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12.08.1878 – 07.12.1952

Winifred was born in south-west Surrey. Her father, David, was described in the 1881 census return as an ‘Australian merchant’. He was a native of Tasmania and by the late 19th century had amassed a sufficient fortune to be ‘living on his own means.’ In 1914 he purchased Longstock House, to the north of Stockbridge, but died before he had time to move in. However, the house was substantially modernised in 1915 with the installation of electricity and a telephone and Mrs Beddington and her children, including Winifred, lived there until her death in 1945, when it was bought by John Spedan Lewis, a businessman and founder of the John Lewis Partnership.

Winifred remained a spinster and at the time of her death she was still living in the parish of Longstock at Little Manor. During the 1920s and 1930s there is considerable evidence in the press to indicate that she devoted a  great deal of her energy to the Longstock Women’s Institute and the Hampshire Federation, which was founded in 1918. This included helping to organise events and giving talks. In an obituary published in the Hampshire Chronicle she was described as an ‘expert handicraft designer and judge … an authority … on needlecraft, knitting … [and] embroidery.’ Apart from her involvement in the project which resulted in the publication of It Happened in Hampshire, in later years ‘she produced for private circulation a very comprehensive history of Longstoke village.’

Sources

• John Lewis Partnership Memory Store

• Hampshire Chronicle, 13 December 1952 p.5.

Portrait

Contribution to county’s history

When It Happened in Hampshire was first published in 1937 it attracted considerable attention in the local press and did much to stimulate interest in Hampshire’s past, with chapters on subjects, such as village churches; industries past and present; legends; stories and sayings; and smuggling. The purpose of the project was ‘to collect and chronicle the life and customs of the villages as observed and assembled by members of … Women’s Institutes.’ By involving members throughout the county, it can be said to have assisted in ‘democratising’ local history and to have encouraged what became known as ‘oral history’. Moreover, it prepared the ground for similar projects and publications in the years following the Second World War, specifically (a) The New Hampshire Village Book, published in 1990; (b) Hampshire Within Living Memory, published in 1994; and (c) Hampshire: a century in photographs, published in 1998, all of which were compiled by the Hampshire County Federation of Women’s Institutes and included contributions by many of the Institutes in the County.

Relevant published works

• It Happened in Hampshire: doings, sayings and interests, past and present (Hampshire Federation of Women’s Institutes, 1937).

Critical Comments

Other Comments

In her role as compiler and arranger of It Happened in Hampshire, Winifred was ably assisted by Elsa B. Christy of Ringwood and Vera Love, who was responsible for the chapter headings. The publication which retailed for 1s was ‘a best seller’. At the autumn Council meeting of the Hampshire Federation of Women’s Institutes the Chairman ‘thanked the Institutes for their splendid work in selling copies … They had sold nearly 4000 … of the first edition … and 458 … of the second’ (Hampshire Advertiser, 27 November 1937, p.5). It was also claimed in Winifred’s obituary that the book ‘proved of interest to readers all over the world.’

Contributor

Roger Ottewill (1st March 2024)

Key Words

Longstock, Women’s Institute, Hampshire Federation

Any queries or further suggestions for this part of the list should be addressed to celebrating@hantsfieldclub.org.uk.

  

Back to Historians A-B from Altham H S to Butterfield R P

c1766 – 1823

Of the huge number of guidebooks for walkers published over the years, An Historical Account of Winchester, with Descriptive Walks published in 1817 by Charles Ball set a standard rarely bettered. His firm objective was to improve on previous attempts to recount the history and antiquities of Winchester, which he regarded as ‘little better than dry unconnected catalogues of historical fact, intermingled with a series of doubtful occurrences, or filled with tedious details of obsolete charters …’.  The Salisbury and Winchester Journal, 20 April 2018, published a glowing review, saying that it was ‘written in a style at once pleasing and perspicuous [sic]’ and pointing out that he ‘has not only availed himself of [works by] Trussell, Gale, Warton, Wavel[l],1 and Milner, and other writers of celebrity, but has also been favoured by several gentlemen friendly to his undertaking…’.

The book seems to have sprung from a ‘short article’ on the subject he wrote in the summer of 1815, which he showed to a prolific writer, John Britton FSA (1771-1857), who may have been visiting the city. In 1805, with Edward Brayley, Britton had published Topographical and Historical Description of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight in Volume 6 of the Beauties of England and Wales series. Although he was himself  in 1817 to publish a lavish new work, History and Antiquities of the Cathedral Church of Winchester (reprinted recently in a Scholar Select edition), he apparently ‘not only approved the idea [of Ball] , but suggested the immediate attention of the Author to some concise account, in the nature of a Guide , which might supply the vacancy in the Literary Annals of Winchester ‘. Britton’s literary career started in 1801 with The Beauties of Wiltshire and he was a leading light in the foundation of the Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society in 1853 (32 years before the HFC). Some of his papers are in the Wiltshire Museum, Devizes.

