University libraries are a valuable resource for
family historians, none more so than the University of Reading Library.
But most of us have serious doubts about entering such seats of
learning: it is difficult to obtain lending tickets, they are only
meant for students and we baulk at finding our way around the hundreds
of thousands of books and manuscripts. Christine Milne, History Liaison
Librarian, at the University of Reading Library, shows us just how
wrong we are.
The Library is open to anyone for reference purposes — all
you need to do is turn up and sign the visitor’s book to use one of the
best academic collections in the area. So if an ancestor of yours was a
factory worker in the Industrial Revolution and you want to find out
what life was like then, why not drop in? Or if you’re puzzled by the
name of a battle, or you want to know who a local notable was, you
might want to try our reference collection. If you’ve access to the
Internet, you can even check our holdings before you come — you can
find the Library website at www.rdg.ac.uk/library.
To borrow books, either you need to be one of the staff or students at
the University or bona fide scholars can join the Library as an
external member for a fee of £60 (£30 for Reading
University graduates).
It’s amazing what you can find on the open shelves. Whilst
browsing for material I came across a diary written by a Reading man
between 1814 and 1819 and published in the late nineteenth century
under the title ‘Reading Seventy Years Ago’. There are some real gems,
including a mention of American prisoners-of-war who were removed from
Reading to Devonshire, because of their ‘unsuitable behaviour’. I
particularly like this entry from September 1814 about John Clarke — an
example to us all:
‘September 17th 1814 — Died John Clark, gardener,
aged 93 years, all but three weeks - a man who never refused a half
pint of beer, and had drank as much of that beverage as most men: he
retained his faculties to the last, and worked at his trade till within
two months of his death’.’
On a less frivolous note, the Library also has a fine
collection of over five thousand Record Society publications. These are
transcriptions of local records from all over the British Isles,
including wills, apprentice records and monastic cartularies.
However, the real treasures of the Library’s collection
lie not on the open shelves but in the Archives on the first floor, and
here I must give my thanks to the Archives staff for helping me
discover them. The Archives holds not only the official archives of the
University, but also the archives of certain individuals, company
records and some unpublished manuscripts. We used to have some estate
records, such as those for Stratfield Saye, but these have now been
added to the collections at the Rural History Centre, which is about
five minutes walk from the Library. If you would like to see anything
from the Archives, please arrange an appointment in advance, so that
staff can arrange to have relevant material available. (Telephone: 0118
931 8776, email: 
). If, for example, you were
interested in the early days of the University, whose first classes
were held in 1860, we’ll need a couple of days to fetch them from
off-site.
My favourite parts are the personal archives, and you
maybe surprised whose we have. The most famous is that of Samuel
Beckett, the playwright, for which several catalogues have been
published, but we also have the archives of David Lean, the film
director, Aubrey Beardsley and Lady Astor.
During both the First and Second World Wars, part of
Cliveden, the Astors’ house, was turned into a Canadian military
hospital. After the First World War, in 1936, Lady Astor paid a visit
to Canada and held a big reception in Toronto for all the staff and
patients of the hospital. In Lady Astor’s archive, there are many
letters and telegrams from former patients. This example is from James
G. Harvie, a Canadian who had a more local connection, as his letter
shows.
‘I was an officer in the Royal Air Force, and while
on leave in the month of June or July, 1918, in Maidenhead, near
Taplow, was stricken with influenza and sent to Lady Astor’s hospital.
... She might be amused at my memory of her very first visit to me at
the hospital. She had breezed in, in her characteristic manner and said
to me, ‘Hello there, curly head, what are you doing here to which I
replied ‘swinging the lead a little I suppose’ to which she answered,
‘Splendid, swing the lead as much as you like and if there is anything
your little heart desires, please do not hesitate to let me know.’ It
might be interesting to Lady Astor to know that my wife happens to be a
resident of Maidenhead, where I married her at the end of the war, and
she enjoys the distinction of having been presented by Lady Astor as a
budding artist with her first paint box, which she still has in her
possession. My wife, who was then Bettina M. Rose, visited me
occasionally while I was in hospital in Taplow’.
Hand painted and hand
drawn coats of arms from Curtis Cherry’s Book
|
I’ve saved the best for last, as far as family
historians are concerned. Around the middle of the nineteenth century
the Reverend Henry Curtis Cherry wrote a three-volume work tracing the
genealogies of important Berkshire families. Each volume is the size of
an old-fashioned family bible, and every page is covered with detailed
family trees. The first volume also has gorgeous hand-painted family
crests — the later volumes only have illustrations cut from other books
(not something that any librarian would approve of!). It is an
astounding piece of work, but unfortunately Henry was to be
disappointed. Like many books of this time the expense of publication
was to be covered by subscription. Not enough people were persuaded to
subscribe, so his monumental work was never published. As far as I’m
aware, Reading University Library has the only copy. To add insult to
injury, the printer supplied a mock frontispiece — and spelt Henry’s
name wrong. It is hoped that this important work will soon be published
on CD ROM. |
BerksFHS 
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