RADWINTER RECORDER’S ANNUAL REPORT 2006-2007

June 2007
Radwinter Parish Plan
Radwinter has completed it parish plan to guide both the Parish Council and parishioners as to the needs of the village community over the next five years. The Plan covers the Environment, Community, Youth, Housing & Development, Traffic & Transport and Business. It examines, in each section, the issues identified, what it is proposed to do about them, when action should be completed and who should be responsible. The booklet is fully illustrated in colour and contains and excellent description of Radwinter by way of introduction.

Oral History Recordings
We now have fifteen oral history recording which have all been transcribed. More remain to be done.
Over 500 records from Radwinter have been indexed on RUTH. All are searchable on my computer and Radwinter people were given the opportunity of receiving a search at the Friends of Radwinter Church Summer Event on 10th June at The Grange, Radwinter.
A growing number of documents in the Radwinter Archives have been scanned so that their contents can be searched electronically for further details. Examples include Dick Lloyd’s Radwinter History Notes, accounts of the civil disturbances during the civil war, all the oral history recordings, the Radwinter names from the Essex Freeholders’ Book of 1734 and many more.

Archives Held Elsewhere
We have researched details of Radwinter Archives held in some unusual places, because estates in other Counties owned farms and land in Radwinter. The records ended up in several other counties and relate among a number of Radwinter people and places to the farms of Broadysh, Richmonds, Swann’s, Park Farm, Great Brockholds, Bendysh, Cutbush, Sheds Farm and The Grange.

Talks
Among talks organised by the Radwinter Society during the year under review was an interesting and informative presentation on family history research given by Stan Sutherland and a visit to Saffron Walden Museum where Museum Curator, Carolyn Winfield in January gave a presentation entitled A World of Discovery. Among many Radwinter items on display was a beautiful early face pot and a teapot commemorating the 1888 restoration of Radwinter Church. We understand that complete tea-sets were produced and that some people in the past have had cups, saucers, milk jugs and sugar bowls. We have researched the mention of ghosts in the Radwinter Archives and this will be the subject of our next interactive presentation.

Radwinter Christmas Tree Festival
The Radwinter Society took part in the Christmas tree festival in Radwinter Church and great interest was shown in the collection of old-time photographs that were displayed as baubles on the society’s tree. We hope to display a further set of photographs each year.

Field Name Project
A group of Radwinter people have agreed to take part in a field name project, walking the fields and recording the names, not only of the fields but the tracks, ponds and other features as well. In this connection, we aim to copy the Radwinter 1837 Tithe Apportionment Schedule onto Excel and cross reference the fields to a map book. We also have copies of copies of the 1941 Farm Surveys that lists all the Radwinter Farms, their owners, occupiers and many other details. In time this will be copied so that it can be searched electronically.

War Diaries of Spr Seabrook
Another of the treasures of the Radwinter Records is the war diaries of Spr. George Henry Seabrook in France during 1915 and 1916. These were found whilst indexing the Radwinter Collection. 1633 Spr. Seabrook served in no. 4 Section of the Signal Coy., 47 Division of the Royal Engineers. He spent time in the trenches and repairing the communications lines, frequently coming under fire. In one incident he was gassed and returned to work after a short period of light duties. He was later wounded in the leg and returned to Great Britain after a long train journey and operation and was then discharged. The diaries have been transcribed and will take a proud place in the forthcoming Radwinter at War book.

Zeppelins in Radwinter
We now have three independent reports of the Zeppelin raid on Radwinter on 24th May 1917. Fire bombs were dropped in gravel field by Purkiss’s but did not explode. These have also been written up for the Radwinter at War book.

Parish Magazine Binding
The Jarvis family have donated a set of bound parish magazines from January 1881 to December 1915. They were salvaged by Clifford Jarvis from burning in the stoke hole at Radwinter Church and had been preserved by his wife, Joyce Jarvis. Although we have some bound copies, our collection is incomplete and so the new volumes will greatly enhance the Radwinter Archives. Their dates suggest that they were the Revd. Fred Bullock’s own collection and not those presented to the Church in 1952 and 1956 by Mrs E Potts, the Misses Halls and Mr and Mrs Coote.

The binding of the existing set of magazines for the Friends of Radwinter Church under a grant from the Community Champions Fund, has now been completed up to winter 2005. Both sets are now available for inspection on application. In time we will produce an index, indicating in which set of bound volumes particular magazines are located. We will then identify which magazines are still missing, which hopefully should be very few indeed.

