The ARA Survey results are here!

If you visited the Hull History Centre searchroom towards the end of 2024, you may have been asked to complete a survey about your visit to us. The Archives and Records Association, which runs the survey, has now released the results.  We’re delighted to see that the vast majority of our visitors were satisfied or very satisfied with their visit. We’re especially pleased that our staff scored 9.8 out of 10 for availability, attitude and appropriateness of their advice.

The results did suggest some areas where visitors think our services could be improved, as well. One concern for some visitors was the History Centre’s opening hours, which are shorter than they were before the pandemic. We are aware that the weekday hours don’t suit everyone, and so in November 2024 we began opening on Saturdays again for the first time since 2020 – hopefully this will allow some of those who don’t have free weekdays to visit us. You can check our full opening hours here.

We are open fewer hours than we were in February 2020, and this is based on user trends. Many of our researchers now prefer to order copies of documents to study remotely, a change which came with the pandemic and has not gone away. To balance the needs of our on-site and remote customers, and allow staff to carry out the vital behind-the-scenes work which keeps our service running, we can’t return to our pre-pandemic opening hours in the near future. But we do appreciate feedback on our hours and we take it into account in our future planning, so if you have comments for us please do send them via our feedback channels.

Another area for improvement is our online catalogue. Although 85% of users rated its usability as “Very good” or “Fairly good”, 15% of users found it “Poor” or “Very poor”. Our online catalogue is now ten years old and is feeling its age – in internet terms it’s quite ancient! We are pleased to report that we’ll soon be starting the process of updating our cataloguing systems, which will come with a new online catalogue. This will take a year or two to implement, but once it’s done it will deliver a great new interface for our archive catalogues. In the meantime, if you find it difficult to navigate our online catalogue you can always contact us for help.

The History Centre arcade - beautiful but hard to heat!

Finally, the building itself. As the survey took place at the end of the year, there were a few comments about the temperature of the arcade – it does get chilly in there in winter! The Centre’s striking translucent roof and glass-walled design unfortunately makes it hard to heat the arcade in the winter and cool it in the summer.

Thank you to everyone who completed a survey for us! We really appreciate everyone who took the time to do so. 

Hull's Lost Museum

A priceless collection of old buildings and fittings

a piece of creative art which must be seen to be believed…

(HDM, 24 Jul 1935, p. 4)

The Hull “Old Times” Museum was the brainchild of the Director of Hull Museums, Thomas Sheppard. It was heralded at the time as a one of a kind, there would be, “Nothing like it in the country when complete”. (HDM, 24 Jul 1935, p.4)

Of course, there had been many short-term historical street exhibitions which were popularised over the previous 50 years, but these were all outdoor affairs. Creating a historical street that was enclosed was something very new. The impetus for Hull’s new museum came from Sheppard’s desire to save aspects of a city that were vanishing with little trace, he lamented that: 

For more years than I care to remember, I have watched the demolition of old properties, the changes in the streets and roadways, in the methods of transport, lighting, and engineering…in the march of progress. (L.069, Hull’s “Old Time Street”, Hull History Centre)

While much was removed from his surroundings, Sheppard had, since his appointment as Curator in 1904, managed to save various pieces here and there. He housed many items in cellars, empty rooms and warehouses around the city. When the Wilberforce Buildings were acquired by the Hull Corporation in 1903, the large yard and warehouse at the rear, also known as “Wilberforce Warehouse”, was used as income generation for the museum through its use as a grain store. In October 1931 the current tenant of the warehouse decided not to continue the lease, and it was suggested that the building be pulled down due to its upkeep costs. Sheppard however, had another idea, and suggested that recent donations, along with items already in store would enable them to reconstruct a Hull street from a few centuries ago. (C TCM/2/45/2, Hull History Centre)

He would go on to list several buildings that would make up the interior, suggesting that he had been thinking about the project for some time. The warehouse itself almost abutted Wilberforce House and ran back to the River Hull. It was 36 metres long by 12 metres wide and four stories high, it would be an ideal setting to house Sheppard’s 9th museum.

