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		Contents	[ Close all Abstracts ]		Current issue
		Editorial By: Alan Crosby [ Read Abstract ] Thinking about the articles in the present issue of The Local Historian brought home to me once again the great richness and diversity of our subject, not only with regard to the themes and topics which are covered but also in terms of the approaches and perspectives of different researchers and authors. The subject matter ranges from the turbulent and dramatic times of the English Reformation, via a new ‘fringe faith’ in mid-Victorian Bradford, to the social problems and physical squalor which were hidden in the back lanes behind the prosperous and respectable main streets of late nineteenth-century Kingston upon Thames. In truth, almost everything in history is local in at least some senses—or has a clear local dimension—so there is not much which is beyond the potential view of a local historian. That, I think, is one of the fascinations of the discipline, for it can illuminate, often in unexpected ways, the great processes, events and trends of society as a whole, contributing to a deeper and more rounded understanding and seeking to get behind those sweeping generalisations and over-simplified assumptions which have all too often—in the past at least—characterised ‘history’. A key point, now assuming a greater and overdue prominence in wider historical analysis, is that regional diversity, and the varying experience of different parts of the country (or, indeed, between communities in the same region), must never be discounted or underestimated, and that the accounts even of familiar historical patterns and processes may need to be revised in consequence. Those of us who attended the BALH Phillimore Lecture last June were privileged to hear Eamon Duffy recount his experience of researching, assessing and writing the history of the obscure Devon parish of Morebath during the English Reformation. This account, and the book which was the triumphant product of that work, demonstrate splendidly a point which many of us frequently labour—that much of the work of historians of all sorts is not called local history, but is at least a very close relative of it. Much outstanding work by ‘mainstream’ historians is based on the investigation of a locality, uses the source materials appertaining to that locality, and analyses the experience of that locality. It could be argued that such work simply uses a local canvas to depict issues and conclusions of general relevance—but surely any good local history does precisely that. It places the specific in a wider context, it demonstrates the similarities or differences between the experience of adjacent communities, or between one place and the world around, and it asks why there are those similarities and differences, looking for explanations and finding evidence from which conclusions can be drawn. The story of Reformation Morebath, as told by Eamon Duffy, is outstanding in many ways, its impressive qualities heightened by the very insignificance of the place itself. For me, as for many others, a particular impact of the work on that parish has been the sense that it casts a strong light into a dark recess. Morebath was, and is, quite unremarkable, but by an accident of history its written record of that perpetually rewarding and challenging period is mouthwateringly good. There is something remarkably satisfying in the fact that a place which was so off the beaten track, so small in population and so modest in every sense, should have provided us with perhaps the best insights we have for fundamental processes which shaped crucial areas of our national experience. Naturally, we cannot all find documentary evidence of such quality, but even lesser archival sources can produce important, or unexpected, or simply new and fresh results. In her analysis of the Catholic Apostolic Church in Bradford in the 1870s Jane de Gruchy uses some of the very limited documentary material which survives for this unusual and idiosyncratic institution, showing how the fruits of a simple investigation can challenge previous assumptions and produce new understanding which contradicts the received wisdom on the subject. That highlights another important lesson—it is often surprisingly easy to construct straightforward research exercises which offer genuinely fresh perspectives. In her analysis Jane used the records of the Church itself and cross-referenced them with census returns, to show the social and employment circumstances of the Church members. These sources are readily accessible and easily exploited, and they provide a model of how other local historians could conduct comparable exercises. Every case study, and every investigation of the local and the particular, provides raw material for analysis of the broader picture. I am confident that this study provides evidence which will be quoted in analyses of mid-Victorian religion in Yorkshire, and in further work on this intriguingly odd offshoot of nineteenth-century fervour. Simple techniques and methodologies may therefore be adopted by any of us. As I work on the articles which appear in the journal, one of the frustrations is that I do not have the time to go off at every tangent and to follow every research idea which the material suggests to me. But I hope very much that readers of the journal are inspired to pursue similar paths, to use comparable techniques, or to create their own case studies to inform the broader view. Chris French, in his analysis of the micro-history of Fairfield Place in Kingston upon Thames, seeks to demonstrate how focussing on a very small geographical area and looking at a range of conveniently-available sources can throw the human experience into a sharper perspective. All local history is about people and their environment, and by narrowing the view down to a small number of families the articles shows us how issues of major significance to late Victorian and Edwardian society impacted at the level of tiny communities within an outer-London town. Every generalisation should be based upon the evidence afforded by numerous micro-studies, but too often in the past the generalisations have been based, more or less, upon guesswork. This article highlights themes such as public health, mortality rates, housing conditions, slum ownership, migration and mobility, ethnic minorities, the nature and reality of ‘community’, press attitudes, and popular imagery. As the article implies, every generalisation takes the reader or observer further away from the reality of life for real people, so while micro-history cannot and should not serve as the only aim or aspiration of the local historian, it can provide an invaluable dimension to our work. It is perhaps less a research tool, more a mental and practical framework within which we can conduct our investigations and reach our conclusions. The list of themes on which