Thus encouraged, Ball spent ‘a considerable time’ consulting a ‘number of curious and important works’, which decided him to write more than ‘a mere Guide’. As a result, his Historical Account is aptly entitled: as well as carefully written instructions for the walker, he included a huge amount of detail, with references to existing sources, as noted by the Salisbury and Winchester Journal. He also made critical comments: for example, on Milner: ‘[he] refers to Trussell for the limits of the city and suburbs which he states to have extended westward almost as far as the village of Week ; northward, to Hyde Barton ; eastward , to St. Magdalen Hill; and southward, to St. Cross. But it does not appear that any passage in Trussell can be found to warrant the reference.’ Occasionally, he cites primary sources, such as ‘Reports of the Hampshire Society for the Education of the Infant Poor’.

Ball’s descriptions are very clear and still useful. For example, for the house at 4, St Peter Street, which still stands, he wrote: ‘Lower down, on the opposite side of the street, is all that now remains of an edifice designed by Sir Christopher Wren for the residence of the Duchess of Portsmouth the favourite mistress of Charles the Second, and built by him about the same time that he was raising the magnificent palace at the west end of the city, of which we have already spoken . Till lately, a bust of the celebrated beauty for whom the house was erected stood over the entrance; this was however removed at the time the house was reduced to its present size in 1815’. Historic England tells a similar story.

A new edition of Ball’s book with an introduction by Christopher Mulvey was published by the University of Winchester Press in 2009. He suggests that John Keats probably had a copy when he came to Winchester in the year after it was published, and where he composed Ode to Autumn.  Little is known of Ball’s life, but Mulvey points out that he was almost certainly the man of that name buried at Micheldever on 7 June 1823 aged 57 (Bishops’ Transcripts, FamilySearch). Research by CHH identifies him as the son of William of London, gent, who went up to St John’s College, Oxford, in 1783, aged 18. He then followed a familiar track of BA, MA, and even B & DD. He was ordained deacon in 1787 and priest in 1792. His church career was, however, modest: he served as curate at Harmondsworth and West Drayton in Middlesex in 1787 and in 1792 at nearby Harlington (now mainly under Heathrow!), but is not recorded thereafter in the C of E Clergy Database.

Sources

• BL Catalogue

• John Britton, Wikipedia

• Claire Bolton, A Winchester Bookshop and Bindery, 1729-1994, 2ed., 1994, Winchester.

• Alumni Oxoniensis

Portrait

None. A print from the Fourth Walk of the book (p. 191) shows Jewry Street, with the Gaolhouse on the right and in the distance on the left the theatre, by C.F. Porden.

Contribution to county’s history

He left a solid descriptive account of the topography of Winchester based on historical research.

Relevant published works

• An Historical Account of Winchester, with Descriptive Walks, 1818, Winchester, James Robbins; 2009, Winchester University Press (with an introduction by Christopher Mulvey)

• It is also available on Google Books and there is a Scholar Select edition of 2015

Critical Comments

Ball is an excellent example of the scholar-cleric.

Other Comments

He should be disambiguated from the namesake African-American slave, author of Slavery in the United States (1836).

Contributor

Barry Shurlock, 6 June 2025.

Key Words

Winchester, guidebooks, James Robbins, John Britton, John Keats

Any queries or further suggestions for this part of the list should be addressed to celebrating@hantsfieldclub.org.uk.

  

Back to Historians A-B from Altham H S to Butterfield R P

14 June 1830 – 5 March 1918

Today, the name of F.J. Baigent is best known as the co-author with the Rev J.E. Millard (1823-1894) of the monumental History of the Ancient Town and Manor of Basingstoke, published in 1889. Baigent was already a distinguished antiquarian, whilst Millard had only written minor works on the area when, in 1882, he became a minor canon of Winchester Cathedral. where almost certainly he engaged the talents and experience of Baigent. Apart from this and works on heraldry and a history of the Church of Our Lady (now St Mathew’s) Weeke, near Winchester (a source used in the VCH), most of his work involved a detailed technical approach to the minutiae of history.

