Title: 'AN EXPERIENCE NOT TO BE MISSED': THE SALVAGE OF

AN ARCHIVE
Author(s): Thick, Anne
Source: Journal of the Society of Archivists, 1994, Vol. 15, Iss. 2, p. 173-179
Language: English
Abstract: Describes the salvage and removal of a large archive of 19th-century
solicitors' records from the firm of Tylee, Mortimer and Attlee at
Romsey, which included title deeds and conveyancing records, as
well as maps dating back to 1692. The sorting of these records
established the existence of related documents that refer to local
Romsey families. [Entry ©2002 ABC-Clio Inc.].
Time Period: 19c
Subjects: Tylee, Mortimer and Attlee (firm); Public Records; England
(Romsey); Archives
Publication Type: Article
ISSN: 0037-9816
Accession Number: 003798161994152173Th

Database: World History FullTEXT

'AN EXPERIENCE NOT TO BE MISSED'--THE

SALVAGE OF AN ARCHIVE
This article chronicles the removal of a large archive through co-operative effort, how this
was achieved and some of the problems encountered. It concludes with some thoughts
about what was learnt on the way.

In May 1991 Hampshire Archives Trust was contacted by the Director of Test Valley
Archaeological Trust, Frank Green, about a large collection of solicitors' records at
Romsey. Efforts by himself and the Trust to view this collection two or three years
previously had come to nothing, but the records were now considered to be at risk as the
practice was to close and the building in which the records were housed was to be sold. The
firm of Tylee, Mortimer and Attlee could trace its origins back over 200 years to the
partnership of William Charles Daman and Thomas Warner. During the succeeding years
there had been various changes of partners. Mr Tylee was a parmer by 1839, together with
Mr Stead, while Mr Mortimer's name appears by 1869. In 1900 the firm was known as
Tylee, Mortimer and Attlee (the name it retained until its closure) when Mr B. W. Attlee
bought the practice and office premises from Mr Mortimer's executors. Apart from practice
work, partners acted in a variety of capacities. W. C. Daman, for instance, was Clerk to the
Magistrates, Steward of the Manor of Lyndhurst and Under-Steward of the New Forest.
William Stead was Clerk to the Trustees of the Whiteparish, Romsey and Southampton
turnpike road. Other partners have served as Romsey Town Clerk, including Mr B. W.
Attlee who was Town Clerk for 44 years.

Because of the closure of the business and impending sale of the building a meeting
between the firm, Hampshire Archives Trust and Test Valley Archaeological Trust (TVAT)
was quickly arranged. This meeting was useful to discuss worries the firm had about the
confidentiality of clients' records and explore ways of dealing with them. Particular concern
was expressed over records relating to bankruptcy, lunacy, litigation and business affairs.
Equally useful was the opportunity to gain some idea of the size and range of records
involved. It also became clear that we were dealing not just with the records of the Romsey
practice but also to some extent of the Southampton practice of Sharp, Harrison, Turner and
Co, also owned by the family firm. Following this discussion we were allowed to make a
brief survey of five locations on the upper floor where records were kept.

Rooms 1-3 were lined with ranges of pigeon-hole cupboards with an approximate capacity
of 550 cu ft, full of clients' papers and draft conveyances. Other cupboards were noted in
rooms 1 and 2. Room 4 was an eaves cupboard leading off room 3; on opening the door
nothing could be seen except that documents were heaped from floor to ceiling, perhaps
another 160 cu ft of records. Room 5 was filled with the firm's old ledgers and letter books;
like room 3 it contained a number of tin trunks. Downstairs was a strong-room which was
not opened for us. In another downstairs room of the cottage were 31 black plastic sacks of
material taken from the pigeonholes in room 1.

A number of points emerged from this first meeting. The firm not only needed reassurance
about matters of confidentiality but had asked that the removal of records from the premises
be kept discreet. The quantity of records was even larger than originally anticipated as the
firm had obviously never thrown anything away. This in turn presented problems in
relation to the timescale of removal (as we had been told we might have only three weeks
in which to complete the task) and in terms of available staff. Added to this, removing the
archive promised to be an unpleasant and hazardous job as even in cupboards it was
covered with a black sooty deposit, probably from the nearby former brewery chimney.

