Heritage News 19 - South Derbyshire District Council

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UNUSUAL HISTORIC DIARY PUBLISHED Victorian life in a South Derbyshire village seen through the eyes of a gentleman farmer, poet, natural and local historian is revealed in a new book published by the Melbourne Historical Research Group, in conjunction with Derbyshire County Council and South Derbyshire District Council. Priced at £10.99, the book is good value with more than 240 pages including a sixteen-page colour section. John Joseph Briggs from King’s Newton in the parish of Melbourne kept a diary from 1845 to 1875 covering all aspects of life from national events to ‘everyday tales of village folk’. A few retrospective entries record events back to 1820. Now his thoughtful and unusual memoir spanning 55 years has been transcribed from the original manuscript into a glossy paperback, which was launched at Melbourne on Friday 22 April. Nominally a farmer, Briggs himself confessed that “To employment of an agricultural nature I had from infancy a great aversion”. Moreover, Briggs never enjoyed good health and was the only one of his parents eight children to achieve the age of 25. So after his father ceased to be active on the farm, he managed the office side of the business and left the heavy work to employees. The farm was a prosperous one on the Melbourne Estate, and was profitable enough to support Briggs while he did much as he liked. He wrote extensive notes on natural and local history, composed poetry and published three histories of Melbourne in 1839, 1852 and 1870. As an amateur historian, it’s not surprising that Briggs wrote his diary with posterity in mind. He probably never dreamt that it would ever be published, but he certainly wanted future generations to read it. “Many of the notes I am fully aware may seem uninteresting and unworthy of record and yet I cannot but imagine that even the most trivial in distant years must be found useful - for oftentimes a small well authenticated fact tends most materially to forward a great end. Improvements are in progress and we like to see the state of objects before such were effected. Times & manners change and man loves to contemplate how men lived & acted before him. We live in a changing age and I conceive that half a century hence we shall view the present time with as much amusement as we now look back upon that which is past.” The content of the diary is wide-ranging. Briggs describes events of national significance like the Crimean War down to the latest fashions of home life, such as the introduction of Christmas trees or the new trend for growing a beard. One of the diary entries describes how plans for a new railway line linking Rugby and Manchester were opposed at Swarkestone by Sir John Harpur Crewe of Calke who hired fifty people to prevent surveyors entering his land. Briggs •J.J. Briggs as a young man. By courtesy of Mr G.R. Heath. describes how “The company procured about eighty others from Melbourne and Heritage News - 4 elsewhere…when Sir John’s men saw the opposite party were not to be lightly frustrated they quietly and very prudently withdrew.” The diary also reveals that the Victorians experienced some of the same problems that we encounter today such as erratic, unseasonal weather and “cattle plague”, which swept the country in 1866. “Melbourne 1820 – 1875: A Diary by John Joseph Briggs”, edited by Philip Heath, is available from local bookshops. It is also available to order at £13.00 (to cover postage and packing), from Derbyshire Libraries Service, County Hall, Matlock, DE4 3AG. Cheques should be made payable to Derbyshire County Council. LISTENING AND LEARNING Roger Kitchen, who has recently been working for the National Forest’s LANDshapes project, tells us what he’s been up to: For the last 3 months I’ve had a dream job. I’ve been recording the memories of 36 people who live within the National Forest area, as part of the National Forest Company’s “LANDshapes Heritage in the Making” Project. The idea behind LANDshapes is to work with local people to capture, record and celebrate the landscape and cultural heritage of The National Forest by creating an on-line archive that can hold a variety of types of historical information - written documents, photographs, maps and oral histories. (Visit the website at www.landshapes.org) The site already included historic maps, documents and photos, but was lacking that very important historical source - the evidence of local eyewitnesses. My work has done a little to rectify that and the first extracts from my interviews are now starting to appear on the website (they can be found by going into the “archive” section and typing “roger kitchen” into the simple text search box, Ed.) “The recordings do not just capture the stories, they also capture a dialect which is fast disappearing.” There was no science in the choice of the interviewees; they were just people whose lives had interacted in different ways with the landscape and who also had a good story to tell. They included miners, farmers and farmworkers, brewers, an archaeologist, a tree surgeon, a drystone waller, a female railway platelayer, and a bird watcher. All of them gave me wonderful, unique insights into life in this area in the last 80 years or so. The recordings do not just capture the stories, they also capture a dialect which is fast disappearing. Although I’m sure that if these recordings had been made twenty or thirty years ago many more of the interviewees would have spoken in a broad dialect, I have still been lucky enough to hear and capture some examples of this. As a stranger to the area sometimes the answers seemed mystifying and confusing. A miner talked about a ‘tile box’, which threw me until he went on to say that it contained a pick and shovel and I realised he was talking about a ‘toolbox’. Likewise I realised that the ‘kills’ at the pottery were the kilns! I have been only able to scratch the surface in collecting the oral history of the area. I hope that more local people who are interested in discovering the history of their place will become enthused to collect memories as well as documents. The technology is there to capture and preserve the memories to a high standard and the funding is there through such schemes as the Local Heritage Initiative to get training and support and pay for equipment. I firmly believe that everybody has a story to tell. If we listen to people we’ll not only get unique insights into our local past but we will make new friends and, as a bonus, we’ll hear stories that will amuse us, astound us and even move us to tears. Roger Kitchen
