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Posts under the 'Records and research' category

Thu Mar

2013

Cyprus through a lens: A woman’s work …..

Posted by Sally Hoult in Records and research

The latest batch of Colonial Office photographs from the Through a Lens series have been released on Flickr. These photos are from the Mediterranean series in CO 1069 and include pictures from Cyprus.

In 1952, both Greece and Turkey had just become members of NATO and the Greek Cypriot population were pressing for ENOSIS, which was becoming a serious international issue.

We hold a lot of records here at The National Archives regarding the political situation in Cyprus during the 1950s, but little about the social aspects of the island.

The Coronation on 2 June 1953 gave the Empire a wonderful opportunity to enjoy themselves, and the women of Cyprus were certainly no exception. The formal celebrations for this happy event lasted for a week, but while the men were doing what men in uniform do best -

Governor inspecting the police (catalogue reference: CO 1069/702)

- the photographs I was particularly drawn to show what the women liked to get involved with. These photographs I’ve chosen show a fun, lighter side of life enjoyed by them all.

Wed Mar

2013

‘The Spirit of ’45′ or ‘a natural development from the past’?

Posted by Simon Demissie in Records and research

On Monday I visited the beautiful Phoenix cinema and saw the new Ken Loach documentary The Spirit of ’45. Loach depicts the period immediately following the Second World War when a series of welfare reforms – including the establishment of the National Health Service – and the nationalisations of certain industries reshaped British society, as the country attempted to recover from six years of war.

A representation of the genesis of the Beveridge Report and Labour's reforms

Tue Mar

2013

Trainee Tuesday: Richard III… from the horse’s mouth

Posted by Julie Thomson in Behind the scenes, Records and research

I am very privileged to be blogging to you today from a place to which I affectionately refer as ‘ground zero’. I mean, of course, the city of Leicester, much famed in recent weeks for a certain Yorkist monarch unearthed below the tarmac and asphalt of the county seat. Just 700mm below the aforesaid asphalt, mind you. This precarious state of affairs was compounded by the presence of 19th-century building foundations, drains and outhouses criss-crossing the ancient footprint of the 13th-century Franciscan friary in which he was laid to rest. Any one of these building projects could have easily swept away any evidence of Old Dick, and were indeed responsible for the unfortunate demise of his feet.

This fortuitous preservation, combined with the skill and luck that allowed University of Leicester archaeologists to pinpoint the grave’s location after opening only three trial trenches, is miraculous indeed. I am pleased and humbled to be placed in Leicester for my Opening Up Archives traineeship in this most landmark of years. All images in this article were personally digitised and it’s been wonderful to help preserve and promote such important source material.

But what exactly does the ‘Richard III Discovery Story’ have to do with archives, you may ask? In many ways, everything – because of course, our county Record Office holds the majority of desk-based data, in conjunction with the local Historic Environment Record office, which was used by resident archaeologists to surmise the circumstances of Richard’s burial.

This includes historical documents written post-Bosworth, in which various people have described, recorded, and theorised about the King’s death and final resting place, as in this example below by William Burton in The Description of Leicestershire, 1622:

Extract from William Burton's The Description of Leicestershire, 1622 (reference P 9/2)

Mon Mar

2013

My Tommy’s War: Ernest Butterworth

Posted by Roger Kershaw in Records and research

Ernest Butterworth (photo from private collection)

Ernest Butterworth was my maternal great-grandfather, born in 1877, the son of John Butterworth and Susan Butterworth, nee Jackson. He was the second youngest of seven children and born in Wardle, a village near Rochdale in east Lancashire, in the Rossendale Valley. His parents, like many in the area, worked in the cotton mills, his father was a cotton loom jobber and his mother a cotton weaver.

Rossendale towns, with a ready supply of fast flowing water, were ideal for cotton spinning and local mills by river banks were a common feature in the 19th century. At its peak, the area was producing some 68 million pounds of yarn and 210 million yards of cloth each year. Ernest was himself a Cotton Operator by the age of 13. By 1901, he was a Stone Quarry Man, and the family had moved to Whitworth, a small town situated between Bacup and Rochdale. Ten years later, the 1911 Census records him as returning to the occupation of Cotton Weaver, living in accommodation with only two rooms in the nearby village of Shawforth with a wife, Isabella, and five children. They would go on to have eight in total children, born between 1904 and 1915. Continue reading »

Fri Mar

2013

Impressions of St Helena – the early 19th century

Posted by Daniel Gilfoyle in Records and research

As early as the 17th century, St Helena’s position in the South Atlantic made it important to shipping between Western Europe and the east – a useful place where ships could take on water and supplies. Its cliffs and volcanic outcrops must have presented a fairly bleak view to sailors approaching after a long voyage.

