph3516]

It was the arrival of the Anglo-Jewish Archives collections in 1990, however, which transformed the scale and breadth of the holdings, adding some 5,000 boxes to the Special Collections existing holdings, and making it a significant centre for Jewish archival material.

Anglo-Jewish Archives material arrives 1990

Anglo-Jewish Archives material stored 2022

The Anglo-Jewish Archives collections that came to Southampton in 1990 had been created as part of the Jewish Historical Society of England in the 1950s and were housed but not owned by University College London. Although, unlike their American counterpart the American Jewish Archives based at the Hebrew Union College in Cincinatti, they were considerably underfunded, the AJA were very successful in collecting and also surveying material. Their success meant that they outgrew their temporary accommodation and resources and by the 1980s were in need of rehousing and additional resources. Indeed, in the 1980s there was a growing concern of the threat of a “vanishing heritage” of the destruction or disappearance of archival material. There were a number of initiatives to deal with this, especially in Manchester, Liverpool and Birmingham. In Manchester, its Jewish Museum was opened in 1984, whilst in Liverpool and Birmingham partnerships were developed between local record offices and Jewish heritage projects. Working in collaboration with the Merseyside Jewish Community Archives, a community archivist helps co-ordinate collecting and encourages its cataloguing and use, while the Liverpool Record Office provides archival storage and access. In London the Museum of the Jewish East End and in Glasgow the Scottish Jewish Archives were formed in the late 1980s. In both heritage preservation and archive collection were part of their initiatives but in both these cases, unlike Liverpool, there was no formal partnership with local record offices.

Another initiative was guidelines for the Anglo-Jewish community on the preservation of material and recommendations for depositing archives produced by the working party on Jewish archives. This working party was formed following a British Library symposium to discuss Jewish archives in 1988.

As part of these recommendations, a framework was set up amongst UK archives and libraries to provide a home for Jewish archival material. As part of this London Metropolitan Archives became the repository for material of London based organisations, while Southampton took on the role of collecting material relating to Anglo-Jewry.

In the decades since 1990, the situation with regards to archives of the Jewish community in the UK cannot be separated from the developments of the designated repositories, particularly London Metropolitan Archives and the University of Southampton.  London Metropolitan Archives has become the repository of archives of a range of London based Jewish organisations, including those of the Office of Chief Rabbi, the United Synagogue and the Board of Deputies.  The Special Collections has built on the core collections acquired by the Anglo-Jewish Archives from the 1950s to 1990 expanding them in both size and range. The collections at Southampton have grown several fold since 1990 and now fill more than 3km of shelves.

Photograph of the booth staffed by Miss Bennett in the interior of the hall at Atlantic Park, Eastleigh, with a number of the refugees in residence at the transit camp, 1920s [MS311/53 A3098]

The newer collections might still include those from the Anglo-Jewish elite, such as the Swaythling or Waley Cohen families, but they also include papers of refugees such as Eugene Heimler, the Adler family from Vienna or the Van der Zyl family or material of Rudi Kennedy who was used as a slave labourer under the Nazi regime and led the fight in the UK for compensation, increasing the range of voices to be heard. Organisational collections have expanded to include a range of liberal and reform communities and communal organisations. And we have given home to papers of pressure groups, such as those who fought for the cause of Soviet Jewry Conscience and the “35s” or the Women’s Campaign for Soviet Jewry or for social justice such as the Jewish Council for Racial Equality.

Protest by members of the Women’s Campaign for Soviet Jewry at Wembley Arena, London [MS254 A980/4/22/178]

For further information on the holdings at Southampton do look at the Archive Catalogue and the Browse Collections feature which brings together information on the range of Jewish archival material we hold. Special Collections also has contributed to Yerusha, an online catalogue providing extensive information on European Jewish archival heritage. It features more than 12,000 in-depth archival descriptions from 700 European archives, libraries, and museums in 27 countries.

And next week’s blog shines a spotlight on one of the newer Jewish archive collections with K for Kochan, focusing on the collection of the academic Lionel Kochan.

2021 – a year in review

And so for another year we faced the challenges of the covid pandemic. But yet again this did not prevent us from completing important projects, as well as welcoming researchers and student groups into the Archives reading room when restrictions permitted.

New Archive catalogue

In October we formally launched the new Archive Catalogue.  We have worked with the Metadatis, the team that created Epexio, to deliver this archival discovery platform that brings together for the first time into one integrated online system all catalogue descriptions that Southampton has been creating in online databases since the 1980s.  The introduction of the new Epexio Archive Catalogue marks a significant change for online archive catalogues at Southampton and the development and enhancement of the catalogues, as well as of the archive management system, will be an ongoing element of work.