One of the first jobs undertaken was to label and empty over 150 pigeon-holes prior to
removal of the contents. Reference was by room number and pigeon-hole number, which
ran from room to room--thus each pigeon-hole had a unique number.

Attention then turned to the eaves cupboard (room 4). As soon as the retaining boards were
removed the full extent of the problem became apparent. With a maximum head-height of 4
ft sloping to nothing, virtually no natural light, the cupboard even larger than originally
thought and stuffed to over-flowing with all sorts of documents, printed material and
broken furniture, the nightmare of extracting the contents began. Filth was a major hazard,
the dust flying as soon as anything was moved. Even old clothes, protective masks and
gloves were not enough to stop the dirt penetrating. The eaves cupboard had obviously
been used in the past to store records cleared from the pigeon-holes. They were in a very
mixed state, not helped by a quest some time in the past for postal history material. Even
so, important finds were made, including one seventeenth and two eighteenth century maps,
papers relating to charities and trusts and various practice records.

All the material from rooms 1-4 was put into sacks or boxes and taken down stairs for
removal. The absence of a lift, the varying floor levels of rooms and corridors, and the
presence of narrow and twisting steps and stairs, made this part of the work very
exhausting.

After about a week we were informed that we should take a look in the nearby stable block
belonging to the offices. The lower floor was full of boxes, trunks, an old car, several old
bicycles including a penny-farthing (B. W. Attlee had been a famous racing rider of penny-
farthing bicycles in the early 1890s), a motor bike, a boat and old furniture. Access to the
upper floor of the stable block was by a broken ladder. The view of the upper room from
the top of the ladder was unforgettable. Piles of ledgers, mounds of documents several feet
high, maps, another penny-farthing bicycle, a broken clerk's desk and other furniture lay
covered in black dust and festooned with cobwebs.

This was probably the most unpleasant and difficult part of the removal work as any
disturbance of the material caused choking clouds of black dust to rise. Additional hazards
were quantities of broken glass and what appeared to be decayed boxes of garden
chemicals. Access to the upper floor was improved by the addition of a modern ladder
down which all records, including over 100 extremely large office volumes, had to be
manhandled to the lower floor. Despite the use of protective clothing and face-masks, and a
policy of never working unaccompanied in the hazardous parts of the building, the exercise
raised serious questions of health and safety and the project only continued because
personnel concerned were willing to go on working in such conditions in order to salvage
the archive.

Like the eaves cupboard the stable was another important source of clients' and practice
records, but in the circumstances there was no question of attempting anything other than a
salvage operation. In each case documents were assessed for intrinsic informational value
and instant decisions made on whether they should be kept. As sacks were filled, each was
labelled as to provenance. Sacks from the stable block were transferred to the main building
through a ground floor window in the cottage. Volumes were cleaned, bagged and
transferred in the same way to the main building. Identifiable or more significant
collections of documents were placed in labelled archive boxes and sent to the Record
Office as soon as possible.

As the work continued, other rooms were made available for clearance. These yielded a
variety of records including Romsey Borough records, clients' papers and a large number of
volumes relating to the practice. A tin trunk in room 3 proved to be full of the Whiteparish,
Romsey and Southampton turnpike records. There was also a large number of title deeds
from both the Southampton and Romsey practices, although some of these were not handed
over for some months. Those from the Southampton practice were stored in a small room,
formerly a washroom, off room 2 in a series of tin trunks (one labelled 'Old Deeds'). They
had obviously been stored in damp conditions before their removal to Romsey as some of
the trunks were badly rusted and the contents severely damaged. The majority of deeds
from the Romsey practice had been stored in the downstairs strongroom and were in much
better condition.

