We bring you this month's round up of items and collections that have recently been catalogued at the BRO and are now available to view - catalogue references are given in brackets. You can use our online catalogue to find out more about these and other items in our collections.
Standing on nothing: Maintaining roads and rivers
An album of photographs of road maintenance machinery from the 1930s to the 1950s relates largely to experimental work carried out by the Road Transport Laboratory initially at Harmondsworth, Middlesex, and later at Crowthorne (D/EX1631). The images include rollers, tar sprayers, and gritters, and many show road workers in action – a regular sight on roads in the past, but one which would not often have attracted the attention of photographers.
We have also been given photographs of one of the ‘fireless locomotives’ used by Huntley & Palmers on their private railway siding between 1932 and 1970 (D/EX2820). We have acquired a copy of an article on urgent repairs to Newbury Bridge in 1928 (D/EX2685). The diver employed to inspect the foundations told the borough surveyor, 'If ever I saw a bridge standing on nothing this one is'. Luckily the work was carried out before it actually fell down! Also new is a small collection of documents relating to the Kennet and Avon Canal, n.d. [c.1951-1962]-1979 as can be seen in the images below (D/EX2803).
Charities
We were excited to be able to acquire an early volume of accounts of the proctor of St Bartholomew’s Hospital, Newbury, 1624-1697, a hitherto unknown first volume in a series which we already hold for 1700-1836 (D/EZ213). The ink gall ink used has caused some damage, so it is currently undergoing extensive conservation work. The same collection includes some deeds for property in Newbury, 1689-1796, one of which we wrote about in our January 2023 highlight due to its delightful illustrations. You can read more about that item online.
A false scent – the difficulties of an early genealogist
A small collection of papers of the Walter family, 1833-1928 (D/EX645) relate principally to the descendants of Edward Walter of Longparish House, Hampshire, a Lieutenant Colonel in the Indian Army, who died in 1862. Interesting provisions in the Colonel’s will include one for the trustees to remove his daughters from his first marriage from the custody of their stepmother Caroline Janetta Walter, if she should remarry, and also to allow his eldest daughter Louisa to live with her grandparents or one of her married uncles or aunts should she wish to do so rather than to remain with her stepmother. However, despite this, we find that relations continued cordially after Caroline Janetta’s second marriage in 1867 to the Revd James Beck of Storrington, Sussex. Her stepson Edward Charles Lethbridge Walter even chose Beck as one of his own executors in a will he made as a young Indian Army officer in 1875.
This Edward Walter’s relationship to the Walters of Bear Wood and the Times newspaper is not clear, but it certainly existed, as another part of the collection consists of decades-long genealogical research notes collected by Arthur F Walter of Bear Wood. He had first become interested in his ancestry in the 1860s, but it proved difficult to disentangle various Walter families' genealogy. However, the extensive correspondence provides an intriguing insight into the difficulties of family history research in the 19th century, before Record Offices began to gather records more centrally. Some letters from a paid researcher are labelled as a 'false scent' and 'worse than useless'!
No remedy for debts in 19th century Wokingham
The collection also includes a letter from Francis Soames of Wokingham, attorney (lawyer), to John Walter of Bear Wood, the local MP, dated 1833. It gives the author’s opinions on the 1613 charter of Wokingham, the present administration of the town, and proposed changes, particularly regarding the courts. It is evidence that for many years felonies (the most serious crimes) had not been tried at the Wokingham Borough Quarter Sessions, mainly to save the borough money. Soames writes, 'Perhaps on the whole this may be an advantage on account of the liability there would be to abuse in the exercise of a power so extensive & so serious in its consequences as transportation for life.’ He was more regretful about the disuse of the borough’s Court of Record, which would have dealt with minor civil cases, saying ‘As the matter stands there is scarcely any remedy for small debts. The practitioners in the County Court are for the most part disreputed as to render them almost useless'.
Venison for the mayor
There has been a small addition to the printed miscellanea collected by Sir George Peters of Windsor (WI/D243), including the menu for the Corporation of Windsor’s annual venison dinner and mayor's banquet, 1888. The menus provide some impressive design work of the period and even a splash of colour.
You can find out more about any of the records mentioned here and more, by searching our online catalogue. Simply enter the collection references mentioned above into the Catalogue Reference field.