Image: The land and property acquired by the Hull Corporation
in 1903, included Wilberforce House and its warehouse.
(C TLA/2119, Hull History Centre) 

Image: View of Drypool Bridge from the River Hull.
On the left above the second barge funnel is Wilberforce Warehouse, c. 1930s.
(C TDP/2/1/28, Hull History Centre. © Yorkshire Post.
Not to be reproduced without permission)

Sheppard’s new construction would take up the first two floors of the warehouse and by 1935, the museum had a dozen shops and buildings. From a tavern to an undertakers, their contents come from as far afield as Northumberland and Sussex.

The exhibits ran down both sides of the warehouse and the floor was paved in slabs and cobbles in keeping with the period, they had been removed from recently developed areas in Hull. Down the centre of the street, ran a gully paved with “petrified kidneys” like the Hull streets of old. The following is a list of the buildings and some of their contents in Sheppard’s “Old Times” Street:

Tavern:  A small-scale replica of an old public house in Hull. Its frontage came from the Talbot Hotel in Scale Lane, with fittings and features from the Greenland Fisheries and the Crown Hotel in Hull. 

Chemist: The frontage came from Ware, Hertfordshire whilst the entrance way hosted two impressive golden serpents of Aesculapius that came from an old chemist’s shop in Market Place, Howden. Above this was a board from Hall’s Chemists shop on the corner of Spring Bank and Beverley Road. The shop housed leech jars, bleeding instruments, mortars and pestles and other paraphernalia.

Image: Chemists shop, complete with serpents, mortar and pestle
above the doorway and large glass chemists jars in the window,
c. 1935. (L.069, Hull’s “Old Time Street”, Hull History Centre)

Tobacconist: With a window from York and the upper constructed in a half-timbered style the shop’s fittings came from Mr Pickering’s tobacco shop in Bond Street. Above the doorway was a statue of a boy with ostrich feathers and an original 1660s style tobacco pipe which was purchased from the Battersby’s Museum at Paull. Inside were kilns, moulds and a large stone trough, used by Messrs Stonehouse, the last Hull tobacco pipe makers situate in Marlborough Terrace.

Image: Tobacconist shop, complete with 17th century
statue and clay pipe above the window. You can also
see the chemists and tavern entrance, c. 1935.
(L.069, Hull’s “Old Time Street”, Hull History Centre)

Gunsmith: The exterior showcased a large gilded gun smith sign from Robin Hood’s Bay, inside were, harpoons, pistols and other guns manufactured by George Wallis, the Hull gun maker. Including a gilded Blunderbuss and a double flint-lock whaling gun from the Hull whaler Volunteer.

Woodturner: Signposted by an original carved wooden sign reading “Architectural, Ornamental and Antique Carver” from an old Hull shop, it housed various wood carving and clog makers tools, as well as jet polishing and turning tools from Whitby. Also inside the building were furnishings from buildings in Hull and Beverley from the Elizabethan to the Georgian period. The shop was also functional, with a working 18th century wood turning machine.

Blacksmith: This shop was largely the whole of Mr Moore’s shop on Holderness Road, a well-known craftsman of Hull at the time. It included a good sample of tools and horseshoes.

Image: Chemists with serpents, tobacconist
with carved statue, gunsmiths with gilded sign,
blacksmith is out of view on the corner with the
King’s Head Inn, housing the plumbers,
c. 1935. (Copyright: Hull Museums & Galleries)

Plumbers: Housed from a semi reconstructed frontage of Hull’s oldest building, the King’s Head Inn, which was pulled down from the High Street in 1905 and parts salvaged by Sheppard. The doorway, its carved oak spandrels and oak beams were used alongside a window from Edwin Davis’s old drapery in Bond Street and another from Sutton. Inside were huge, elm trunks which had been bored for main water pipes, as well as some of the old pumps from Scale Lane. A large table, used to cast the lead for Beverley Minster, along with plumbing pieces from monasteries and early lead pipes from Hull. Cast iron window frames from the former Citadel could also be seen.