In addition to reports from Radwinter, throughout the period of their publication, the magazines were variously combined with other parishes at various times. From January 1936 to December 1938 and from April 1940 to December 1946 Radwinter events were covered in the Deanery Church Magazine, which also covered the parishes of Ashdon, Great with Little Chesterford, Chrishall, Great Chishill, Debden, Hadstock, Heydon with Little Chishill, Littlebury, Little Sampford, Strethall, Wendens Ambo, Wenden Lofts with Elmdon and Wimbish.
Mrs Beryl Barbour, Mrs Joyce Jarvis’s elder daughter, has done some research on the new volumes and has found that they contain a serialisation of the ancient history of Radwinter and several other Uttlesford villages, written in 1769. It was taken from A new and Complete History of Essex...down to 1769, which Fred Bullock owned.

POW Icon Gifted to Radwinter
Also gifted from the Jarvis Family is an Icon produced by a German prisoner of war and presented to Mrs Joyce Jarvis..

German POW Graffiti
Following her renovation of 3 Church View, the actress, Miss Clair Parker has presented the village with two panels from her garden sheds with drawings by German POWs. The panels were linings from Nissan huts at the Radwinter POW camp, which Cyril Richardson used in the construction of his sheds. They appear to be in charcoal, which would have been readily to hand for German POWs. They have been recorded photographically and Sir Jonathan Parker has kindly agreed to store them in his barns.

Fr. Frank Harwood and Walsingham
Following a request from the organisers of the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham, a search was undertaken in the Radwinter and Deanery Parish magazines from 30th April 1949 to circa May 1960, the period of Fr. Frank Harwood’s active Radwinter incumbency. In consequence we have produced a seven-page transcript of relevant passages, including his concepts of Pilgrimage and the various visits he organised to Walsingham and other sites of pilgrimage. Copies have been sent to the Walsingham Shrine and to a Mr Raymond Hunt, of All Saints Church, Cheltenham Spa, where Frank Harwood went when he retired.

Memories of Reg Bacon
Age Concern Essex has sent us a photocopy for our archives of Reg Bacon’s (1901-1987) memories from their publication Yesterday’s Heroes.

Emigration from Radwinter
Mr David Stacey has written a paper on Emigration to Australia from Saffron Walden and surrounding parishes via the Saffron Walden Union Workhouse. References are made to the following people emigrating from Radwinter in 1850 and 1852: John Halls, Thomas Halls, the Shead family, Josiah (Joseph) Saville, John Livermore, Robert Gypps, Joseph Halls, Joseph Wright, Mary Halls, Mary Trinder, Thomas Bridgeman, Jacob Halls, Thomas Woodley, Benjamin Woodley, William Mascall, William Halls and Mary Halls.

Among family members of the above with a Radwinter connection mentioned are: Ann Siggs, Emma Halls, James Wright, Sarah Wright, Sarah Pamphlin, Jane Wright, Joseph Wright, Elizabeth Pamphlin, Isabel Livermore, Isabel Barker, Abraham Halls, Rebecca Halls, Rebecca Saville, Ann Saville, William Gypps, Lydia Gypps, George Gypps, Martha Gyps, Martha Halls, John Woodley, Mary Woodley, Mary Bridgeman, Mary Chapman, Charles Mascall, Jane Mascall and Caroline Halls. The name Jepps occurs as a variant of Gypps.

Subsequently, I received a visit from Professor Richard O’Sullivan of the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, who is descended from one of the immigrants and I was able to give him chapter and verse on his early ancestors and point him on towards Hempstead, from where his earliest Livermore ancestor came into Radwinter.

Family History Research
Family history research is taking a lion’s share of the time of the village history recorder and an informal charging system has been introduced to limit idle enquiries from people who cannot be bothered to research their own families on publicly available websites. It would help if Uttlesford Local History Recorders were to publish a recommended scale of charges for this type of work.

Portway In Memoriam
One of the Radwinter Archive treasures is a printed book entitled - In Memoriam. It is inscribed on the title page “The following lines are written in loving memory of our sweet little darling, Winifred Charlotte Portway, who went Home July 13th, 1876 aged four years and seven months”. It was written by Sarah Ann Portway (Taddie) of Pilgrim's Hatch, Radwinter, Essex. On the flyleaf, hand-written in ink, there is “Mr & Mrs Halls with love from Sarah A Portway Christmas 1891."
Mrs Iris G M Mann, who presented the book, says that it was given to her great grandparents, Mr & Mrs James Halls. Here grandparents names were John and Sarah Andrews (her grandfather perhaps better known by the nickname 'Mousey' who lived in the cottage on the immediate left of the present rectory.

Michael Southgate. Radwinter Local History Recorder
Further information on many of the subjects briefly described here can be found on the Radwinter History Website: www.radwinterhistory.org.uk