Writing local history: the Isle of Oxney in mind

The question may well be asked, “What do I know about writing local history?” To which the answer is: a fair outline of the problems and procedures, but scant practice. However, to explain: I have had the idea of writing a history of the Isle of Oxney, limiting it perhaps to the period from 1851 – the first year in which the census returns showed that more people were living in cities than in the countryside – to 1920. This would cover the agricultural depression, which started in 1870 (and in fact continued until 1940); population change and movement; occupations that ceased; the numbers of the rural poor that were forced by poverty to the Tenterden workhouse; rural vagrancy and Poor Law legislation; the living conditions of the agricultural labourers; the effect on rural communities of the loss of men to WW1, which left not a village unaffected; and other topics and themes revealed in the process of research. So the title of this piece is about the things that have gone through my mind while considering the project. In exploring the pros and cons, I can hardly do better than quote two extracts from Local History: Objective and Pursuit, by Professor H. P. R. Finberg and V. H. T. Skipp (David & Charles, 1967).

It was the fascination of the subject, the continuous excitement of research, which first attracted me, as it has attracted others, to the pursuit of local history. The question “what is the use of it?” did not trouble me, for any but the most philistine view of man and the universe must find room for some forms of intellectual activity       which are ends in themselves . . . If I engaged in it for my own recreation, as another man might choose to play golf or go sailing, no apology was called for, even to myself. Finberg: Preface

. . . an American scholar, engaged in collecting materials for a treatise on the English borough, found it necessary to consult a number of our local histories. He pronounced them to be mostly “so much dead weight on library shelves: vexations to the student because of their disorderliness and wordiness; lacking what most histories should contain, and containing much that histories should omit.”. . . Of the books that have been written about our cities, towns, and villages, few, if any, have been heard of by the general reader. There are no classics in this field, no local histories which are esteemed as masterpieces . . . So on the threshold of our subject, we are greeted rather peevishly. Finberg: The Local Historian and his Themes

Indeed! Still, the idea I’ve been entertaining is a thematic study which, if I could not fill with life I would abandon. However, the problems are legion. I do not live on the Isle of Oxney, and so cannot explore it on foot as exhaustively as I would need; the Isle of Oxney is hardly known – even to those who live in the surrounding countryside; it is rural to the core; and no major historical events have occurred on or within its vicinity. Truly, it is a forgotten isle, and the experience of its inhabitants can hardly have been significantly different to that of its near neighbours or more distant communities.  The parishes of Wittersham and Stone–cum–Ebony may have been ‘close’ or ‘open’; so too were parishes across England, and it is extremely unlikely that anything particularly significant relating to these iniquitous practices obtained on the Isle of Oxney. It is true that the history of the river Rother’s course and the drainage of the levels around the isle is extremely complex. Yet this has already been meticulously described in Jill Eddison’s fine book, Romney Marsh: Survival on a Frontier, The History Press, 2000. So it is that the law of diminishing returns would quickly set in; and although my delight in this particular part of Kent is a necessary condition for writing its history, it is nevertheless not a sufficient condition. History needs to be enlarging, the details telling, and the style of the writing lively and fitted to its subject. What a task I have been proposing to myself! In truth, none but a Ladurie Emmanuel Le Roy or a Ronald Blythe is equipped for such a work.

However – as an experiment – I thought it worth investigating my proposed project a little further. I have a reader’s card for Cambridge University Library, and access to findmypast.co.uk – a site of equal value to local historians as to genealogists. I have no doubt that the main source of revenue for this website – as with ancestry.co.uk and others – comes from those whose primary interest is in tracing the history of their own families. However, the wealth of information available can scarcely be overestimated. And if the accumulation of facts seems to be as dead as Bitzer’s definition of a horse, then this is to misunderstand the essential foundational part that facts must play in the study of any subject. Further, facts in themselves can stir the imagination and give considerable pause for thought; and statistics – properly collected and analysed – can overturn many popular assumptions, and provide a firmer basis for historical studies (and what point is there in perpetuating myths?) It might well be thought, for example, that the rapid expansion of the railways in 19th century Britain resulted in the decline of the horse as a means of transporting people and goods. But quite the reverse happened, and the demand for horses increased dramatically: for the carrying of people and goods from rural stations to villages and to outlying districts of towns and cities. If coal fuelled the railways, so too did it ensure the employment of horses – even into the 1950s. St Pancras station had its own stables, and even used horses for shunting work in the goods yards.

I have followed the lives of four families – so far as they are recorded in the censuses from 1841 to 1911 (the last currently available – under the 100 year rule). I began with some of the oldest people I could find, certain that they would have a pre–history. As illustration, I've followed the family of John Holdstock, who was born in Wittersham in 1821, and remained there all his life.

It is notable that John Holdstock had no children, unless they died between censuses (and although some census forms have columns for No. of children alive and No. of children died, there are none on any of the census records for John). Naomi survives as widow in 1911.