Right at the beginning of the project it was realised that storage would be a problem. As we
expected to have only a short period in which to remove the archive it was essential that a
solution be found quickly. Some 670 volumes were transferred during August by hired van
from Portersbridge Street straight to the Record Office to join 100 boxes already taken.
Fortunately, TVAT was able to offer temporary accommodation for the rest of the archive
in a former chapel which was being converted for use as a store for archaeological
specimens. The necessity to transfer some of these records to the Record Office became
acute only when TVAT gave up the lease on some of its premises in Romsey and needed
space for its own storage at the Chapel. They were therefore transferred to Record Office
accommodation just before Christmas 1991. There still remained at the Chapel the bagged
contents of the pigeon-hole cupboards and draft conveyancing records.

Work on sorting records at the Chapel continued throughout the autumn of 1991, but was
temporarily halted from Christmas to March 1992 while a staircase was installed and
warmer weather returned (there being no heating at that time except a couple of fan
heaters). In July 1992 the majority of records still stored at the Chapel were taken to the
Record Office by professional removers. This left a large quantity of draft conveyancing
records which it was agreed could be studied by selected members of LTVAS before
transfer to the Record Office. LTVAS members had already sorted and bagged the deeds
and produced abstracts and lists of the Romsey material, copies of which were given to the
Record Office. Work on the drafts will show whether they provide any additional
information or are duplicated in the final deeds.

In its October 1991 meeting the Executive Committee of the Trust sanctioned the
appointment of part-time contract staff to help process the archive. Rita Pettet, formerly the
Trust's clerical assistant, was appointed. She began work in November cleaning and
packaging deeds and other records already in the Record Office, moving on to the contents
of the sacks in January 1992. Until work was temporarily suspended in order to prepare for
the move of Hampshire Record Office to new premises in Spring 1993, considerable
progress was made in cleaning and box listing the collection. Most of the very mixed
material from the stable block and eaves cupboard was finally sorted and boxed by Rita
Pettet. Because of its jumbled nature it was decided at an early stage to define subject areas
under which it could be sorted rather than try to reconstruct the client base. While it will
never be possible to reconstitute the archive on this basis it has enabled material found
scattered in various parts of the building to be brought together in a more coherent form
than was previously thought possible. It is hoped that indexing of the box lists will in any
case eventually pull together much of the client material.

The picture that is emerging is of a firm that thrived in the nineteenth century on the
proceeds of fees from numerous clients, lengthy Chancery cases being much in evidence.
One of the most important clients was the Barker Mill family for which not only legal
papers but considerable quantities of estate papers survive for the mid-nineteenth century
(31 boxes to date). The family owned estates running down the Test Valley from Longstock
to Southampton Water including Mottisfont Abbey. There is very little in this collection for
Mottisfont though it does include a detailed probate inventory and valuation of the house in
1884 on the death of Lady Jane Barker Mill. Other papers refer to the reclamation of the
mudlands at Millbrook in the mid-nineteenth century and the later residential development
of Nursling. A number of maps of parts of the Barker Mill estates were found in the eaves
cupboard and stable block. The earliest of these was of King's Somborne, 1692, and
includes what may be the only known representation of the manor house. Other early maps
were of Stockbridge and Longstock (showing the division of fields into strips), 1743, and
the manors of Millbrook and Sydford Langley, 1759.

Apart from 82 boxes of title deeds which have been roughly sorted under place names there
are 28 boxes of other conveyancing records. Because of split bundles it has been difficult to
tell whether some of these papers more properly belong with the records of executorship or
other clients' records. It is hoped that it will be possible through indexing to tie these
together more closely once further work has been done.

As mentioned, sorting has brought together related groups of documents. Some of the most
interesting refer to local Romsey families. Of particular interest are those concerning the
family of Joseph May. Joseph was, amongst other things, a Borough magistrate and lived in
a substantial property on the edge of Romsey called Mile End Villa. His surviving papers
reveal his unhappy relationship with his son William. A series of entries kept by Joseph on
loose sheets of paper chart William's dissolute career, his drunkenness, association with
prostitutes, his marriage and debts from the 1840s to his death in 1871 at the age of 47.
Joseph also chronicles his attempts to help his son and the threats of violence he
encountered. William's occasional outbursts of remorse are expressed in a couple of
surviving letters, but the bitterness continued after his death which occurred shortly before
that of his father. William's widow was to pursue a case in Chancery on behalf of her son
against the trustees of Joseph's will for many years after the death of her husband and
father-in-law.

