Library news: November 2009
Library Notes and Queries
The old Town Hall will again be open during St Albans Residents’ First weekend, January 30-31, 2010, and the Arc and Arc library will again be opening its doors to the public. We plan to mount an exhibition of some of our maps and plans, so there will be more for visitors to look at than just books on shelves. The library will be open from 10am until 4pm on both Saturday and Sunday. Members of the library team will be present, but we would appreciate some assistance from members who can spare an hour on either day to help us in speaking to visitors about the Society, and encouraging as many as possible to join as members. It is one of the few occasions in the year when the Society has some physical visibility to the public, and it might help to reinforce the part it plays in the life of the City. If you can help, please contact Gill Harvey (details at the foot of these notes), who will be organising a rota. The responsibilities are very light. There is no reward for your help except the warm glow that comes from being helpful, and our gratitude.
The first Mayor’s Prize for an essay on local history has been awarded to Rosemary Hearle, for Walter J Lawrence, first Dean of St Albans.The text is to be added to the Society’s website, but for those who prefer to read it on paper, we have a copy in the library. We also have copies of the two other essays entered for the prize; all are available for members to borrow. Details of each essay are listed below under "Books recently added to stock."
The library has a number of books and other publications which are surplus to its needs, usually duplicates, sometimes donations on subjects which are not central to the Society’s interests, and for which we do not have space. We plan to offer these for sale to members at the monthly Friday lectures, with the first sale being in November. The frequency of sales will depend on how much surplus material we have, so they may not take place every month. Proceeds from sales will go to Society funds, so please come to the lectures armed with cash. Prices are likely to be very modest.
Books recently added to stock
Hertfordshire obituaries 1801-1837 as recorded in The Gentleman’s Magazine.
Extracted and annotated by Alan Ruston. Hertfordshire Family History Society Special Publication No 8.Hertfordshire Family History Society, 2009, 106pp.
Provides a reference to the obituaries of the most important and notable people in Hertfordshire at the time, plus those of some more humble citizens.
St Albans medieval defences and boundaries: a practical guide
by Peter Burley, 2009. 29pp. Typescript. Essay submitted for the Mayor’s Prize for the best contribution to local history.
The history of Beaumont’s Farm
by David Broome, 2009. 41pp. Typescript. Essay submitted for the Mayor’s Prize for the best contribution to local history.
Walter J Lawrence: first Dean of St Albans
by Rosemary Hearle, 2009. Typescript. 18pp. The winning entry for the Mayor’s Prize for the best contribution to local history.
Plutocrats: a Rothschild inheritance
John Murray, 2007. 432pp. Recounts how Nathan Rothschild’s four sons built on their inheritance, and rose to the top of Victorian society.
Hertfordshire places: an alphabetical finding aid for historical place-names in Hertfordshire
Compiled by Margaret Ward. Hertfordshire Family History Society, Special Publication no. 7, 2008.
St Albans, Hertfordshire: monumental inscriptions in the parish church of St Peter
Hertfordshire Family History Society, 2008. Reprint of the original edition published by the Hertfordshire Family and Population History Society.
St Albans, Hertfordshire: monumental inscriptions in the parish church of St Michael, including St Mary’s Childwick Green
Hertfordshire Family and Population History Society, 1998.
St Albans, Hertfordshire: monumental inscriptions in the parish church of St Stephen
Hertfordshire Family History Society, 1996.
Matthew Paris
by Richard Vaughan. Cambridge University Press, 1958, 288pp, black and white illus. Reissued in 2008 with a supplementary bibliography. A study of the life and works of the St Albans chronicler.
Lord Grimthorpe and other dragons
by Gillian Harvey, Typescript, 2009. The text of a talk to the Society, October 13th 2009, concerned with people who had to deal with Lord Grimthorpe in the battle over St Albans Abbey in the 1870’s and 1880’s, and Walter Lawrence in particular.
A new CD
Hertfordshire Quarter Sessions 1588-1619. Hertfordshire Family History Society, 2009.
This CD provides an index to almost 47,000 records derived from sources at Herts Archives and Local Studies.
Recent journal articles
In Current Archaeology August 2009, pp.36-42. Roman mosaics in Britain: the view from the South-East, by Chris Catling. Reports on what, in terms of mosaics, sets this region apart.
In Current Archaeology September 2009, pp.20-25. Making a mint: the archaeology of a late Iron Age industry, by Mark Landon. The author studied two huge hauls of coin-making debris from Braughing and Puckeridge in Hertfordshire.
In Current Archaeology October 2009, pp.20-27. Norfolk, land of Boudica. New archaeological discoveries in Norfolk are throwing fresh light on Boudica and her times.
In Current Archaeology November 2009, pp.12-21. Trophies of kings, by Kevin Leahy. The Staffordshire Hoard of Anglo-Saxon treasures, perhaps the trophies of Mercian kings.
Pp.22-29.The archaeology of leprosy and the Black Death, by Christopher Catling. Looks at what archaeology tells us about past responses to the global spread of infectious diseases.
In British Archaeology November-December 2009, pp.14-21. Staffordshire gold, by Mike Pitts. A well-illustrated account of the discovery of the hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold artefacts.
In Herts Past and Present, Autumn 2009, pp.3-4. Lionel L. Munby 1918-2009.An appreciation, by David Short. A tribute to the doyen of local history in Hertfordshire.
Pp.5-13 Supporting the poor in Little Gaddesden 1780-1834 , by Frances Kerner. Examines thetransition in Poor Law administration from an ‘open’ to a ‘close’ parish, with illustrations from a variety of individual cases.
Pp.14-16 Hertfordshire and the General Strike of 1926, by Nigel Agar.For Hertfordshire, the strike was largely a transport strike, but there was industrial action in other sectors, including the Dickinson paper works at Apsley.
Pp.17-19 Welwyn workhouse, by M.S. Edwards. Describes the care taken in dressing and feeding the inmates.
Pp.20-26 Ebenezer Sadler, Receiver General to the Cecils: a study in seventeenth century estate management, by Paul Barton. Examines the administration of the Cecil’s financial and legal affairs during a turbulent time in the family’s history.
Pp.27-31 Crouchfield: a history of the Herts Training School 1857-1982, by Dorothy Abel-Smith. Founded as a reformatory school for juvenile offenders, it underwent many changes. The author’s family devoted much time to the school.
In The Alban Link Autumn 2009. Pp.18-22 Abbey wars: Abbey and town in fourteenth century St Albans – the Peasants’ Revolt, by Peter Wadsworth. The second part of the account, the first having appeared in the Autumn 2008 issue of the journal.
Journals recently received
British Archaeology
September-October 2009
Research News
(English Heritage) Summer 2009-10-12
Hertfordshire People
September 2009
London Archaeologist
Autumn 2009