Francis Joseph Baigent was born in Winchester to Richard (1799-1881) and Louisa Baigent, who were established members of the Winchester Catholic community. Richard, born in Kingston Portsea, had been articled to Richard Livesay (1750-1826), who was a former drawing master to the children of George III and 1796 had been appointed drawing master at the Royal Naval Academy, Portsmouth.  In 1820, Baigent Sr came to Winchester with Livesay and in 1824 obtained the post of drawing-master at Winchester College, the first of its kind at the school, where he taught until about 1874. He had close links with the fellow Catholic family of Cave, which included several established artists. The Catholic priest and celebrated historian John Milner (1752-1826) was also no doubt an influence, though he had left Winchester long before Baigent Sr came to the city. As might be expected, his son Francis Joseph became a competent artist himself, but spent much of his life researching history on a wide front. Without a university education or a professional qualification, he did not have an easy route to an income. Apparently, inspired by the meetings in Winchester in 1845 of both the Archaeological Association and the Archaeological Institute he forged a career ‘of public lecturing, research into family histories, work on historical documents of all kinds, and the recording of architectural and artistic features of many Hampshire churches’. In the 1881 census he declared himself to be an ‘antiquarian, artist and palaeographer’.

His first published article, in the Proceedings of the British Archaeological Association in 1848, was a report on a Roman urn found in the foundations of the new gasworks in Water Lane, Winnall. Further articles followed on artworks found in Silkstead’s Chapel in the Cathedral, St Laurence’s church and in St John’s in the Soke. He later researched the heraldry and family histories of people buried in the Catholic cemetery in Winchester, the seals of Hampshire sheriffs and many other particular subjects (see W. H. Cope A List of Books Relating to Hampshire, 1879, pp. 6-7 and H.M. Gilbert and G.N. Godwin, Bibliotheca Hantoniensis, 1891, p. 91). His History and Antiquities of the Parish Church of Wyke [Weeke] near Winchester, published in 1865, set new standards by being based both on a detailed examination of the fabric of the church and its documentary records. He made many other contributions and has been described as ‘the most notable of all 19th century Hampshire historians’. He contributed two volumes to the Hampshire Record Series (including one on Crondall, liberally quoted in the VCH); transcribed the Black Book of Winchester (Add MS 6036, edited by W.H.B. Bird and published in 1925); in 1884 demolished the myth of Florence de Lunn being the first Mayor of Winchester; in 1909 helped to write the script of the Winchester Pageant, and did much work on the Pipe Rolls. His papers are held by the British Library, the Cathedral Library and Downside Abbey.

Amongst a number of public controversies he got involved in was a campaign in 1865 against the architect Gilbert Scott’s ‘restoration’ of the High Cross in Winchester, and appearances as a legal witness supporting the claims of the Tichborne Claimant in the civil case of 1871-2 (but not in the criminal case of 1873-4). He was close to the Tichborne family: his godmother was an aunt of Richard Tichborne, the son who had ‘disappeared’ and in 1855 he presented a paper to the British Archaeological Association on the origins of the Tichborne Dole.

He never married, but toward the end of his life was helping others to do so as the Registrar of Marriages (census, 1911).

Sources

• https://winchestercollections.co.uk/collection/richard-baigent-1799-1881/

• ODNB (Richard Livesay, Richard Baigent)

• Barbara Carpenter Turner, A Hampshire Historian: Francis Joseph Baigent, 1830-1918, Winchester Cathedral Record, 1989, 58, 43-48 [NB, there are some errors].

Portrait

Sketch in the witness box at the trial of the Tichborne Impostor, c. 1871, on a carte de visite (held by the National Portrait Gallery).

Contribution to county’s history

He was a ‘jobbing’ historian, as required by his need to earn a living, but adhered to very high standards. He therefore made no overarching contributions to ‘the big story’, but did a great deal of important work for others to build upon.

Relevant published works

• [Report of an urn found in Water Lane during works for the new gasworks], Proceedings of the British Archaeological Association, 1848, 3: 317f.
• The Family of De Lymerston, and Its Heiress, the Foundress of the Tichborne Dole, Journal of the British Archaeological Association, December 1855, 277-302. (https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00681288.1855.11887189)
• With Charles James Russell, A Practical Manual of Heraldry and Heraldic Illumination: with a glossary of the principal terms used in heraldry, Rowney & Co., 1864
• History and Antiquities of the Parish Church of Wyke [Weeke] near Winchester, 1865, Jacob & Johnson, Winchester
• With James Elwin Millard, A History of the Ancient Town and Manor of Basingstoke…with a brief account of the siege of Basing House, AD 1643-1645,  C.J. Jacob, Basingstoke,1889.
• Ed., A Collection of Records and Documents Relating to the Hundred and Manor of Crondal [sic]in the County of Southampton. Part I: Historical and manorial, Hampshire Record Series,1891.
• The Registers of John de Sandale and Rigaud de Asserio, Bishops of Winchester, AD 1316-1323, with an appendix of contemporaneous and other illustrative documents, Hampshire Record Series 1897.

