As in previous years, the shortlist for the BALH Publications Awards in 2009 included excellent articles on fascinating and challenging topics, a tribute to the enthusiasm of the local historians who researched, analysed and wrote up these subjects.

 

Local history is often about looking at our immediate surroundings, and trying to understand the story of the community, landscape and people. This year’s winner, Greg Finch from Northumberland, investigated the hamlet in which he lives—Dotland near Hexham. In ‘Dotland deserted’ (Hexham Historian no.18, August 2008, pp.28-57), Greg used a wide range of sources from the medieval period onwards to gave a convincing picture of the tenants and freeholders in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, including their occupations (not just farming but also trades such as smithing, weaving and tailoring) and the family tragedies of infant mortality and early death. Dotland’s families scratched a thin, hard living from their cold hilltop, where the cold must have been keenly-felt by the inhabitants of draughty hovels.

 

He showed how the fortunes of the Rowland family of Dotland Park determined the fate of the community. In the late seventeenth century John Rowland, the young squire, began buying property and pushing for enclosure of the commons and open fields. John Ord of Newcastle lent him huge sums of money to buy up the properties. In the summer of 1706 the inevitable happened—the structure of debts collapsed, Ord took over the estate (the security for the loans) and by the 1720s had swept away the old landscape, lifestyles and patterns of community activity.

 

Robert Fenwick, in ‘Occupations of ordinary folk in pre-industrial Auchtergaven’ (Scottish Local History no.73, Summer 2008, pp.22-27), looked at a community near Dunkeld as part of a wider project involving contrasting areas—Auchtergaven, on the border between the Highland and lowland zones; estates in the Highlands; and an area of Edinburgh. He looked at 5490 individuals from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, analysing their economic activity, occupations, social profile, landholdings and tenancy arrangements, in the context of the old statistical accounts, the county and parish surveys for which there is no English equivalent. For me, a South Briton, his work highlighted how Scottish sources are very different from those in England and Wales—for example, only half of Scottish parishes have pre-1700 registers and only one-tenth before 1630

 

Christiane Koebel won an award for her article, ‘A hypothesis on the origins of St Oswald’s church and Lythe parish 650-1100’, published in the Scarborough Archaeological and Historical Society Transactions (no.40, 2007, pp.6-14). This was potentially a daunting task—tracing a pre-Conquest parish church in a world of few sources, unfamiliar to most local historians. When she researched the history of the church she particularly wanted to find out whether it began as a monastery, back in the seventh century. She also investigated its ancient parish boundaries, possible links to nearby Whitby, and the nature of the early settlement in the area. We were all impressed with her imaginative research question and skilful use of challenging sources.

 

Just down the coast, Karen Ounsley wrote ‘From mill worker to musical conductor: Mr S.W. Rogers and the Bridlington Quay Parade Band, 1882-1897’ (East Yorkshire Historian vol.9, 2008, pp.37-54). This involved a biographical approach to local history. It was particularly well constructed, beginning with an account of the development of Bridlington as a resort, and then focusing down on its entertainments and musical attractions, the resident band on the quay and parade, and finally on the conductor himself. Karen analysed the band—its musicians, instruments and repertoire—and described its troubled relationship with the Bridlington Local Board and other agencies. It was an unusual topic, very carefully researched and—despite its specialised content—easily comprehensible to the less musical!

 

Rebecca Roberts turned to the place immortalised as the birthplace of Anne Hathaway. In ‘Fashion, consumption and production in the Shottery home, 1556-1624’ (Warwickshire History vol.13 no.5, Summer 2007, pp.173-179) she looked at the circumstances of Anne’s neighbours and some of her family, using probate inventories to consider the domestic conditions of Shottery families during Shakespeare’s lifetime, considering fashion items, everyday utensils, furnishings and food preparation. We felt that this was an excellent example of a local study which deftly used a familiar source.

 

Finally, we gave the ‘Short article award’ to Keith Bailey for his delightfully-titled piece, ‘Clapham Junction swallows a street’ (Wandsworth Historian no.86, Autumn 2008, pp.1-6). This described how speculative builders constructed streets of houses in outer London in the mid-nineteenth century, normally developing the areas around stations and alongside railway lines. In the case study which Keith investigated, nearly-new houses and streets were, within a couple of decades, being demolished as the railway company acquired new land to widen the line and extend stations and sidings. It was a very good instance of micro-study, uncovering the history of a small area in great detail.