Image: Plumbers’ shop in the “Old Times” Street, formerly
part of the Kings Head Inn, High Street, c. 1935.
(L.069, Hull’s “Old Time Street”, Hull History Centre)

Hotel: Starting on the opposite side of the street were part of the frontage of the White Lion Hotel, formerly in Collier Street, which was pulled down in 1930. It was transported almost entirely including bottles and fittings and rebuilt inside the warehouse. Inside could be seen the original dart board, false coins nailed to the counter and scales for weighing four.

Image: Interior of the White Lion Hotel, reproduced exactly
in Sheppard’s warehouse.
(Copyright: Hull Museums & Galleries)

Mercers: Housing, spinning wheels, tools for winding wool, a printing machine, old type, copper plates and lithographs, it was an example of a general merchant’s shop. It also held an early printing machine, theatre bills and books illustrating the art of printing in Hull from 1642.

Antique Shop: The catchall shop, within which many of the objects not suitable for the other buildings were housed.

Undertakers: This shop housed an elaborately carved Gothic hearse, the first made by Annison’s the Hull funerary parlour. It too housed cinerary urns and other funerary ephemera.

Organ Builders/Music Shop: Inside this building was an old Gothic organ from Hedon Church alongside a collection of historical music instruments from Hull and other makers.

The last few buildings in the warehouse were a Hatters, and a Bootmakers but little is known about these buildings. One of the larger pieces secured for the street was a 6 windowed Georgian shop front acquired from Lewes.

Image: The Georgian shop front prior to its removal from
Sussex which was rebuilt inside the “Old Times” Street,
c. 1930s.
(L.069, Hull’s “Old Time Street”, Hull History Centre)

Down the middle of the street between the shops were vehicles, such as, an early 18th century stagecoach from Exeter, a horse drawn carriage, an early motor car and a Driffield subscription fire engine built in 1840. The street itself was lit with whale oil lamps that came from Queens Dock and was adorned with an early Hull milestone, gallows and stocks. It housed everything one might wish to see in a historic street exhibit.

The museum was originally accessed via an old flagged yard which would not have suited as an entrance to a museum. This was resolved by moving back some of the adjacent buildings to create a more pleasant entrance, with the work being funded by the Reckitt family. (HDM, 01 Aug 1935, p.6)

Image: Drawing of the new entry way to Hulls “Old Times”
Street, c. 1930s. (Museums Journal, Oct 1935, p. 251)

The new museum was set to open in March 1939. On the first week of opening the shops were to be staffed by people in period costume, a real blacksmith at work and beer being produced from the re-created inns. However, Sheppard was still awaiting approval from the Property and Bridges Committee in May 1940. By this point there had been no bombing raids in Hull, but this soon changed, and over the following 12 months there would be 44 raids and the 45th would change the city forever. It was during this raid that Sheppard’s “Old Times” Street was severely damaged.

On the night of the 8/9th May 1941, the city was subjected to a heavy bombing which resulted in numerous fires breaking out across the city. Several of these were in High Street, where the streets are narrow and buildings several storeys high. John Colletta a volunteer firemen was credited with saving Wilberforce House and was awarded the George Medal, however, there was another that acted equally as heroically and went un-recognised.

The fire watchman at the museum, James Anthony, was first on the scene. He recalled that:

at Wilberforce House they dropped 5 incendiaries [he got to work to put them out] …After that they dropped a H.E. Bomb and it knocked me into the Doll’s House. I picked myself up and…started playing on the fire to keep it under control…[and] stop it breaking in at the top floor. (Ref: C TYG/1, Hull History Centre)

Image: Account by James Anthony of the Raid
on the 8/9 May 1941 that almost destroyed
Wilberforce House. (C TYG/1, Hull History Centre) 

Just after mid-night when the firemen finally arrived, Anthony had been working on the fire for hours. The firemen found that 5 warehouses were ablaze, 3 on the west of High Street and 2 on the east. The latter were directly behind, and adjoining Wilberforce House, which Anthony was trying to put out alone. Colletta, arrived around 12.30 and began attacking the fire at Ware’s warehouse in front of the museum, he soon found himself and Wilberforce House surrounded in flames.