A very different picture emerges from the papers of the Purchase family. This family
owned a flourishing grocery business in Romsey with a substantial house in the Market
Place near the Abbey called Abbotsford House. Very much a pillar of the community,
William Overy Purchase was mayor more than once and a leading member of the
Congregational Church. His daughter, Florence, was also heavily involved in church
affairs, particularly with furthering the aims of the Womens' Temperance Movement. The
Purchase papers also include correspondence from the writer Hugh Ross Williamson,
whose book 'The Walled Garden' recalls his childhood visits to Abbotsford House. These
letters, written when Williamson was a child and signed only with his first name, would
probably not have been identified without Frank Green's specialised local knowledge.

There are several collections of papers relating to the ex-officio activities of partners.
Nowes Charity was founded by the will of John Nowes of Romsey in 1718 and provided
that the rent of his farm at Lee be applied to the costs of schooling, clothing and
apprenticing 40 poor boys. Various partners have acted as solicitor and secretary to the
Charity and continue to do so to the present day. In consequence, while there is only one
minute book amongst the records, there are a number of papers concerning Charity property
and apprenticeship. William Stead, a partner in the middle years of the nineteenth century,
was Clerk to the Trustees of the Whiteparish, Romsey and Southampton Turnpike Road
(now the A27). The Trust began in 1756 and was wound up in 1878. The records include
minute books, account books, toll house keepers' weekly returns and leases of tolls.

Bartram Waller Attlee was the first partner of that surname in the practice. He served as
Town Clerk of Romsey for 44 years and many of the town's more recent official records
were found while clearing the premises. There were minute books of various committees
covering the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, bundles of papers concerning a
variety of subjects--everything from local celebrations to street lighting. Historically
valuable though these are, even more exciting, particularly to local historians, was the
discovery in the stable block and eaves cupboard of Romsey Corporation deeds long
considered lost. These had been recorded by Dr John Latham (1740-1837), Romsey's early
local historian who stated that they had been loaned to Thomas Warner, one of the original
partners in the firm. Unfortunately only a small proportion of the known deeds were
rediscovered at Portersbridge Street.

There was also some disappointment that the long-lost records of the New Forest Verderers
were not discovered amongst the firm's records. G. F. W. Mortimer was Clerk to the
Verderers until the beginning of this century when according to a note still in the
possession of the Verderers, the records were handed over to his successor. As the records
have not been seen in living memory it was hoped they might not after all have been
handed over. Subsequent efforts to trace the older records led to the regretful conclusion
that they had been sent for salvage when Mr Mortimer's successor retired.

Apart from clients' and ex-officio papers there are extensive practice records, some dating
back to the firm's earliest days. There are waste books, bill books, cash journals, letter
books, day books, ledgers, deed delivery books and indexes to bill books and pigeon-hole
contents. These volumes run into hundreds; they have been sorted into date order but not
yet listed. There are also papers relating to the partners and their families which are
beginning to show that business relationships were sometimes strengthened by marriage
ties. Because of this, business and personal relationships are linked in the paperwork. Some
of the partners emerge as characters in their own right. William Charles Daman has left the
record of his uneasy relationship with his partner C. J. Tylee in a memorandum book of the
1840s. G. F. W. Mortimer was reputed to be a boxer of some note. He was Town Clerk of
Romsey for 13 years and was summarily dismissed in 1889 without public explanation. B.
W. Attlee, who bought the practice from Mr Mortimer, was a nationally famous racing
rider of Ordinary (penny-farthing) bicycles in the early 1890s. It was no coincidence that
two of these machines with other old bicycles were found at the firm's premises.