NEWS AND VIEWS FROM THE CHAIR John Oake reports: It is wonderful to be able to report that, with only one month of the membership year elapsed, over 80% of last year’s members have renewed their subscriptions. We base our business plan on being able to retain at least 85% of our previous year’s members, so a massive thank you is owed to all who have shown support for Sharpe’s in this way. We try to make supporting the Friends of Sharpe’s a two way benefit and are still offering a free limited edition print to all new members. In addition, every member enjoys a 10% discount in the Sharpe’s cafe and 10% off concert tickets, as well as a £1.50 reduction off the price of our limited edition Cornishware mugs. That is on top of the three issues a year of Heritage News, keeping you in touch not just with Sharpe’s but with a broad range of heritage activities, facts and issues relating to South Derbyshire. If you haven’t yet joined yourself, or can think of someone else who might be interested, please give it some consideration. Our independent Volunteers Group is now very much up and running. So far this year, they have already provided funds for some new display cabinets, besides making a massive contribution to the success of the Spring Fair by organising the cake stands and a recruitment stand. The Volunteers Recruitment Day produced some additional active volunteers and the presence of volunteer stewards at Sharpe’s is making a constantly enhanced contribution to smooth running and visitor enjoyment. Meanwhile, in the café, our catering business has been so successful that we have had to increase staffing and have provided extra seating on the balcony of the kiln. The new balcony seating enables visitors to enjoy a drink or a snack in a truly novel environment. The first event in the Sharpe’s Lecture series (Dr. Glyn Coppack of English Heritage on “The Archaeology of Monasteries”) was very successful, both in the numbers attending and in the interest and enjoyment generated. All agreed that starting the evening with a reception accompanied by a piano and violin recital and wine sales added hugely to the enjoyment of the evening and the focus of the lecture on the lifestyle of monastic occupants made for an interesting and enjoyable presentation. The 2005/6 concert and theatre season could hardly have got off to a busier or more popular start. Carl Harper has a deservedly large following and he and his ‘Friends’ kicked off the season with a truly memorable concert of music from the theatre, performed to a full house. Within a week, he was followed by a one-person theatrical tribute to Vivien Leigh and a return of the hugely popular Maggie Chaplin and the ‘Sounds Like Jazz’ ensemble. The 2005/6 season is still evolving, so do keep in touch with changes through the pages of Heritage News, the Sharpe’s web site (www.sharpes.org.uk ) or the handbills and programmes available on the counter at Sharpe’s. ETWALL AND BURNASTON LOCAL HISTORY SOCIETY The Etwall and Burnaston Local History Society was founded in 2001 and has a membership of about 30. Meetings are held monthly and the Society’s area of interest is the townships, now civil parishes, of Etwall, Burnaston and Bearwardcote which historically looked to St Helen’s Church in Etwall for spiritual guidance. The programme includes talks by invited speakers, including a public lecture in November, but our main purpose is investigative and most meetings are workshops to further the Society’s defined projects. So far these have focused on nineteenth and twentieth century material, which is comparatively easy to access. The first such projects initiated by the Society have been the transcription and analysis of the census returns for the period 1841 to 1901 and the bringing together of all the Directory entries for the three parishes which are locally available. The present focus of activity is the ‘Etwall and Burnaston Heritage Project’ which is funded by grant from the Local Heritage Initiative. The outcomes, planned for completion in the spring of 2006, will be a series of four pamphlets/trails designed to provide information about the villages and the surrounding countryside, an oral history record and a compilation of material covering the development of our area during the Twentieth Century. This material will be incorporated into the Society’s existing archive currently located in Etwall Church. To date the archive has been the basis of three exhibitions and a fourth is planned in both the Church and Chapel in Etwall during the Etwall Well Dressing Festival 2005 taking place on the weekend of May 21st and 22nd to which all are welcome. A visit to Etwall should include the interior of St Helen’s Church, normally open on Wednesday afternoons between 2 and 4 pm, where there are memorials to the Port family (originally of Chester) who purchased land in Etwall in 1495. Both John Ports, father and son, were distinguished barristers and judges who held high office nationally and in Derbyshire. They acquired considerable estates in the county and elsewhere including the manor of Etwall in 1540 following the Dissolution. Sir John Port II died in 1557 without male issue and in his will made provision for the foundation of a Grammar School, now Repton School, and the endowment of almshouses or a hospital for the poor in Etwall, which are an important local architectural feature. The present buildings to the north of the Church, although modernised, are the rebuild of 12 houses constructed round a courtyard in 1681 with the addition of a wing of four additional houses in about 1690. This arrangement is shown in the engraving dating from 1854. Roger Dalton, Chairman. •An engraving of the Etwall almshouses, 1854. Heritage News - 5
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Page 3: TICKNALL POTS AND POTTERS A new boo
Page 7 and 8: WHO KNOWS? Telling Shardlows story.
Page 9 and 10: REJECTED! Some would-be listed buil
Page 11 and 12: JUNE JULY AUGUST For orthcoming eve

Heritage News 19 - South Derbyshire District Council

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