He remained there, amidst the falling debris…with utter disregard for his own safety. There was no cover for him (Ref: HO 250/43/1671, TNA)

With fires still raging Coletta moved to fight the raging inferno that was overtaking the warehouse behind Wilberforce House. 

separated by a distance of only six feet from the wall of the blazing…warehouse…Colletta insisted on remaining in the narrow alley…the building was expected to fall at any moment. In this place the heat was terrific (Ibid)

The firemen were called away at 2am due to further fires elsewhere but Anthony continued alone, until nearly 9am by which point the fire which was subsiding began to take hold again. Anthony recalled that: 

It was one large furnace all around. I have been in France but nothing like the night I went through. (Ref: C TYG/1, Hull History Centre)

Although Wilberforce House was saved, the museum was gone. In his report, Sheppard stated that: 

Our warehouse at the back, which contained the various shops and their contents, forming the “Old Street”, as well as the exhibits stored on the upper floors, was entirely burnt out, and practically everything destroyed, though we may retrieve a few objects from the debris. The roofless four walls are standing, and the 29…cast iron pillars supporting the floors are still erect…The wharf on the harbour side adjoining the warehouse, is burnt through, and cannot be used…. (Ref: C TCR/1/10/1, Hull History Centre)

Image: View of the war damaged warehouses behind
Wilberforce House. The “Old Times” Street was housed in
the building directly behind the barge funnel,
c.May 1941-Sep 1942.
(C TDP/2/9/1/10, Hull History Centre)

Image: Wilberforce House and the site of the “Old Times” Street
cleared of debris, May 1946.
(Air Photo Mosaics, 54/1028 N.W, Hull History Centre) 

Sheppard retired in October 1941, as was the Corporations policy. The warehouse, however, remained a bomb site. The cast iron pillars were unsupported and at risk of falling into Wilberforce House. By April the following year work started on clearing the site, as seen above. Very few exhibits had been recovered from the wreckage and by July 1944, the remnants of the warehouse and surrounding buildings had been pulled down and approval was given for the area, which was Hulls “Old Times” Street to be turned into gardens for Wilberforce House. (HDM, 31 July 1944, p. 4) In late 1949 the work had almost been completed. Using period bricks from bombed properties in High Street the garden was to be in a Georgian ornamental style and was described in 1950 when it opened as:  

arise[ing] from the former waste of bomb damage…it will be entirely in keeping with the historic house…Already the lawn and the fan shaped ornamental trees and climbers…look thoroughly established… [It is] a green oasis in the Old Town. (HDM, 15 Apr 1950, p. 4)

Image: The new Wilberforce Garden, replacing Hulls
“Old Times” Street, c. 1950.
(L(SLA).069.538, Hull History Centre)

Sheppard’s last museum took almost a decade to complete and although its tragic loss means it was never seen by the public at large you can find examples of an early streets at the Streetlife Museum in Hull, the York Castle Museum and Kirkstall Abbey Museum. Or if you would like to get up close and personal with history you can also visit Hull’s Hand's on History Museum.

Ey Up Shakespeare!

Showcasing the Archives of Northern Broadsides Theatre Company

To mark the publication of the archive catalogue of Northern Broadsides Theatre Company (collection ref. U DNBR), an exhibition of items from the collection is now on display in the Hull History Centre Local Studies Library.

Display cabinet in the library

The theatre company Northern Broadsides was founded in 1992 by Hull-born Barrie Rutter who became its first Artistic Director. The company is based at Dean Clough Mill, Halifax, and is famous for performing Shakespearean, classical works and new writing in a Northern Voice. The company is especially known for its Shakespearean productions, its first ever production being ‘Richard III’ with the titular king being portrayed with a strong northern accent. Other productions through the years have covered a wide variety of writers, genres and styles from Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’, ‘The Tempest’ and ‘Much Ado About Nothing’, to Ted Hughes’ ‘Alcestis’, Blake Morrison’s ‘The Cracked Pot’, Tony Harrison’s ‘The Mysteries’, and Alan Plater’s ‘Sweet William’. The company performs shows at their theatre in Halifax, on nationwide tours to local venues such as Hull Truck Theatre, and they have also performed internationally. 