Epexio Archive Catalogue home page

And for anyone interested in a little bit of the history of automated archive catalogues this was covered in our launch blog in October.

Online resources

A second major project for 2021 was the Broadlands digitisation project.  Focusing on the private diaries of Lord and Lady Mountbatten, as well as correspondence between them, this project has seen the publication of this material online. Available are diaries for Lord Mountbatten, 1918, 1920, 1922-44, 1946-68, together with appointment diaries, 1956-7 and 1977-8, tour diaries 1969-78.  For Lady Mountbatten there are diaries 1923-42, 1944-50 and appointment diaries 1950-60.  There are correspondence files between the couple, 1921-60.

Containing over 50,000 images, this resource can be accessed either via the Special Collections website Broadlands digitisation page, or links in the new Archive Catalogue.

Special Collections has created a number of films, which it has made available online on its Hartley Special Collections YouTube channel to assist with using the new Epexio Archive Catalogue. 

Events

In February, Karen Robson took part in an online panel discussion archives of East European Jewry, organised by the Parkes Institute, alongside Jonathan Brent, Executive Director of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research in New York and Aleksander Ivanov of the Interdepartmental Center for Jewish Studies, St Petersburg.

During a Summer Festival in June, we ran a Historical Poster Art activity that used posters from the Special Collections to inspire participants to create their own, using their artistic imagination. The posters used were from MS73 papers of L.A.Burgess; MS116/85 design works of A.Games; MS348 David Kossoff collection; MS291 the Nuffield Theatre Collection; and the Cope Collection.

Historical Poster Art activity, 15 June 2021

And in November we participated in the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales Explore Your Archives week of virtual “snapshot talks with a film on the maritime archaeology collections at Southampton. All talks will become available in due course on the Royal Commission’s YouTube channel.

James Parkes in 1924 [MS60 A625/34/6 box 1 folder 1]

Finally, we worked in conjunction with the Parkes Institute this year for two exhibitions which drew extensively on the archive collections: the Kindertransport exhibition and also that relating to James Parkes to mark forty years since his death.

Social media and publicity

We have maintained an active social media programme throughout the year, with our weekly blogs and regular tweets on the Special Collections Twitter account. On Twitter we participated in national programmes such as History begins at Home and Explore Your Archives.

The blog programme also picked up on national or international campaigns or notable days throughout the year. For Women’s History Month in March, for instance, we celebrated the collections that we hold of four very different women. Those featured were Trude Dub (1910-2002) who was Leicester correspondent of the Jewish Chronicle for over forty years; the psychologist, poet and humanitarian Asenath Petrie (1914-2001); Miss Eleanor Aubrey, who was a key personality at University College in the early part of the twentieth century; and finally Charlotte Chamberlain (1878-1956), a major benefactor of the University of Southampton. 

Portrait of Miss Eleanor Aubrey [MS310/71/2/3]

May is local and community history month and for this we published features on the poetry of John Henry Todd; Romsey Abbey; Southampton Gordon Boys’ Brigade; The British Red Cross and Hartley Witney; and finally Middle Bridge, Romsey.

In June we drew on the Broadlands Archives for two very different blogs.  In the first we marked national immigrant heritage month in the USA with a feature on emigration from Ireland to North America in the nineteenth century. We then celebrated Father’s Day drawing on the correspondence of the second Viscount Palmerston to his children.

Blogs throughout the year shone a spotlight on the collections that we hold for an array of different individuals: the screen writer Norman Crisp; Selig Brodetsky and Cecil Roth; Walter Schindler and Eugene Heimler who worked in the fields of psychology and psychotherapy; Elinor A.Moore; Rabbi Solomon Schonfeld; the acoustician Hugh Creighton; Sir Donald Acheson, a former Chief Medical Officer and professor of Medicine at Southampton; S.H.Somper; youth worker Stanley Rowe; and Revd William Annesley and his interest in biodiversity.

Organisations featured in blogs included: Youth Aliyah; Leo Baeck College, London; Hutchinson House Club for Working Lads; the Jewish Youth Fund; the Maccabaeans; the Jewish Religious Education Board; and the Central Council for Jewish Religious Education.

