Book launches and reviews, Spring 2005
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NEW BOOKS ON THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND
Members interested in the parish churches of the 19th and early 20th centuries will be interested in two recent publications. The first is edited by Michael Austin, who until his retirement in 1998 was a residential canon at Southwell. On the parochial visitation of Bishop Edwyn Hoskyns, 1911-15, it is entitled Under the Heavy Clouds: The Church of England in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, 1911-1915 (Merton Priory Press, 2004). Hoskyns was Bishop of Southwell when the diocese covered most of the counties of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, and the Visitation records reflect the problems and issues facing the Anglican church on the eve of World War I. The appendix provides outline information on every parish in the diocese. The volume (£14.95, or £16 by post) is available direct from Merton (email merton@dircon.co.uk; tel 02920 521956), all credit and debit cards accepted; or from any bookseller or Amazon.
The second publication concerns the notes of Sir Stephen Glynne, a noted antiquary who travelled the country in the mid-19th century visiting churches and recorded his findings. Glynne’s notes on Derbyshire churches have been published by the Derbyshire Record Society in an edition edited by Aileen Hopkinson, Vincent Hopkinson and Wendy Bateman. The original notes are at St Deiniol’s Library, Flintshire, so this is a very welcome volume. Previously only extracts were in print from Glynne’s notes. The volume is price £20 to non-Derbyshire Record Society members (£22 by post), and is available most easily direct from the Derbyshire Record Society at 5 Oliver House, Wain Avenue, Chesterfield, S41 0FE.
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SPECIAL BOOK OFFER TO THOROTON SOCIETY MEMBERS
A collection of talks and guides on the records of the Archdeacony of Nottingham has been published by Nottingham University’s Department of Manuscripts & Special Collections, and is available to Thoroton Society members at £7.95 (usual price £9.95).
Mender of Disorders. Court and Community in the Archdeaconry of Nottingham, 1560-1756, edited by Kate Holland (University of Nottingham, 2004) was launched on 29 October at the University’s Arts Centre, when to mark the event Dr David Marcombe gave a special lecture entitled ‘Bonfires and Broomsticks: the strange case of John Minet of Askham’. This lecture described events in Nottinghamshire parish in the late 16th century when a ‘cunning man’ fell out with his neighbours and the church authorities, ending up before the consistory court in York. The fascinating investigation demonstrated the wealth of detail about individuals and communities that can survive in the cause papers associated with ecclesiastical court records, particularly in the verbatim evidence of witnesses.
Mender of Disorders will help those who want to understand how Nottingham’s own Archdeaconry court was run and how the records of the court’s supervision of parish life have left a wealth of evidence for local historians today. It contains the texts of talks given at the University in early 2004, in association with an exhibition in the Weston Gallery and a one-day workshop on the court records. These events came out of a programme of conservation and cataloguing work, supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, which has made key records in the archive available for study. Mender of Disorders is available from Barbara Andrews of the Manuscripts and Special Collections Department, Hallward Library, University Park, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD. (Tel: 0115 9514565; or email mss-library@nottingham.ac.uk). £7.95 (special price); please add £2 for postage and packing.