Critical Comments

Said to be ‘precise and exact’, his work brought Catholic and Anglican historians closer together, helping to close the breach made by Milner, dubbed by Canon John Sturges in c.1800 as ‘a Popish wolf in the clothing of an antiquarian sheep’.

Other Comments

Apart from those from wealthy families, Baigent must have been one of the very few independent historians in Victorian Hampshire.

Contributor

Barry Shurlock, 23 September, 2023.

Key Words

Basingstoke, Winchester cathedral, Tichborne, Crondall, John de Sandale, Rigaud de Asserio, Weeke near Winchester, artist

Any queries or further suggestions for this part of the list should be addressed to celebrating@hantsfieldclub.org.uk.

  

Back to Historians A-B from Altham H S to Butterfield R P

November 1845 – 19 March 1927

Frances Awdry was the eighth child of Sir John Wither Awdry Kt, who served as Chief Justice in Bombay before returning home to live at Notton House, Lacock, in Wiltshire. Her brother Vere Awdry (1854 –1928) one-time vicar of Ampfield, was the father of Wilbert Vere Awdry (1911-1997) author of the Thomas the Tank Engine books for children.

Frances Awdry’s literary output was directed at a different audience. As a contemporary of Charlotte Yonge, she was a contributor to The Miz-Maze or Winkworth Puzzle, a story in letters by nine female authors (1883). Much of her writing, however, chronicled the work of the Christian Church in converting, or attempting to convert, the occupants of far-flung corners of the world. In the Isles of the Sea: Fifty Years in Melanesia; By Lake and Forest, the story of Algoma and The Story of a Fellow Soldier, were detailed accounts of the triumphs, trials and tribulations of those intent on carrying out this pioneering missionary work. 

Closer to home, her account of A Country Gentleman of the Nineteenth Century describes a more secular, though deeply devout subject, the Rt Hon William Heathcote, Bart. owner of Hursley Park from 1835 to 1881.

Although the memoir is inescapably pious, it does make good use of surviving correspondence and contains some interesting detail. Every published Awdry family tree, for example, appears to credit Sir John and his two wives with different numbers of offspring. Frances tells us, however, that William Heathcote and John Wither Awdry, great friends and acquaintances, were always jesting about who had ‘the fullest quiver’. According to the book, Sir John led the way with 16 children, to Sir William’s 12.

Frances Awdry eventually took up residence in Winchester and did not marry.

Sources

• https://tttecommunitycentral.fandom.com/wiki/Awdry_Family_Tree

• Awdry F (1906) A Country Gentleman of the Nineteenth Century

Portrait

Some of the Awdry family at Notton House, Lacock, Wiltshire, in the late 1860s. Sir John was in India from 1831 – 41. He left Britain for the sub-continent with his first wife, Sarah, but returned home with his second, Frances, who bore him eight sons and five daughters between 1840 and 1860. All the daughters appear to be present in this image. Priscilla (b 1860) sits between her parents, Mary (b 1857) is looking at the camera. The other three are Elizabeth (b 1850), Frances (b 1845) and Sarah (b 1843) but as they look so similar, their individual identities are not apparent. Sarah, however, married the Rev Luke Walford and was widowed ‘within a year’. The middle sister appears to be wearing a mourning band and crucifix around her neck. This would narrow the field to just two.

Contribution to county’s history

The account of William Heathcote’s life and times makes good use of the correspondence available to Frances Awdry and covers school days, the relationship between Lord of the Manor and vicar (the influential John Keble) and various health issues. The links with other landed gentry – the Awdrys, Bigg Withers and Herberts, for example, are also explored, as well as Heathcote’s responsibilities as a Member of Parliament, Captain of the Militia and, not least, owner of an estate requiring constant maintenance.

Relevant published works

• Awdry F (1875) The Story of a Fellow Soldier

• Awdry F (1903) In the Isles of the Sea: Fifty Years in Melanesia

• Awdry F (1906) A Country Gentleman of the Nineteenth Century: Being a Short Memoir of the Right Honourable Sir William Heathcote, Bart., of Hursley 1801-1881 Warren & Son Winchester.