The company’s archives, held by Hull University Archives at the Hull History Centre, contains a wealth of information relating to all the company’s productions from 1992 to 2018. There are production files relating to each individual production, with highlights amongst the records including wardrobe books, scripts and promotional material. Other material includes production correspondence, photographs, reviews, props lists, touring schedules, cast lists, rehearsal notes and prompt books. There are also administrative files within the collection containing press cuttings, Northern Broadsides publications, and general promotional material.

Page from the wardrobe book for 'Macbeth'

On display in our Library exhibition are a wardrobe book for a staging of ‘Macbeth’ (2002), which contains colourful draft costume designs with fabric samples, and a provocatively designed theatre programme for the play ‘Lisa’s Sex Strike’ (2007) by Blake Morrison. There are also production photographs for stagings of ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ (2000) and ‘The Man with Two Gaffers’ (2006). Other items include an advertising poster for ‘1984’ by George Orwell and publicity material for a double-bill production of ‘Comedy of Errors’ by William Shakespeare and ‘Sweet William’ by Alan Plater.

Detail of one of the display cabinets

The Northern Broadsides archives is an ideal collection for anyone interested in studying local professional theatre companies or local actors, and compliments the University archives’ other drama collections, including those of local playwrights Alan Plater (ref. U DPR), John Godber (ref. U DJG), and Richard Bean (ref. U DRBE). We also have you covered if you’re interested in local theatre venues, actors and drama groups. Hull History Centre is home to a vast number of theatre programmes and playbills for local venues such as Hull New Theatre and its many predecessors. There are also collections dedicated to local theatre companies and drama groups including Humberside Theatre in Education (ref. U DHE) and Kingston upon Hull New Theatre Company (ref. C TFNT).

The catalogue for U DNBR can be found on our online catalogue.

For more information about our theatre and drama collections, please see our online guides:

Literature, poetry and drama

Literature, theatre and drama source guide (PDF)

A Woman and her Typewriter - Historical Perspectives in the Letters of Lady Constance Wenlock

On the 14th January 1926 Lady Constance Wenlock (nee Lascelles) writes from the family home at Escrick Park, Yorkshire, to her daughter, Irene Constance Lawley who is residing in India with her husband, Colin Forbes Adam, a British Civil Servant working for the Indian Civil Service:

...when I am dead, or before any wet day or empty evening, you can read anything you like of letters kept and of my letters that have been returned to me by executors. I have destroyed everything that ought not to be read either on my account of someone elses. [U DDFA3/6/1/257]

Earlier in 1921 she writes:

I am afraid my very interior life must make very dull letters. But if you are leading an interior life the minutest details of it will not seem dull to me, I should like to know what you are playing and what you are reading. Of course, most of all what you are thinking and feeling, and you have a happy knack of generally letting that transpire. It runs easily from the tip of your pen. [U DDFA3/6/1/65]

Written between the wars, and far from ‘dull’, the letters of artist and writer of poetry, Lady Constance Wenlock reveal much about an unstable period in history seen through the eyes of a fascinating, imaginative woman with aristocratic connections.

Equipped with her typewriter and ear trumpet, she not only writes at length about politics, the partition of Ireland, Socialism, Russia and strikes but also about men, women, love and relationships, childbirth, birth control, and art and literature. However, almost 100 years later, and armed with our knowledge of history, her candid expressions regarding herself and her acquaintances, also reveal the stories of those who were not part of that privileged, affluent society. Amongst the engaging gossip, philosophies of life, love and political ideologies, the polite conversation also exposes classist and racist attitudes, and a chilling endorsement of eugenics.

In some ways these letters become a form of ‘skeleton diary’, like that which Constance advised Irene to keep as a record 'for future generations':

Extract from letter, 6 Jan 1924 [U DDFA3/6/1/214]

For the purposes of this blog I have selected a small number of letters from the collection that I hope do indeed help ‘reconstruct’ her life and that of the period for future researchers.

