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		Contents	[ Close all Abstracts ]		Current issue
		Early nineteenth century bollards in London By: A D Harvey [ Read Abstract ] In this short article A.D. Harvey considers the development and significance of a form of street furniture which is very familiar and often overlooked or ignored. He shows how iron bollards superseded stone ones in the late eighteenth century. Some of them were genuinely former cannon, as popular mythology suggests that almost always were, but that the great majority can readily be proved to be purpose made. He suggests that the first half of the nineteenth century was a particularly important period for the erection of bollards, and gives many examples of those which are dated and include the initials or insignia of the London parishes which commissioned them. The article is illustrated with five large photographs of typical bollards. Harvey proposes that the notable increase in the number of bollards coincides with the growing consciousness of the status, importance and jurisdictions of the London parish vestries, and argues that, like formal perambulations of the parish boundaries, they represent a way of defining the territory of these institutions which were acutely conscious of their own position and also of their vulnerability to a reform of metropolitan government. 'Nothing was ever the same again': public attitudes in the occupied Channel Islands, 1942 By: Louise Willmot [ Read Abstract ] This important and substantial article addresses one of the fundamental issues in the history of the Channel Islands under Nazi German occupation between 1940 and 1945 - the attitudes, reactions and level of resistance displayed by islanders. The subject has been considered by several previous historians, with differing results and conclusions, and the article reappraises their analyses in the light of new primary research. Louise Willmot argues that until the summer of 1942 the special attitude and particularly guarded behaviour of the occupying forces shielded the islands from some of the harsher realities of enemy occupation, and led to a relatively low and limited level of resistance. She also suggests that the circumstances of the islands - with one of the smallest populations and most isolated physical and geographical locations of any part of occupied Europe combined with the inescapable fact that the number of German troops was proportionately higher than in any other occupied zone, meant that outright resistance was simply impossible, a fact often overlooked by earlier writers. In the article it is suggested that the period from June to December 1942 was crucial, because in those months the Germans became suddenly more rigid and harsh in their methods, confiscated radios and punished severely those who retained them, brought in slave labourers from occupied Eastern Europe, and began to deport recalcitrant or troublesome islanders. She concludes that this ended the comparatively submissive attitude of islanders, led to hardened attitudes on both sides, and encouraged a much higher level of passive resistance and covert anti-German operations. The article is supported by a very detailed and extensive set of notes and references and is one of the most valuable contributions to the study of the wartime Channel Islands to have been published in recent years. Public health and public paranoia: the 1888 typhoid outbreak in Wallasey, Cheshire By: Geoffrey Gill, Andrew Hill, Kristina Poole, Joanne Brocklebank and Marianne Johnstone [ Read Abstract ] The authors, all of whom have been involved in the work of the Liverpool University Department of Tropical Medicine, investigate in detail an outbreak of cholera in the fast-growing suburban and residential town of Wallasey in 1888. The focus of their analysis is the relationship between the Medical Officer of Health, the Local Government Board, the Wallasey Local Board and local people. It is suggested that alleged outbreak was, in fact, statistically not significant, and that much of the very extensive public attention which it generated was based on prejudices and false perceptions concerning the butcher's shop which was said to be the source of the infection. The Local Government Board sent in an inspector to conduct a public investigation, and this essentially found the case non-proven, but in the meantime a great deal of public hysteria had been whipped up and several important figures in local government had experienced major difficulties. The authors argue that there was little basis in fact for this serious over-reaction, but that the power of the press and public opinion in a newly-developing and middle-class community were sufficient to frighten the authorities. Completing the Calendar of Patent Rolls, Elizabeth I By: Louise Wilkinson [ Read Abstract ] This article describes the work of an on-going project, under the auspices of The National Archives, to calendar the patent rolls. These are one of the most important classes of record for the history of the British Isles, covering the period from the thirteenth century to the present day and of special interest and importance before 1750. Since the nineteenth century archivists and historians have undertaken extensive and detailed work on calendaring the documents and producing finding aids, and since the mid-1930s work has concentrated on the rolls of the reign of Elizabeth I. After a long hiatus work resumed in the late 1990s and since 1998 the calendars of the rolls for 1583-1594 have been either published or are imminent. The article describes the contents of the rolls, analysing it under the following headings: grants and leases of Crown lands; licenses to alienate lands and pardons of alienation; licenses to enter lands and grants of wardship and marriage; commissions; grants of office and grants of annuities and pensions; economic change; presentations and episcopal elections; and pardons. There are many examples of entries and descriptions of the type of evidence and information which they provide, and there are full explanations of the value of the calendars and ways of accessing the data. The article includes a detailed list of references and sources, two graphs showing the frequency of cases, and a bibliographical table of published calendars from the reign of Elizabeth I. Edwardian clerical incumbents in Leicestershire By: Gerald Rimmington [ Read Abstract ] In his account of the Church of England incumbents of Leicestershire in the Edwardian period Gerald Rimmington considers the changing circumstances within which the Church functioned, and the way in which social and economic restructuring influenced and affected its operation. He begins with a detailed discussion of the system of appointing clergy to livings, highlighting the vital role of patronage and the changing attitudes towards the inherited framework of lay, aristocratic, institutional and ecclesiastical patronage. The policy of successive bishops of Peterborough (in which diocese Leicestershire then fell) and the many variations in methods of appointment, including self-appointment and appointment by family members, are described. The article then discusses the training and qualifications of the county's clergy, involving assessment of the role of theological colleges and other forms of formal training. The third vital dimension to the experience of the clergy in this period was their changing financial situation, in which declining incomes, the frequency of deprived benefices, and the prevalence of smaller and lower incomes, contrasted with the conspicuous wealth and lavish lifestyles of a minority of clergy. The particularly difficult circumstances of the fast-growing town of Leicester, with its newly-created but impoverished urban parishes, is discussed in some detail. Rimmington concludes by arguing that the more optimistic assessments of the position of the late Victorian and Edwardian clergy clearly did not relate to the position in Leicestershire, but that strenuous efforts had been made to try to ensure a higher standard of pastoral care n the county over this period. Reviews Editor's round-up By: Peter Christie
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