• Awdry F (1909) By Lake and Forest, the story of Algoma

Critical Comments

Other Comments

Contributor

Dave Allen, April 2023

Key Words

Hursley Park, William Heathcote, Hampshire landed gentry

Any queries or further suggestions for this part of the list should be addressed to celebrating@hantsfieldclub.org.uk.

  

Back to Historians A-B from Altham H S to Butterfield R P

16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817

This is not the place to repeat the well-documented life of one of England’s most celebrated novelists, but the huge amount of writing about her incidentally provides an intimate picture of her period. Not only does it vividly illuminate life in the north of the county in and around Basingstoke, but also elsewhere, in Bath, Southampton and Winchester.

Sources

• Collins, I 1994 Jane Austen and the Clergy
• Le Faye, D, 3 ed 1995, Jane Austen’s Letters
• Tomalin, C, 1997, 2000, Jane Austen: A Life

Portrait

National Portrait Gallery, NPG3630, pencil and watercolour, ca 1810, by her sister Cassandra Austen; the image below was taken from the statue outside the Willis Musuem, Basingstoke.

Contribution to county’s history

Incidentally, and presumably unwittingly she wrote about the history of her period, depicting faithfully the lives of the middle and upper classes in north Hampshire and elsewhere. As such, her novels qualify to at least be thought of as ‘memoirs’. In general, in her juvenile History of England, written at age 15, she showed an approach to history that borders on the Horrible Histories of Terry Deary, so popular amongst today’s children!  She parodied it, and poked fun at the school texts she had had to read, such as the playwright Oliver Goldsmith’s 4-volume History of England published in 1771. In particular, she mocked what she regarded as historians’ claim to objectivity. That she regarded her History with some seriousness is indicated by the fact that later in life she copied it into one of three notebooks of her early works with illustrations by her sister, none of which was published until 1922. The original is held by the British Library (Add. MS 59874). A German edition was published in 2009.  

Relevant published works

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_History_of_England_(Austen)
• Austen, J, History of England, https://penelope.uchicago.edu/austen/austen.html

Critical Comments

Jane Austen cannot be regarded as a serious historian of her native county, but due to her close links with a wide range of professionals, clergymen, naval officers, doctors, lawyers etc, her works provide a window on the period.

Other Comments

An important centre for studies of Jane Austen and early women’s writing: Chawton House, Alton, GU34 1SJ

Contributor

Barry Shurlock, 19 October 2021

Key Words

Horrible history, parody, fiction

Any queries or further suggestions for this part of the list should be addressed to celebrating@hantsfieldclub.org.uk.

 

Back to Historians A-B from Altham, H.S to Butterfield, R.P.

19.07.1866 – 21.08.1951

Elinor Aubrey was born in Southampton and until her retirement she spent her whole life in the town. Census records indicate that her father was an ‘elementary school master’ and in the 1901 census return her occupation is shown as that of ‘teacher’ (with the enumerator incorrectly adding the word ‘school’). The 1911 census shows her employer as University College. When she retired in 1931 it was noted that she had been a lecturer in the English Department for 35 years. Following her retirement she moved to Ryde on the Isle of Wight, where she died aged 85.

Sources

• The Hartleyan 1952, 7.

• https://specialcollectionsuniversityofsouthampton. wordpress.com/2021/03/18/celebrating-women-miss-eleanor-aubrey/

Portrait

Contribution to county’s history

Although her output of history publications was relatively modest, for many years she made a noteworthy contribution to the advancement of the study of Southampton’s history as secretary of the Record Society, a contemporary of John Horrocks and Harry Gillen.

Relevant published works

• Aubrey, E. R.  (1909) Speed’s History of Southampton, Southampton: Cox and Sharland, Southampton Record Society 8

• Aubrey, E. R.  &  G.H. Hamilton, G.H.(1914) The Books of Examinations and Depositions 1570-1594, Southampton: Cox and Sharland, Southampton Record Society 16

Critical Comments

‘Miss Aubrey in particular has earned the gratitude of all interested in local history by her masterly edition of ‘Speed’s manuscript history of Southampton.’’ (Southampton Record Society, Hartley University College Magazine, Vol 15(41) Summer 1914, 17.)

Other Comments

When she retired in 1931 it was said that ‘to a long generation of students she will always be looked up to as a beloved and inspiring personality’ (quoted in her 1952 obituary). She did a great deal to promote the interests of female students at University College, including service as Warden of Yorke House Hall of Residence and later Highfield Hall.

