We round up all the items and collections that have recently been catalogued at the BRO together with references in brackets. You can use our online catalogue to find out more about these and other items in our collections. Click here to search our online catalogue.
The Thames unlocked
Our major project to catalogue the records of the Thames Navigation and Conservancy (D/TC) was completed at the end of 2021. It was made possible thanks to an Archives Revealed Grant, funded by The National Archives, The Pilgrim Trust and The Wolfson Foundation. The records cover the period 1696-1974 and provide a remarkable resource for the history of the upper river (down as far as Teddington). As well as extensive administrative material, there are detailed engineers’ reports from the second half of the 19th century, and a very large number of plans of the river itself and of the many locks, weirs, towpaths, bridges, etc.
Some records relate to dredging, flood concerns, water supply, and a large series of ‘tackle sheets’ which record water levels 1892-1972. There are employment records for 1881-1943, and a wages book for lock staff 1953-1961. Some conservation work still needs to be carried out. For more about the history of the Thames Conservancy, please see our online exhibition.
From another source we have recently acquired photographs of two boat trips on the River Thames in the late 1920s (D/EX2773).
Welcome home!
We were very happy when a document withdrawn in 1980 came up for sale recently (D/EZ202/1). This deed was formerly deposited at the BRO and catalogued as D/EOS/T2, but has remained in private hands until we were able to buy it with the grateful assistance of Friends of the National Libraries.
It is a royal grant by Queen Mary I and her husband Philip of Spain of the manor and lordship of Smewyns, White Waltham, also known as the manor of White Waltham, to John Norres [Norreys] of Bray, dated 1 August 1558. Norreys paid £173 13s 4d for the property, a very large amount of money at the time. As well as being an important document for the history of that manor, it is particularly attractive, with its portrait initial of Philip and Mary seated on a shared throne.
Although not all the seal survives, the Great Seal of Philip and Mary is attached with plaited cords of green and white silk. John Norreys was Chief Usher of the Privy Chamber under Philip and Mary, retiring from court after the accession of Elizabeth in November 1558. The manor remained in the hands of his family until 1621. The moated manor house is now known as the Moat House.
Property of the Crown
Another important purchase was what is known as an ‘inspeximus’ copy of a survey of the manor of Radley (D/EZ203). The inspeximus is dated, and the original survey was made in 1547 by Roger Amyce, Supervisor of the lands of King Edward VI. We have also bought particulars of fee farm rents of the manor of Aston Tirrold, the site of the same manor, and the rectory of Aston Tirrold; and the manor of East Hendred alias Framptons (D/EZ207). These were all properties which had been acquired by the Crown following the Dissolution of the Monasteries, and they were valued in 1554 for the Queen’s Commissioner for Sale of Lands. We already held the deed of the sale of this property (D/EX410/1).
We’re very pleased to be able to buy items with assistance from external supporters, but we do also have something called the Documents Purchase Fund that we can use. The fund enables us to purchase documents that could otherwise disappear from Berkshire’s history. If you’d like to help us purchase more Berkshire documents, you can make a donation online via our website.
In the news
We have acquired copies of a number of mainly Reading newspapers, including the Berkshire Chronicle, 1891-1938; the Reading Observer,1873-1917; the Reading Standard, 1899-1964, 1995-1999; the Reading Post, 1964-2014; Reading Central, 2000-2005; Get Reading, 2009-2014; the Maidenhead Argus, 1901-1902; and the Wokingham, Bracknell and Ascot Times, 1938-2014 (D/EX2470). Many are in poor condition, so we advise you continue to use the microfilm copies at Reading Central Library or the British Newspapers Online where possible. We’re sharing stories from the papers as part of our blog too so keep an eye out in the articles section.
We have also acquired a handful of parish magazines from Winkfield, for some of the years between 1869 and 1894 (D/EX2353); and some printed miscellanea relating to Borocourt Hospital, Rotherfield Peppard, Oxfordshire, c.1970-1999 (D/EX2466).
Fallen from a scaffold
A couple of stray items from Abingdon Borough Quarter Sessions have been donated (D/EX2827). There is a presentment of William Lee of Abingdon in 1635 for building a shop on the king’s highway at a place called le Gatehowse, between le Steart [Stert Street] and the Market Place. There is also a rare early coroner’s inquisition, dated 1685. The jury found that William Saunders fell when a scaffold where he was working at the house of Thomas Chine, collapsed; he died immediately. Both documents are written in Latin, which was usual for court records at this date.
We have also received a warrant issued in 1820 by two of the Justices of the Peace for Berkshire, to the constable of the tithing of Leverton, [Chilton Foliat], Wiltshire, to convey Henry Smith of Chieveley, father of the illegitimate son of Sarah Brown of Leverton, to the common gaol at Reading for failing to pay the maintenance of the child as previously ordered (D/EX2747).
Architectural drawings of sections and elevations of the chancel and designs for the reredos of All Saints’ Church in Windsor dated 1863 were a rather exciting discovery (D/P149B). Not only are they an important resource in their own right, it is possible that the novelist and poet Thomas Hardy worked on them! He is known to have been employed at that date in the offices of Arthur W Blomfield & Son who produced the designs.
The vestry minutes of Faringdon Church, 1892-1977 (D/P53), include annual reports of the Superintendent of Faringdon Fire Brigade, 1892/3-1893/4. The brigade fought fires in other villages in the area as well as in Faringdon.
New for family history
We have received the marriage registers for Ruscombe, 1997-2015 (D/P100).
You can find out more about these records by searching our online catalogue. Simply enter the collection references mentioned into the Catalogue Reference field.