Library news: August 2009
Library Notes and Queries
One of the pleasures of working in the Arc and Arc Library is discovering what the library contains. Even after three or more years, we are still finding new items, or learning more about items we know of but have not examined. We have several rolled brass rubbings, which we are reluctant to unroll because they are mostly on paper, very fragile and easily damaged, and their length makes them awkward to handle in the limited space of the Judge’s Robing Room. However, curiosity got the better of us a few weeks ago, and we looked at one of the rubbings, of two medieval figures, a man and a woman side by side. There is no accompanying information on the images, or the whereabouts of the brass, which we assumed was in Hertfordshire. The brass incorporates a text in abbreviated medieval Latin around the perimeter, which is not easy to read, even for those members of the library team who, in E.L.Wisty’s words "have the Latin". However, the date of 1491 was readable, and after a good deal of discussion it seemed the individuals represented appeared to be a knight, Sir Peter Lee and possibly Eleanor, presumably his wife. The image of the man was puzzling, since he is depicted tonsured and wearing priest’s vestments over his armour. We checked the few books on Hertfordshire brasses held by the library to see if we could confirm the identification, but found nothing of that date or description. Our curiosity was now thoroughly roused, and Elizabeth searched the internet once she got home, and with some luck, she says, found a description that matches most of the information we had deciphered. The man was Sir Peter Legh, and the woman his wife Ellen. She died in 1491, but he lived on until 1527. It seems he commissioned the brass after his young wife died, and took holy orders, which explains the puzzle of his style of dress. They were not Hertfordshire people however. The brass is in St Oswald’s church in Winwick, Haydock, Lancashire. So the puzzle of this brass rubbing was resolved. It leaves us with other questions however. How did we acquire it? And what do we do with it?
Books recently added to stock
Medieval parks of Hertfordshire
by Anne Rowe. Hatfield, Hertfordshire Publications, 2009, 255pp. A study of the parks created between the eleventh and fifteenth centuries.
Signals: a railway miscellany; Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire.
Copt Hewick, Yorks, Book Castle, 2008, photographs, 276pp. Describes railways past and present, and railway walks, in the three counties.
Writing local history
by John Beckett. Manchester, Manchester University Press, 2007, 244pp. Sets out how local history has come to be where it is today; in a sense a history of local history writing.
God’s clockmaker: Richard of Wallingford and the invention of time
by John North. London, Continuum, 2005, 441pp. A biography of the brilliant mathematician, arguably England’s greatest medieval scientist, who became Abbot of St Albans.
Liberty, loyalty, property: the landed gentry of Hertfordshire from 1588 to 1688
by A.G. Davies. Hertford, Hertford Museum, 1988. A study of the role of Hertfordshire’s landed gentry from the Armada campaign to the revolution of 1688.
Historic Sandridge; the story of a Hertfordshire parish
by Edward Giles and Richard Thrale, with sketches by R. Giles. Sandridge, [St Leonard’s Church?] 1962.46pp.
Published in celebration of the 850th anniversary of St. Leonard’s church, this volume is the precursor of Historic Sandridge revisited, 1999.
Recent journal articles
In Current Archaeology, May 2009, pp30-35. Roman villas in Britain, by Brian Walters. A new examination of the evidence suggests these ‘villas’ might be temples, shrines or tax depots.
In Research News (English Heritage), Spring 2009, pp26-28. Whose blue? The true story behind the sky-blue roof of St Pancras International Station. Not relevant to St Albans or Hertfordshire, but the article might interest members who use the station.
Journals recently received
The Local Historian
May 2009
Local History News
Spring 2009
Current Archaeology
Sept, Oct, Nov, Dec 2008, Jan, Feb, Mar, May 2009
British Archaeology
July/August 2009
Hertfordshire People
June 2009-07-24
Conservation Bulletin
(English Heritage) Summer 2009
London Archaeologist
Summer 2009
Ver Valley Newsletter
July 2009
And finally…
We had a very unusual visitor to the library a couple of months ago, who approached not on foot via the Tourist Information Centre, but by air. Preceded by much fluttering and falls of soot and old mortar, a pigeon descended the Town Hall chimney and emerged in the library fireplace. Confused and distressed, it resisted capture, and could not be persuaded to leave by the window, which opens only a few inches. Reinforcements had to be called in, fortunately after the library session had ended, but it did not end well for the pigeon. The chimney is to be netted to prevent similar events.