Contributor

Roger Ottewill (21 November 2021)

Key Words

Southampton, Southampton Record Society, University College Southampton

Any queries or further suggestions for this part of the list should be addressed to celebrating@hantsfieldclub.org.uk.

  

Back to Historians A-B from Altham H S to Butterfield R P

9 April 1864 – 27 December 1948

The son of a clergyman, he was educated at Rossall School, Lancashire, and University College, London, and studied architecture under Sir Arthur Blomfield. He spent much of his early working life as an architect in partnership with C.W. Long in an office in Trumpington Street, Cambridge. He gained a reputation for medieval architecture through his work at Ely. The Hon. Archivist, Elizabeth Stazicker, comments. ‘TD Atkinson, who was Surveyor to the Dean and Chapter of Ely Cathedral from 1906 to 1920, is very important to us here both for his An Architectural History of the Benedictine Monastery of St Ethelreda at Ely, which of course deals largely with the College (precinct) buildings and for his account of the cathedral itself published in Volume iv of the Victoria History of Cambridgeshire. I gather that he had been articled to Blomfield in 1882, and from 1882-87 worked as his assistant and clerk of works on a number of church restoration projects.  He qualified in 1889 and by 1892 had his own practice in Cambridge (Kelly’s Directory). [The Ely Chapter minutes] show that he had hoped at first to continue as surveyor here after his appointment to Winchester, reported to the Chapter in January 1919 but it seems that it did not work out from the Dean and Chapter’s point of view, and in November 1920 they decided that he should be given 3 months’ notice.’

In 1919 he was appointed Architectural Surveyor to the Dean and Chapter of Winchester Cathedral, on the condition that he came to live in the city, which he did, at 7 Christchurch Road. [The Ely Chapter minutes examined by Stazicker] ‘show that he had hoped at first to continue as surveyor [there] after his appointment to Winchester, reported to the Chapter in January 1919 but it seems that it did not work out from the Dean and Chapter’s point of view, and in November 1920 they decided that he should be given 3 months’ notice,’

One of his aims at Winchester was ‘to bring again to the Cathedral the colour which it had once had’.  Later he was assisted by Wilfrid Carpenter Turner ARIBA, who succeeded him (husband of the local historian, Barbara Carpenter Turner). The only designs attributed locally, according to an obituary by the Very Rev. E.G. Selwyn, dean of Winchester, are Century House, the headquarters of the Hampshire Friendly Society, Jewry Street, Winchester (1925), now the nonconformist City Church. He also designed the rear wings of Science School at Winchester College. His private practice in Winchester is recorded in an extensive series of address books, diaries and notebooks in the HRO and shows a range of mainly minor works. He designed several memorials for the war dead and other purposes (lettering was one of his specialties), in wide range of churches and other places in Hampshire and elsewhere. Winchester College was a major client.   He was a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects. In 1907 he married Annie Gertrude Hathaway (1866-1950), a daughter of the Rev. J. Hathaway, rector of Rotherwick, Hampshire.

Atkinson is remembered as a prolific writer on architecture. His first work, Cambridge Described and Illustrated, published in 1897, is a work of more than 600 pages and took several years to write: even after a century, it is all over the net. Like most of his publications it is, he freely admitted, not ‘the result of any great amount of original research’, but was derived from a much larger work, with the cooperation of one of its co-authors. His books were popular and stayed in print for a long time: when he died A Glossary of Terms Used in English Architecture, was in its 6th edition, and English Architecture in its 12th. His only book on a local subject was A Survey of the Street Architecture of Winchester (‘very general’ according to the City of Winchester Trust). More typically, he contributed frequently to the Winchester Cathedral Record from 1932, mainly on the church’s structure – its sculpture, woodwork, monuments etc, but also a long paper on the close’s historic water supply, the Lockbourne (or Lockburn). He also contributed a handful of articles to the Proceedings, notably an extensive account of the cathedral close and a paper on ‘sources of Hampshire architecture’, modelled on his Local Style in English Architecture (1947).

(He is to be distinguished from Tom Atkinson MA, City Archivist, Winchester. A cousin of TDA with exactly the same name was born in Calcutta in 1869 and died in Merionethshire, Wales, in 1952.)

Sources

• HRO, 9M49, DC/E7/1, 215M85/19.

