Chairman’s Report 2008-9
This year
the Chairman’s report comes to you via this Newsletter which
will avoid taking up time at the AGM (and save me popping back
from Australia!) I am delighted to record another very
successful year for the Society with strong membership and
sound finances.
We had a
series of very informative and entertaining speakers with
large and enthusiastic attendances at meetings. (It is good to
know that speakers are delighted to come to Tickhill because
of our very positive reputation.)
We have
been very active in the community giving talks to local groups
and organisations and have just started a regular exhibition
of our growing collection of photographs in the Library.
Research
activities have continued to be very active with the
production of Occasional Papers (762 copies sold up to the
end of August) as well as the snippets in the Newsletters, and
for the first time we have run a workshop to develop skills in
researching local history.
We are
delighted that as a result of our high profile in Tickhill
there is a flow of new materials into our archives as people
lend us photos and documents. Our new scanning sessions in the
Library (1st Friday of each month) are adding to
this. We have continued to add to our collection of Living
Memories interviews.
The
website grows in popularity with 130,000 viewings of our photo
gallery since we launched it and regular down-loadings of our
articles (over 400 per month). We have added interesting
details to complement our photo collection with the help of
Carol Hill and “reminiscence sessions” with local Tickhillians.
Although
the Heritage Lottery Fund support finishes in September, it
has enabled us to buy good kit and do many things we would not
have been able to do without their financial help – all of
which will continue and develop.
On the
social side, it is a pleasure to experience the buzz of our
Thursday meetings and we also had a memorable Christmas
get-together plus two very successful summer visits.
In
summary, the Society can be proud of its achievements both the
established activities and the way in which we are moving
forward and developing.
I thank
all those who have contributed to this success and wish the
Society continued success in 2009/2010 under David’s
chairmanship.
Summer
activities
The
Society has had its busiest summer period yet. As in past
years, we had a stand at the Gala with plenty of visitors
interested in the Society’s work. Then there were two evening
trips for members: thanks to Dorothy Bradley for arranging
visits to Southwell Workhouse and Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet.
At the workhouse members had a taste of what it might have
been like to be admitted as inmates. Less daunting was the
tour of Abbeydale, a wonderfully preserved group of buildings
showing Sheffield’s early industrial heritage.
Monthly
sessions have been held at the Library since July giving
people an opportunity to have their photographs copied. These
sessions, plus the photographs handed in to Lesley Nicholson,
have added to our growing collection of images of life in
Tickhill, for which we are most grateful. We also appreciate
continuing donations of copies of original printed material.
Several
people have been very industrious over the summer preparing
publications. Another Occasional Paper - Number 7 - has been
published: Around St Mary’s Churchyard: Stories behind
selected gravestones. This includes stories of 17
individuals and families ranging from an 18th
Century husbandman to a 20th Century Medical
Officer of Health. Some people, like an almswoman, spent all
their lives in Tickhill while others moved here from the
surrounding region and a few travelled as far away as India
and South Africa. Thanks to Nell Cookson, Tricia Hill,
Margaret Jones and Stella and Donald Thorpe who helped Hazel
Moffat compile this Paper. The Paper is on sale at our
meetings and at KSM Card Gallery price £2. Steve Payne and
David Walters with assistance from Carol Hill are fulfilling
the Society’s commitment to HLF to produce a free guide to
Tickhill for local school children. Very well illustrated,
this publication, Treasures of Tickhill, with
versions for junior and senior pupils, is being funded
by HLF.
Our Committee
September’s AGM sees changes to the Committee. Steve Payne
steps down from his two-year stint as Chairman with our
considerable appreciation for all he has done. Steve cannot be
with us at the AGM so his report is included on page 3. A
second change is the end of David Walters’ long service as
Secretary. Huge thanks to David and good wishes for his new
role as Chairman-elect. To all those who have stepped down
from the Committee we are grateful for your contributions and
the support you have given the Society. Good luck to new
Committee members who will join at the AGM.
Into the Autumn
We look
forward to seeing as many of you as possible at the three
talks during the Autumn and at the Christmas Social, details
on page 3. Also do make a note in your diaries about the Local
History Fair to be held at Doncaster Museum on 26 September.
The Society will have a display there.
Tom Beastall’s Memorial Plaque
This has
now been installed in St Mary’s Church, a most fitting tribute
for all Tom’s dedicated work as Churchwarden and historian.
Book
Book Review
The
Yorkshire Archaeological Society has, for many years,
been working on a project to transcribe parish registers in
the County up to 1837. Braithwell’s registers, for example,
were published in 1967. The first volume of Tickhill’s
transcribed registers was published in 2008: Parish
Register of Tickhill: Volume 1 1538-1674. These
records may be consulted in Doncaster Archives, so what is
the benefit of having the ranscriptions published in book
form? The book includes several indexes of personal names,
places, occupations and miscellaneous matters. The indexes
can facilitate a range of research enquiries from following
individual families through the register to looking at the
prevalence of Quakers in Tickhill and the movement of people
at the time of their marriage, for example.
The
book’s introductory remarks written by Brian Barber, former
Principal Archivist at Doncaster Archives, and the editor,
Pauline Lindley, as well as giving a brief review of
Tickhill’s history, explain how the register, which began in
October 1538, was originally written on paper but was then
transcribed onto parchment in 1599 as was then the law.
Baptisms, marriages and burials were recorded in the same
register, but an Act of 1753 required a separate register to
be kept for marriages and a further Act in 1812 required
separate registers to be kept for baptisms and burials. From
1600 in Tickhill, the churchwardens compiled transcripts for
the preceding year and sent them to the Diocesan Registry.
These are known as Bishop’s Transcripts. Pauline Lindley
has checked the Bishop’s Transcripts, held at the Borthwick
Institute, against the original registers and noted any
differences.
Browsing
through the book reveals various aspects about the vicars
who kept the registers and the nature of society in
different periods. By and large the records were kept
carefully, but sometimes women’s maiden names were omitted
from the marriage records, and the vicars sometimes admitted
errors: in 1661 between 11 and 13 June is written ‘Between
these two were Mr Slymans man and mayde married whose names
I have forgotten’ and in 1674 after noting the baptism of
Anne daughter of Thomas Nicholson on 2 June it says ‘ which
was forgot to be set down before’. The Revd John Garfield
sometimes added notes in Latin when recording details of his
family. Throughout the baptismal records, almost always,
only the father’s name was given unless a widow had given
birth, or a child was illegitimate in which case both
parents were sometimes named. During Cromwell’s
Protectorate, marriage records included the dates when the
banns were read as well as the marriage date and the record
of births rather than baptisms from 1653 usually included
each father’s occupation.
A final
benefit of this substantial paperback book, 425 pages long,
which can be seen in Doncaster Archives, is that it can be
purchased from YAS and research done in the comfort of your
home. J B Priestley once said he would be a museum man if he
could sit in an armchair and smoke his pipe. We can be
archive people sitting in armchairs, pipes not obligatory,
with this useful volume. It is available from the Yorkshire
Archaeological Society, 23 Clarendon Road, Leeds LS2 9NZ,
price £20 plus £3 p+p. A second volume will be published in
the next few months.