The Mirror Inside Me

Focussing on letters written between 1921 and 1924 we can begin with this letter from Constance at the age of 71, as she reflects on her life as woman, revealing a sense of regret that she has not achieved all that she wished, but she is fulfilled by the happiness of her daughter and her love of painting.

My darling I do understand all you feel about ambitions. I used to think just the same only with extra vehemence because in the 70s and the 80s of the last century there was more opposition to the idea of a woman having any vocation, beyond being a wife and a mother and a housekeeper. I was determined to be not only an artist but a philosopher, a litterateur, a poet, a novelist. Then I had ambition for making society, for creating a salon. I succeeded in nothing, but now it is curious that I do not mind. I feel now that if you are happy, I do not want anything else. (Extract from letter, 31 Oct 1923 [U DDFA3/6/1/190])

A year later, despite the effects of aging and struggles with increasing deafness, she is still driven by her love of painting:

Extract from letter, 16 Mar 1924 [UDDFA3/6/1/232]

Women and Men, Love and Relationships

The letters cover many subjects, but one of the most engaging aspects of her writing are her contemplations on women and men, love and relationships. Reading them almost 100 year later it is easy to get drawn into her world, as if she is a fictional character from a classic novel of the early twentieth century. In fact, the letters very much lend themselves to a character study for a book, or a film or stage production. It’s easy to imagine them as a one woman play, a solo tour-de-force, with the letters as the script.

To her daughter, Constance often reflects on the pain endured by women and motherhood:

Extract from letter, 11 Apr 1923 [U DDFA3/6/1/71]

Extract from letter, Jan 1923 [U DDFA3/6/1/57]

It is also interesting to see how open Constance is with her daughter when discussing intimate relationships between men and women, often including references to acquaintances, in gossip-like assessments. We have to remember these letters were originally addressed to Irene privately and not meant for public view and, in that sense, they are a valuable insight into the private thoughts of a woman of her time.

Extract from letter, 9 May 1921 [U DDFA3/6/1/74]

Constance values her female friends and finds them ‘the most indispensable’, particularly those founded on ‘admiration’. She indicates her annoyance with recently married Margaret Talbot who ‘patronisingly’ suggests otherwise, as the following quote illustrates:

Perhaps you have not been very fortunate in your men friends and she insisted that a man friend was always worth a hundred of a woman friend. I said rather sharply "if by men friends you mean lovers, of course that may matter most, but if you mean friends literally as a friend it is rare that a man can be as much to one and as close to one as a woman" (Extract from letter, 15 May 1923 [U DDFA3/6/1/153])

Childbirth, Twilight Sleep, Chloroform and Cocaine, and Horse-Riding as Birth Control

Of particular value to researchers might be the letters which record Constance’s recollections of the experiences of women around this period as regards childbirth, pain relief, and how women dealt with the lack of birth control:

Extract from letter, 30 Apr 1923 [U DDFA3/6/1/152]

In the following letters Constance indicates she may also have been given cocaine as pain relief, and there is an indication that pain relief varies according to a woman’s income:

[11 Apr 1921, U DDFA3/6/1/71]

Extract from letter, 19 Apr 1921 [U DDFA3/6/1/73]

There is also an interesting account speculating on the use of horse-riding to provoke miscarriage as a form of birth control. The letter then evolves into comments about her ‘ugly’ aunt. There are other instances in the collection that demonstrate Constance’s willingness to share her thoughts on anyone she regards as ugly, including children:

Extract from letter, 18 July 1923 [U DDFA3/6/1/168]

Fear and Politics in the Interwar Years

The interwar years, during which these letters are written, saw the collapse of the Liberal Party, and Labour becoming the main opposition to the Conservative Party. Women over 30 had received the vote in 1918, providing they met certain property qualifications. Resistance to British rule led to the partition of Ireland in 1921, the Russian Revolution paved the way for Communism, the land-owning aristocracy were in decline and the number of men killed in World War I had impacted the workforce. Lady Constance Wenlock found it difficult to find good quality servants, and we can see that political events of the time led her to fear for the future and, although she has some concern for the poor, this is selective:

Extract from letter, 18 Apr 1923 [U DDFA3/6/1/150]

In the same letter, Constance continues:

I have never appreciated warmth and comfort in my life as I have all this winter while thinking about homeless people of Ireland.