• British Library Catalogue

• Various papers, PHFC, 1939-1943

• Articles in Winchester Cathedral Record, (listed in: No. 29, 1960, pp. 26-28)

• https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Atkinson-8934

• Hampshire Chronicle, 1 January 1949

• Bullen, M., Hampshire: Winchester and the North (Buildings of England), 2010

Portrait

Contribution to county’s history

Minor aspects of the history of Winchester Cathedral, and more significantly its close.

Relevant published works

• A Survey of the Street Architecture of Winchester, Winchester, 1934

Critical Comments

Described by Selwyn as ‘one of the foremost architectural scholars in this country’, he was a prolific populariser.

Other Comments

Some of his papers are held by the Society of Antiquaries and others by the University Library, Cambridge.

Contributor

Barry Shurlock with input from Dr John Crook. Revised 31 12 22, with comments by Elizabeth Stazicker. Hon Archivist, Ely Cathedral.

Key Words

Winchester Cathedral, cathedral close, Lockburn, architecture, war memorials, Ely

Any queries or further suggestions for this part of the list should be addressed to celebrating@hantsfieldclub.org.uk.

  

Back to Historians A-B from Altham H S to Butterfield R P

1893 – 2 May 1966

In 1960 he became the City Archivist for Winchester after 32 years lecturing at Winchester Training College, later named King Alfred’s College, and then transformed into the University of Winchester, where he is remembered by the Tom Atkinson Building.

He was born in Yorkshire, was head boy at Rastrick Grammar School, near Huddersfield, qualified as a teacher at Cheltenham CE Training College and in 1914 taught at St John’s Elementary School, Sheffield. He served during WWI as an Instructor of Physical and Bayonet Training and afterwards had a variety of posts in education, and in 1925 graduated BA from Sheffield University. In 1927 he came to Winchester Training College as a part-time Physical Training Instructor, after which he was appointed a Lecturer in Hygiene and Geography. During WWII he was Chief Assistant Education Officer for Hampshire. His role in the college in 1946 is described ‘senior tutor, director of studies, lecturer in geography, and …management of the playing fields’ (Rose, 1981, p. 94).

As Winchester’s City Archivist from 1959 he followed Barbara Carpenter Turner, who had been appointed an honorary archivist in 1946, and preceded Austin Whitaker. His interest in sport and geography was an unusual background for an historian, but it is clear that he had been working on the archives since at least 1940, when he transcribed the First Book of Ordinances (1552-1608). Also, in his only contribution to PHFC, based on a lecture on the manuscripts of John Trussell (c.1580-1677) given in 1955, he states that when he came to Winchester he was ‘determined to find out all [he] could about its past history’. In 1962 he made the first catalogue of the city’s archives and thereafter transcriptions of City Proceedings (Books A & B: 1590-1625), the City Tarrage Roll (1416. Rev. 1602/3) and work on the City Leases, later continued by Pamela Peskett and Derek Keene. In 1963 he published Elizabethan Winchester, an authoritative source on the period, and was working on a sequel on Stuart Winchester when he died. 

He offers an insight into the city archives in the 1930s: ‘I consulted the late City Librarian, Mr. Pepper. He referred me to the then Town Clerk, who in turn passed me on to his Deputy, who was not at all pleased to see me or to hear about the Trussell MSS. Apparently, he had been so pestered with enquiries in the past that his patience was almost exhausted’ (PHFC, 1957). A memorial service in Winchester was held for him on 7 May 1966.

(He is to be distinguished from Thomas Dinham Atkinson, 1864-1948, Architectural Surveyor to the Dean and Chapter of Winchester Cathedral, also profiled.)

Sources

• HRO, 107M88W/1-39 and many other items.

• Rose, M, A History of King Alfred’s College: 1840-1980, Chichester, 1981.

• Hampshire Chronicle, 7 and 14 May, 1966

Portrait

Photograph by E A Sollars, Winchester, courtesy of Winchester City Council: Hampshire Record Office: W/K2/4/50

Contribution to county’s history

His book Elizabethan Winchester is based on the transcription and analysis of original manuscripts and is mainly concerned with local government of the city.

Relevant published works

• Atkinson, T, The Trussell Manuscripts, 1957, PHFC, 19(3), 290-298.

• Atkinson, T, Elizabethan Winchester, London, 1963.

Critical Comments

He is an example of an ‘ardent amateur’, who mastered Elizabethan court hand and contributed an important work on the period.

Other Comments

The Tom Atkinson Building on the campus of the University of Winchester is named after him.

Contributor

Barry Shurlock, 20 October, 2022.