Fairfield Place provides evidence reads like the contents of a book on the social history of late Victorian England. We should not, of course, believe that everywhere else resembled Fairfield Place—or, indeed, that anywhere else shared all its characteristics—but we should recognise that to summarise any or each of those themes in a way which is persuasive and convincing we should be able to draw upon the evidence of many Fairfield Places and many more such micro-studies. Hearing voices: on writing the history of Reformation Morebath By: Eamon Duffy [ Read Abstract ] This is the text of the 2005 Phillimore Lecture, which was delivered by Professor Eamon Duffy of the University of Cambridge. In it he explains in fascinating detail the process of conceiving, researching and writing the story of the Devon parish of Morebath during the turbulent and often dangerous religious changes of the sixteenth century. The parish, though remote and small, and otherwise comparatively undistinguished, has superb contemporary documentary evidence in the form of the churchwardens’ accounts, which were extensively annotated by Christopher Trychay, the vicar of Morebath from 1519 to 1574. Trychay’s extraordinary term of office spanned the entire process of the Reformation, through four reigns and from a time when England was a steadfastly Catholic country to a time when its queen had been excommunicated as a heretic. His vivid and evocative notes and observations record in engrossing detail the impact of these seminal events upon a small country community. The article is both fascinating in its own right, as an account of the process of historical research and writing, and also a powerful introduction to the best-selling book, Voices of Morebath, in which Professor Duffy tells the story of this remarkable yet entirely ordinary place. Taking up 'the challenge of micro-history': social conditions in Kingston upon Thames in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries By: Christopher French [ Read Abstract ] In this article Christopher French offers a case study of the advantages and methodologies of the form of local historical research which has recently become known as micro-history. The principle on which it is based suggests that only by intensive and painstaking examination and analysis of small areas and small communities—perhaps only at the level of individual streets—can we find the raw material on which generalisations can be constructed, and that these micro-histories may well change our perceptions and understandings of those generalised views of major social, economic and cultural trends in the past. Here French takes as his study area a small row of houses called Fairfield Place, in Kingston upon Thames, showing how despite their apparently favourable location in a prosperous country market town which was fast becoming part of the London conurbation, these properties experienced the defining problems of nineteenth-century social deprivation—high rates of infant mortality, environmental pollution, overcrowding, a concentration of disadvantaged groups (in this case Italian immigrants) and physical decay. He suggests a range of sources and simple exercises which can be used to inform such studies, and includes reference to the importance of patterns of land ownership as a determining factor. The Catholic Apostolic Church in Bradford 1872 - 1882 By: Jane de Gruchy [ Read Abstract ] The Catholic Apostolic Church was one of the many fringe denominations which arose in nineteenth century England as religious fragmentation altered and modified the previously simple (or apparently simple) tripartite division between Anglican, Nonconformist and Catholic. As with many other breakaway groups, its aims and methods were somewhat eccentric, and while its record-keeping was particularly comprehensive at the time the survival rate of the archival evidence has been very poor. In this article Jane de Gruchy analyses some of the few surviving records of the Church, from its Bradford congregation, and seeks to demonstrate how earlier suggestions that it was primarily an elitist grouping are misleading—the members were drawn from a wide range of social and economic backgrounds and this can be confirmed by cross-referencing membership records with the census returns. The Church, which was founded in the early 1830s, had many branches nationally and recruited vigorously during the mid-nineteenth century, but it dwindled away during the twentieth and by the 1960s had almost disappeared. The destruction of its records has been particularly regrettable but Jane de Gruchy’s article sheds valuable light upon this otherwise obscure religious group, and also shows how a very worthwhile analysis can be constructed from simple and straightforward sources. Opinion: published parish and community histories - a starting point in adult learning and the retheorising of local history By: Andrew J H Jackson [ Read Abstract ] Adult education is under constant and growing threats from a series of central government policies which are having the effect of dismantling a century-old tradition of liberal learning. But in many institutions the process of learning through active and positive research and investigation is still strong, and resources and ideas for such exercises are still eagerly sought by many practitioners. In this article Andrew Jackson of the University of Exeter outlines the way in which local history, as a subject for practical adult education, can benefit from straightforward analysis of existing publications about individual parishes. He suggests that by considering the context of publication—date, timing, publisher, sponsoring body and style or approach—students can begin to appreciate the factors which shape our perceptions of the past. The article uses as its example, the work which Dr Jackson has undertaken with students in analysing the large number of parish histories from Devon, and the specific project of investigating published work on four parishes on the northern edge of Exeter. Review article: new books on towns and cities By: Evelyn Lord [ Read Abstract ] The flow of books on urban history, or the history of towns, shows no sign of waning. Evelyn Lord, the reviews editor for The Local Historian, here considers a range of such publications. She places them in groups according to subject matter and assesses their effectiveness as historical sources, or ways of attracting the interest of local people and visitors, and she seeks to identify the major themes and issues with which urban historians are concerned. Evelyn draws a distinction between the books about individual places and the books about general urban themes, and suggests that historians of different towns and cities have much to offer the historian of general subjects, because the former can provide the case-studies which the latter can exploit as evidence.
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