Extract from letter, 25 Apr 1923 [U DDFA3/6/1/151]

Extract from letter, 23 Mar 1923 [U DDFA3/6/1/145]

Constance writes extensively about the situation in Ireland and the 1921 Miner’s Strike. The letters give an insight into how these events are perceived at the time by gentry, landowners, and those close to the aristocracy. They also indicate she is aware of her privileged position in society. 

As to taking care of myself, I feel ashamed to be so comfortable when almost everyone is in a state of acute privation. (Extract from letter, 9 May 1921 [U DDFA3/6/1/77])

However, it would seem Lady Wenlock would not consider education, or the introduction of dole, as a solution to hardship, and voices an admiration of Mussolini:

Extract from letter, 16 Mar 1924 [U DDFA3/6/1/232]

Extract from letter, 10 Dec 1923 [U DDFA3/6/1/202]

Extract from letter, 23 Mar 1923 [U DDFA3/6/1/145]

Extract from letter, 10 Dec 1923 [U DDFA3/6/1/202]

Class and the Poor Little Kitchen Maid

Throughout this collection of letters there is a lot of material that would support research into perceptions of class during this period, or indeed, how some of these attitudes perpetuate today in a society where inequalities persist.

Lady Wenlock laments the erosion of class distinctions:

Extract from letter, 3 Jun 1923 [U DDFA3/6/1/158]

Also contained in the letters is a detailed account of a ‘poor little kitchen maid’, accused of being pregnant. The 16 year old girl is not referred to by name and has been sent to work for Lady Wenlock from St Hilda’s industrial school for girls in York:

Extract from letter, 23 Sept 1923 [U DDFA3/6/1/184]

Lady Wenlock would refer to the quality of employees sent from St Hilda’s again, this time suggesting the problems arise from inherited qualities:

Extract from letter, 25 Feb 1924 [U DDFA3/6/1/228]

‘The Very Low Type’ - A Warning From History

The letters make for uncomfortable reading when Lady Constance Wenlock recommends a book to her daughter, ‘The Revolt against Civilisation’ by Lothrop Stoddard. Stoddard was an American advocate of eugenics, a white supremacist and member of the Ku Klux Klan, whose work inspired the Nazis. This letter, written in 1924 is particularly chilling as an acquaintance suggests ‘a lethal chamber’ as ‘a way of doing good’ and Constance also reaches the conclusion ‘that multitudes ought to be killed off’ although she ‘cannot say how it is to be done.’

Extract from letter, 21 Jan 1924 [U DDFA3/6/1/217]

Lady Constance Wenlock died aged 80 in August 1932. She would not live to see where eugenics ideology and experiments with ‘lethal chambers’ would take the world just 7 years later.

CASE STUDY: ‘DO YOU REMEMBER THE ‘BLACKAMOOR AT HAREWOOD’

By highlighting a number of letters in this collection, I hope to have demonstrated how the voice of one woman, and her candid personal accounts, can aid researchers and creative writers in uncovering real lives and lived experiences of the period. One particular letter written on the 6th January 1924 became an important piece of the jigsaw in research by Audrey Dewjee for the ‘Historycal Roots’ project, which aimed ‘to raise awareness of the black and mixed heritage people who have played a part in shaping society.’ Bertie worked as a footman for the Lascelles family at Harewood House. After stealing £50 Bertie was forced to leave his employment. The reasons why he stole the money are revealed in this letter written by Constance on the 6th January 1924.

Extract from letter, 6 Jan 1924 [U DDFA3/6/1/214]

The research of ‘Historycal Roots’ would lead to an exhibition at Harewood House about George ‘Bertie’ Robinson and uncover the story of what happened to Bertie and his child after leaving Harewood. You can read about the research here: Bertie Robinson of Harewood House.

You can read more about Lady Constance's daughter Irene in the blog Nursing in a Crisis: Irene Lawley and the Escrick Park Auxiliary Military Hospital.

Andrea Lamb (Archives Customer Experience Advisor)