Approaching St Helena, circa 1906 (reference CO 1069/766)

The East India Company controlled the island from the 1650s through to 1815 (with brief Dutch interludes), when Napoleon was exiled to the island and the British government temporarily took direct control.

Thu Mar

2013

A stamp for the Ladies or the Gentleman?

Posted by Keith Mitchell in Records and research

The latest release of pictures from Through a Lens have been made available on Flickr, and these now include Aden, from the section entitled Yemen (the modern name for the region).

Picture of the ‘Kings’ taken outside the Palace of the Sultan of Lahey (catalogue ref: CO 1069/685/1)

The photographs include a visit by the Governor, Sir Tom Hickinbotham (catalogue ref: CO 1069/684); General views and Tribal studies (catalogue ref: CO 1069/679); and a picture of the ‘Kings’ taken outside the Palace of the Sultan of Lahey (catalogue ref: CO 1069\685, see above).

Mon Mar

2013

Irish indentured labour in the Caribbean

Posted by Michael Mahoney in Records and research

Whilst doing research for the ‘Caribbean through a lens‘ user participation project, a chance phone call from a community group in Birmingham led to the uncovering of a remarkable hidden history of Irish servants or indentured labour being employed on English owned plantations in the Caribbean. At The National Archives, we have unique documentation that demonstrates the sale of indentured labour before, during and after the English Civil War of the 17th century. ¹ Many thousands of dispossessed Catholic Irish men, women and children were transported either willingly or unwillingly in this period to work on new sugar and tobacco plantations in Barbados, Jamaica and the smaller Caribbean islands including St Kitts, Nevis, Antigua and Montserrat.

‘Unloading cane at the Searle Estate’, Barbados. (catalogue reference INF 10/44/6)

Notes:

1. See HCA 30/636, CO 1/21 and CO 1/42. ^

Fri Mar

2013

Women’s rights: Keeping up appearances or winning the war?

Posted by Rebecca Simpson in Records and research

Happy International Women’s Day! We have an amazing array of records relating to women’s history here at The National Archives and so what better way to celebrate than to showcase some of our records? There are documents which played a huge part in the establishment of women’s’ rights through to our more puzzling and bizarre records on women’s appearance.

Prompted by the recent debate in the media following Hilary Mantel’s comments on the Duchess of Cambridge, I was particularly interested to see how the image of women, not just female royals, has developed over the course of recent history.

A matter of class?

The National Archives holds a prison record on Lady Constance Lytton (catalogue reference: HO 144/1054/187986), one of the many suffragettes imprisoned whilst campaigning for Votes for Women. Continue reading »

Fri Mar

2013

The bombing of the Café de Paris

Posted by Andrew Janes in Records and research

Plan of the Café de Paris, showing the effects of the bombing (reference: HO 193/68). The plan is shown laid out with weights to keep it flat.

Seventy-two years ago, on Saturday 8 March 1941, the Café de Paris, a London nightclub and restaurant was bombed during the Blitz. A 50 kg high-explosive bomb hit the building, on Coventry Street, at about 21.45. At least 34 people died and dozens more were seriously injured. ¹ Continue reading »

Notes:

1. The National Archives HO 193/25, City of Westminster District, 8/9 March 1941, entry number 5; Westminster City Archives CD/2/5, entry number 1213. ^

Thu Mar

2013

Rock of ages: Gibraltar through a lens

Posted by Tommy Norton in Records and research

Today it’s the turn of the small British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar to get the ‘through a lens’ treatment. If you’ve missed previous editions, The National Archives has been gradually releasing the contents of the Colonial Office Library’s photographic collection onto Flickr over the past two years. Our hope is that the people living there today will be able to tell us a bit more about the pictures and what they depict.

Almost 200 photos of Gibraltar, from the 19th century to the middle of the 20th, have gone online today, including rare colour photographs from the turn of the century.

Panoramic View of the Rock from the Commercial Mole (top), Gibraltar 1904 (catalogue ref: CO 1069/710)

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