As yet little work has been done on those records which can be identified as coming from
the Southampton practice of Sharp, Harrison and Turner. Most are deeds, though some
practice records, particularly letter books, have survived. One of the partners was solicitor
to the Itchen Floating Bridge Company and some photographs and papers have survived as
a result. As with the Romsey practice, there may have been family links between the
Southampton and Romsey firms. Certainly the Romsey firm had an office in Southampton
in the mid-nineteenth century when it was known as Deacon, Stead and Tylee. C. E.
Deacon was Town Clerk of Southampton at that time.
To date, some 425 boxes of records have been cleaned and sorted. Two hundred of these
have been boxlisted and the rest are in preparation. There still remain the contents of the
pigeon holes which need careful cleaning before initial sorting can proceed. So far the
contents of 40 of more than 150 pigeon-holes have received this initial cleaning and
sorting. They appear to tie in with the archive already listed, which is not surprising as
presumably clients' and practice papers found in the eaves cupboard and stable were moved
to make room for the firms' current papers. As this part of the archive appeared relatively
untouched when found the decision whether to treat it as an entity or to merge it with the
records already listed will be deferred until it is boxlisted.

It is now (Autumn 1993) over 2 years since we first had sight of this archive so it is perhaps
appropriate to reflect on what has been learned on the way. An abiding memory must be the
size of the archive--it is one of the largest archives in the Office--and the problems this
created, both in terms of removal and storage. Throughout the removal, archivists from the
Trust and Record Office worked alongside Frank Green with staff from TVAT and Barbara
Burbridge of LTVAS in order to rescue the records in the shortest time possible. All
worked without complaint in what were the most unpleasant circumstances any of us had
encountered. The operation certainly provided very good training as a 'hands on' exercise
for less experienced archivists in salvage work and in negotiating skills for all of us. A
detailed photographic record of the work at Portersbridge Street was also compiled during
visits there for future training purposes.

A record of provenance had been made routinely before removal of the archive from the
firm's premises. This was considered a necessary exercise to ensure that any continuing or
discreet series of records could be reassembled on arrival at the Record Office, particularly
as we were dealing with so many locations. In this way it was easy to ensure that clients'
papers from any one pigeon-hole arriving at the Record Office in several sacks or bags
could be re-united. Recording provenance for the more mixed records was perhaps in the
outcome less useful though at the time it had the psychological effect of making the archive
seem more manageable. Recording provenance also helped to explain the physical state of
the archive--why certain items were particularly dirty or waterdamaged for instance.

It is also clear that without the help and co-operation provided in particular by Frank Green,
completion of the task within the projected timescale would have been much more difficult.
An added bonus of this co-operation has been the furtherance of a good working and
professional relationship between the Trust, TVAT and LTVAS which can only be to our
mutual advantage in the future. This has incidentally extended to Romsey Town Council
because of their interest in the Borough material which has been recovered.

As work continued at the firm's premises the need for forward planning in the acquisition of
salvage supplies soon became apparent. As a result the Office has bought disposable dust
suits, goggles, respirators, extra supplies of Martindale masks and disposable gloves for
personal protection as well as a quantity of plastic sacks. Concerns about personal safety
when working in premises outside the Office have prompted a review of procedures as well
as equipment resulting in a revised Office health and safety statement for site visits.
Last, but perhaps not least, as a direct result of issues raised during the removal of the
archive, an article written jointly with David Chun, a practising solicitor, was published in
the Law Society Gazette to explain the mutual benefits to solicitor and archivist of storing
archives in record offices.[1] It also highlighted the work of the British Records
Association and led to several fruitful contacts.

The final memory must be of a complex task which succeeded in spite of setbacks and
obstacles--a success due to the co-operation and commitment of those involved. Barbara
Burbridge summed it up thus: 'Posterity must be very thankful that [the firm] co-operated
as well as [it] did with the HRO archivists and those helping them. Those who did work on
the clearance had an experience not to be missed. Many archivists work a lifetime without
seeing a documentary find such as this proved to be!'

NOTES AND REFERENCES

1. A. Thick and D. Chun, 'Depositing old documents', The Law Society's Gazette, no 30 (26
Aug 1992).

~~~~~~~~

By ANNE THICK, Hampshire Archives Trust

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Source: Journal of the Society of Archivists, 1994, Vol. 15, Iss. 2, p. 173-179
Accession Number: 003798161994152173Th