Newsletter No 73 Winter 2007

In this Issue: Recycling in the Archives...The East of England Sound Archive Steering Group...The first Council Housing in Bedfordshire…Staff News...News of our volunteers 

Recycling—The possibilities are endless! by Pamela Birch

These days we are, quite rightly, urged to reuse and recycle but of course this is not a new idea. The archives we hold give evidence for this not in the text that may be written on them but in the materials from which they are made.

Board and papermaking have always used recycled materials. The finest milled board, used in book covers from the 17th century onwards, was made from, amongst other things, old hemp rope. From its introduction in this country in the 14th century until the 19th century paper was made from recycled linen and cotton rags rather than virgin materials. Although the reason for the Burial in Woollen Acts is usually explained as a way of boosting the wool trade they also helped to save linen and cotton for paper. Dard Hunter explains that ‘in one year approximately 200,000 pounds of linen and cotton were saved for the papermakers by this edict’ (Papermaking, Dover, 1978 p311). Whilst the finest animal glue is made from rabbits, most was made from the recycled bones of larger animals. The need for these materials gave us the rag and bone men whose mangled cry many of us still remember and whose trade goes back to at least the 16th century.

Bookbinders have frequently reused materials in the bindings of new books. The reformation meant that hymnals etc. used in the Catholic Church were no longer required and the vellum and parchment on which they were written could be used for book covers. There are several examples of 16th century parish records covered in earlier religious documents in our collections– in some examples the covers were removed and flattened in the early 20th century to allow the covers to be studied in their own right. [Ref..P40/1/9].

It was not only obsolete religious documents that were used for this purpose. Often deeds, incomplete, with mistakes or cancelled, were reused as book covers. While it is possible to clean text off parchment this is time consuming so usually these documents were just used with the text to the inside of the book.

Two books in our collections, which show recycling at work, are particular favourites of mine. GA2381(below) is a little book bound in 1652 by a Mr Goodall, who was clearly not a professional binder, using pages from a 14th century homily. The book contains a long theological letter to Elizabeth Buswell, wife of George Buswell of Clipston, Northants and daughter of Harold Kynnesman of Broughton, Northants. The letter was from her brother whose exact identity has not yet been traced and the book passed down to Elizabeth’s youngest daughter Frances. Frances married into a Bedfordshire family and hence the book came into our collections.

A manor court book for Arlesey Bury dated 1697, not only has a recycled deed as its covering material [Ref.HA4/1 inside back cover, left] but also shows evidence of recycling in its boards. It was common for binders of stationery items to also run businesses supplying papers hangings and these two trades are frequently mentioned together in binders’ plates and advertisements, as with this one of 1804:

The overlap between these two sides of the business is the only explanation I can come up with for the impressions on the boards. On the front board we find a Chinaman and a spotty dog, while on the back a jester dances through the foliage.

These are just a few examples of books that tell a story not just by their contents but also by their covers. The work and expense undertaken in construction can indicate the document’s status in the eyes of the original owner and tell you more about its provenance. In order to preserve all the valuable information conveyed by the original binding and construction it is important to handle them carefully, consider what stress may be caused to the sewing, the spine and the covering materials and to use book rests appropriately. You cannot always tell a book by its cover but the cover can tell more about the book.  

The East of England Sound Archive Steering Group (EESA)

Many of our readers will know that Bedfordshire & Luton Archives Service doesn't collect moving image collections or sound recordings as it does not have the storage facilities, equipment or expertise to deal with them. We can arrange transfers of moving image collections to the regional repository at the East Anglian Film Archive at Norwich, but there is currently no regional repository for sound archives. All the county record offices in the Eastern region (Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, Essex and Bedfordshire) have got together as a steering group to try to work out a regional solution to this problem. A regional solution is thought to be the most viable because of the large set up and running costs involved. This provision is likely to be based at either Norfolk or Essex Record Offices which were built with sound archives in mind and have specialist staff to deal with them. Copies of material could be held locally.

In May last year a preliminary survey of known collections of sound recordings in Bedfordshire was undertaken. Following this work the EESA group has decided to do a more structured survey throughout the region and early next year I will be distributing the survey and collecting the Bedfordshire responses to pass on to the group. The survey should take no longer than 15 minutes to complete and will be available either electronically or as a hardcopy. Some people will be thinking that they have already told me everything but I would ask that you spare a few minutes more to complete this survey to make sure that all the relevant information gets collected so that the group can push forward with plans for sound archive preservation in the region.

If you know of any people or organisations in Bedfordshire who have a collection of sound recordings worthy of long term preservation please let me know the details so that I can make sure they get the opportunity to complete the survey. If you would like any further details or would like to have ideas or questions put to the steering group please contact  Pamela Birch on 01234 228833.

The First Council Houses in Bedfordshire: Sharnbrook 1912

This black and white postcard photograph of Templars Way, Sharnbrook [Ref.Z1271/1] was recently given to the Archives Service by Mrs Debbie Townsend. The houses were the first council houses in Bedfordshire. Originally known as 1-6 Station Road, they were built on allotment ground given up to Bedford Rural District Council by Alfred Mayes and Joseph Coleman. Mr R Marriott was the building contractor and Mr E C Boyes of Sharnbrook the Clerk of Works. Although a plaque declares the buildings to be dated 1911 they were in fact completed in February 1912.

A council committee selected tenants, bearing in mind their ability to pay the rent, their present housing circumstances, and the size of their families. The first families chosen were Pettit, Wells, Surridge, Duke, Hulatt and Barker and they had all moved in by June 1912. All the original tenants to live there were given a copy of this postcard, including Mr Morris Pettit, who is the boy in the picture. The gardens were communal and included chickens and a shared pig. The houses were modernised in the 1950s with hot water supplies and connections to mains drainage.

Staff and Volunteer News

We welcome Mandy Marvin as our new Archivist, replacing Danny Naylor.

It was with sadness that we said goodbye to our longest serving volunteer, Jill Chrystal. Jill had worked for us for eight years and in that time had repacked many of our illustrations collections, the Z collections, the whole of the Bedford Modern School collection (which seemed as if it would never end!) and most recently part of the Hooper & Fletcher collection.

On a more upbeat note Lynette Derry is our newest volunteer who is helping to catalogue the family papers of the Fletcher family from the HF collection.

Our other volunteers continue with their good work, for which we are very grateful. Margaret Holbrook is cataloguing HF147, Jessica Watt and Rob Jones continue to enter data into the gaol database, Caroline Bowdler has nearly finished cataloguing the Z1169 drawings by E H C Inskip & Son, Richard Goddard catalogues photographs in the BP65 collection, Shelly Dennison is helping with our website and outreach for schools and Sue Fowler continues the recataloguing of the Swaffield collection. A big thank you to them all.