Key Words

Winchester, Queen Elizabeth I, John Trussell, Trussell Manuscripts, Winchester City Archives

Any queries or further suggestions for this part of the list should be addressed to celebrating@hantsfieldclub.org.uk.

  

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02.03.1877 – 31.01.1932

Ashley-Cooper was born at Bermondsey, in metropolitan Surrey, and lived for most of his life in rural Surrey. When he died his home was at Milford, near Godalming. Throughout his life Cooper’s passion was cricket, in particular the history of the game and the statistics it generated. Ironically, as recorded in his Wikipedia entry, ‘Frail and short-sighted, he never played cricket, and seldom watched, but his “total involvement in the game almost precluded every other interest”’.

Where he was educated is not known. As recorded in an obituary which was published in The Times: due to his poor health he did not follow any profession ‘and yet his researches and literary output involved an amout of labour which might have deterred the most robust of men.’ The sheer scale of his output is breathtaking: ‘Such was his amazing energy that altogether he produced 103 books and pamphlets on the game, besides a very large amount of matter including 40,000 biographical and obituary notices, his work being characterised by phenomenal accuracy’. In short, he was ‘unrivalled as an authority on cricket history’. 

Sources

• Wikipedia

• The Times, 2 February 1932, p.5.

Portrait

Photo from Follow On by E W Swanton.

Contribution to county’s history

Given the scale of his published outputs, Cooper’s specific contribution to Hampshire’s history is relatively limited and he has been included in the project due to his study of the early years of Hambledon Cricket Club. This is a very impressive piece of work and reflects his obsessive attention to detail. There were already histories of the club and as he points out in his Foreword: ‘It seemed almost too much to expect that it would ever be possible for new light to be thrown on the subject.’ However, he found sources in the form of minute books and accounts which had not previously been utilised.

Relevant published works

• The Hambledon Cricket Chronicle 1772-1796 (London: H. Jenkins, 1923)

Critical Comments

Other Comments

It is possible that there are references to, and accounts of, Hampshire cricketers in his publications, such as Scores and Biographies Vol 15 (Longmans & Co, 1925) and Cricket Highways and Byways (George Allen & Unwin, 1927); his contributions to Wisden; and the newspaper Cricket, which he edited for five years.

Contributor

Roger Ottewill (15 April 2024)

Key Words

Cricket, Hambledon, Hambledon Cricket Club

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1859 – 1934

Born in Derbyshire, son of a family prominent in civic affairs, Walter Andrew attended Rugby School and qualified as a  solicitor in 1882. 

Outside the law, Walter Andrew had many and varied interests.  As an ‘intrepid balloonist’ he was awarded the gold medal of the Balloon Society; he was hon. editor of the Derbyshire and Natural History Society; and an active member of the Manchester Pedestrian Club.  Nationally he founded the British Numismatic Society in 1902 and was a member of the Society of Antiquaries.

Walter and his first wife were enthusiastic caravanners.  They moved to Michelmersh, Hampshire, 1913, where he became a member of the Hampshire Field Club and Archaeological Society.

As an amateur archaeologist he excavated an important Saxon bowl at Oliver’s Battery.  But from 1927 until his death his focus of interest became the discovery of King John’s House, a medieval stone building in Romsey.  Working with T.D. Atkinson (nationally renowned architect/ surveyor) he researched records and determined that the much disguised building was the one built by King John and subsequently granted to Romsey Abbey by his son, Henry III.

Sources

• Walter Andrew Collection, Historic Resources Centre, Hyde, Winchester (since closed and collections absorbed into Hampshire Cultural Trust)

• Resources held at King John’s House, Romsey

Portrait

Contribution to county’s history

• The Saxon bowl, Winchester City Museum
• King John’s House, Romsey, set back from Church Street in downtrodden Church Court, might have been lost for posterity if not for the work of Walter Andrew and T.D. Atkinson.  Just before WW2 all surrounding tenements in Church Court were demolished as unfit.

Relevant published works

• Andrew. W.J. (1928) A History of King John’s House, Romsey

Critical Comments

Contemporaries in many spheres, and others since, criticised his work, suggesting that it lacked rigour.  His vast range of interests may have led to a dilettante approach to his research and conclusions.

Other Comments

At Michelmersh, Walter Andrew and his first wife lived in a timber-framed house where he lived as closely as possible to a medieval life-style.  His second wife, however, insisted on a more up-to date existence.

Contributor

Barbara Burbridge, Romsey Local History Society ( LTVAS)  01.11.2021

Key Words

Romsey, King John’s House, Michelmersh

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