A number of blogs related to the University: three blogs chronicled the early days of the institution from the Hartley bequest and opening of Hartley Institution in 1862; the years 1862-1902, and then for the period 1902 until just before the First World War. Others looked at a collection of material relating to the Southampton University Training Corps and University open days, whilst in another former student Jennifer Cooper reminisced about student life in the 1950s and 1960s.

A further series of blogs focused on Southampton and Hampshire: the Stella Memorial Southampton; Bevois Mount House; Queenwood College, Hampshire; guidebooks for Hampshire and the Isle of Wight in the Cope Collection; a nineteenth-century account of walking the Isle of Wight; and the experience of Vietnamese refugees in Hampshire.

We also explored the genteel art of knitting in April, when we tried out some of the patterns noted in a notebook of stitches held in the Special Collections; the art of pickling and preserving with material from the Perkins Agricultural Library; Board of Agriculture Surveys; and our final blog of the year looked at Christmas gift books.

Collections

During the last twelve months we have continued to add to the archival holdings, including with a range of material relating to the University and its history and three collections of significance added to the Anglo-Jewish Archives holdings. Amongst those University related items are the papers for the Southampton University Training Corps, described in a blog mentioned above and papers of two former University Librarians from different eras: Bernard Naylor and Mr Bland.

University College Southampton Dance Band, 1932, standing in the hut left over from the First World War used by the Music Department [MS416/32 A4258]

We also have been pleased to provide homes for papers of Rabbi Professor Jonathan Magonet, former Principal of the Leo Baeck College, London; material of Evelyn Friedlander, who ran the Hidden Legacy Foundation which focused on the research, preservation and exhibition of the history of rural Jewry in the UK; and papers of Leonard Kessler.

Correspondence from the Leonard Kessler collection [MS456 A4361]

Archives searchroom service

The Archives searchroom service re-opened again in the spring after the lockdown in the early part of the year.  We have been delighted to welcome a wide range of researchers making research visits.  And Southampton has been one of the institutions in the UK upholding democracy by supporting the research undertaken by the researchers for the Infected Blood Inquiry.

With on-site teaching during this autumn term, we have been able to host research sessions for undergraduate and MA history students and for Winchester School of Art MA students.

Looking ahead to 2022

We look forward to 2022 with optimism as we plan ahead for another busy year.  The Special Collections will be marking the seventieth anniversary of Southampton being granted University status with a social media programme celebrating this and the 1950s.  We shall also be drawing on the archive collections to create an exhibition and other online resources to mark the seventy fifth anniversary of the independence of India and Pakistan.

The Yerusha project to which we contributed in 2019 is due to be launched in spring 2022. This online platform will provide access and showcase Jewish archive collections across Europe and Southampton is delighted to be involved with this initiative.

A new addition to the Honor Frost Archive

This week’s blog post takes another look at the life and work of the pioneering maritime archaeologist Honor Frost (1917-2010), whose career and artistic achievements we’ve previously showcased.

It was in January 2018 that we first announced the arrival of the Honor Frost Archive (MS439) at Special Collections and in March 2020 we documented her artistic talents. Today we will be delving into a newly accessioned supplement to the Honor Frost Archive (A4301). This new acquisition includes a range of material from Honor’s professional and personal life, ranging from log-books and diaries that she kept of her archaeological expeditions dating from 1958 onwards; to a collection of various writings by Honor and her friends or associates including poetry, short stories and some of her own translation work; as well as personal photographs and various miscellanea from her early years.

Honor’s artistic leanings were evident as early as her teenage years at Eastbourne High School, as shown in issues of their Chronicles from 1932-5.

MS439 A4301/5/10 – An imagining of St Marc’s Square in Venice by Honor Frost, from the Eastbourne High School Chronicle, December 1932

Prior to attending Eastbourne High School it appears Honor was a student at the École Vinet’ – a gymnasium and college for young girls in Lausanne, 1930-31.

MS439 A4301/5/11 – programme for the École Vinet in Lausanne, 1930-31

Upon graduating from Eastbourne High School Honor was awarded certificates from both the National Society of Art Masters and the Board of Education for drawing and in 1938 she also qualified in painting.

By the time she was in her early twenties Honor was illustrating for a student union publication at the London School of Economics – the Clare Market Review.

MS439 A4301/5/12 – LSE student union Clare Market Review, Vol 36, No 1, March 1940, featuring illustrations by Honor Frost

During the Second World War Honor found work as a truck driver, as shown in a letter of recommendation dated 24th October 1941, affirming her eligibility for such work.

MS439 A430/4/9 – letter of 24 Oct 1941 from Bean’s Express Ltd.