Address	Name	Relation	Condition	Age	Birth	Occupation	Where Born
					Year
1911 Census
Poplar	Holdstock, Naomi	Head	Widow	83	1828		West Firle,  Sussex
Cottages
Wittersham
1901
Census	Holdstock, John	Head	Married	80	1821	Fruiterer	Wittersham
Stock Road Wittersham	Holdstock, Naomi	Wife	Married	72	1829	Rtd.	West Firle, Sussex
	Jarrett, John B	Step Son	Married	42	1859	Bricklayer	Rye, Sx.
	Jarrett, Naomi M	Step Dtr	Married	43	1858		Ore, Sx.
	Jarrett,                               Grace M H	Grnd Dtr	Single	8	1893		Ore, Sx.
	Starnes, James	Boarder	Widower	68	1833	Pensioner	Wittersham
						Army
1891 Census
	Holdstock, John	Head	Married	70	1821	Fruiterer	Wittersham
Mount Pleasant	Holdstock, Maria	Wife	Married	68	1823		West Firle, Sussex
High Street
Wittersham
1881 Census
	Holdstock, John	Head	Married	60	1821	Farmer	Wittersham
Mount Pleasant	Holdstock,	Wife	Married	60	1821	4.5 Acres	Battle, Sussex
High Street	Charlotte
Wittersham	Griggs, Alice	Servant	Married	63	1818	Domestic	Wittersham
						servant
1871 Census	Holdstock, John	Head	Married	50			Wittersham
Underhill	Holdstock,	Wife	Married	50			Wittersham
Mill Corner	Charlotte
Wittersham	Griggs, Mary H	Niece		15	1856		Kent
1861 Census
	Holdstock, John	Head	Married	40	1821	Fruiterer	Wittersham
6 Back Street Wittersham	Holdstock,	Wife	Married	40	1821		Battle, Sussex
	Charlotte
1851 Census
	Holdstock, John	Head	Married	30	1821	Ag Lab	Wittersham
Back Road Wittersham	Holdstock,	Wife	Married	30	1821		Battle, Sussex
	Charlotte
1841 Census	Holdstock, Charles	Head	Married	50	1791		Kent
	Holdstock, Ann		Married	50	1791		Kent
Blackwall Wittersham	Holdstock, Ellis (Female)			20	1821		Kent
	Holdstock, John			20	1821		Kent
	Holdstock, William		Son of?	1	1840		Kent

The 1841 census is sparse in detail: Occupation is not recorded, and Where Born records the county only. John Holdstock’s parents were both born in 1791. John has a sister, Ellis, and they were possibly twins. The paternity of William Holdstock, aged 1, is puzzling except that he need not have been the child of any of the adults present at John Holdstock’s house on the day the census records were recorded: had William been left off the list, he would not have appeared on the census of the house he normally lived in, and so would have been absent from the records altogether.  The same would have been true of itinerant workers travelling in search of employment. Others, involved in nefarious activities of various kinds, would also be conveniently absent from any dwelling or institution (unless unfortunately imprisoned, or otherwise detained...) The census records were collected on a Sunday: usually in April or May. (Quite what the situation was regarding anyone who had called in to give their neighbours some eggs, vegetables, or other produce, I do not know.) The 1851 census shows that John’s wife, Charlotte, was also born in 1821; and that John was an agricultural labourer. By 1861 he has become a fruiterer. The 1871 census is as sparse as that of 1841. In 1881 John is recorded as Farmer, 4.5 Acres, and has taken on an elderly servant (which does not at this period indicate wealth). By 1891 he has remarried – Maria Holdstock – and returned to his former occupation as fruiterer. It seems reasonable to presume that Charlotte has died – though I could not find a death certificate; and that John, now aged 70, has found farm work too hard to continue with.

The record for 1901 seemed initially a little more difficult to follow. John is now 80, but seems have married for a third time – Naomi – born at West Firle (near Lewes, Sussex) in 1829. What is interesting is that John’s second wife, Maria, was also born (1823) in West Firle. However, it is not beyond the bounds of possibility that Maria was a sister of Naomi – or someone known through family connections. West Firle is some 35 miles from Wittersham – 25 as the crow flies and it is interesting to consider the means of travel between these villages. The London Brighton and South Coast Railway opened in 1846, enabling travel from Lewes to Hastings; and the line linking Hastings to Ashford, via Rye, was opened by the same company in 1851. However, from Rye to Wittersham is approximately 5 miles by road. Some may have walked; others have taken a non–commercial vehicle: a cart or a dray. Those sufficiently well off may have taken a barouche, but that might have depended on the state of the roads. Not until 1900, when the Kent and East Sussex Railway opened, was it possible to travel by train to Wittersham. However, it was not for nothing that the station was called Wittersham Road, because from there to the village is also a distance of five miles...    

Wittersham Road Station today: now part of the preserved Kent & East Sussex 
Railway, which is being extended to Robertsbridge (main line): due to open in 2014. Wittersham Levels can be clearly seen on the right hand side