CLAVERING RECORDER’S REPORT 2008

The year 2008 was a particularly busy one on the Clavering history scene, as we completed our castle project and enjoyed a number of other activities.

PROJECT CASTLE The three year Project Castle was wound up with the completion of all the project outcomes including two new interpretation boards unveiled in the churchyard and on Blacksmiths Corner; an inter-active CD, copies of which were sent to all society members, survey teams and the school, with an attractive booklet printout for those with no computer; and a final exhibition which attracted hundreds of visitors over a complete weekend and raised a large sum for society funds. We also held our usual two winter work parties on the castle site to clear vegetation.

All of this was hugely time-consuming and it was with some relief that the project was finally wound up with the Local Heritage Initiative agreeing the accounts and kindly allowing us to use the unspent contingency on a number of useful items such as a slide projector and recording machine. The project was co-ordinated by myself with Tony Lye as a brilliant treasurer, with David Laing and Rosemary Nash leading the survey teams and support from about 20-30 society members. The project took place with the support also of the landowners of the castle site John and Janet Hosford, and the considerable input of the Essex County Council heritage department, particularly Adrian Gascoyne, Helen Saunders, Ellen Heppell and others. We were funded by a grant of almost £25,000 from the LHI. As a result there is now a clearer understanding of the landscape of the castle and some indication of what lies underground, a lot more information disseminated and a great community project offered to the village with special events each year during National Archaeology Week – these were a medieval day, a new kissing-gate, a dowsing day and finally a resistivity demonstration.

RESISTIVITY Project Castle included earthwork and magnetometry surveys but we did not do resistivity, however a couple from the Colchester Archaeology Group, David and Aline Black, very generously agreed to visit Clavering and give a public demonstration for villagers of how to do this. Later on another group called Cambs RheeSearch gave up a whole day to come and do a resistivity survey on the castle mound and gave us the results which showed interesting signs of former buildings. We are very grateful to both these groups for sharing their expertise with us.

CLAVERING LANDSCAPE HISTORY GROUP – NEW PROJECTS

FIELDWALKING We are unable to follow this up with excavation since Clavering Castle is a Scheduled Monument and digging is not allowed so we have to think what the Clavering Landscape History Group should do next. Following the completion of Project Castle, Adrian Gascoyne our adviser suggested we try some fieldwalking. Helen Saunders of ECC had provided a copy of an aerial photograph showing interesting cropmarks on a site at Clavering and the landowner gave us permission to fieldwalk the area. This was carried out in October and November by a team led by Stuart Moore – about 10 people took part at different times and we managed to check about half the cropmark before the weather got too wet. We collected large amounts of pottery sherds and other material which was taken to Saffron Walden Museum where the curator agreed with us that some of it looked prehistoric. The results did not come back until 2009 but they confirmed we had found a significant prehistoric site dating back to the Bronze Age.

ORAL HISTORY At the other end of the chronological scale two of our members Joy Barrow and Jane Laing offered to start an Oral History project, for which we provided a recording machine and a foot pedal for transcription. They attended a course and started interviewing the older residents. The interviews are being put on CD with copies to the interviewees , the Clavering archives and the Essex Record Office.

EILEEN LUDGATE MEMORIAL LECTURE The new tradition begun the previous year of holding an autumn lecture in memory of our late Recorder, Eileen Ludgate, took place again. The speaker was Bob Wood who gave a fascinating lecture to a large audience about medieval farming in Clavering taken from his transcription of a unique set of farm accounts of the 14th century for Thurrocks and Pounces private estate. As a result a sum was raised for church funds and Bob Wood was encouraged to start work on publishing his transcription.

EVENING CLASS The annual autumn history evening class was a great success this year, thanks to the tutor Dr Nicholas James from Cambridge. His subject was ‘History Everywhere – the landscapes of England’ and he gave a general overview of how the history of the landscape had evolved from prehistoric to modern times. Attendance of the 30 people who signed up was very high as he was such a good speaker. The 8 indoor sessions were complemented with two field trips, one to the Fens and the other to the town of Cambridge. The course was organised under the auspices of the Madingley centre for Further Education and those membes who produced essays were very impressed with the care with which Dr James marked them.

LECTURES & TOURS I had a very busy time with lectures and tours in 2008 – everyone seems to want to hear about the castle project or be shown round it. Castle visitors included Dr David Sherlock husband of the vicar of Newport; a group from the Colchester Archaeological Society; the Saffron Walden Historical Society (preceded by a talk at their AGM); the Little Hallingbury History Society; the Sampfords WI who just wanted to tour the church. Other talks were to the Manuden Local History Society and the Littlebury Royal British Legion.

RESEARCH & ADVICE There is never any let-up in email enquiries – I put all the family history queries into a special folder and in 2008 it amounted to 150 emails for the inbox and 90 replies in the outbox. This is an average of three emails a week asking for genealogical information for which no charge is made. Wherever possible I try to put them in touch with others researching the same families so they can help each other. It is all very time consuming but as a result a number of new photographs have come our way as a result and much new information.

BOOKS Many of these enquirers want to buy a book on Clavering and as well as my own books I also deal with sales of Eileen Ludgate’s books, the profits from which are given to Clavering Church.

LOCAL HISTORY COLLECTION I continue to catalogue the local history collection on the RUTH database which now has well over 1000 entries and thousands more to come. Another 600 photos were donated to the local collection. The old photos have been put in archival albums, and there are subject files for people, churches, schools, landscape and so on. Parish magazines back to 1978 are being archived and there is a constant supply of newscuttings, including many relating to our two famous Clavering TV personalities, Jamie Oliver and Jimmie Doherty. Current events and changing scenes are photographed – last year I visited the summer horticultural show and the Christmas church bazaar to take photos for the archives. Archival materials donated by the RUH are being put to good use and items scanned on the RUH A3 scanner.

VILLAGE EVENTS In the village itself new things on 2008 included the ongoing Parish Plan, the formation of a new club for ladies’ rounders, the revival of the old Countryside Group (the catalyst for which is the existence of an extremely rare beetle on one of the Clavering greens) and all the usual clubs and events – the Easter art show, Christmas bazaars, horticultural shows etc.

After petitioning Clavering Parish Council they agreed to adopt the red phone box which BT had threatened to take away. They also agreed to hold a public meeting to discuss opposition to a second runway at Stansted Airport. I wrote also to point out the forthcoming centenary of the village allotments. This is where the Recorder’s work can engage with the heritage needs of the village and make people more away of how important all these things are in forging a village identity.

Jacqueline Cooper
Clavering Local History Recorder