A few years later Honor was working for the National Fire Service, as demonstrated in a letter dated 27th May 1943, where it becomes clear that sitting in a damp basement and answering a telephone that seldom rang was doing little for Honor’s complaint of lung trouble. After spending much of this period of national service on sick leave, it appears she started a course of lectures on civics for the fire service.

After the war Honor’s artistic talents re-emerged and by the early 1950s, as a gifted polyglot, she was undertaking the translation into English of various texts by illustrious cultural figures, including a translation of Stendhal’s ‘The Lives of Haydn, Mozart and Metastasio’, which she translated in 1953.

Honor was immersed in literary culture, as shown by the folders of poetry and short story drafts, apparently written by her friends and acquaintances.

The diaries she kept from 1958 onwards document her travels throughout the Mediterranean working on various sites and by this time Honor was publishing articles on her experiences as a diver.

MS439 A4301/5/15 – Envoy magazine, Vol. 2, No. 4, February 1957 featuring an article by Honor Frost on ‘The watery parts of the world’ on diving with an aqualung

It was around the time of writing this article that she realised, based on her work as a draughtswoman for Kathleen Kenyon’s excavations in Jericho, that she preferred to work underwater rather than on land and the vocation for which she is now best known began to crystallise.

The material includes numerous diaries and log books documenting her emerging interest in maritime archaeology from the late 1950s onwards; the series runs until the 1990s and includes her accounts of travels and archaeological work in Greece, Malta, Marseille, Rome and elsewhere. Honor learned to dive in the late 1940s, training with George Barnier and the Club Alpin Sous-marin at Cannes. The first wreck she explored was that of the Balise de la Chretienne, a Roman vessel off Antheor, not far from Cannes. One of her diaries includes notes and sketches on Antheor from September 1961.

After her death in 2010 the Honor Frost Foundation was established; this organisation supports those wishing to continue Honor’s legacy by funding maritime archaeological work in the eastern Mediterranean.

Walking the Isle of Wight

This September Heritage Open Days, England’s largest festival of history and culture, will run 10-19 September. To mark this event, we feature in this blog a new manuscript accession that is one man’s appreciation of the history and culture of the Isle of Wight.

The manuscript was written by Luke Thomas Flood (1775-1860), who in 1845 travelled from his home in London to undertake a return tour of the Isle of Wight. The Flood family lived at 23 Cheyne Walk in Chelsea. Luke Thomas Flood was a Justice of the Peace and a significant landowner in Chelsea as well as a great benefactor to the parish, to which he left £3,000 when he died in 1860. He is celebrated by a service at the parish church annually on January 13th (called “Flood’s Day”) and Flood Street was named after him.

Flood recorded his reminiscences of his journey in a manuscript that he entitled “Tracings in a Pedestrian tour in the Isle of Wight in September 1845”. His intention was to write a short piece for publication in a weekly periodical, but, as he notes “as I went on I found so much pleasure in ‛treading my journey o’er again’ that I extended the paper beyond the appropriate limits.” [MS450 A4335/2/1]

Map of the Isle of Wight taken from J Sturch A view of the Isle of Wight (London, 1803) Rare Books Cope 98.03: Flood refers to an array of guidebooks and maps that he uses as he traverses the island.

Flood began his journey by train to Southampton from whence he caught the steam ferry to Cowes. In the first part of his reminiscences he recounts not only his arrival at Cowes but the arrival of a steamer conveying Queen Victoria:

[p2] “The surface of the water composing that beautiful estuary or rather arm of the sea, called Southampton Water, was beautifully calm and transparent. Three of the West India mail steamers quietly slept on its surface while here and there a pleasure yacht with its snow white sails half filled… just gave a semblance of life to the scene.

The steamers land their passengers at a wharf behind the Fountain Hotel, the largest in the town. There are several others of various degrees of excellence. Having observed in the cabin of the steam vessel a card of the Red Lion Inn, I went thither but found it not exactly to my taste, for instance I slept on a stump bedstead…. I walked out for half an hour on the Parade. I had just reached the walls of the castle when the guns suddenly commenced firing a salute, which was taken up by the RVS Schooner Ganymede. The Queen had just hove in sight or rather the steamer containing her and this was [p.3] her welcome home from Germany. What a curious instance this firing of salute is…”

West Cowes, Isle of Wight drawn by John Nixon, engraved by S.Rawle (London, 1806) Rare Books Cope c 98 COW 91.5 pr 355

Flood describes West Cowes as “a pretty town, so far as situation goes. Her streets are narrow, but being at the foot of wooded hills, this defect is lost sight of from the water. A very pleasant walk exists along the West Cliff (which by the bye is no cliff at all)… The views of the Solent and of the Hampshire coast are particularly pretty and much life is caused by the number of yachts usually at anchor off the town, the club house being situate on the Parade.” [p3]

Of Carisbrooke, to which he travelled by omnibus from Cowes, he noted “No village has all the signs of age. The church stands on an elevated round and the church yard is considerably above the road. This place in bygone times used to be considered the capital of the island, the castle being the great centre of strength and attraction….”

