I went to Lancashire Records Office on Tuesday where I only intended to stay for a couple of hours and ended up staying for 6 (kid in a sweetie shop comes to mind). I don’t have permission to reproduce the documents yet so I can’t post them .. sorry.
The one thing that surprised me was the size of the documents .. they certainly went big in those days. I was hoping to put photos of documents on the website for people to read but I had to photograph them in sections .. 3 to 4 across and the same down so to read them across you have to flick from photo to photo. I haven’t quite decided how to tackle this yet but I’m sure something will come to me.
In my ignorance I ordered up the 1839 Tithe Map for Thornton at 4pm with half and hour to go and nearly died when I saw the size of it! It was about 6ft wide and 4ft deep with a book (2ft by 1.5ft) attached half way up the left edge of the map containing about 100 pages. I had to climb on the table just to read the book (being a short house and all). They didn’t look very impressed when I said I didn’t have time to view it properly. The map itself is very crumpled and I don’t think it’s going to photograph well but am going to go back and spend the whole day on it.
The problem I am having with the records for Thornton …
Firstly the spellings of places change almost from document to document. The worst is Stanah which I haven’t seen spelt the same way twice. Stena, Steno, Staynall, Staina, Stanay, Stanoe etc. The field names also seem to change on a regular basis. This makes it difficult to search the index.
Also there are quite a few Thorntons in Lancashire, mainly one near Liverpool and one in Yorkshire which gets a bit confusing as to which one is being referred to.
Another factor is that the land in Thornton seems to have changed hands massively and been divided up throughout the centuries with many of the larger landowners not actually being based here themselves. I have a lease for 4 fields in Stanah, which is part of Thornton Hall in 1830, which are owned by 11 different people!
It would be so much easier if Thornton Hall still stood in its original position (obviously rebuilt over the years) and had passed directly from one owner to another with much of it’s lands in tact. On the other hand it wouldn’t be half as much fun for me rummaging through all the lovely old documents.
I've added a new documents section on the website in anticipation that it might actually contain some soon .. I'll keep you posted.
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"The worst is Stanah which I haven’t seen spelt the same way twice."
ReplyDeleteAnd just to complicate matters further, of course, up until comparatively recently Staynall across the river was also called Stanah as well.
Hi Brian
ReplyDeleteIt is confusing. Especially as most documents relate to more than one piece of land.
I think my next plan is to start a timeline for the information I have to get it in some kind of order and also a map where I can mark fields which were previously called something else. I am now starting to recognise local names which helps.
Weres the Sunday Quiz?
ReplyDeleteHi James
ReplyDeletePosted it early last week .. usually put it on at tea time. Russ not impressed if I spend all Sunday afternoon on the computer.