And it was to the Castle that Flood travelled, following the carriage road close to the grand entrance, which he described as “a really fine piece of antiquity often sketched and engraved, especially in guide books”.

Entrance to Carisbrooke (J. & F.Harwood, London, 1841) Rare Books Cope c 98 CAR 91.5 pr 296

“There is however a multitude of thoughts that rush through our mind when we behold such a relic actually before us…. Thoughts instead of glittering arms are now set in action by its towering and majestic form!”

Lithograph of an illustration of King Charles’s Window, Carisbrooke Castle by Joseph Barney, n.d. [19th century] Rare Books Cope c 98 CAR 93 pr 298

“We pass through the portal to a small wicket admits us within the walls. We are shewn on the left the window from which Charles I endeavoured to escape and on the right is the chapel which has been rebuilt by George 2nd. On the left is the famous well 500 feet deep… A path also to the left leads to a lofty flight of steps in not very good condition which conveys the explorer to the keep….”

The Keep, Carisbrooke Castle, drawn and engraved by Charles Tomkins (London, 1794) Rare Books Cope c 98 CAR 93 pr 321

Determined to walk around the island Flood took many coastal paths and describes at length in his account his walk to the Needles.

“The afternoon was beautiful. A light breeze from the eastward was barely felt in the valley and was just strong enough to keep me pretty cool in ascending the down. I decided on walking to the Needles’ Point past the beacon. The distance from the inn is about four miles and the path leads along a ridge which stretches out into the sea which has washed gaps in the wall of rock, then forming those isolated masses known as the Needles. Near the beacon which is placed on the highest point of the Down, the sea cliffs are more than 700 feet high above high water mark. Not a break or ledge to be seen in this stupendous wall…. Large flocks of birds also rest here in the summer season finding holes in which they rear their young…

The view from the beacon is magnificent. The mighty ocean appeared to rise like a lofty blue rampart, the horizon being distantly defined. Many vessels were in sight, some standing in towards the island gently and gracefully… In the opposite direction, the coast of Hampshire was very distinctly divided from the island by the silver Solent. Hurst Castle, or its bank of shingle, was a very prominent object, and near it on the mainland, Milford Church was seen. To the westward the Isle of Purbeck and St Alban’s Head formed the fullest objects in that direction… The town of Yarmouth, situate as the name denotes at the mouth of the Yar on its eastern bank, is very plainly discernible…” [pp. 8-9]

Alum Bay and the Needles (London, 1794) Rare Books Cope c 98.915 ALU pr 205

Flood was equally entranced by and lavish in his praise of the Undercliff which he described as a “rugged but most beautiful and picturesque district”. However, his pleasure in the beauties of the district were spoilt in his opinion by the development of properties along the route that did not blend with the environment. He described a “very pretty villa, with a large green veranda has been erected forming a most ridiculous contrast with the dark foaming ravine below”. And also noted that “the spring that flows down the Chine has been also monopolized… I was much disgusted with the artificial aspect so badly assimilating with the rude rough grandeur of the neighbourhood….” [p15]

His is nevertheless the account of an enthusiast for the pleasures of walking and exploring the history, culture and scenery of the Isle of Wight. Alongside his descriptions of the places he visits are observations on the pleasures in simple things, such as the uses for a stout stick or of a wash stand after a long walk.

“Allow me here especially to recommend a stick”, Flood wrote: “It may flourish very uselessly at the commencement of a walk, even to the severing of a few nettle tops and shattering two or three thistle blooms but as the day advances, its point will be found to make very close acquaintance with the dust and when this in its place, the staff will be found an exceedingly valuable help to the pedestrian…” [p5] And he paid homage “to that healthful shrine, the wash hand stand” at the end of a long walk along a dusty road. [p7]

We hope that you manage to visit some of the places that will be open or try out some of the immense range of activities on offer both in person and online for the Heritage Open Days. And perhaps like Flood you might be inspired to write your own account of your adventures.